Essien out for several months

Done his cruciate ligaments on international duty!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/7606271.stm

Massive blow for Chelsea in a way, but considering the size of their squad, I think I'll be joined by others in having relatively little sympathy for them.

Deco, Lampard, Ballack, Mikel are still there.

So no, I have little sympathy for them.

He will be a huge loss though espically againist teams the better teams where is energy and drive will be missed.

Poor mans John O'Shea

Wonder what happens when Mikel is out from all those suspensions.

Deco, Ballack and Lampard as a trio?

Interestingly, I believe Mikel was only on the "B" list for Chelsea's CL team. Most definitely will be moved into their final 25 man squad now. Wonder how he felt about it though

Parks lives wrote:Wonder what happens when Mikel is out from all those suspensions.

Deco, Ballack and Lampard as a trio?

Would work just fine against most teams...and Belletti did a pretty decent job as a surprise DM against Spurs.

he will be back for the first game after the cl group stages,


btw whats with ballack, will he become a new contract?

Ade wrote:Deco, Lampard, Ballack, Mikel are still there.

So no, I have little sympathy for them.

He will be a huge loss though espically againist teams the better teams where is energy and drive will be missed.

Ive heard Mikel and Ballack are out ! so they might start looking a bit thin in the centre of midfield.

Yeah they'll have to pick from the other 150 central midfielders they've got.

borocooper wrote:Yeah they'll have to pick from the other 150 central midfielders they've got.

With those 3 out they are left with Lampard, Deco, Malouda, Cole, Kalou....not much steel there.

Lampard is 80% muscle and big bones.

Scolari will just have to continue using Belletti then at DM won't he.

Couldn't imagine him using a midfield 3 of Lampard and Deco without Mikel or Ballack.

borocooper wrote:Yeah they'll have to pick from the other 150 central midfielders they've got.

we don't have many now. =/

Mikel, Essien, Ballack, Lampard, Deco...

the 3 that could, in theory, play defensively all managed to get injured at the same time.

kas wrote:Interestingly, I believe Mikel was only on the "B" list for Chelsea's CL team. Most definitely will be moved into their final 25 man squad now. Wonder how he felt about it though

Karma.

essien played games at right back and wasn't greatly missed in the middle and at that time they didn't have deco. Now chelsea have a good right back and deco.

as kas said beletti being brasilian is comfortable on the ball and can play there or mikel, so they are still better equipped than just about any team to cope with one of their main players out.

Makalele played his part though , he was the anchor man.

DS wrote:

kas wrote:Interestingly, I believe Mikel was only on the "B" list for Chelsea's CL team. Most definitely will be moved into their final 25 man squad now. Wonder how he felt about it though

Karma.

the B list isn't for people that are "worse" it's for players that qualify as home grown players under the uefa rules i think. =/

so if mikel qualifies as such, of course he gets put on that list, as it would otherwise be some nobody.

Hardrada wrote:

DS wrote:

kas wrote:Interestingly, I believe Mikel was only on the "B" list for Chelsea's CL team. Most definitely will be moved into their final 25 man squad now. Wonder how he felt about it though

Karma.

the B list isn't for people that are "worse" it's for players that qualify as home grown players under the uefa rules i think. =/

so if mikel qualifies as such, of course he gets put on that list, as it would otherwise be some nobody.

yeah, I looked it up. I'm right. so I guess he felt OK about it.

Ahh ok....I thought the B list was just players who are specified as reserves in case any of the original 25 get injured by the time the first group phase starts.

But in that case, how come clubs have more than 25 players listed in their CL squad?

Hardrada wrote:

borocooper wrote:Yeah they'll have to pick from the other 150 central midfielders they've got.

we don't have many now. =/

Mikel, Essien, Ballack, Lampard, Deco...

the 3 that could, in theory, play defensively all managed to get injured at the same time.

Are the all out for our game on sat ? I hope Kompany fucking smashes the f@ck out of that cheeky little c**t Deco.

Was hoping to see Essien go in on Robinho with all studs showing. If Mikel doesn't play then that only leaves Carvalho left to do it.

according to physioroom, Mikel and Ballack should both be available for Man City...

borocooper wrote:Lampard is 80% muscle and big bones.

lampard is 100 % $h!t, thats all that matters

Toni Kroos wrote:

borocooper wrote:Lampard is 80% muscle and big bones.

lampard is 100 % $h!t, thats all that matters

better than ballack though

Apparently done his knee again on first day of training. Gotta worry for his career if that's the case. 3rd time in 3 years..

Chelsea seriously need to replace their whole midfield. Essien is a crock, Lampard is past it and Ramires for me hasn't got the quality.

Many people believe Essien is the best midfielder in the league.

Essien's place in the top five midfielders in the league is indisputable.

If Chelsea had more players like Essien then they would have won more trophies.

Aristoskank wrote:Many people believe Essien is the best midfielder in the league.

Essien's place in the top five midfielders in the league is indisputable.

If Chelsea had more players like Essien then they would have won more trophies.

What?

Luis wrote:

Aristoskank wrote:Many people believe Essien is the best midfielder in the league.

Essien's place in the top five midfielders in the league is indisputable.

If Chelsea had more players like Essien then they would have won more trophies.

What?

Seems fairly clear what's being said to be honest.

I disagree with your point on Ramires too, Luis. He came into his element a lot more during the second half of the season after taking a while to adapt. He's clearly got the talent and proved that by being a bit of a menace second half the year.

Tom wrote:

Luis wrote:

Aristoskank wrote:Many people believe Essien is the best midfielder in the league.

Essien's place in the top five midfielders in the league is indisputable.

If Chelsea had more players like Essien then they would have won more trophies.

What?

Seems fairly clear what's being said to be honest.

I disagree with your point on Ramires too, Luis. He came into his element a lot more during the second half of the season after taking a while to adapt. He's clearly got the talent and proved that by being a bit of a menace second half the year.

He was mostly shite with a few good games thrown in. He's been one of Brazil's worst players at the Copa so far as well. No way was he a 'menace', decent player, Not good enough for a team like Chelsea. Who's going to get you goals from midfield? Lampard is the only one and he's getting past it now.