The Chels

There was probably a list of player names for each team or position. Can't trust footballers to think for themselves.

Pure myth. Ivanovic's biggest weakness defensively is his inability to maintain concentration, so whether he sits back or goes forward he is always a liability.

It depends on whether he'd be a regular in our starting 11 or whether he'd just be a squad player who features in the big games. If it's the latter then he'd be better off going to Arsenal for the game time.

Unless Ivanovic is moved to CB (highly doubt it), our interest in Clyne would suggest that Azpi is still going to be playing at LB next season unfortunately.

Chelsea weigh up move for Arsenal target Morgan Schneiderlin (Telegraph) Chelsea target Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin and Nathaniel Clyne (Guardian)

Just noticed that Southampton have lost 8 more games than us in the league but have conceded 4 fewer goals!

Start of the second half against Southampton.

Athletic, mobile CB(s) please. Not Hummels!

Against: Tim Howard handling the ball outside the box - Everton (A) Welbeck's two-footed lunge against Cesc - Arsenal (H) Vertonghen handball in the box - Spurs (A) Conceding after a ghost throw-in (lol) - City (H) For: Costa's clumsy challenge in the box (disputable pen) - City (A) Cesc's handball inside the box - Arsenal (H) Costa not getting sent off - Sunderland (A)

With consecutive starts under his belt Remy would surely be a better option for the Arsenal game than a rusty Costa who won't have played in weeks.

I guess they picked up on the tone of the message. Jose was probably just implying that Oscar wasn't playing well but he wasn't playing poorly either.

As Blue Colored Sky recently said on here, going out of the CL makes the FA Cup defeat even more regrettable. We were never going to win the CL this season anyway but we had a real chance to do the domestic treble especially without the CL games. Instead we got knocked out in a completely embarassing and unacceptable fashion (true for both competitions sadly). Barca meanwhile are still going strong on all fronts. I reckon you will pretty comfortably win La Liga and the Copa del Rey but the CL is more unpredictable, although you're probably the favourites. What do you reckon your chances of the treble are?

Liverpool to be the clowns at our circus.

Whoever wrote the headline probably overlooked that quote because it's not like the DM to refuse the opportunity for a sensationalist, click-bait headline.

I think Jose's second spell here is a great example of that. Last year we came third in the PL and got to the SFs of the CL, after generally playing very well in the big games but struggling to beat the smaller sides consistently. That's reversed this season (Cesc effect? ) and we're going to win the league because of it but got knocked out in the round of 16 of the CL.

There's a big difference between sporadic mistakes and continuously repeated ones though. It would be very harsh to drop Courtois when others have survived after much worse.

Should that not apply to Ivanovic and Cahill also then?

I do feel sorry for the competing teams. Look at the kind of flat-track bully they're dealing with (2/7 wins against top 5 teams, 19/20 wins against the rest). I expect Bayern's defensive frailties to be exposed in the CL this year again though.

I didn't think we needed that change at HT yesterday as I felt confident we'd score anyway but I wasn't too worried by it. Stoke were barely troubling us and going 2 up front against them didn't change that. Doing it against the top teams though is completely different and I agree it was a desperate move against Atleti. We only needed one more goal after all. They easily nullified the change and it allowed them to dominate the midfield and subsequently the game.

Yeah we have created quite a lot of unwanted history this season (including the Tottenham and PSG games). We're never going to hear the end of it either! Fuck's sake.

'Maradona, Pelé, Messi...' Jose with a cheeky dig at Ronaldo?

It's funny how these rumours spread. An English paper makes up some BS and soon there's sources in Spain quoting them. Further sources in England then quote the 'sources in Spain (AS)...' and before you know it the rumours have become elaborate, widely sourced and more believable (but still unfounded).

Sounds far-fetched. Anyone have a link to the actual source?

I personally believe that the current big-game system of trying to start counter attacks from deep within our own half highlights the weaknesses of said players more than a pressing system would do. The current tactics require us to make a string of correct decisions and accurate passes which is perhaps why our counter attacks have looked so poor. In addition to Hazard and Costa I feel like our more limited players (e.g. Ramires, Willian) would thrive on a system which encourages mobility, athleticism and making fewer correct decisions with the ball (by winning the ball higher up the pitch). You could argue we would be made more defensively vulnerable with the higher line that would be required but it's not as though the current system is working particularly well in making us defensively solid. We have been penned back (willingly or otherwise) into our own half so many times against big teams this season and we usually end up conceding or with the GK making a save. Change the defence to Azpi-Zouma-Terry-Luis and it means the whole team is more suited to a pressing game IMO. What Jose did in many Real Madrid games (particularly against Barca) was to press high for the first 20 or so minutes and then sit back more afterwards. Atletico also use a variation of this and it would be nice to see it here. Why we do we have to be passive and deep for the entire 90 minutes when we could play more aggressively and proactively, at least for periods of the game? I get the impression that the 'sit deep & wait for a mistake' kind of tactics we've been seeing is what Jose ultimately prefers. If we'd fucked up so many times after taking the lead by playing aggressively and with a higher line would Jose have changed something? Absolutely. Has he done the reverse? Nope which suggests we're already using his default preference regardless of personnel. Clearly you think that our more limited players would be hindered by a pressing system but I actually think the opposite (assuming the defence were changed) in that their limitations would be masked more. We'll have to agree to disagree.

Atleti is a team packed with outstanding players but we aren't? I don't buy the excuse that a team needs everyone to be technically good à la Barcelona to play a pressing game. It's simply not true. If you watched the recent Atleti-Leverkusen games then you'll have noticed that both teams are excellent at pressing the opposition even though they are not so good at being pressed themselves (since they are not technically outstanding). You argue that because the likes of Willian, Oscar, Costa, Ramires, etc. wouldn't get in the Barca squad, that somehow justifies Jose's excessively passive and reactive big-game approach. I can't agree with that.