da dobrowin：
da bwin： The actual selection of Chelsea’s 25 shouldn’t present too much of a problem for Carlo Ancelotti. He is not in a position where he has to cull a number of players that don’t make the registered 25. Chelsea have 15 foreign squad players, over the age of 21, who will conceivably play a decent amount of games this season. To compliment theses players, they have six players – Lampard, Terry, Cole, Turnbull, Mancienne and Sturridge – who are English; these 21 players are a shoe in for registration and of that there is no doubt.
To complete the 25, and more importantly the 8 ‘homegrown’ players, Ancelotti will have to call upon the players from the youth set up, who are under 21, that he has promised more time on the pitch to. The five main candidates are Nemanja Matic, Patrick Van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma, Gael Kakuta and Fabio Borini. Whichever of these are chosen to be the part of the registered 8, and which ever make up the unlimited number of under-21s that a team is allowed to use, becomes a bit of an irrelevance as it won’t have too much of an effect on who Ancelotti picks from day to day.
What this all means is that Ancelotti is gambling by putting his faith in the young, inexperienced players. Should injuries mount up at some point in the season, it will be these players that will have to be called upon. Whereas other clubs will see there under-21s as more of a bonus, Chelsea may have to rely on them slightly more. Chelsea’s squad is only fractionally smaller than last season, although Joe Cole would have been good to have in the squad to free up another slot. Releasing the likes of Belletti, Ballack and Deco was surely done with the new registration in mind, particularly when you consider their age and nationality, not to mention Ballack’s wages.
The reliance on the younger players means that, as it stands, there are only 15 foreign players over 21 that will be registered, thus giving Ancelotti the option, should he choose it, to add two more foreign players to his squad. Personally, I think Chelsea still need another centre-back. Ivanovic, Ferreira, Mancienne and Bruma have all played there, but none have done it either regularly, or particularly impressively, and since Carvalho’s departure it looks like it could be a department that is a little lightweight.
What that leaves with Chelsea with is the following squad of 21:
GK: Cech, Turnbull, Hilario
Def: Terry, Ivanovic, Bosingwa, Cole, Ferreira, Alex, Mancienne, Zhirkov
Mid: Lampard, Essien, Ramires, Benayoun, Mikel, Malouda
For: Drogba, Anelka, Kalou, Sturridge
Two players will have to be added to complete the 8 home grown quota, which I think will be Gael Kakuta and Jeffrey Bruma. That then passes the minimum requirements for the Premier League rules, but will it be enough for Chelsea to compete in four competitions? Luiz and Sergio Ramos are the latest players to be linked with moves to Stamford Bridge, and whether they arrive or not, it is pleasing to see that I am not the only one who thinks another defender is needed. That said, having written down the groupof players, there aren’t a huge amount of midfielders either. If Ancelotti does want to strengthen his squad the he is running out of time, otherwise it is time for the young boys to step up.
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