hjperdeath

take care, tell the other half of the footballing world me and Cruijff send our regards !

Then why are you talking about Everton? Jose? Belgium? They're all inter-related. Like it or not. When you can see that, you may 'address me again', Mr. Royalty. Brilliant, says a lot about you and the 'half' off the footballing world. Intellectually brilliant.

I missed you man .

And half of the football world taught the same about Joey and Carlo. They kept working hard and everyone said they were proving Jose wrong. Until Cech performed brilliantly and Joey came back much better than he ever could have been. Ironic how the same half of the footballing world said Jose had some agenda against Mata and Spanish players, yet chose him when Mata being as professional as he is , worked hard and adapted? Yeah Mata shut everyone's mouth up and Jose was right again. You and several others think otherwise, and also half of the footballing world that gladly 'supports 'Barcelona and Real Madrid. If that's the level of tone we are bringing in then fine, you are heavily mistaken if you have no clue about the kind of manager Jose is.

You said I was mistaken, you could simply say you disagree with me. That's the kind of tone that's acceptable here. and the panel was about Chelsea and Lukaku.

Just wait till Tom replies to this !

Sadly people did. You have no right to call it mistaken when you've no clue how it was.My grandad being a live example, well not anymore atleast. Scoring in a team that is built around him? His overall play is still poor . Dimwit? You should join up MOTD. You and the other lot would make a great panel of judges. I mean Chelsea are playing so poorly right ? Why talk about us winning at Norwich when you can talk about a raw unfinished striker scoring goals away from us. We so need someone who can score goals right now. So let's bring back Lukaku and make him suffer as well in a system that doesn't revolve around a striker?

Drop it, I've honestly had it with them. they aren't going to consider your opinion anyway. they fail to see how the future is properly panned out. If we had a Cudicini or Joe Cole thread back during Jose's first coming, these people would be doing the exact same. Jose made them eat their words, he'll do the same.

So now I know what part-time cat stalker means.

haha cheers !

Bump.

right in the heart man.

So Jay, it seems like you've been drinking again.

submitted !

Cardiff City play a standard 4-2-3-1 or a 4-1-4-1 depending on what phase of play you are looking at. They have a back-four consisting of Turner and Caulker in the center. They along with the defensive midfielder are responsible in holding the structure during transitions, unlike top teams where the responsibility lies mainly on the CM’s. The full-backs join in during attacks by providing width and come in narrow when the opposition have the ball. In midfield we have Medel, who is arguably the most important player on the pitch for Cardiff. He is the life-line through whom every part of play goes through. Alongside him we have Gunnarsson - Cardiff’s own Frank Lampard - that makes those trademark late runs, bursts forward during attacks but also defends with discipline. We have Whittingham and Odemwingie on the flanks and both have the tendency to drift inside and support the strikers and midfielders. They also get back and cover for full-backs during the transition to defense. This helps Cardiff’s structure against team’s that dominate possession. In the middle we have Kim who combines quite well with Gunnarsson and Mendel. He also drifts wide, on either flanks, which allows Gunnarsson to move into the proverbial #10 zone and assist the striker. On top we have Campbell, who has the ability to drift wide as well, which helps Cardiff a lot as they tend to attack more from the flanks than through the center. Moving on to transitions. Now before delving into the matter of how Cardiff organize themselves to make sure that the opposition can’t break through their barrier, there is a moment where the ball is being carried from the opposition’s half to Cardiff’s half (noting that the ball isn’t lost in their own half, but is being played after a goal-kick or deep turnover). During this moment, Cardiff apply a separate philosophy in an attempt to win back the ball quickly. If successful, they transition into attack. If not, they move into their defensive transition. Let’s have a look at this peculiar but effective strategy which is even used by Mourinho himself. The philosophy of cornering and pressing in phases. These are actually separate philosophies combined into one. The strategy of cornering can also be called as a 100% sure way of forcing your opponents to the flanks to create unforeseeable congestion. Pressing as we all know, is pressurizing the opponent aggressively into giving the ball away. In phases, it means the moment where the opponent is transitioning into attack and is still vulnerable. We imagine a scenario where a goal kick is taken. The ball is in our half, with, lets say, Luiz. He is pressurized by Campbell, the striker. He can’t play it to Terry or Cahill cause Kim, the attacking midfielder is close to him. The only clear way to retain possession is to either play it to the flanks, or to the defensive midfielder. 9 times out of 10, the ball is played to the flanks. This is usually down to the lack of confidence the defender has in playing a slightly risky pass to the CDM. As the ball reaches the flank, we realize that the strategy of cornering is complete. The striker and attacking midfielder pressed high, causing a clearance to the flanks. The moment the full-back touches the ball, he’s pulled into a black hole or may I say a black triangle formed by the Cardiff full-back, Cardiff winger and one of the Cardiff pivot member. The Chelsea player has only the wide man to give it to, and when you’re being pressed on really high, it gets tough to release the ball. This can happen on either flanks. There we have the strategy of pressing in phases. The chances of this being pulled off perfectly are low, especially when facing teams bigger than you. As it’s time limit is very short, if it is pulled out in the right manner, its results can be devastating, especially for Cardiff’s style of play, which we shall find out later. I have highlighted the rad area for simple reason’s that it would be a much better option to play it narrow then quickly switch to the flanks. In doing so, Cardiff don’t have the time to apply their philosophy and neither do they have the time to organize themselves. Did Mourinho use this? Yes he did. A perfect example from the Hull game can be found here, where four Chelsea players perform their duties - http://imageshack.co...rge/11/lrih.png So let’s say Cardiff are not able to retrieve the ball during that time zone and now they transition fully into a defensive structure having two solid and narrow blocks of four. The only way to go through is either barge into the middle with clever play, or use width. I cannot stress enough how important width will be in this game. The importance of counter-attacks are also going to be very high. Cardiff transition to 4-4-1-1, with Campbell awaiting for the ball to be retrieved. While transitioning into attack, Cardiff switch to a 4-3-3 or a 4-1-4-1. The main role is played by Mendel, who is responsible for holding the structure and opening up passing lanes. Mendel had a 99% pass accuracy against Newcastle, making 69 passes which was more than anyone on the field. By switching formations, they give themselves a better chance in creating goal opportunities during their final transitional phase. This is how Cardiff line up to attack. An average high-line, held together by Mendel. We can see triangles on both the sides, which are held by Kim on the right and Gunnarsson on the left. Do remember that it happens one at a time. If Kim is the one drifting, then Gunnarsson stays center and vice versa. Cardiff literally struggle to create chances through the center, be it through balls or individualistic play. They rely on width and crosses to score goals. One of the main reason they’re good at headers is because of this. This is why the philosophy of pressing and countering works well for them. They can recover the ball and initiate counter-attacks from the flanks. If Chelsea are to shut down the sides of the pitch and force them narrow, I don’t see Cardiff creating anything, unless they lob in a cheeky long ball. Click here to view the article

This. Very good point, rarely seen it here.

Cardiff scouting report on its way !

Miss you too man. take care !

Oh I know the truth , and I realize the blue print . I don't want to ignore and cry about it only to see myself proved wrong ..

This thread makes me cringe nowadays.

While on holiday in France, Lukaku went out for a casual bike ride and accidentally won the Tour de France. Lukaku has a Chuck Norris statue. It's actually the real Chuck Norris, he is just too afraid to move. Romelu Lukaku's ballsack weighs more than Raheem Sterling. Romelu Lukaku went through puberty before his dad did. Lukaku was substituted to keep Croatian tears from flooding the pitch

getting there, until I made the statement he hasn't. I fully expect him to reach the same level of work-rate though, the same way I expect Oscar to increase his creative attributes. Eventually they'll keep becoming better in different areas of their play, and Jose will play them both together for a stretch of games.

I'm not sure what the debate is about, but the line involving Qatar, where I live right now, is highly untrue. People aren't homeless, there are labor camps set up. You technically cannot be homeless in Qatar, as you can just walk up to your respective embassy and live there. Western companies have a lot of blame to shoulder... All the contractors providing services out here are (for the most part) Western. A lot of money is tied up in the projects. If they don't go ahead, many companies could be out of pocket and risk bankruptcy. Pulling out is not an option either because many have committed millions to these projects already (and risk huge penalties for pulling out). These are companies who are putting an awful lot of hope in the Middle East for revenue generally as things have gone tits up in Europe and the States. Incidentally, this could possibly have consequences for people at home. I think even in Qatar, many doubt that they can pull it off - what needs to be built and the sheer intensity of the work schedule means that bad working conditions are a given (independently of the 50 degree heat situation). Qatar and UAE are not alone in being in the situation - China and Russia are growing too fast too soon.There are many laws in Qatar and the UAE aimed at "protecting" workers. But as many know, these are not well enforced. Enforcement via penalties for all parties involved from the lowest sub-contractor to the highest contractor/developer. The problem is that given the size of the projects - so many of the separate tasks are sub-contracted that it becomes very difficult to control who is responsible for what. The real problem however are the labour agencies. These are the guys that the labourers are ultimately indentured to - but these will be Nepalese, Pakistani, Indian, Sri Lankan - these are people effectively taking advantage of their own people to make a lot of cash. What really needs to be regulated or handled appropriately is the use of labour agencies who push people into servitude. There should be obligations on contractors to ensure that they do not use such agencies - but ill educated labourers are lied to and are told to lie when they get the jobs and it will take immense political and commercial will to change this. Added to this are complex immigration and visa rules that add huge penalties to people working illegally which often trap them in a cycle of poverty from whence they cannot leave without charity (and therefore cannot leave the country). There's an awful lot of people out here who will give a lot of their time and money to help these guys and the great job (including lobbying) that some of them do should be supported. There is also fundamental disregard for Health and Safety rules (again lack of investment and education given the short time frame etc) which could be improved. But that's not typical to Qatar - people working in building sites often where flip flops in India, Indonesia and other parts for example. Meanwhile, not everyone with brown skin is treated like a dog in the Gulf and there a serious over-generalisations (including conveniently overlooking the fact that Indian and Pakistanis in the Gulf - there are more of them than locals - in some cases treat their people worse in some instances). I for one am brown and Indian, I was allowed to be the memeber of a staff at a local football club too. There is a much broader view than just saying a country is killing people to build a bloody stadium. Sorry if it goes off-topic, the mods can shift this, but the matter had to be answered.

if it hinders the development of the players in the academy playing in the exact same role, I'd rather not spend too much money on bringing him in. Juventus will over-price him anyways.

Work rate as well, over the few games we have played , Oscar has shown tremendous work rate and incredible intelligence in defending and pressing .