MrExcalibur100

Probably the biggest pile of horseshit ever typed on this thread.

bullshit. A calf injury affects you running. He should never have been switched to the left wing in the first place.

I don't think it's that straight-forward though. Guardiola took over the treble winners and made them worse. Mourinho took over the 3rd best team in England and made them much better. Losing to an Atletico side who are a stronger and better team than us, a team that hasn't lost a single game in the CL all season and that has only lost twice in their domestic league. Costa, Turan, Koke, Villa, Courtois, their entire back four, and some genuine quality off the bench in Diego,Rodriguez and Garcia. They are a formidable TEAM. As for last season in Madrid: It's well known Mourinho had already lost the dressing room. The players were not playing for him anymore but for their fans only. There is no shame in losing to THAT Dortmund team last season. That was a great side. Besides, Madrid kind of redeemed themselves in the 2nd leg, and if not for the poor finishing of Higuain, could have turned it around. This is more to do with the squad not being strong enough (yet) than Mourinho, I'm sure you already know that. But I do agree with you about the Azpi thing. It was wierd and un-called for. We had to start that game on the front foot. Trying to "stabilize" and build from there only suited Atletico because all they needed was the away goal. They didn't have to win, so Jose takes some of the blame.

We praise Jose Mourinho for his tactical brilliance but it has to be said, his tactics in combination with poor defending as a team have cost us today. I've been a Chelsea fan before Mourinho and I will be one after. Having said that, we NEED stability at this club and Abramovich and the board have decided that Mourinho is the man to bring that stability. This is my opinion on the game: (1) Playing Azpilicueta, a RB as a right winger just reeks of overly-cautious tactics, especially since we have better attacking options on the bench. We have an in-form goal-scoring Ba, Schurrle and Oscar, who always plays well in European competition. It simply makes zero sense to play that way in a game we HAD to win. (2) Switching Hazard from the centre to the left wing was just asking for trouble, especially since the guy had just recovered from a calf injury. Mourinho made the right decision playing him through the centre initially, but switching him to the left meant he had to do a lot of running to track opposition runners. Hazard got exposed on two occasions as a result. (3) Bringing on Eto'o destabilized the team defensively. That sub was too early and lo and behold, the guy gives away a penalty. A double whammy. Those were the most obvious errors made today, but I guess it happens even to the best of them. Now to problems beyond his control. The midfield pivot of Ramires and Luiz is beyond a joke. There is little to no creative spark there and their defensive contribution is surprisingly poor. They left the back four exposed on many occasions today. It's a shame because Lampard and Mikel were suspended for the game and that Beast, our best midfielder, Matic is cup-tied and his absence showed today. We can't beat them without our absolute best team. They are just too good for anything less than that. That was my greatest fear going in to this game, the pivot. But congrats to Atletico, till the penalty, it was fairly even, but at 1-2, it was virtually over. There is a reason why Atletico have not lost a single game in the CL this season. Hazard, Schurrle, Oscar, Azpi........All these guys playing in the knock-out of the CL for the first time ever. They will grow together. To make it to the semi-final is a fanstastic achievement. I'm proud of the boys, the manager and the support. We will be back with a top class CF next season and a top class CM to pair with Matic and then we can push on for the biggest titles. We just haven't had enough this season.

Oscar and Schurrle were options. No one forced him to play Azpilicueta as a right winger.

You know how hard it is to run with a calf injury? Blame Mourinho for switching him to the left were he had to track runners.

Exactly. Or he should have remained in his central position. How can people blame him for that? Were the fuck were our fullbacks?

Bullshit. You clowns shouldn't start blaming Hazard for this. Can't you see it's not really his fault? He is just coming back from a calf injury and can't track back properly. Blame the manager for switching him from a central position to the wings were he has to track runners. STUPID move

Schurrle and Oscar on the bench and Azpilicueta as RB? I'm sorry, but the poor tactics have cost us again. Mourinho's cowardly tactics have cost us this one.

Horrible tactics! Why switch Hazard to the right when he's just come back from a calf injury? He can't even run properly

Ha, scandalous line-up and shite defending has cost us the game. The pivot of Ramires and Luiz is a joke. Cowardly bullshit.

By that token, Oscar should also be starting as he almost always plays well in Europe.

Have we ever parked the bus in any home game this season or are we just talking out of our asses now and believing the media bullshit?

Really bizarre line-up to say the least but at least we will have a fresh Schurrle and Oscar off the bench. Surprised to see Torres get the nod over Eto'o.

4-2-3-1 I guess with Cole and Azpi on one side as opposed to a radical change in formation with a 3-5-2 or something.

He obviously doesn't know the difference between a deep lying playmaker like Gundogan or a traditional playmaker, a number "10" like Juan Mata. Like you said, we could do with a DLP to pair alongside Matic. It's been said a zillion times before on TC.

Let's hope so but it's not that simple, especially for attacking players. Ronaldo came back from an injury after being our for 2-3 weeks, around the same time frame as Eden and in his first game back, he looked like a shadow of his former self. Let's just hope Hazard's been doing some really intense training and can at least be at 80% not 50%.

I dunno why we are scraping the barrel for Spurs caliber players instead of going for premium quality players. Vidal, Fabregas, Rakitic, Gundogan or just stick with what we've got. I was actually laughing my ass off when Spurs signed Paulinho, now we want to do the same thing? Just wow.

He's even more clueless than Ramires.

OMG. This guy is a very overrated player. Not just from his time with Spurs but from his time with Corinthians in Brazil. This will be a huge mistake by our board to sign him. We should be aiming for higher heights with the likes of Vidal. I honestly don't know what's wrong with our board. This will be another poor signing. I just hope the rumours are just that.

If i'm correct, Thiago had already cemented his place in the first team before he got injured. I think Guardiola played both of them together with Kroos playing as a 10 and Thiago as a DLP. Thiago is a great player and one of those players I enjoy watching play football.Like you said, his style is similar to Xavi and he has much more flair and arguably greater technique than him. He's more talented than Kroos and any of Bayern's central midfielders, IMO. Great move leaving Barcelona as his career was getting wasted there. Here's another great video of him.

It's going to be difficult to break Atletico down if this guy doesn't step up his game.

I dunno how easy it will be for him since he's been out for 3 weeks/

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1s515s_jose-mourinho-press-conference-on-atletico-madrid-home_sport