The Chels

Ok you can choose to believe that he lied about speaking to Frank. Where do you see me clinging onto his every words? I was just proving you wrong

If he wasn't reliable why would the BBC quote him? And well it negates everything you just said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28619578

You'd still have to fly within the US though.

It's a straw man argument: 'I'm disappointed in Frank and against the move.' (Only a minority are going further than this) 'WHAT?! How dare you say he's not a legend anymore after all he's done....'

Here's another interview with him: http://talksport.com/football/exclusive-former-chelsea-ace-lampard-must-be-respected-man-city-move-140803105478 Such a classy guy and was a great defender. He's also still respectful towards 'Mr Mourinho' even though Jose forced him out of Madrid.

Someone asked him, probably hoping he'd mock Chelsea/Mourinho.

Look at the first goal United scored against Real Madrid. Would they have done that under Moyes? No way. The manager does make a difference by practising these attacking movements in training. This is Jose's weakness.

Oh right, thanks. My point still stands though

The Bundesliga actually starts on 22 August (6 days after PL start).

Quote me one of my 'insults' to Lampard please.

All those pills making you mad grandpa?

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/joke

What happened to that petition to rename Chelsea FC to Hazard FC? I can certainly see why it was proposed. In other news listening to Hazard give this (unintentional) backhanded compliment to Bremen on Chelsea TV was hilarious. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2714981/Jose-Mourinho-fears-World-Cup-stars-not-fit-start-Premier-League-season.html#ixzz39Mz1N9l6

How polite of you.

To be fair to Luis very few of his mistakes are technical ones. It's mostly breakdowns in communication as he hasn't really developed many on-pitch relations and understandings with the other attacking players yet. Hopefully that will change and his performances will pick up as he plays with Hazard more.

http://www1.skysports.com/gameoftheseason How is the Man City 0-1 Chelsea match not there? That was such an emphatic performance.

Eto'o is/was apparently negotiating with West Ham FFS. He would surely have stayed here had Mourinho asked him to but I reckon Jose has made an emotional decision here in that he prefers Drogba. Like you say Eto'o is much better and has just had a season to acclimatise to the PL (even if he didn't do too well).

...especially as he's said: "Nando will always be a choice and a very useful player for us. When you look at your three strikers on paper, its a hell of a strike force. They have different qualities which is very important.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/11008260/Jose-Mourinho-poised-to-select-Thibaut-Courtois-as-his-first-choice-goalkeeper-ahead-of-new-season.html I don't understand why he's talking about how the strikeforce looks on paper (that's something fans do, not managers). In reality Torres and Drogba are not good enough anymore.

Probably because Torres hasn't hurt Mourinho personally like Casillas did.

I think it's important that he and Hazard play a good number of minutes together in the final pre-season matches.

It's only 1 more game (Burnley).

I didn't say in my post that all my conclusions were coming from today's game like you seem to have inferred. I've actually been in favour of the Matic-Fabregas pivot in theory but I'm a little more concerned now basing it on what I have seen so far. Our FBs will go forward more often (I didn't say simultaneously like you've once again inferred) which means we need a more defensively secure pivot but a slow Fabregas (he IS slow) is an easy pressing target for counter-attacking teams. And teams always seem to have very high conversion rates countering us. Not sure why you're getting so defensive but 'I have a feeling...' was not clear enough? I'm not basing it solely on today's game and I didn't say it wouldn't work. I think a 4-3-3- would leave us less exposed defensively (even if it means Ramires has to play which isn't great).

I think we're underestimating the 'smaller' sides in the league tbh. They don't all camp in their own box like West Ham did. I have a feeling if we play a Matic-Fabregas pivot they will press us very hard in the middle of the park (where we'd have little pace) and then counter attack from there. With our FBs bombing forward too this could be a big problem.

Fabregas is a lot weaker defensively than I expected. If we play him in the no. 10 role then what was the point in selling Mata? If we play him in the pivot with the FBs bombing forward, we're screwed. A 4-3-3 is probably the best way to go but Jose will play 4-2-3-1.