Viper22

Don't you dare!! No stealing big Mick from my 2nd English team .

As one of Mourinho's biggest fans; If Ivanovic starts the next game I will truly be close to losing faith in him. He has the balls to drop JT midway through a game, he absolutely has to drop Ivanovic and move Azpi to RB.

Would still be by no.1 signing although I've come to accept that we might become the new Arsenal and have to fund the new stadium by not making any marquee signings. Also whoever said Reus is better than Hazard; let's not get carried away. Reus is undoubtedly World Class but Hazard is still more consistent and better.

So he's scored 2 in 3 this season so far playing at RW. I would like to use this to finally rest the hilarious suggestion that he can't play RW and would like to request that anyone who said anything of the like to please realise that a player has a career before his current club.

I think it should be a toss up between MrBlueGuy and lionsden tbh. They both know far better than Mourinho after all. If they're unavailable then Stevie Wonder, both Chuckle Brothers and Jade Goody should definitely be in with a shout.

Feeling positive. We're overdue a dominating performance and a tactical master class from Mou. Hopefully that will be now, and I've got a funny feeling it might be.

It worries me deeply that the idea of us falling 8 points behind City if we lose is nothing compared to the idea of what this forum will become if we lose. It's already almost unbearable and the circle-jerk that will occur if we lose between the usual culprits will be beyond embarrassing and into the cringe-worthy domain. If we concede in the first 5 minutes I think certain people might reach climax with joy right about there.

If you're arrogant you better be an incredible player. Ibra is, Lukaku most certainly is not. I agree he didn't want to sit on the bench. So fight for the games at Chelsea, don't just run away from the challenge. Regarding why I think his attitude will hinder him; i've already answered that in my previous post, not going to repeat myself. Also, remember that I said IMO, i'm not claiming that his attitude stinks as a fact, just in my opinion. I have no idea what he's like in person, neither does anyone else on this forum, we're just judging from the evidence that we've been given. And from the evidence I have arrived at my own conclusions and you yours. We'll have wait and see if he ever fulfills the potential he has. My opinion is he won't and yours is quite clearly that he will. Let's wait and see.

Unsurprising that you decide to bring your Mourinho bashing into this. Mourinho was incredibly arrogant and called himself "The Special One". He also said that he was going to win the league with a club that hadn't for 50 years. And what did he do? Won the league twice in a row with that club and set a ridiculous amount of records. It's not arrogance if you back it up. Mourinho backed it up, Lukaku most definitely has not as of now.

Ambitious? He left Chelsea where he could've competed with Torres and Eto'o (and almost certainly got a starting spot) to go to Everton. He called himself the complete striker when he is anything but that. That to me screams arrogance and that he believes that he doesn't need to get any better by calling himself "complete". That's why his attitude will hold him back IMO.

Indeed. That's why I said unless he changes. If he does then he could well be one of the best in the world, we'll have to wait and see. Me personally I don't think he'll ever get there because of his horrible attitude, but that's just me.

Problem is that he's so wildly inconsistent and not up for fighting when things don't go his way. Before this game I think I heard that he'd scored 4 goals in the last 22 games he's played for a team that is entirely geared towards him scoring. On his day yes, he's brilliant but those days or just so few and far between and unless he changes that he'll never be a top player.

Agree 100% we should have strengthened. Had I been in charge I would have signed R Rodriguez (to start at LB, Azpi to RB), Witsel/Aranguiz, Reus/Isco/Pogba/Griezmann/Bale. What I disagree with is that it's Mourinho's fault. Have you heard how frustrated he's sounded in interviews and when asked about it? He's just as annoyed as the rest of us. The people stopping it are our board. Don't really know the reason; with the new Yokohama deal, the new TV deal and the new stadium apparently coming out of Abramovich's pocket we should have loads of money to spend and still be well within FFP. But whoever is stopping it they obviously have a reason, and tbh our board have done so much good over the last 3 years I will personally offer them clemency after such a terrible summer if transfers, as long as this doesn't become a theme and we become the new arsenal.

I agree I like the football Dortmund played that season too. It was quick counter-attacking football when first receiving the ball and choking the other team out of it with great possession football if they couldn't get through immediately. But let's remember they only scored 7 more goals that season than we scored last season. When they play counter attacking football people like it, when we play it it's "parking the bus". I don't like that style of football particularly but I just have an appreciation for all styles of football and for times and places when certain styles are needed. Aha dude you've misunderstood here. If we have the team and the capability to do so i'd love to see us turn up and run over teams with attacking football and win everything 6-0. The thing is we just can't at the present time with the present squad and the strong other teams in the league. I loved the football we played in the 09-10 season. We played great football and won the league (just). But let's not forget though that that season we lost to Wigan, Villa, Man City H&A and Spurs in the league, Blackburn in the FA Cup and got tonked by Inter in the L16 of the CL. We were hardly solid because of that style of football we played. Also then remember the next season 10-11 when we continued to try to play the same style (winning and scoring more than 3 goals in 4 out of our first 5 games) and once teams worked out how easy it was to counter our naiive style of play it started going wrong (we won only 2 games between 30th October and 15th January) and Ancelotti and the league were gone. You need to be able to adapt your style of play like Mourinho did last year when we started struggling, otherwise you won't be a successful team over any length of time. For me styles of play should be flexible and not set in stone, that's all i'm saying.

Regarding this "proper football" bullshit - I assume you like the tiki-taka passing style of play that the Barca team of around 2009 used yeah? Well I personally found that dull as fuck. I would much rather watch my team defending like heroes than passing the ball backwards and sideways for 45 mins. Everyone has their own opinions on what is "proper football". Don't mistake your own opinion with fact. Much like mine isn't. I don't run around squawking about Barcelona of 2009 not being any good because I didn't like their style. I just knew it was my opinion. Once again, I personally would hate to see Chelsea go out tomorrow and play free-flowing attacking football against Man City. Because they have better/more in form players than us ATM and would almost certainly smash us if we did. Managers are employed to set up tactics in the way that best suits their team in the current situation to deliver a win in the next football match. For instance, our game against Liverpool 18 months ago (with the infamous slip). We defended like heroes that day and were absolutely fantastic. We didn't play free flowing attacking football, we didn't attack out of our means, we just defended incredibly solidly, so much so in fact that it frustrated them into mistakes which we capitilised on. For me that is "proper football". A tactical masterclass of outwitting and outplaying the opponent. If you don't like our style of play - fine. But don't get all high and mighty and suggest that the way you think we should play is the only way we can play. There are many different ways to skin a cat, so to speak.

Seeing as you guys seem determined to bring this discussion onto Hummels and seem to be making odd statements I think i'll reply: Hummels was (and probably still is) the best CB in Germany. My brother is a die hard BVB fan so we often watch Bundesliga games together so i've seen as much of Hummels as I have most Chelsea players. To in any way compare him to Luiz in terms of errors is outrageous. He has the odd mistake in him (maybe 2/3 a season) but every single player in the world has that. Even Messi misses sitters every now and then. Look for instance at JT! He makes mistakes but the true mark of a top class CB is how you bounce back from those mistakes and how consistent you are at not making them in the first place. Luiz made at least 2 mistakes a game. Hummels is nothing like that and actually makes surprisingly few mistakes for a CB asked to play in such an attacking team where he has to be more confident on the ball than most other defenders in the world. He's one of the best CBs in the world and if you guys can't see that then I seriously suggest you watch him more, because you'll come to understand just how good he is. Especially 2/3 seasons ago. He was an absolute rock in Dortmund's back 5 and my brother has openly stated that Hummels is BVB's most important player. Even if Reus now leaves same as Lew and Gotze, they're all replaceable. Hummels likely wouldn't be unless Varane decided to take a step down. As for the guy suggesting Subotic is better than Hummels and/or responsible for him looking good - I assume for your sake that you're either trolling or that you've got that arse about face. Hummels made Subotic look far better than he is or ever was. That injury you mentioned put him out for the 2nd half of the season and Sokratis came in to replace him and was that much better than he got a place in the Bundesliga TOTY that season on the back of only half a season of play and Subotic has never won his place back (rightly so). Subotic isn't even the 2nd best CB at Dortmund. Sokratis has been far better than Subotic ever was. Hummels is a quality player and 1 poor season (when the whole of the team bar Auba failed) doesn't change that. Same with Kompany, he was awful last year but that doesn't mean that he's not still a brilliant CB.

What I do in my Internet time that isn't TC is nothing to do with you two! . Maybe I'm a sicko, or maybe 60s Spider-Man just makes me laugh. You may never know which it is! Mwahaha.

Can't blame you dude. Hope to see you come back soon though.

Cech was VC last season dude, just FYI .

Augsburg can judge it how they will from the euros side, that's up to them. For me my only concern is Chelsea and we paid £14M, no matter how you cut it. With the possibility to go up to £17.5M depending on performances. That's not expensive when you consider some of the deals that have gone down this summer. For me a maximum of £17.5M for a 21 year old LB who is already good and looks like he has the potential to be a top player in the future is a good price. Especially considering Rodriguez is mooted to cost around £30M and Shaw went to Utd last summer for £30M aswell.

Good signing, especially for such a small initial fee (£14M). If he displaces Azpi at LB and Azpi moves to RB instead then I will be chuffed to bits. If Jose really must keep Ivan in the starting XI then stick him at CB alongside JT, at least we'd have actual FBs then who can defend their respective sides. Please Jose, drop or move Ivan, my heart can't see him start t RB many more times....