OPINION: How and who would you play?.

The question on every Chelsea fans minds at the moment is:

How can we make our forward line work?

As I wrote in my match report after Fulham on Monday night, to me the defence is sorted out (until Alex returns from injury) and our midfield seems to have the right balance playing with the three in midfield.

The problem we have at the moment is how to fit our players in and how we should play them. For example, we have been playing with a tried and trusted 4-3-3 with Malouda left, Drogba in the middle and Anelka on the right. This worked fine at the beginning of the season. Kalou was always an option to come in and so was Sturridge if changes were to be made, but now as we all know Sturridge is at Bolton scoring for fun.

With Sturridge away, we now have Fernando Torres to consider. We have seem him play up on his own for the dippers, or with someone playing just off him. We have to incorporate Torres into the side as he is too talented to leave on the bench so we need to make a decision here. Do we change and play with two up by themselves or do we go as we did against Liverpool and play someone in behind two up front?.

Should Chelsea play the Liverpool way and play just the one up front with maybe Lampard in behind and a flat four across the midfield?. If that's the case then who plays and who misses out? Would this make our game weaker and who would play down the right hand side?.

For me I would continue to work the Diamond but make one change from the Liverpool game. Ramires proved the other night that he will work hard and run all day for you so he takes the left side of the Diamond for me. Michael Essien plays the right side with Mikel holding for now. In my mind McEachran just needs to beef up a bit and as the last line of midfield in front of our back four, Mikel gets the vote.

This means Frank Lampard plays just behind Torres and Drogba up front at the tip of the Diamond. If he is injured, Benayoun when fit plays there. We would then have options of Malouda to come into the Diamond and Kalou as another option up front.

In this formation and the players starting, we should easily dominate midfield and possession of the ball. Frank playing off Torres and Drogba could be a dream for the two of them and he could still time his late runs into the box. For me, it's win win. Just rememeber when Drogba and Sheva played together, Drogba weighed in with 30+ goals that season. Torres could be just as good.

So that's my view on how we should line up in the league for the rest of the season. The question remains:

If you were Carlo Ancelotti, how would you and who would you play?

KTBFFH