MrExcalibur100

The thing with Madrid is we seem to have many top class players in places they're not so strong. Bayern are a little, shall we say, different. They play a completely different formation(s) and system(s) to us and are strong in our strong areas as well, unlike Madrid. Lewa for Costa is a toss up, same with Alaba for Filipe Luis. I'll have Hazard in the roll Gotze (or Muller, depending on the system, again) plays. And Cesc also. Terry is clearly vastly superior to Dante and is still fairly better than Boateng. That's about it. So 3, if I'm being pessimistic and 4-5, depending on who I think is better between Lewa/Costa .. Alaba/Luis.

Hazard, Ivanovic, Fabregas, Costa. Coentrao and Marcelo are poor defenders. Coentrao is just an average player while Marcelo is a winger masquerading as a left-back.

Judging by your history of comments, I'm not surprised you think this.

I see Pepe is getting underestimated a little here. He's a first grade c*** and a highly detestable human, but he's a top class CB. I think he's better than Varane at the moment even though the latter has more potential and is THE outstanding young CB talent in European football. I still want to see more from Varane.

Quality wise though, it's hard to make an argument for Willian over Bale. It almost seems like an aberration, even with the balance taken into consideration.

Oh, YES he can!

Thanks, Jason . I actually thought I posted it in the Matthew Harding section.

Over Bale you mean.

It's a bit of a blessing in disguise Rooney is not playing as van Gaal would have set him up to man-mark Fabregas and stop him from dictating the tempo of our play. With Mata, it's safe to say he can't do that. The energy Rooney brings and the miles he covers, especially in these big games, we can do without. Also his ability to shift play from side to side with wonderful cross field long passes. I think we match-up very well against them. Our biggest strengths happen to be their biggest weaknesses, personnel wise, it plays into our hands so so much. I just hope we take the game to them and try and not play too conservatively in "low-block". Their defense is inexperienced, weak and bereft of confidence and we have some of the best attacking players in the world and are full of confidence. We give them the respect they deserve because they are a big team and are playing at home but they aren't Bayern, Madrid or Barcelona. No reason why we can't play them similar like Madrid did to Liverpool. We are more than good enough to do it, especially if Costa starts. We need to put in a dominating performance against a top domestic rival away from home while playing attacking football, basically what has served us so well this season. No better team to do it against than Man United.

Maybe we're watching different Chelsea's this season but Oscar has been one of the best players in the country this season. And Willian's been no slouch either. WATCH games.

Insane technique and incredible curl to beat keepers at their near post. Oscar's the real deal from these direct free-kicks, He. just keeps on improving his all round game everyday. Very impressed with Oscarinho throughout this season.

After watching Real easily sweep aside an average Liverpool side with relative ease, what do you guys think a combined Real and Chelsea team will look like? Let it be a 4-2-3-1 for sake of consistency and because it's a system both teams use. Being as objective as possible, mine will be: The most obvious candidates that miss out are James, Kroos, Modric and Sergio Ramos. Choosing between Fabregas, Kroos and Modric was perhaps the most difficult part, but I figured Fabregas does what both of those players do brilliantly, which is dictate the tempo of a game. Plus, he has an X-factor which they don't which is he is a stats monster, assists wise, a goal threat if given license to be one and his vision is greater than theirs. He just gives more to a team in general. Feel free to agree, disagree below EDIT : Stuff like balance should be given less consideration. It's just a fun list.

Yeah, I think he did a good job and I liked him very much unlike the previous idiot who was here, Kenyon. He was always very supportive of the managers and from a financial, balancing the books perspective, he's been top notch. His departure has absolutely no effect/relation whatsoever on the team or coaching staff and that's what is important, so it doesn't bother me. We just need to bring in someone as good as Ron, obviously.

For those who missed an absolutely MAD night in the Champions league (Most goals ever scored in a single matchday) http://www.footballorgin.com/2014/10/champions-league-2014-2015-highlights_22.html

The guy's arse is a "Scandal" , lol

I watched both Spain games and saw no signs of injury. Costa himself said he has no problems. I sincerely believe this is a case of Jose giving Costa a week off with two relatively easy fixtures and keeping him sharp for Man United. Methinks this is Jose at his Machiavellian best and he is over-playing the situation to catch United cold. He didn't seem to arsed about Remy's injury so I'm sure he's hiding something. I expect Costa to play and start 90% vs Man United.

These clowns are already trying to create something out of nothing despite Drogba being the one who asked for the penalty and the fact Mourinho was happy with Drogba scoring it. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2802286/jose-mourinho-not-impressed-eden-hazard-s-decision-allow-didier-drogba-charge-penalty-duties.html

Sweet goal. Sucked for him really. Its easy to see Remy is of a higher quality than any striker we had last season. You don't need a 100 games to see it.

Well, I'm glad he got a game today. In my opinion, there's no way he's inferior to Courtois, it's just the age issue, that's all.

I love Didier but somehow I don't know how to feel about him asking Hazard for that penalty considering the score-line. He should know the fans are not really bothered if he scores or not, he's forever a legend here. I thought it was totally uncalled for and even Mourinho wasn't too pleased in the post match interview.

Not that bad You could tell from minute 1 that Hazard was hungry for goals tonight and rightly so, he's been too unlucky this season. He did something he normally doesn't do enough of which was making runs into the box. You tend to score more when you do that. We have a really, really special players on our hands guys. An absolute joy to watch him play for us.

The red card to Azpilicueta was a blessing in disguise. He's been immense to us defensively for a season and a half but now we see what a real LB can give us in attack and defense.

What the fuck happened to defending tonight? Absolutely bonkers results I'm seeing.

Oh please, Daniel It's not just the goals, it's the complete dominance of the performance and the way we've played all season. Magical! Onwards and upwards! :blue scalf:

The football is pure sex, LOVE IT!!!