The Chels

At least it's not on a Tuesday or Wednesday!

The fact that we win the ball so deep is surely a big problem in itself though. Win the ball higher up the pitch and your chances of successfully countering are so much greater. In some big games like United/Pool away we did try to press high (half heartedly) but we also maintained a low defensive block, which meant there were big gaps in midfield when the press was easily overcome. In other games like City away we didn't press at all and instead kept a low block and very defensive shape, with which it was difficult to counter attack. The balance between strong defence and strong counter-attack is still missing, which doesn't matter half as much in the PL as it does in the CL. Another reason for this is the poor decision making on the counter (I'm looking at you Willian).

I don't suggest we dominate possession as I know that will never be Jose's way in the big games, but with the possession we do have I'd like us not to misplace passes left, right and centre gifting the ball back sloppily. I don't think I'm asking for too much in wanting us to properly counter-attack rather than be a shambles with the ball.

Man City played Sunderland a lot better than we did, making the pitch as wide as possible and pressing with more intensity. It's not like Sunderland rolled over for them.

I don't think Willian will ever get much better. He is probably at or near to his peak.

Haha fair enough but it did almost cost us against Sunderland. Personally I'm more interested in our weaknesses and where we can improve (before we lose because of them!) than enjoying our obvious strengths, but I guess that's Jose's job and not the supporters'

I think our inability to maintain possession is a bigger problem than you suggest. Against City we couldn't maintain possession, on the counter attack or even against 10 men. Against Liverpool after taking the lead, we were awfully sloppy. In yesterday's game Cesc must have been dispossessed at least 2-3 times in the second half and that didn't come from him trying a risky pass but rather from not coping well in tight spaces. In games where the play becomes stretched, Matic becomes very, very sloppy as we saw against Sunderland. In fact the entire team's passing tends to go to **** when we can't break a small team down away from home or when we've taken the lead away to a big team. My point is that while Oscar/Willian are probably the biggest culprits, the team as a whole needs to maintain possession a lot better when under pressure.

While Willian and Oscar are the main culprits of poor ball retention (debateable as to which is worse but I accept your argument that there probably isn't much difference), Matic and Cesc also give the ball away too easily at times in my opinion, especially under pressure. And since we don't have a back up system like instant and reactive pressing, our defence is left exposed rather often. That's a separate issue altogether though but I agree with what you're saying - the last sentence pretty much sums Willian up.

Willian does get dispossessed a lot but Oscar makes more unforced errors from what I've seen. Either way I don't think one player is that much better than the other, but I do agree with the last point.

Oscar and Willian both have their strengths and weaknesses but the problem is that their strengths and weaknesses are pretty much the same. Willian has pace over Oscar but there isn't much difference between them overall. And sadly for us, both of them have the weakness of being very poor creatively for the position they play in. We've been playing surprisingly well with both of them in the team so far this season but I fear we will see more Sunderland-like performances with the two of them playing against parked buses.

No Oscar mostly gives the ball away by misplacing basic passes. When he gives it away trying a difficult through ball it's more understandable.

Oscar is a lot more sloppy in possession than Willian. He gives the ball away far too much by failing to execute basic passes. There is that move he does pretty much every time he is 1v1 with a defender - move the ball a yard to his right and cross it in low at the near post. I think defenders are mostly aware of this as they're not often fooled, but it's surprising that we hardly ever capitalise on it. When Willian is in a crossing position I'm always screaming for anyone, someone to make a run to the near post because if the defender doesn't block it, that's where Willian always puts it.

And if (when) we lose points to Newcastle they'll talk about how we've blown it. It's more to do with how fickle the media is than anyone underestimating the team.

Think he believes the nonsense that is 'more possession = dominated game'.

I hate when people say this. Mourinho, like every other manager, is not perfect and still makes mistakes. Are we not allowed to ever criticise him then?

So he trusts Zouma at CB more than Ivanovic? I'd be surprised. And well most of my moaning is either at Mourinho's blatant favouritism or at our defensive system. I don't really complain about much else

Zouma higher in the pecking order than Luis? Wow. And Matic booked - great. Why at 2-0 were we so open to the counter attack in the first place? Our disorganised pressing frustrates me every game.

Just read this page. City playing better and with more width than we did. Plus they have Aguero. http://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/sunderland-vs-manchester-city-match-thread.1001441/page-21

Adrian's rubbish there's a reason they were completely shocked he scored against us and why they sold him.

One day.

erm that's probably because he had nobody else.

No it's going to be Hazard vs 2-3 others as usual, since has has no overlapping LB to help and Oscar/Willian don't require anywhere near as much attention.

Touché.

Not surprising. Their pressing was really impressive and they managed to score from a turnover high up the pitch as a result. Hopefully they don't play like that against us because no matter how good you are it is very difficult to play against that kind of pressure, as Barca and Real have found out against Atletico. I really wish we'd play with that intensity, perhaps not all the time but at least in the big games.