MrExcalibur100

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/aug/15/manchester-city-premier-league-chelsea?commentpage=2 Didi Hamann then goes on to say Arsenal are best team in London and we're nothing to worry about. Laughable really. It seems the ex-Man City/Liverpool player is worried about us already.

The question is what does it actually prove. Newcastle were one of the least inspiring sides last season in terms of football but they 3rd, freaking 3rd on the list ahead of Man City! I checked that same stat for sides like Real, Bayern and PSG and it's just as low as ours.

Of course it was because Torres was beyond dreadful. For contrast, the highest accurate through ball provider in Atletico last season was Koke with 9/15, then the others are low like ours as well. Didn't stop Costa scoring 36 goals.

I'm not picking on Cesc or anything but I doubt that particular stat is as significant as Miguel makes it. i get that he's writing for whoscored and has to throw about some of their statistics but then again, Fabregas was in Barca's midfield and they still struggled against defensive teams last season. I will like to see those stats from two seasons ago if you have a link to them.

Willian was pretty average for all of last season. At least Oscar started the season well and then tailed off after the new year. But at least we know what his capable of. He scored 13 goals to Willian's 3. Willian on the other hand is a very harmless player, for lack of a better term. He holds on to the ball a lot but never does anything meaningful with it in the final third. His passing range is nice and he runs around a bit but that's about it. I expect a lot of improvement next season.

You can only make defense splitting passes when there's space to exploit. How do you split defenses with passes when teams like West Ham play like they did? The article is using one silly stat but the stat also shows Newcastle up there as well which is just, well, silly.

Seriously, the point is our possession based play, movement and attacking build up paled in comparison to City and Liverpool last year. Or even Everton, a team with far less flair players and finances. That's what we need to improve on drastically. The system. Fabregas might be a great player but just placing him into the starting XI isn't going to fix our problems. Filipe Luis will provide more attacking impetus to the left side given that he's an actual left back and will be more comfortable overlapping. The importance of overlaps from fullbacks in modern football as far as building attacks goes simply can't be overstated. Just watch City play. (or Liverpool or Barca or Madrid) When they are attacking, their fullbacks are basically wingers, they're so far up the pitch. Both at the same time too, both very comfortable in possession. We only ever really saw Ivanovic in advanced positions. Azpilicueta hardly ever ventured forward (no fault of his!) Except for the odd cross from Brana, his deliveries were sub-standard and he was/isn't comfortable on the ball. He really is more of a center-back. I hope Jose does something similar with Azpi and Luis with what Pellegrini does with Zabaleta and Kolarov. Pellegrini even does that in a 4-4-2 with one less man in central midfield and with a Toure who is always attacking. Most teams we face are very unambitious against us anyway. While it's a very physical league, there are many poor teams in it. We might as well go for it full on with more bodies in advanced positions next season and much quicker passing and movement from minute one. We can easily overwhelm teams with our quality in the first few minutes of games like Liverpool did. This is when defensive teams are at their most vulnerable. Costa even without scoring at least will bother CB's with his presence and movement. He at least bothers defenders. (remember Torres vs Aston Villa away? Newcastle away? The list is endless) That inevitably leaves gaps for other players to exploit. He also plays like he wants to be found and never hides 5-10 metres by the wings, away from the 18 yard box like Torres. He fits perfectly into both an attacking and counter-attacking system like any good striker should. Costa at least plays in the box. We need to commit more players to the 18 yard box. Sometimes last season, there were situations were we needed to score and the opposition had like 5-6 bodies in their penalty area but we had only 1 or 2 players there. This is why I was such a harsh critic of Willian last season. He does that a lot. I'll like to see a stat that shows how many touches he gets in the 18 yard box. What we see is many of our attacks breaking down after some sharp passing just outside the 18. It happens way too often. That's a consequence of not committing others forward and just leaving attacking moves to the "10's" and wingers. Theoretically and on paper, it makes so much sense that we will win more games and more specifically, play much better football next season. I'm sure about the former, the latter is still in question. It certainly doesn't boil down to Fabregas and his through passes to drastically improve our attacks. However, I remain optimistic for the season of course.

It's a typical Whoscored "stat attack" article that forces far-fetched stats together to prove a point. I've seen so much nonsense articles like that there. I tend not to take them seriously. For instance, it would have been more helpful if the author compared the stats from 2012/13 to 2013/14 to show it's a recurring problem we've had. The author then draws a conclusion that this must mean a "lack of imagination". The fact that Newcastle are up there in the so-called stat tells you everything you need to know. They were so "imaginative" under Pardew last season of course. Seriously, the point is our possession based play, movement and attack build up paled in comparison to City and Liverpool last year. Or even Everton, a team with far less flair players and finances. They don't have a Fabregas or Hazard but they play much better than us. That's what we need to improve on drastically. The system. Fabregas might be a great player but just placing him into the starting XI isn't going to fix our problems. But whatever. I remain optimistic for the season of course.

Absolutely typically brilliant article from Sid Lowe on Diego. Great read. http://www.espnfc.com/barclays-premier-league/23/blog/post/1980840/combative-diego-costa-is-the-striker-chelsea-needed----sid-lowe

Zlatan-esque

That's the difference between Schurrle and Willian.

Not bad at all, Diego

There seems to be more credence in this rumour than the Loic Remy one, so I might as well post this brilliant compilation of Benatia. It's obvious why the best teams in the world are after him.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/the-photo-that-will-shock-the-world-jihadist-khaled-sharroufs-son-7-holds-severed-head/story-fni0cx12-1227019897582

Of course. And German as well. But I've never heard Hazard speak Dutch before.

Unsurprisingly, I've so far seen nothing to suggest that he's good enough back-up to Costa. He and Torres are simply not good enough to be second choice. I seriously hope our board have eyes. He's also 36 and as we saw, more likely to pick up injuries. Torres is also a very serious injury risk, again as we saw last season.

Costa speaks both Portuguese and Spanish and Eden speaks French and English, so I'm not sure. Probably some really basic form of English.

He only played 5-6 games on the wings last season and now we even have more wing options than last season, so no, he won't.

So is the Drogba injury going to force Jose's hand is the question.

Rami is alright.

How random.

Unfortunately, this is the type of hogwash that gets peddled around here frequently. Some seem to take great delight into pointing out what Hazard is not rather than what he is. Just read some of the previous comments on this thread, you will think the player in question is a mediocre player and not our POTY and not the 2nd best player in the league (as voted by his peers last season). It's one thing having high expectations for a player, it's another having outrageous ones, making daft ultimatums (he either does this or....) and then condemning the player in question for not living up to them. A "very good player" is a joke. Eden is a world class player. If he's put on the market tomorrow, his value will easily exceed 70 mil pounds and upwards. Our rivals will die to have a player of his skill and ability.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11018298/Islamic-State-pulls-down-church-crosses-in-northern-Iraq-as-200000-flee.html

Owned by Zionists, I presume right . Seriously, they are generally very leftist (i.e pro-Palestine) so it's a miracle they have reporters with balls to report what they see. The video is already viral btw, so the truth is slowly creeping out.