mnj

somehow I agree with both of you (with Dee partially and with TOPTB completely(, even though you seem to disagree with one another
I was watching the match with friends (YAY) and we were talking about Oscar and comparing him to the player in Brazil (not the NT, but at Inter and even Sao Paulo). We also talked about him in the youth NT. I think he's still struggling a bit to find his balance as I told in my initial post.
He will never be as creative as Mata and he doesn't have such a powerful, unpredictable, quality pass, but he can do better offensively and I'm sure with time he will. He's already better this season in that aspect than last season, I think from next season on we'll really see him on his full potential (not reaching his ceiling, but playing at his best possible level, without the struggles, and then he'll continue to grow as a player).
I feel he offers tactically (and that's not only defensively) a lot. I was commentating with my friends at the pub that at mark 80+ we just didn't hold the ball and wasted time. With Oscar in the team we do that. He knows (like Lamps also knows and does) that 10-15 minutes to the end of the match when you have 2 goals difference, it's time to waste time with the ball and try not to attack as risky as earlier in the match. This has nothing with defensiveness and I'm not saying Mata wouldn't do the same, I'm talking about Oscar alone. He reads well the game, the moments of the match and he normally goes for what we need. He just need to be sharper and more incisive more consistently. I still think it's just that his game isn't as mature yet as his attitude (he's still only 22, recently turned btw) and a bit of struggle to the style of English football. I think the style demands a lot more than he - or any Brazilian - is used too. So while he tries to adapt to the tactics the manager has, to help his mates in the pitch, to show his style and quality, he simply can't play his best yet because he's still finding his place and his feet. This boy was out of his mind at the Brazil Youth NT and for a while at Inter (and even some moments at Sao Paulo). I expect him to really blossom from next season on. Oscar will never be a Hazard or a Mata offensively, but I'm positive he can (and will) be much more than he's showing.
My point at the end of the day was that Mourinho finally found his team, and for those players to be benched now they'll have to have a few really bad matches in a row. Oscar didn't have really bad matches in a row. He's had a couple of quiet matches, but still working his socks and giving us some stability. I don't see why Mourinho would drop any of his starting 11 (maybe except Luiz who's playing out of position, especially with Matic around) if they have a couple of bad (or quiet) matches. People were screaming and barking at Mourinho in his thread last month to give starting eleven stability, saying one of our problems were the constant rotating. Now that he finally has his 11 players, people want them to be dropped because of a pair of unimpressive (still not bad imo) matches... It's hard to understand this reasoning.

yes, he did, but still 2 of those chances were set pieces (corners), and the other three were two casual passes to the side (a casual pass received by Luiz who carried the ball a bit and then shot way out of the box, then another casual pass to Hazard in the flank, where Hazard received near the sideline, carried the ball 6-8 meters inside, passing by a couple of opponents and then shot to the goal) and a cross for Ivanovic behind the penalty area . His other stats were 0 take ons, 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, only 41 passes (34 completed). Hazard in comparison had 55 passes (45 completed).
Looking closely to the chances created stats they showed me exactly what Mata did for us: almost nothing. And it really felt like he contributed very little - and I guess anyone who's watched the match can say that. So why bring meaningless stats when we couldn't highlight one single play by him in the 60 or whatever minutes he played? Because all of us watched the same match and all of us would have a hard time remembering anything good play he did during the match because he contributed very little. And enlighten me in those increase of tempo, Jason, because I just scouted the match and I really couldn't find them in the first half very often and when I did they involved mainly Eto'o and Hazard.
I just defended him in the match's thread saying I don't expect him to have such a pivotal role as he had last season because the team isn't built around him anymore and he was overplayed then. But then we see a match where his contributions even in the third final were nothing but shy, but people still talk about his vision and his work when we don't have space when he did nothing about it. We didn't have space today, we needed him to create it for us, still I felt like who did that better was Eto'o and Hazard and somehow we come to Mata's thread and he's highlighted for misleading stats and contributions he didn't have are attributed to him. Talk about living off of reputation...
I agree with whoever said we need him to improve in matches like this. If Mata can't be effective against defenses that park the bus and can't be lethal in counter-attack unless the first pass is his, which kind of matches are we expecting him to solve for us with the splitting passes we know he can create like no one else in the team? We need him in matches like today's much more than we need Oscar exactly because Oscar doesn't have his vision and creativity... Oscar is better for a different kind of match imo and against stronger (and more offensive) opposition. Matches like today are the exact kind of match I expect Mata to shine. He didn't though, not even close and there's nothing wrong admitting that. And just so we're clear, I don't think Oscar shone either, although his contribution was vital for us starting the play for the second goal and scoring (a lucky goal) in a very important moment when I felt like we were closer to conceding than scoring.

Oscar is going to be one of the best midfielders of his time/generation just like lampard has been and like mourinho said "he will go very far", not just goals( although he has been the first to score in all the matches he scored this season which for me is a leadership quality) but orchestration,guile and attitude he brings with him, that's the minimum ceiling for him really because he can do pretty much everything really compared to lampard with similar attitude and having the advantage of learning from the great Lampard. Considering he is only 22 and performing better than much more established older players in the toughest league one can only imagine he will be so good and more consistent when he becomes older progressively towards his peak.