Anyone think a 4-4-2 could work with Torres and Ba up front. The midfield would be Luiz in front of the back four, Lamps, Hazard, Mata.

No

Torres is finished at the moment, needs to be benched and get his fire (and scoring boots) back

No, that's just continuing what we have been doing, desperately looking for a way to play Torres. The only way I'd include Torres is if he changed his game and started to contribute more in general play.
Including Torres in your suggested line-up just keeps better players out, Oscar and Moses for starters.

To be honest, I'm not even sure Ba is the solution, certainly not long-term. He's the best we have at present, but would he really secure a place in any of Europe's elite teams ?
To challenge the best we will need a world class striker. Torres is never going to become one again, Ba is good but not great. We need Roman's cheque book again.

We miss having the option of Victor, will be glad when he is back.

Ba is a relative unknown in terms of his recent form with Newcastle and us - I think if he's effective (and I think he will be) Europe will definately take notice.

I'd agree we still need another killer striker though, hope we bag Falcao.

I second this, he looks a good player and an excellent buy

Agreed. Maybe when Moses gets back we can try it, but I'm not in favour of anything that includes Torres.

Apparently, he was doing well against Arsenal, and anyone who disagrees "doesn't have a clue"

I like the way we seem to have this African connection over the years - Essien, Drogba, Kalou, Mikel now the new lot Ba and Moses. In a way I hope it attracts top stars from the continent.

Possibly, but I'm always suspicious when a club and it's fans are not too angry or upset to see a player go. Though perhaps Newcastle were resigned to him leaving ?
Don't get me wrong, I like Demba. He appears to have everything, strength, pace, and he's always looking for a chance to shoot from anywhere. But I'm not totally convinced..yet.

Quite right, we shouldnt be convinced by him yet.

But so far he has scored in every game he has started - you cannot ask for more than that.

Yes, but shouldn't our current system should allow for that anyway ? The three players behind the striker can be pretty flexible..any of Hazard, Mata, Moses or Oscar can move foward to link up with Ba as play dictates. But I agree, Hazard or Moses would be the most logical choices.

Torres did well, who said that ? He barely touched the ball in the first half, when a decent striker would have run riot we had so much possession. He improved in the second half with a couple of decent runs, but that's not much to show over 80 minutes.

I'm afraid to say it was footballing genius Rafa.

What a dope.

Torres has so badly lost it at Chelsea I can only see one way out for him - go elsewhere. I think he should head back to Liverpool personally. Do a swap : Torres and Benitez for Rodgers and Suarez

you are half right

i would rather have a management committee of Redknapp, Reid, Curbishly, Big Sam, all three Dalglish's, Harry Basset, Mark Huges and Barry Fry than have Rodgers anywhere near the club.

I think we should give Hope Powell a chance. A positive step from a foward-looking club, a massive boost for women in a male dominated world, blah, blah, blah. Great publicity, and she'd be cheap.

I can just see the headlines when we sack a black lesbian after 3 months.

Gotta say I didn't expect to see this comment when returning to this thread

Great retort, one of your best.

I'm sure it would be John Terry's fault somehow as well.

"Homophobic, Racist, Sexist serial cheater gets manager pregnant whilst abusing 911 victims and the friends and family of stephen gately"?

Ashley Cole has officially signed a 1-year extension.

Bizarrely, still no word on Hilario/Turnbull

getting the madrid keeper back?

So happy for the Bradford team and fans. If we don't progress tonight, I am 100% behind them!!


Re tonight, I would be feeling fairly confident if it was 1-0 down but at 2-0, not so sure.

We need to come out of the traps straightaway, and an early goal would quieten the home crowd. And we all know we are better away from home, so we have overcome bigger odds than this, we can do it!

I really hope we turn this around tonight, as I still think it's by far our best remaining chance of a trophy with strong teams still left in both the FA Cup and Europa League. Would be frustrating if we had nothing to show for this season with all the competitions we had a chance of winning at the start.

At least Ba should be starting tonight seeing as he only played ten minutes on sunday. If only he'd started the first game vs Swansea we wouldn't be needing to claw back a two goal deficit!

C'mon Chels, let's do this!

4-2/ 4-1 to Chelsea as long as Ba starts.