BloodIsBlue

Atta boy! Just realized the depth this Brazil team has in the DM positions Paulinho, Fernandinho, Ramires and Gustavo is insane.

You may as well start calling for Mourinho's head because there is no such thing as really defensive on one of his teams. That other player in the pivot has to be a fairly good defender there's no two ways about this (at least with the current system).

This is why Mourinho is a perfect fit for our club. He's going to filter out all the players that only want to come here for big wages, Mourinho wants workers. And even if that player does deserve big wages Mou won't be happy unless they are working their hardest for it. Mou will make sure to keep these guys on earth, just like he did with Hazard for missing practice.

As for David Luiz, he is a very valuable and marketable player. Worth far too much for how much we are using him. I would keep Dave because he has been a good member of the team but for what he's worth its not the right move. The ideal replacement would be Varane at a competitive price (and a midfielder to replace his small but vital role in the midfield). As for how much I've been hearing about Gundogan, Kroos, Pogba or vidal... give it a break. Those are the kind of transfer our club made in the past, these rash expensive tastes always come back to bite us in the end. Pogba, Vidal and Gundogan are great fits but each have a list of reason they won't work from club loyalty to injuries to the ridiculous cost and contracts needed to get them. I'm very reluctantant to put any player on 250k/week wages and these players like Kroos, Vidal and Pogba will be asking for from the 'rich londond club'. Pogba might not be a bad idea to invest in but I don't think we have the leverage our competitors have. Watch as Vidal gets minced by a player who is his contemporary and who costs 1/3 of his salary.

I can see us bringing in Iturbe before Griezmann or another LW, I don't know why we would be prioritizing these positions over any other position though. Neither player is really needed and will have to compete for a depth spot (unless there are players leaving in the summer I would suspect aka Willian or Schurrle).

No way. La Liga whipping boys leave so much space in the game for the other team and foul so much, it's like watching Serie B team. Even against a relegation premier league club you'd struggle to find space at about the same difficulty level as playing against Espanyol or Getafe. Individually small La Liga clubs have some good talent and suprising names, but as a team small English clubs play a much harder game to break down. Southampton, Hull, Stoke,and Swansea would have no fear/problem avoiding relegation in La Liga. Newcastle would be fighting Sociedad for 4th.

Ever hear of a trivote? The thing that won Mourinho the Champions league at Porto and Inter. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2551488/Be-careful-wish-Mourinhos-armour-plated-trivote-midfield-back.html

With Mou the 4-3-3 variation (during tough opponents in must win games) is almost always 4321 or 4312 depending on how substitutes end up.

Looks like Hazard wants to take a bite of Dre's head.---------^^^

Benzema is a very underrated striker, he's been playing in a team where Ronaldo takes a lot of space away from him and still nets em'. I think there are worse fits for this team but I wonder if Benzema would come here, would he fit in? Don't get me wrong if I had he choice I'd take Benzema over Costa 10/10 for his dribbling alone. Real Madrid doesn't underrate him and I think the fan-world writes him off too easily transfer of Suarez (and Aguero) replacing him. I'd take Costa if the situation was more fruitful holistically but Benzema would settle quicker. Besides Atletico knows the trick to being a striker factory and that is something they have been great at. It's the position they a careful to scout for and make sure always play their 9's very purely. Atletico have always played a game to allow their strikers to showcase themselves. When you look at our situation Mourinho is a bit complicated, he demands an advanced role from (all) players that can be tweaked to fit perfectly into the machine needed for each game. This is a big system change for an Atletico striker if you assume my assumption on Mou's role demands are true. Torres was once an Atletico striker too. What I'm getting at is the Chelsea-Diego Costa won't be the Atletico-Diego Costa. He'll still be an upgrade but blades dull quicker when you don't use them properly.

Just because you're signing and playing an older player doesn't mean you've given up on building for the future. You can't accept really young players at every position, its nice and you're happy with it when they are extraordinary but it will be a joke. You could field a team of 20-23 year olds in the prem but it would be nothing more than funny... You needs a nice mix with a strategy for moving players for the through the years. Personally in the BPL I can't stand young players in the pivot, hence why we have Matic now and not before. Certain roles and positions are not played well by young players, striker is another one of those positions. Scolari was stalling so Del Bosque jumped in to make things complicated, legit soap opera shit going on. He wouldn't play for either team if it wasn't strategic to stop the other team, where was he during qualification? Scolari doesn't want him but he doesn't want anyone else to have him. Personally I don't like his dribbling, its very un-Brazilian and , he'll just end up trying to arm and muscle around people and getting a lot of fouls called against us. I want the kind of guy that draws fouls because he is quick with his feet. If someone pushes Costa down it's probably because Costa was just trying to push him down.

It's not age it's a combination of his injury and his mentality. His confidence has dissapeared with his hair.

I still think Muriel is a perfect fit for the team; great with his back to the net, quick dribbler, makes similar decisions in the box to Cavani, a weak striker but very agile and has a very capable shot on him. He's young and it fits the profile of the team, a much better idea to get him than do something stupid like rebuying Sturridge that's for sure. Things don't look going for our original dreams because Cavani doesn't seem realistic at all and Costa might not be sold; I also don't see the club going for that type of striker if we can't sell Torres. Muriel we could still acquire even with Torres.

What the plan on getting rid of him in the summer?

Diego Costa doesn't put his power behind his shots because they'll leave the stadium and never go on target. Costa does not bother scoring any corkers the ball just never moves how he wants it to when he smashed it. That striker we need needs dribbling and the ability to shoot some curvy balls at goal. Costa can play with his back to the net and that might be the most important thing but his dribbling very basic, I don't think his strength will get him out of sticky situations as easily in the EPL. I also see no point of having Costa and Lukaku, if Lukaku if going to play second-fiddle behind a world class striker he needs be able to give some different attributes. If the players are too similar Lukaku will only play when the first striker needs a rest and not as a tactical move.

Must be nice for Arsenal....

He's a professional is he not? Even if this were true I'd find it so unprofessional a player like this would be toxic to our club or anyone's for that matter.

I don't think he has had enough time or that we've seen enough of him to be cynical much less make a really committed analysis. If he is supposed to be the weakest out of Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Schurrle and Salah in our attacking midfield then I like the look of things to come.

Apparently during half time he walked in to the change room did one of these facepalms and walked out without saying a word.

How quickly things have changed.

Now we can sit Hazard down now, don't want to risk him now.

Overrated.

Anybody else like the white socks with the blue bars (above the ankle) over the all blue socks worn against Galatasary?

If Romelu scorers more goal than any of our strikers (combined possibly) for the remainder of the season will he be ready then?

Oh yeah he'll be a great idea. If Salah gave Ashley Cole a hard time Fulham don't stand a chance. Just to cause a scare down the right he would be worth it as I would favor Salah over Richardson and lesser options Fulham have to defend with.