OhForAGreavsie

This approach, believing that Oscar might improve and allowing him time to prove it, only works while he remains the best player we have in his position. We can't afford to give a player serious minutes simply to develop his game. A few dead minutes here or there is what such players get from Jose. In the current squad Oscar is often going to be, perhaps even always going to be, Jose's best option. He will therefore continue to be a regular selection for the rest of the season. The acid test will come in summer. If those of us calling for Oscar to be replaced are right then Jose will already be thinking about it. If so he will surely make big efforts to recruit an upgrade during the next window. If, at the end of this season, there are no moves to find an alternative to Oscar, or to promote one from within, then I, and others who share my opinion, will have to admit that Jose does not agree with us. That of course would be a big thing.

Well, I have to say that's the impression I get from watching his YouTube videos but it's obviously a bit foolish to base too much on those so I can't be definitive about my opinion.

I used to watch Serie A when it was the world's top league in the 90s and I watched Sanchez a few times when he was linked with us before moving to Spain. Other than that I've never watched Italian football so all I know about Pogba is what I've seen on YouTube. I therefore like to read the views of people like you and @LAM09 who have obviously seen proper coverage of this bloke. LAM09 has told us a bit about why he thinks Pogba should be on our shopping list but it would be interesting to know more about why you say the Juve midfielder is overrated.

Deleted. (Posted in the wrong thread.)

Can't agree with this at all. Maybe we can try to find a silver lining in there somewhere, but being out of The Cup is a huge, nasty cloud of the most depressing grey colour. Bad, bad, bad, bad.

Eto'o did a good job for us and most importantly he wasn't Torres which was always going to aid his popularity. Shame that his reported disruptive behaviour cut short his time with you. At least I think it's a shame. I find it interesting to visit other club's forums and I'm always pleased when non-Chelsea fans pay return visits here. For what my opinion is worth, I'm glad to read views given from a different perspective. Of course I don't own the site so my opinion can't be worth as much as other people's.

Love David Mitchell.

What do speakers of American English mean when they say, "I could care less"? Do they mean it is possible for them to care less about something but they don't, as in they really care quite a lot? Actually I know what they mean. They mean what the rest of us do when we say, "I couldn't care less." In other words we care so little that it's not possible for us to care any less. This means we don't really care at all. Since that is in fact the feeling users of American English are trying to express, why don't they just say it instead of a phrase which means almost the exact opposite? I know we Brits have more than enough strange expressions of our own but this American one always strikes me as odd.

Good luck with everything.

Thanks LAM09, The fact that I don't even really know what areas of the pitch Pogba likes to occupy tells you how much I watch him. When I read your comment though it tempted me to seek out an all touches video of his performance yesterday and I found the one below. (Skip past the first 45 seconds which contain the usual waste of time, close up shots.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lfcm5wu_kw Is this representative of the performance you saw? I ask because there aren't all that many touches which makes me wonder if it's edited. It also doesn't include any defensive contributions he made. Not great information to base an opinion on but, since it's all I've got... Based on the touches we do see, I have to say I'm surprised by your comment. I see evidence of a talented and confident player who produced two or there impressive involvements but there is also evidence of play that would frustrate the heck out of me if he was wearing a Chelsea shirt. Rather as I accuse Ruben Loftus-Cheek of doing at times, there are things in that display which are more about trying to look good than they are about being effective. For example, there's the passage from about 2:46 where he does that pointless little drag of his, gives a simple pass, gets it back, dawdles on it and is dispossessed. There were good things too but nothing more than I think we're entitled to expect from a top level player.

Well we'll see on Ruben but Boro are obviously hoping for promotion this season. In that case they could only take one of our players on loan. I don't know because I haven't watched them but it must be a reasonable guess that their first choice at the moment would be to ask for Bamford again.

I'll be really happy if we could somehow scramble past Everton without needing to use Cesc. That would mean he'd get ten more days to rest his injury ahead of PSG. I hope, and think, Jose will try to do it that way.

Yes, well said. His contribution to the first goal was really good.

Agree with everything you say here but not just Oscar. Other people are a part of this problem too.

I see you take the @The Skipper view of things. Keep it coming lads, you'll make an optimist of me yet. Well, alright, you probably won't but no harm in me trying to let you talk me round.

Well I'm glad of it. I'm a world class pessimist when it comes to my football team so I'll just have to try to feed off your confidence and see if that can get me through it.

Never mind the mountain of evidence we've seen this season, and prior to this season indeed, having just watched us play Villa, how can we look anyone in the eye and say we really have any idea what is an easy fixture and what isn't?

It was indeed dire but we got where we needed to go and I'm happy.

Reminds me of Bobby Stuart making a fool of himself ahead of our cup tie at City last season. He went on about how there was no way City's midfield on the day would be able to live with ours. He particularly pointed to Milner as a weakness. I wanted to reach into the TV and shake some sense into him. Milner in their midfield was the last thing I wanted to see that day. Milner in their midfield is always the last thing I want to see.

I've been calling for Oscar to be replaced for a long time so I won't change my tune at this point but he is not alone in this team. We have to continue upgrading the quality but the boys got the job done today. Somehow. All praise to them for that.

And KDB scored twice more today. Oh well more criticism of Jose on it's way I suppose. Not from me though.

So happy, so proud of the battling performance. I'm not happy with the quality of the squad but the players are what they are and they got us over the line today. Love 'em for it.

This is bad news. Agbonglahor (sp?) has been appalling. Benteke can only be more difficult to deal with.

Great finish.

In order to play on the front foot you need better passing than we can muster.