Excalibur KTBFFH

Chelsea 4-2 Liverpool 1997 FA Cup. Absolutely epic game and comeback. One of my first CFC memories, and for Chelsea it was a bit of a statement because we were on a different level that season.

Chelsea 4-2 Liverpool 1997 FA Cup. Absolutely epic game and comeback. One of my first CFC memories, and for Chelsea it was a bit of a statement because we were on a different level that season.

Always liked Jason Cundy. He alongside Pat are my favourite ex-blues at Chelsea TV. He's also decent on Talksport.

He's by far our best striker atm

Chelsea 4-2 Liverpool 1997 FA Cup. Absolutely epic game and comeback. One of my first CFC memories, and for Chelsea it was a bit of a statement because we were on a different level that season.

This is not a knee-jerk reaction. It's been something that's been said ever since we bought him from Benfica. He's a liability at CB and simply not trust-worthy. Especially in the EPL, with the direct, physical style of play of the lesser teams.

Ashley Cole should be re-instated into the team and Luiz should never play CB again, because he's a liability and has cost us so many points. Ramires should also be dropped. My opinion

It has nothing to do with nationality. The issue is Luiz is simply an unreliable defender and defence is a position where reliability is paramount as mistakes made are often very costly and can directly impact result unlike other outfield position on the pitch. Thiago Silva is Brazilian, same nationality as Luiz, and I rate him as not only the best defender in the world atm, and has been for the last 3 years, but also one of the all time greats.
Elias Figueroa (best south American defender of all time imo), beckenbauer,Bobby moore and Baresi are rated as all time great defenders and also happen to possess god like technical ability that puts most midfielders and forwards to shame and I promise you their accolade wasn't based on their technical gifts but rather their amazing defensive ability and reliability at the back. they rarely let you down.
and on the flip side other great defenders like Gentile, scirea John terry,Cannavaro et al had limited technical ability (well in relative terms anyway) but are still celebrated and widely regarded as some of the best to ever do it.
Bottomline is great defenders are great defenders regardless of their nationality or style of play and Luiz isn't being criticized because he's this misunderstood top notch defender that we "English style defender lovers" don't understand/appreciate rather we criticize him because he can't be consistently counted on at the back.

No, I've been criticizing him for a while. Check match threads. He's had a great start of season for us. But he's poor... a great athlete as some qualified, but technically he's poor. For the things we'll be aiming in the future he isn't enough. For the Chelsea of the past years and even the present Chelsea he's enough, but not really for the future. That's my point. Matic exposes how bad our pivot has been (all of it, not only Rami and Rami's been our best midfielder in the past couple of years) and that if we could improve it, we'd be much more competitive. It's all about where the stakes are and I think they'll be higher next season. If Mourinho wants us to be the very fave in the league and real contenders in UCL, then we need to give Matic a better partner.

his situation is very similar to Mata in the last two years. When we had a dire AM for years, Mata arrived and it seemed like the second coming. Rami looked absolutely amazing in the terrible pivot we've had for so many years. Now we have some class and a technical player at Matic and he makes Rami look really, really, really poor.
Yes, there's the stamina, the pace, even the tackles, and all those things are good, but they're not enough, simple as that.
Has he scored some important goals? For sure, to which I'm very thankful. Did he carry our pivot for a while? Yes, he did. Doesn't change the fact he is very poor technically and a very frustrating player...
Now we have Matic we should be raising our stakes. We have pace in Salah and André, we don't need to keep Ramires simply because of his versatility playing as a RW, but Mourinho won't give up on a player like him... unfortunately. I've never been a fan of his, but his good doings for us in the last couple of seasons made me forget how I used to dislike him... now he seems to remember me of that every match (even though I haven't watch today's and don't plan to)
I wish we had a better partner for Matic. We needed someone that was like Lamps on his best days. That's the perfect partner for Matic as he (Matic) can hold himself in the DM position well enough. Either we get a new Lamps or we get a more defensive midfielder and morph Matic in a new Lamps. Either way, the time has come when Ramires shouldn't be more than a squad player in this team and we should accept offers for him if they come (and they're good). Having Matic but not having someone as good to be his partner only attenuates the problem. Matic is a HUGE improvement to our pivot(infinitely more than Rami was when he settled - let's not forget it took him almost two seasons to settle), but to capitalize everything he can bring to us, we should get him a better partner. Maybe van Ginkel could be the one - for the future. Haven't seen enough of Marco to say it. I just wish we had someone better than Ramires...
I agree with everyone who's said he wouldn't be a starting player in any top-class team in the world. Why should we accept it then? It has nothing to do with ungratefulness - people tend to relate you wanting an improvement with not respecting the past and services done by a player - but this is about us being in a new level now and therefore requiring a better pivot. We won't make it to the next level of competitiveness with the best in Europe with Ramires as our indisputable midfielder... it makes no sense

?
Yes because we didn't like Carvalho, Desailly, Gallas... stop talking out your fucking arse. All of a sudden you cant slate Luiz, if you do you get replies back saying it's because he's not English... grow up.
It's a conspiracy i'm telling you, all the the English posters have an agenda, Luiz has actually been our most consistent defender, we just don't like him because he's not English. Have you seen his hair? how fucking messy is it? he should get it cut like JT or Cahill... you know how ridiculous you sound?
Luiz was fucking poor today, it's not about nationality, it's about defending and I've had enough of his poor defending costing us games. I know Terry and Cahill have made mistakes, but lets be honest Luiz is more of a liability than them.

I remember rumours in the summer saying that Real Madrid were interested in Ramires... LMAO, no way would they want such a terrible footballer. Imagine Ramires trying to displace Modric in the first eleven

Another absolutely shocking performance. Not good enough. No effort, nothing. Did he sip on some bottles of alcohol before he played today? He's been a disaster for months now.

It's amazing this guy can seemingly do everything but take corners and set-pieces.

You know Oscar will never play in that position

Eto'o slow? Yes he is old and lost some pace but he is still pretty fast.

Am I the only one worried about Terry being out? Luiz looked shaky against a Remy-less Newcastle and I know that Anichebe is no Drogba, but I fear that he might have a hard time against a big, strong striker, as he usually does. And I'm surprised people want Torres or Salah to start this game. This is a decisive time in our season and we need our strongest XI playing today. We still have 4 days rest till Man City.

It happened again. I said something here and then José said the same in his presser a few hours/days later.
Why I don't have the same tendency with the lottery numbers? damn it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gHCq8YHyAA
Nemanja vs Newcastle
The video is inverted, but it's the only compo I can find now. His surging runs and the way he plays passes in behind the opposition's midfield really takes our attacking play to another level. As well as his monstrous defensive contribution

Man City fan made this comp...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gHCq8YHyAA
Nemanja vs Newcastle
The video is inverted, but it's the only compo I can find now. His surging runs and the way he plays passes in behind the opposition's midfield really takes our attacking play to another level. As well as his monstrous defensive contribution

A lot of his caps are from a young age and from sub ins. Also Belgium had a really poor team in the beginning when Hazard made his debut so there wasn't much support.
When we finally did have a proper team George Leekens was our manager.
Just to give you an idea of how it was for Hazard.
There was this game vs Austria it ended 4-4. We were 4-3 up in extra time. Goalkeeper throws to Hazard who's on the halfway line. Apart from our striker our entire team was behind the ball.
Hazard tries to go past the fullback. fullback takes the ball, passes to midfielder, midfielder puts a throughball in to the winger,Winger slides it between our goalie's legs. 4-4.
Leekens afterwards in the Pressconference put the blame on Hazard (19-20 y old at the time) after that he was benched and put in the stands. When he finally did get his shot again. He was told not to dribble but just pass the ball.
Hazard did but when he saw that he was about to be subbed (60th minute) he dribbled past 3 players and his shot went inches wide of the goal. Got subbed after that, didn't shake hands with the manager and just went straight to the dressing room.
That's also when the hamburger "incident" happened.

He's by far our best striker atm