MrExcalibur100

Golden ball my balls.

First CFC World Cup winner since Desaily and Leboeuf? Amazing moment for him.

Nice moment for the young man.

Is this one squad or an amalgamation of different squads? We're talking about one squad.

Best ever squad? For me, yes. The 2004/05 one was a machine but it can't boast the sheer talent of some of the players on this squad. Let's look at the main players. (1) A back 5 of Cech, Gallas, JT, Carvalho and Paulo is roughly the same strength as one with Courtois, Filipe, JT, Cahill and Azpilicueta. Infact, I'll take the latter. OK let's say, DRAW (2) Midfield is less interesting because our current midfield is much stronger. We had who again? Lampard, Makalele, Tiago, Robben and Duff/Cole. Most of those guys were not in their prime yet. Very balanced. Compare that with Matic, Fabregas, Ramires, Mikel, Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Schurrle. That midfield has everything. Pace, power, technique, everything. Perhaps less balance but more talent. So 2014/2015 wins. (3) Strike force is less clear. We had Drogba, Gudjohnson, Kezman and Mutu. Kezman was awful. Mutu was a beast in the previous season but was a non-factor since he got sacked early in the season and contributed nothing, leaving Didier and Eidur. Didier was not yet world class and Eidur, love him to death but never was. Compare that with Diego Costa, Lukaku, Torres and Ba. I'll still take the latter. One outstanding striker and one super talented striker that has enormous potential and is PL proven. No point commenting too much on Torres or Ba. Both poor quality. Will pick the latter, so 2014/2015 wins again. 2004/2005 was one of the best ever PL sides but the PL was noticeably weaker then and our rivals all had their problems. Arsenal's stars ageing and Man Utd were in a rebuilding process with their old stars ageing and building around Rooney and Ronaldo. Plus Mourinho's tactics were a novelty to the league. We only conceded 15 goals that season. Says it all. Same thing with 2005/2006 with notable inclusions of Essien (who wasn't at his peak) and Crespo. Still this one is stronger. 2009/10 is slightly over-hyped. Yes, it was a strong one and highly entertaining but not as strong as the ones of the past. That squad had a lot of impressive names but it was an ageing squad and had it's problems. We were easily outclassed in the CL by Inter and then next year, we were crushed by Man Utd, beaten easily home and away. We won the league by only 1 point against a Man Utd team that just lost Ronaldo. Avram Grant's Chelsea were stronger than the 2009/10 one. Our best squads under Roman were from 2005-2009. If anything, there has been a steady decline in quality year after year.

Cech, Terry, Carvalho, Lampard, Drogba? And not many others. We won an FA cup and league cup that season and were far too reliant on Drogba. The 2004/05 and 2005/06 squad were more impressive.

He's a good player but we don't need him. He could be a top player in the future but right now he's not on the level of Verratti or Pogba. Like ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ drog.ba said, there's no point signing a prospect when we have so many on our hands already in that same central midfield position.

There's a lot of evidence out there from reputable sources that Costa already took his medical before the World Cup, so we're just waiting for that announcement!

Dope video

Courtois, Filipe Luis, Cesc and Diego Costa! Nothing but world class signings so far. Hopefully Pogba can join as well. Pretty amazing when you add that to what we already have. Filipe Luis Kasmirski. What a cool last name.The guy is also very tall for a full-back, like 6 feet. I'm sure that's something we considered. A back four of Luis, Terry, Cahill and Azpilicueta is an incredibly solid one. It also means we are going to see less of Brana playing right back. He's been a liability trying to attack in that position. Now teams will think twice about isolating our right back.

Even Mourinho said it in an interview: http://www.givemesport.com/419691-barcelona-real-madrid-are-easy-options-says-mourinho?&mobile=on "Of course it is easier to succeed abroad. You go to Spain and there are two big clubs; you go to Germany and they have one big club and a little bit more. In Italy now there is one big team, although obviously more than one big club. So it is easier to succeed." Mourinho felt the same applied for players in an individual capacity, claiming it was easier to rack up astonishing records, which some may see as a sly stab at the records of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively. “If you are an attacking player and go to Barcelona or Real Madrid, it is easier to score 50 goals than if you’re playing in England. Of course these clubs are a big attraction. You can’t blame a player," he added.

More explosive? Are you sure this is Reus you're talking about and not Messi?

Nice joke Mediator.

I meant in general. Besides, that's for last season only. Chances created are derived from key passes. A key pass is a pass that leads to an intentional assist for a goal. For instance Hazard' pass to De Bruyne for Belgium's 2nd goal vs USA will be considered a key pass. Consider just how wasteful we were last season and then consider how many potential "created chance" stats Hazard lost. Even a target man type striker like Max Kruse had more chances created than Reus, most likely because of the amount of goals his team scored as a result of his knock-downs and whatnot. Like Hazard's assists last season. He created over 100+ chances last season if we are talking all competitions but only had 10 assists. That's bizarre and an indictment on our wasteful finishing which is something Jose lamented. Now Reus on the other hand creates chances and he can be sure Lewa finishes them. Or Aubameyung (sp?). Or the Armenian guy and so on. That's the difference. Plus we are comparing across leagues. Compare Hazard's chances created stats to real playmakers like Silva, Mata and Carzola and he actually is above them. And the guy is not even a playmaker!

No he did not. In fact, he was poor in the first half of last season but exploded in the second. No player has "carried" Dortmund at least since Klopp has been in charge. Not Reus, Lewa, Kagawa. Nobody. They are very much a team with a defined style of play, something we aren't. He also had the benefit of playing alongside Lewandowski in attack, a world class striker who scored 28 goals last season, more than all our strikers combined. Hazard didn't have that.

Ridiculous indeed. But Hazard plays for us so he is under-estimated. I see that a lot. If Hazard was placed on the market today, he will be priced at 70+ million. Reus will be around 45 million at best.

That's just mind-bogglingly wrong but you are entitled to your opinion, regardless of how way off it is. Will Reus win the Player of the year ahead of Luis Suarez? Also wasn't Hazard voted 2nd in the Premier league player of the year ahead of Silva, Toure, Aguero and Sturridge? So that's hardly a good point. What does Hazard do better than Reus? He creates MUCH more chances than him. Like I just posted, their goal-scoring stats for club are roughly equal. Hazard is also harder to deal with than Reus because of just how many weapons he possesses. He draws tons of defenders to him even though he is almost always double-marked (Reus is not) and creates space for others. I can go on but I'll stop there. There's no way Reus could have carried Chelsea on his back the way Hazard did last season. I just don't see him being able to.

Reus 2011/2012: 21 goals 10 assists Hazard 2011/2012 : 20 goals 16 assists Reus 2012/2013 : 17 goals 11 assists Hazard 2012/2013 : 13 goals 17 assists Reus 2013/2014 : 23 goals 17 assists Hazard 2013/14 goals : 17 goals 10 assists These stats are from ESPN. Now I know stats only tell half the story (for instance, Hazard last season was better than 2 seasons ago, but his assists stat 2 seasons ago are more impressive because of our more "conservative" play last season), but there is really not that much difference between the two and this is excluding the "chances created stat" which is the best indicator as to a player's creativity. Hazard FAR outstrips Reus in that department. So as you can see, this is not "blinded" but just a response to your ill-informed post. As for Reus playing better than Ribery, who cares? Ribery was incredibly poor last season after he returned from knee injury.

Or in a 4-3-3 with Fabregas/Matic and van Ginkel but it's all related anyway.

Reus is a very good player and I'm actually a fan of him but this is a case of opinion being stated as if it were a fact. There is no way you can say he is on another level from Hazard. It's bullshit. He's no Ronaldo or Messi. An Muller is Germany's best attacking midfielder and arguably best player.

You need way more than being a "good tackler" to play in a double pivot. For instance, you have to be able to read the game and anticipate the opposition's attacks. Is there any proof Oscar is good at reading the game? The efforts of our CM/DM's were vital in protecting our back four. If you think super-pragmatist Mourinho is going to change that just to accommodate a player who has never played there before, then you have something else coming. It might be feasible on football manager but not in real life and not under Mourinho.

He gets outmuscled easily. If you ignore all the good tackles he makes, he is a lightweight. Why do you think he loses the ball so often when he plays as a 10? He only looks truly comfortable when he play out-wide.

Actually, Oscar is weak physically. Don't be deceived by all the tackles he averages per game. He gets brushed off the ball far too easily and he lacks the ability to protect the ball from the opposition like Mata used to do, so he can't compensate with that. He can't play in the pivot because he has never played there in his career.

It still remains to be seen how Mourinho is going to use Fabregas. If he is going to use him as a number 10, then I fear Oscar doesn't have much of a chance of displacing him. Also, Oscar is not going to be played on the right wing after Mourinho's criticism of how Benitez used him. Even if we play a 4-3-3, Oscar is not going to play in a deeper role. He's never played there and Mourinho is not going to play him in an alien position just to accommodate him. If we maintain the 4-2-3-1, Fabregas will most likely not play in the pivot as his creative impact will be limited there and he hasn't played there since 2009. Plus I don't see Mourinho dropping Ramires from the team. Oscar's position in the team might come under very serious threat next season.

If they manage to keep their best players not injured (something they never do for some odd reason) then I think they have a good chance to finish at least 3rd. They still need a top class striker though. Giroud is horrible.