[retired_jeannicole]

Originally posted by poyplemonkeys:
gaahaha, Sidwell endearing himself to me no end with that wipeout tackle on Beckham

I have to disagree, I'm afraid. Beckham's still walking :thdn:

[retired_jessicadon]

Sidwell raising himself to the level of Michael Brown. Fulham comparisons go on and on.

[BobbyK]

Comparing that tackle to Michael Brown

[BobbyK]

Originally posted by poyplemonkeys:
Comparing that tackle to Michael Brown

*Must lever in Chelsea looking bad comment*

<BLOCKQUOTE>Milan set to drop Shevchenko bid

AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi believes the club have been priced out of a move to take Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko back to the San Siro.
Shevchenko, 30, scored four Premiership goals in his first season after his £30m switch from AC Milan and has often been linked with a return to Italy.

Berlusconi told the club's television station: "We don't feel able to make any offer which can please Chelsea.

"There are insurmountable obstacles tied to the player's value."

Berlusconi added: "I'm very tied to Sheva and I have always expressed my approval for his possible return."

No one has yet signed for Milan this summer, despite the club saying they would buy one of Samuel Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Didier Drogba, Andriy Shevchenko or Brazil youngster Alexandre Pato.

"With the current squad we have we could say that we will do well next season. However we are in talks about two attackers, two champions, and we are confident at least one can play with us," Berlusconi said.

Earlier this month Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho insisted Shevchenko can be a key player for the Blues next season.

Mourinho told BBC Five Live: "If he performs and shows me match after match he deserves to play, I'm very happy.

"I hope Sheva can do it. If Sheva plays magnificently I have to play him and Didier Drogba together, that is no problem for me."

Sheva's staying \o/ </BLOCKQUOTE>

Pressed post too soon.

[BobbyK]

"The game was difficult," conceded Mourinho. I think LA played with a lot of class. They gave us a hard game.

"We had the chance to score many goals but at this moment in pre-season I prefer matches with difficulties than easy matches. We won the match as we wanted to.

"We played for about an hour in 4-4-2, which is a method I want to use. We played for the last half-an-hour with three defenders, which was an experience I wanted them to have because during the season we will have some matches where we must play like this."

Interesting comment there from Jose. We're going to be playing with 3 at the back at some points this season? We did it occasionally last season but that was more of a reaction to being behind. Wonder if he just means preparing more for these situations or he's actually planning on playing a few matches set up as a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2. The latter would ffffb.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Cech Carvalho Terry A. Cole Essien Mikel BallackJ. Cole Robben Drogba Sheva</pre>
*drools*

[retired_bashful76]

I would guess more if we catch our selfs behind than actually starting with that tactics as also no mater how cool that tactic looks it would leave us quite open to opponents with paccy wingers

If we did start i would think a proper DC like Alex would get the place in stead of Ashley (playing center and terry being the left man) although Ashleys pace can be useful with 3 at the back to provide cover.

BTW JM is promising to mellow down this year...let's see how far The Sun and co let him do this

[retired_bashful76]

Tue, 24th Jul 2007

José Mourinho has been discussing in depth his life in England, and how he intends to be more relaxed in the season ahead.
The manager was speaking in one of his last interviews in America before flying home from Los Angeles to prepare for the action.
On four seasons being the longest time he has spent anywhere in management, he said:
'I feel great. I feel great. Yes you are correct it is the first time I have started a fourth season with a club but as I was saying a few years ago when I signed the second contract with Chelsea it was with the intention of going [on]. I remember the first meeting I had with Peter and Roman and Eugene. I was moving from Porto to Chelsea and in that moment we were speaking about targets for 2015 and 2016 and we are going in that direction. So for me I am happy to be in my fourth season here.
'I am happy with what we did. I an happy with the relation I had with my players and with the people who worked with me. The fans are the same old story ~ my feeling for English football and the Premiership I never hide. I think it's the best place to work so I am happy to be part of the Chelsea future. I didn't want to move.'
On life in London:
'Yes I am happy. My family is more important than football but at the same time my family always say to me that my options and my decisions must be thinking [i.e. based on] my profession because they will adapt always with me. So they are not the reason I am staying. They are more important than football but they are not the reason why I am staying because they are happy with me.
'The kids are great kids and adapt easy. Their mother is a great mother and gives them and me the support we need to be happy so that is not the point. The point is that I think I did a good job at Chelsea for three years. I want to do more. Things between me and club are good ~ we can say very good. Everything is completely clear and we understand each other and we have a common project.
'With the players the professionalism is superb. And I look forward to this season. Again it is a great league, we want to win titles again like we did all these three years. We want to play better and better and better and we want to enjoy very much every moment of this season.
'I am very happy in this pre-season, yes, I was very happy on holidays.
Because on holidays you can be with your family all the time. But I am very happy.
'London is top, London is top. I am very, very loved in my country but my life is better in London than my country because the way people approach me is different. In London you have more space. My life is a simple life. I don't go for stupid places and events all the time. I go nowhere. I went to wrestling once, I went to cinema once or twice. I go to restaurants, I walk in the street. I go with my kids to school. I go shopping with my wife. Nobody disturbs me.
'What is one guy [motions taking pic]. Is nothing, it means nothing. One autograph is easy. One photo with the kid - easy.
'I think in this moment with the ten star hotel we have in Cobham we can spend all day there. It's fantastic. We also have rooms and beds.'
On his kids:
'They are normal kids like all the others. The mother is top mother.
I used to call her in Portugal "chicken mother". [Mother Hen?] Yes always very protective and educating them to be good kids and normal kids.
'You know sometimes they are not very happy when I am on something with them and for them and other people interfere. They are not very happy if I am on the beach in Portugal with them doing something - a castle in the sand - and people are coming and other kids are coming and they want a photo and the father wants to speak to me about something. They are not very happy with it.
'I always remember the first time I went to Euro Disney with them they said we don't want to come with you again.[laughs] It's something I have had in my mind for a long time. They used to go with the mother a lot of times especially since we were in London. They went with me and told me "don't come again". They feel it a little bit but London is one of the best places for them but nobody disturbs - no problem.'
On taking the job home:
'I take the job home but you know my wife knows me well and when she smells I need my space, she gives me my space even at home. Even at home I can have my space.
'She is with me for more than 20 years so she knows me very well and sometimes at home I have my space. Sometimes when we don't go to the hotel before the game - because we don't go every game - sometimes my wife tells me [with emphasis] "Why didn't you take the team to the hotel?". She feels I want to be in that day in the hotel with the team not at home.
'But it is fine and especially in terms of happiness, results, happiness, that I don't take home.'
On losing his temper with his players:
'Yes, I am angry, I'm happy, I'm very happy, I am very hungry. Emotions are part of the job and part of leadership. Emotions are sometimes something very natural because they belong to you and the moment brings the emotion.
'Other times you can work and you can express the emotions you want to express. I think that is also part of the job and part of the leadership. Sometimes I am angry because I am angry, sometimes I am angry because I want myself to be angry.
'But I think playing with the emotions is good and it is something I like. And something that people in football understand better and better and better because 20 years ago the job was about tactics. You must just be tactical man and something like that.
'Year after year people realise that out job is much more than that. It is about leadership and control of the group and control of the emotions and that is something that I like.'
On a part of him becoming English:
You have to adapt and learn and you cannot lose your identity. You are what you are. And if people like you, if they don't, they don't but you have to adapt to the reality and yes English football had an impact on me and also the way of life. And that is why this season I will be more mellow [big laughs]. Mellooowww.'
On chilling out a bit more:
'Yes, it's something I want to do, it's something I want to do. I think I am what I am but at the same time but people use my personality to create something that is not true. If I am emotional or if I react to something that is not fair it is normal if I do it but I also think that during these couple of years people works an image that is not correct. It is not correct. So I think I shouldn't feed.
'I will be more mellow. Mell-ow, yes, yes, yes. I've thought about it and it's something I want to do. I am what I am, but at the same time people use my personality to create something that is not true. If I am emotional or react to something I think is not fair it's normal. But I feel that over the last couple of years people have created an image that is not correct. I shouldn't feed it. I shouldn't feed. I'm a bit more mell-ow.'
On regrets:
'I regret nothing in my life, my life is fantastic. Even with the mistakes I've made my life is fantastic and my career is fantastic. I just feel this is a different moment for me. Four years in the same club makes things different.
'At the beginning of my career I was always ready for a change, ready for a change. I'm happy to why should I change? A player's career is very short and they have to do everything in the same day. Bang! Their career is over. My career is in the start and I have many, many years in front. I don't have to be in a hurry, I have to be calm, cool and relaxed.
On his relationships with others:
'I don't hug Arsene Wenger because he's not a close friend, but he can say what he wants about us. He can complain about a lot of things as he did in the past. I'm not ready to react. I just want to do my work and concentrate on that. I look at our opponents because I need to know the way they play and am interested in their sports life, but I'm not interested in what they say. My relationships with other people will not change. My bottle of wine with Ferguson will still be a bottle of wine, my handshake with Wenger will still be a handshake and so on.
No problem.'

On 4-4-2 or 4-3-3:

'I think the way Chelsea defend so well, if we use a more compact defensive system like we did last season with 4-4-2 and the diamond, at the end of the day normally we win. I don't think there'll be a difference in how many points we got, because over the last three years Chelsea was the team in the Premiership with more points, more victories, more clean sheets. If you put the three years together Chelsea was the best team in the Premiership.
'But I want more. It's good for the club that we play different. A big team like we are the tendency is for our opponents to close, so if the tendency is for our opponents to close our tendency must be to open. I feel width is important in a team like ours, and with the quality of the wingers we have we have to use them, unless something dramatic happens again and we have none to play.
'We have four or five wingers plus the kid Sinclair, and the kid for me is a good kid because every time he plays he brings something different to the game. He is a dribbler, he is a runner and I like the kid.
'We have to play with wingers. 4-3-3 is the system which the players are most comfortable with, no doubts. I know that and feel there is a big understanding with the system and their positions.
'But 4-4-2 with wingers is something we're working on. We're going to play Rangers with that system and have been working tactically on it in training for the players to build the same confidence they have in 4-3-3.
'4-4-2 in a diamond is something we have in the pocket, as we have a good understanding and dynamic. With so many good central midfield players that we have if one day I decide to use it then it's easy to do it. It's one of the good things about four consecutive seasons with not many changes in the group. Year after year, experience after experience, the players are ready for it.
'I want to get better results and be more entertaining. I don't agree when people say "this team played fantastic and didn't win." I don't agree. For me that's the speech of the loser. I don't agree also when people say, "this team played very bad and won." That happens once in a lifetime, you play very badly and win because you're lucky.
'Normally the results are balanced. If you get results it's because you have positive things in the team, if you don't get results it's because you have negative things in the team.
'The beauty of the game is a concept, you like this shot or you don't like. What is beauty? It is a controversial concept in football. But for me beauty has a lot to do with having control of the game through possession, the speed of the game and changes of pace, the creative players being on top in a collective context. I feel in our squad the wingers are important to bring that.
'In our first season it was not the best season for Joe Cole as we were still in a fight at the time, but it was a superb season for Duff and Robben. In the second season Joe Cole came into the best football of his life and between Joe and the other two we played very, very well.
'Last year we had no Joe Cole, no Robben, Duff was not here anymore and Shaun was in a similar process to Joe Cole the year before. Last season we played very well as a team with the resources available, but not with the same flair and the same speed and dynamic in previous years. This season with the players we have available we have to go for it.'
'We had not other options last year. We had no more wingers to play, no players to change. I kept saying last season we survived.
'In the last game of the season, a very important game for us, we have to play 4-3-3 against Man United at Wembley - we have to do that with Joe Cole limping, with Robben coming later limping and Ashley Cole coming later limping. We have to do that, it was a very difficult season to do something positive for the game. So last season was about "survive", even the last game was about "win, go home with the Cup, make history, goodbye".
On his intentions for using strikers:
I have a double intention: 4-3-3 and 4-4-2. Depends on the way we are playing, depends on the form of my players, depends on the opponents, depends on the opponents' system, which way I think is the best. This morning we have a meeting about the positive things and the negative things of 4-4-2 - we know the two systems well, I think it is very important to know the fragility of the system you are playing.
'You know the fragility, you know better how to compensate and to hide the fragility, because there is no perfect system. So I want to study that with the players.
'The 4-3-3 leaves Sheva in a fight with Drogba and Pizarro for a position - one position for one of them, that's clear, obvious.
'The 4-4-2 is Sheva, Pizarro, Drogba for two positions... [with Kalou wide?] He's more of a wide player. In 4-4-2 he can play as a striker, against Galaxy Pizarro is not here so the two strikers are between Kalou, Sheva and Didier. And Salomon can do it, especially getting into the space... to hold the ball, to be a target man with the ball at his feet.
'I don't want to speak about individuals, because it's not fair at this time. I think in this moment of the season it depends a lot on the "biotype" of the players - some players get in form after two days, some take a long time.
'In this moment I think the best player in Chelsea is Shaun - he starts the first days like he has been training for two months. Depends on players. You know, Lamps takes time to go to his best, Joe Cole takes time... Carvalho easy, I know first of the season he is ready to play a game. Making judgments on players at this moment I don't think is fair - next week, playing proper matches... Feyenoord, Rangers, proper teams, experienced teams... it's time to start making more...'
On keeping his players, in particular Shaun Wright-Phillips:
'I want to keep all my players. [Does he want to stay?] Yes, I think the way he works, the way he behaves, I believe he's motivated for that. And he's playing so well. I want to keep every player - the market is open for somebody to go or to come, but in this moment he's here, I want to keep him. We have not one single reaction from one single player, saying that he is interested in leaving.'

[retired_mjfrush]

Originally posted by poyplemonkeys:
<BLOCKQUOTE> "The game was difficult," conceded Mourinho. I think LA played with a lot of class. They gave us a hard game.

"We had the chance to score many goals but at this moment in pre-season I prefer matches with difficulties than easy matches. We won the match as we wanted to.

"We played for about an hour in 4-4-2, which is a method I want to use. We played for the last half-an-hour with three defenders, which was an experience I wanted them to have because during the season we will have some matches where we must play like this."

Interesting comment there from Jose. We're going to be playing with 3 at the back at some points this season? We did it occasionally last season but that was more of a reaction to being behind. Wonder if he just means preparing more for these situations or he's actually planning on playing a few matches set up as a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2. The latter would ffffb.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Cech Carvalho Terry A. Cole Essien Mikel BallackJ. Cole Robben Drogba Sheva</pre>
*drools* </BLOCKQUOTE>

Clearly Lampard would be there as much as you despise every single second he goes on breathing Popyles.

[BobbyK]

Clearly Lampard would be there as much as you despise every single second he goes on breathing Popyles.

That's a slight over reaction on your behalf. He probably would be in there, but he shouldn't because Ballack would be more fitting to the style of play that this formation would bring.

It would leave us suspect to fast attacks down the wing so obviously can't be used against some teams such as United. Against a weaker team than us, especially down the wings it could be devestating though. Would play stunning football too imo.

[retired_body_break]

Feyenoord vs Chelsea can be seen from here. It's a bit erratic (and was on Eurosport for part of the first half, weirdly) but seems to be OK now. Poyples will be pleased, Lampard's having a shocker, as is Ferreira. 0-0 current score.