As you said, I don't see the 2 goals conceded as much of an issue.  Their season has been underway for a while now and it was our first game back with a makeshift defence.  I'd just forget that and take the positives from going forward.  4 goals from a new front line lead by a 19 year old is pretty good.  Hope Lukaku gets plenty of game time this season.

It'd be nice to Lukaku to get some decent game time. He looked pretty decent.
 
PSG should be a good test.
 
A big positive for me is that we never had our players out there full stregnth. We didn't have Mata, Terry, Cole and the teams were basically made from half youth team, half senior squad. I can't wait to see us at full stregnth once we have made all our signings.

Yeah, I can't wait to see us with a full strength squad out.  Really want to see how we're going to shape up.
 
I'm really not convinced we need to get a right sided player.  I like the idea of having Mata, Hazard and Oscar as a floating 3 behind Torres and if we want to change it for width, Sturridge and Ramires can do a good job on the right wing. 

------------------------Cech-----------------------
Ivanovic--------Luiz-----Terry----------A.Cole
--------------Ramires-------Mikel----------------
--Oscar--------------Mata---------------Hazard--
----------------------Torres------------------------
 
Would probably be sufficient, but Hulk would really make that front line incredibly (no pun intended). I could see us truly tearing sides apart with Hulk completing the front four. His versatility would come in handy too. That said, Oscar is clearly a well thought of player and I'm sure he will work in the system pretty well too.

Synfection

------------------------Cech-----------------------
Ivanovic--------Luiz-----Terry----------A.Cole
--------------Ramires-------Mikel----------------
--Oscar--------------Mata---------------Hazard--
----------------------Torres------------------------

Outsider opinion on that, arent you going to try Luiz at DM yet? I think he'd do a better job than Mikel and that would free Ivanovic to move inside. That would all depend on you finding a RB though

Luiz was pretty decent in the second half of last season to be fair, I'd only drop him for Cahill, not convinced he would work as a DM. Mikel was great for the second half too (possibly one of our five best players), so I wouldn't want to disrupt things too much, in fact he probably has one of the most secure places in the team. 
 
Basically, I think AVB's tactics distorted the ability of the team IMO and Luiz, Mikel get too much stick.
 
Plus David Luiz is the greatest man in the world. 
 
http://www.youtube.com/wa...Po&feature=related

Luiz is too good on the ball to be wasted at CB IMO (plus he has made some shocking errors) Reminds me of Rio who I also think should have been converted, plus I dont really rate Mikel personally.

Neither did I to be honest (RE Mikel), but some people thought I was mad when I said sell him on CFCNet and I watched him closely and he actually does a really good job, i've just never noticed it before. He's the sort of player you have to watch every game, very closely to really appreciate.
 
Luiz is decent on the ball, true, although I feel he has other qualities. Would be interesting to see him used as a DM, but I feel if your going to put him in Midfield, you'd have to give him a role like Ramires' and we already have an absolute tonne of box to box Midfielders. 

Synfection

Plus David Luiz is the greatest man in the world. 

http://www.youtube.com/wa...Po&feature=related

What a ****ing hero
 

2006Kean

Luiz is too good on the ball to be wasted at CB IMO (plus he has made some shocking errors) Reminds me of Rio who I also think should have been converted, plus I dont really rate Mikel personally.

I didn't rate Mikel either but he actually had a really good season.

Road Sick

2006Kean

Luiz is too good on the ball to be wasted at CB IMO

Pique can dribble better than most players in the PL and he does well at CB. 

True but his defensive capabilities far outweigh his ball playing, The same happend to Rio. I dont think Luiz is that good a defender to not give it a go. (I rate Ivanovic & Cahill as a defender more plus they have that kid Hutcinson (?? not sure of his name) coming through and im all for giving the kids a chance

Road Sick

2006Kean

Luiz is too good on the ball to be wasted at CB IMO

Pique can dribble better than most players in the PL and he does well at CB. 

Luiz is a poor CB, i dont understand where people think he isnt.. great ball control is one thing, but always in the wrong position, has no sense of reading a game... Im still not dissapointed he joined Chelsea over City..
 
Considering how poor the back played at times last year (yes even after AVB left) that would be the first place to look to bring players in..
 

Hutchinson should definitely be given a good shot next season. I've been impressed by him before and after his temporary retirement. Was really good against Blackburn last year. 
 
I'd run with this (in the hope we bring in Azpilicueta, loan out Chalobah and sell Ferreira):
 
RB:
Ivanovic
Azpilicueta*
 
CB:
Terry
Luiz
Cahill
Hutchinson
 
LB:
Cole
Bertrand
 

russe200

Road Sick

2006Kean

Luiz is too good on the ball to be wasted at CB IMO

Pique can dribble better than most players in the PL and he does well at CB. 

Luiz is a poor CB, i dont understand where people think he isnt.. great ball control is one thing, but always in the wrong position, has no sense of reading a game... Im still not dissapointed he joined Chelsea over City..

Considering how poor the back played at times last year (yes even after AVB left) that would be the first place to look to bring players in..

 
After AVB left I can't actually think of an incident where he actually made a mistake? His positional sense was decent, he always managed to get back (his pace helps) and he didn't give away any penalties and didn't get a single card in the league under RDM. Excelled particularly in making interceptions and blocking shots.
 
Enlighten me if you can think of something? I know he made loads of mistakes under AVB but everyone was.

Synfection

russe200

Road Sick

2006Kean

Luiz is too good on the ball to be wasted at CB IMO

Pique can dribble better than most players in the PL and he does well at CB. 

Luiz is a poor CB, i dont understand where people think he isnt.. great ball control is one thing, but always in the wrong position, has no sense of reading a game... Im still not dissapointed he joined Chelsea over City..

Considering how poor the back played at times last year (yes even after AVB left) that would be the first place to look to bring players in..

After AVB left I can't actually think of an incident where he actually made a mistake? His positional sense was decent, he always managed to get back (his pace helps) and he didn't give away any penalties and didn't get a single card in the league under RDM. Excelled particularly in making interceptions and blocking shots.

Enlighten me if you can think of something? I know he made loads of mistakes under AVB but everyone was.

Enlighten you !!
 
Ok. Well for a start i said the back four was still poor after AVB left, not Luiz... Luiz would be almost impossible to judge since he was injured or unfit since AVB left until the end of the season.. But point still stands and i dont think any of the top teams in the UK will be falling over to sign him.
 
The point on the back four is valid, and winning the CL seems to have rewritten history in the eye's of Chelsea fans some how ? The leauge form was still toss, i dont recall one game where they beat a team above them in the run in, and they got turned over a couplo time's... a big win over QPR is hardly a sign that he was any better... The guy just finished off the cup run's. Very well, but its not fooling anyone, i still do not think RDM will end well once the reality kicks in, it certainly isnt his shopping list.

we beat city when they was unbeaten and chelsea was wrote off by many leading up to the match thanks to avb crazy subs & tactics leading upto the match.

luiz is great imo , this dm arguement im pretty sure our staff have considered it theres obviously reasons why he hasnt been played there. maybe he does'nt want to. but yeah i guess luiz is ****, barca wanted to sign him and lets face it they always buy **** players lol


winning the CL seems to have rewritten history in the eye's of Chelsea fans some how ?

Might be summit do with it being our biggest goal after suffering heartbreak for many years in the competition or maybe its because winning that trophy, no ****er will ever be able to take that away from us.

russe200

Synfection

russe200

Road Sick

2006Kean

Luiz is too good on the ball to be wasted at CB IMO

Pique can dribble better than most players in the PL and he does well at CB. 

Luiz is a poor CB, i dont understand where people think he isnt.. great ball control is one thing, but always in the wrong position, has no sense of reading a game... Im still not dissapointed he joined Chelsea over City..

Considering how poor the back played at times last year (yes even after AVB left) that would be the first place to look to bring players in..

After AVB left I can't actually think of an incident where he actually made a mistake? His positional sense was decent, he always managed to get back (his pace helps) and he didn't give away any penalties and didn't get a single card in the league under RDM. Excelled particularly in making interceptions and blocking shots.

Enlighten me if you can think of something? I know he made loads of mistakes under AVB but everyone was.

Enlighten you !!

Ok. Well for a start i said the back four was still poor after AVB left, not Luiz... Luiz would be almost impossible to judge since he was injured or unfit since AVB left until the end of the season.. But point still stands and i dont think any of the top teams in the UK will be falling over to sign him.

The point on the back four is valid, and winning the CL seems to have rewritten history in the eye's of Chelsea fans some how ? The leauge form was still toss, i dont recall one game where they beat a team above them in the run in, and they got turned over a couplo time's... a big win over QPR is hardly a sign that he was any better... The guy just finished off the cup run's. Very well, but its not fooling anyone, i still do not think RDM will end well once the reality kicks in, it certainly isnt his shopping list.

 
What you're forgetting is that AVB had already killed our league season more or less stone dead, bar a very short amount of time where we could have got top four mathematically and realistically. Our best chances of success were in the cups so we set up our teams that way. This meant that for most league matches we put out a second string (either that or we put out a nakered and aging first team), we'd pretty much given up and were saving our best for the FA Cup and the Champions League where we showed complete resilience (luck helped too- something which every successful team has had, including City) against some of the best teams in the world.
 
I'm not going to say that the team we had last year was at United's or City's standard or anything like that but there are certain younger players in the squad purchased before and during this Summer that will challenge City and will win the league back at some point. I include Luiz in that. We have a lot of potential there. I'm not saying it will happen immediately, but I'm confident it will happen. 
 
As for RDM, we'll see, I'd like to see him given a full season with this team we have built. I'd want/expect third this year with form comparable to the top two towards the end of the season. 

Looking forward to tonight's match, glad its not on too late ! Will be a nice test.

It'll be very tough. Lavezzi, Ibra, Thiago Silva, Pastore, Alex all very good players. Of course they also have an absolute legend of a manager too.

Giving pre-season a bit of a watch now. We look pretty incomplete, if I'm honest. So many players are missing and as a result we look more disjointed than normal. Hazard still looks promising, though. I'm really looking forward to seeing how he does with real quality around him i.e. Mata, Torres, Ramires and *hopefully* Hulk. 
 
Nothing a bit of fitness and familiarity can't solve (not that we look that bad).

Just been reading the match report from last night.  Looks like we were quite poor.  Wish we had our full squad there for these matches to gel a bit before the season starts.