nofacej

Why? To use myself as an example I was born in the UK and moved to Australia when I was very young. Both my parents are English, and I've been back and forth between the two countries several times, but in total I've only spent 4 or 5 years of my life in the UK. I received my Australian citizenship when I was 6 and to anyone who met me they'd have no idea I wasn't born in Australia. If I were a professional footballer, why should I be forced to play for England if I don't want to? It's kind of a moot point as I probably would play for England if given the chance, because the national team is much better than the Australian one, and I have a very large family that still lives in England and is football mad, whereas none of my friends in Australia care about real football. Still, I think the option to play for Australia should be available to some one like me.

I think it's a very encouraging image. It's much harder to consistently beat the big teams than it is to consistently beat the small teams. It means we're almost where we need to be and after the previous two seasons that's a great feeling. Add a top class striker to our squad and we'll find it much easier to score against the lesser teams, and suddenly draws will become wins and losses will become draws.

I can't agree with this. West Ham definitely defended well, but in the last 10 minutes we came within inches of scoring multiple times, with perhaps the biggest chance right at the end when Lampard missed a sitter. In retrospect Mourinho was definitely too slow to make changes, but hindsight is 20/20 and Jose was probably confident we would break them down with the players we had on the pitch. I imagine he was worried about a freak goal on the counter as well because it was clear we weren't going to bang in a lot of goals. We created the chances, we just didn't take them. With better finishing that game was ours.

JOSE MOURINHO! What a difference he has made to our team. Never let him go again.

I swear my heart will give out if we hit the post or bar again.

Less negativity would be nice. We won the CL in 2012 against all odds; we can beat City too. Tipping Salah to come on late in the second half and score the winner on his début because that would be magic.

From what I understand, pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong for Jose behind the scenes. The media were strongly anti-Mourinho, and he refused to be swayed by popular opinion in his squad selection and tactics. This understandably added stress to the already stressful Madrid job, and Mourinho did at times crack under the pressure, lashing out at people both publicly and probably privately as well. This gave the press ammunition in their anti-Mourinho agenda, and the problem compounded upon itself. On top of that there was the perception that the football Madrid played under Mourinho (counter attacking) was too negative and didn't fit the image of the Galacticos which as a concept is pretty much anathema to Mourinho's philosophies about work rate and teamwork. I'm not sure how much of it was the influence of Casillas and company after he was benched, and how much it was Jose's private dealings with the players, but he definitely got on the wrong side of a group of players who commanded too much power at the club, and star power in the media. By the time he left the situation was pretty much untenable at the club with a board/president that was more interested in the marketability and glamour of players, a dressing room that was divided, and no intention of steering the club away from its Galacticos ideology to match Mourinho's vision of the way forward. All in all it was a bad match of both manager and club. What Real really want is a coach that will follow instructions and behave himself. Mourinho was never going to be that.

We've been playing much better this season than last, so I'm not too worried about Mata's departure in terms of our future performances, but I am upset that it was to United. I've always liked Mata a great deal, and I would have liked to be able to wish him success when he left us, but now all I can do is wish him good health. One of the few players in the modern game who seems like a genuinely nice person on and off the field.

£ = Alt + 0163

Eto'o turned and since Valencia was holding onto him he turned with him.

I thought Hazard was decent. He did a really good job of drawing fouls when we were under pressure and broke away well at times. Can't expect him to score every game, but he did enough to justify his place on the pitch.

I know this was posted before, but here's a closer look: Can't believe the pundits claimed this should have been a yellow. 0 intent to get the ball and it ends in a scissor.

It's starting to feel like it did under Mourinho last time. You just get the feeling that Arsenal or City are going to blink before we do. Widening the gap between us and 4th place is really nice as well.

Just hoping we make it to HT with this scoreline so Jose can sort the players' nerves out. Playing against United (even in this form) last after the other teams have won was always going to be nervy.

Most of Luiz's mistakes come from a lack of concentration, not because he likes to play out from the back. Carvalho was one of Mourinho's favourites and he also liked to play the ball out from the back. Luiz has more flair about him, but I don't see any reason why he can't cut the slack passes out of his game.

So apparently Van Persie has just returned to United from specialist treatment in Holland and hopes to make a return (you guessed it) against us. I couldn't be happier for him. <-blatant sarcasm

I think you're being a little unfair towards Guardiola. The team he inherited from Rijkaard was very good, but he definitely made significant changes to it and made it his own. The Bayern job was a safe one to take, but also understandable since Managers find work based on reputation. After enhancing it further at Bayern nobody will call him a one hit wonder if he fails in a more difficult job later. Hopefully after his spell at Bayern Guardiola moves to a club with the resources to become competitive but without the promise of instant success. Mourinho definitely deserves more respect for his bravery when it comes to choosing jobs, but unfortunately a lot of people don't see it that way.

I actually hope Mourinho doesn't bother to respond because, to be honest, Xavi's comment isn't worthy of a response.

3 losses on the trot for United. Should put things in perspective for those who have been whining about our performances this season.

Mikel in unbelievable scoring form this season!

Got to say I think Mourinho has got it wrong for this match. Derby were always going to stay compact and sit back, only attacking on the break, so having Ramires' pace on the wing is effectively useless. I'm also unsure as to why Mata isn't playing. If there's any match to start him in it has to be this one. Makes me wonder if he is indeed on the way out. Would like to see Willian throw a few more crosses in. He's been in perfect crossing position numerous times and elected to play it back to the top of the box rather than throw in an early cross which has given them time to regroup on the few occasions they've been stretched.

Laughed out loud at this: http://dd.reddit.com/r/chelseafc/comments/1tyhgj/cahill_dodging_the_biter/

Shame the match was marred by controversy, but definitely our best performance of the season.

That's got to sting for Liverpool.

What a goal!