The Chels

True. A lack of competition/ knowing you will always be first choice does encourage complacency.

Hazard's talent is just on another level compared with the rest of the team.

Really good in the last 30 minutes and unlucky not to get the winner. Hazard was a due a penalty miss and it's much better that it was in this one than vs. QPR or another more important match. They should have gone 2-0 up though but they missed a sitter.

I don't think Suarez can speak English so it had to be someone Spanish speaking (assuming it's all true of course).

Hmm probably. Shame as I think Luis has shown enough to be the starting LB in the PL.

Why not rest Iva/Luis considering they've played a lot of games recently (especially Luis) and Azpi is well rested?

Atletico were heading away to Jose Mourinho's Chelsea who had beaten every big team at home that season and had a stunning home record. Did Simeone think like you, that he would be an 'idiot' if he didn't play ultra defensively? No. They did play defensively but they ALSO went forward with intent and tried to score even when they took the lead. Nobody is saying that Jose shouldn't play defensively in the big games because that will obviously never happen but taking more initiative, especially when we take the lead, really wouldn't kill us. Meaningful counter attacking football is a good idea. Counter attacking with 2 players or with the ball ending up all the way back to keeper or parking the bus where we just boot the ball back to the opposition, however, is not.

City equaliser too where he fails to track Lampard but Schurrle gets all the blame for not tracking Milner. Well that's fair.... Let's not forget QPR's goal where he just let their player take a free shot from the edge of the box or even the 1v1s Arsenal had against us at Stamford Bridge. Thinking back to why we signed Salah (he scored against us because guess who lost track of him), Ivanovic very often loses track of his man because of poor concentration/positioning and very often it proves costly. Why would Jose accept that when we have a better RB in the squad? Probably because Ivanovic is taller

So the only way to go for the kill is Arsenal's way - having everyone and his dog push right up leaving massive gaps? Did you bother watching our 2nd leg in the CL semi final last year? That's how it's done.

Why be afraid of having a RB who doesn't let opposition wingers just ease their way into the box, a fullback that doesn't suffer from so many lapses of concentration and a fullback who has great positional play? Azpi at RB all day long. Would we have conceded the late goals against City and United if we had Azpi at RB instead? Much less likely imo.

Those games aren't comparable. We were at home: Arsenal completely collapsed as they always do in the big games and United were atrocious last year. Of course Jose would go for the kill in those games. But in the biggest of games, away from home or in the latter stages of the CL he's overly cautious at 0-0 and at 1-0. You make it out like Jose only parks the bus in the last 20 minutes - remember Atletico away last year? Liverpool in 07 where we only needed to score 1 goal at Anfield to essentially ensure qualification to the final? There's a big difference between parking the bus, and playing defensively whilst also actually intending to score (again). I think everyone knows Jose will always prefer the former but the latter, which Atletico did against us last year, is surely the better approach even if there's 'only' 20 mins left (that's plenty of time for the opposition to equalise). Having watched it again I stand corrected. It's not a good example anyway because Inter only had 10 men and the debate is about parking the bus when going for another goal is very possible which was obviously not the case in that game.

Yes but why were they completely comfortable? Because they went for the kill and got it. Simeone knew that 1-1 (going through on away goals) or even 2-1 was not enough and went for it without sacrificing any defensive stability. Perfect balance. If the situation was reversed and it was 1-1 in the second leg at the Vicente Calderón, do you think Mourinho would have gone for the kill? Absolutely not. Jose is a great manager but he is usually far too cautious in the big games, especially in the CL. Atletico gave us a materclass at home in how to maintain the balance between defence and attack. We took 3 of their players but have not adopted their mentality sadly. Also the Inter example (of sitting back and succeeding) is not a particularly great one. Bojan's goal was wrongly disallowed and that would have sent Barca through.

at least Mourinho acknowledges Ramires' limitations (which I didn't think was ever going to happen last year!). He's basically just someone for the big games which makes sense as his energy can be useful and the Matic-Fabregas duo is more than good enough against smaller teams.

Because he scored against us, thanks to a trademark lapse of concentration by our untouchable RB.

Matic mostly.

Or Atletico against us last season. After their equaliser they dominated - never let us back in the game and they never looked defensively vulnerable. That is the way we should aspire to play when we're ahead in matches rather than sitting back but that's Jose's way. Remember how in 2007 we parked the bus at Anfield in the 2nd leg CL semi-final instead of scoring and making them have to score 3. It's Jose's only glaring weakness IMO but it's quite a big one.

Hmm think you're really underestimating Luis. He played in the best, most hard-working team last season in Europe IMO particularly in the big games, and he's shown (apart from the mistake against Palace) that he's more than capable of playing in the PL. I really don't understand why Jose's choosing between our 2 best FBs and making our 3rd best FB undroppable...

All came after the sending off though. It was looking like United could have got a draw before that.

Why would Azpi's mental attitude be any better than Luis'?

the BBC couldn't help themselves could they

Just seen this LOL https://vine.co/v/OOgvXdTetTj

Imagine trying to get past that duo though. Perfect for when we inevitably come up against Real and Ronaldo.

That's a bit harsh on Di Maria. Willian's corners are something else

Di Maria is a strange one. His delivery from free-kicks is amazing yet his corners are abysmal.