Mohammed Seif

I frankly don't see the point of comparing the values of Salah and Schurrle. I think that is totally irrelevant and deceiving anyways. Schurrle is a good player and he has proven to be useful for the team in a lot of games. Being useful doesn't necessarily mean always scoring and assists. His runs on alone can force defenders to go out of position allowing an opportunity else where for a teammate to take advantage of that. On the other hand Salah is also a good player for Chelsea and proved he can be of some use. It is early to say if he is going to be starter or a sub. It is also TOO early for anyone even EXPERTS to say that he would be poor in the future. People should be optimistic from what he has showed up till now. Started 3 games and he did well in all 3 (though the last game wasn't his best out of them). The kid shows that he has a lot of potential and it remains to see how much of a player he would turn out to be. That can only be told as time goes by. At a young age like his it means 3-4 years till he is close to being fully developed. So I don't see the rush in judging him. Same applies for Oscar, Schurrle and Hazard. So people really need to chill a bit when judging players like Salah, Schurrle, Oscar, Hazard and others at their age.

Real are playing a fantastic counter attack game.

Modric is a genius

great counter good goal

Looked very rusty against Sunderland, but did great today, especially with the crosses

A good result. Any win will put us through. Totally, disappointed because of Cech's injury and hoping that the Terry injury is no big deal. Confident that we would put on a different show offensively at the Bridge and getting the result. It is half time only and we can make it to the final. Good game.

nope, just player positions

Hey, but I loved how you fought for Salah. Looooool. Nice one

Mate that is not the debate . Salah is just ineligible. That is all

If you don't press, they keep attacking, throwing balls in, shooting and putting you under constant pressure. That is more risky

I still think our midfielders are not having a good game. Willian, Ramirez and one the DMs need to press hard and not fall back too deep. We need to disrupt their play in the midfield in order to counter attack. Put falling back too deep will only allow us to deploy the long ball to Torres. But sitting back too deep allows them to use long shots against us and overwhelm our defense. The could thing is Azpi and Cahill are doing great on their side. Atletico are not attacking Cole's side. I hope they don't. Anyways it is a good half for us, and they didn't pose much threat. Would love to see an away goal.

but this is not helping us with the offensive transition. We are forced to dump long balls to Torres upfront. I can't see much good out of that.

Lol should have been a handball for us

We should not let them settle in the midfield area. It is an invitation for trouble

I really don't blame those kids. They are idiots as far as football is concerned. With all what has been happening in Egypt for the past 3-4 yrs, some Egyptians have been blinded by the conspiracy theories and believe everyone is conspiring on Egypt. This goes into football too!!!. The people I really blame are the press that back up this idea. If you knew Arabic and read the headlines you would be shocked. " Salah does well despite the Brazilian conspiracy by Willian and Oscar". Egyptians are emotional people, going through tough times in many ways and Salah is one of the few bright things in Egypt currently. So you can imagine when you have football idiots feeding off the idiotic press. Salah was in a better position than Eto, but no when will ever know if he was going to put in in the back of the net or in the stands. Willian should have passed to him, but the fact he didn't doesn't make it anything but just a bad decision. And it is not like Salah was taking great positions in this game either. I assure you, Egyptians are not racist at all ( the high majority anyways ), and this is just nothing but stupid behaviour. They just have VERY HIGH hopes in Salah and want him to succeed badly, but some of them show it in the wrong way.

I gotta disagree with you. Creating chances and assists does not only depend on Willian. It also depends on the offensive players, making the right runs and patterns, finding space behind the defense and getting into good position. If you play football you will know what I mean. If players aren't moving and waiting for the ball to be given to them underneath their feet, then I don't think you will have a great chance of creating opportunity. As far as him not scoring, I agree with you. He should be scoring much more and needs to work on his shots.

Mohamed Salah's touches last night

That does not only depend on him. You know that don't you?

Didn't think he was bad. But didn't think he was great. Really hate it when he plays on the sides. He has good crosses but we have low commitment putting men the box so it is useless. He needs to adjust more and control the tempo of the game better.

I still support this kid. He had a bad game yesterday. But he has been getting better lately compared to the past few months. It doesn't change the fact that he is a good player and has great potential. He definitely needs to relax his mind a bit. He will come through after the World Cup.

Welcome buddy

Lol. You can't be serious bro? . Look forget what you read in the press. The Egyptians are pissed because of TWO passes nothing more. The first was on a break, Willian had the ball, Salah made a great run, and was in a better scoring position, but Willian went for Eto. Second ball, again on a break, Oscar had the ball, Salah again made a good run and Eto was open too, Oscar chose to take a shot. That is it. Two bad decisions. There is no conspiracy theory. Look at Salah's tweet with the "Brazilian Mafia" like he said. Those guys are teammates. At this level, they want to win. This is professional football bro. Chelsea as a team was having a very bad day, that is all. Look at the previous match where Salah could have scored and assisted, who was feeding him with passes? Who was linking up with him? It was Willian, Eto and Oscar (when he came in). Dude not everything that is on the press is true. It is actually nonsense.

Again I agree. I can even remember vaguely the Van Basten era and the Inzaghi, Schilacci, Baggio ...etc. Amazing talents there offensively. I agree that you definitely need a balance between offense and defense and that you shouldn't sacrifice one for another. But in a stage with a team that has key players below maturity level, you have to pick one. Simply because the players' mentality and physical condition does not allow you to execute both at the same level. Sometimes it is even hard for established players to change their style because they reach a level where they will lack flexibility. I am sorry to remind you , but the best offensive team that ever played football failed to win the world cup and the one who beat them played an ugly defensive football. The dream team of Real Madrid also failed to deliver decent results. So yes, a balance is required. But a smart manager should decide which is his priority. Of course that is based on the current objectives and future goals. And also the type of players he has. We agree that the finishing quality of our midfielders and attackers are not good enough to make us a more offensive team at the meantime. When you look at Liverpool, their defense is a joke but their strength lies within their offense and finishing quality. City is more balanced in my opinion. I would be disappointed if that does not change by next season. Though being young is an excuse for not being mature and consistent, it also means that these players should have high flexibility, adaptability and progress in their game fast. Sometimes you just have to play to your strengths until you can develop your weaknesses. By all means I would love to see a more attacking creative game by us next season and I would be disappointed if certain players, like Oscar, Willian, Schurrle, Hazard, Salah, Azpi and Matic don't up their game and mentality. Football is a simple game in its core. The one who puts more balls in the net wins. But if you can't put a lot of balls in the net, make sure your opponent doesn't put more than you .

I agree with you on most things there. The only part I disagree with you is that this team has been playing together for 2 years and Jose has had enough time to understand the situation. I agree that Jose is not a God and he makes mistakes. But by all means this is a transitional stage. When you have a new manager, with a new system and you have players who are required to perform different roles from what they are used to, makes it a transitional stage. You pointed out the role of Willian and I couldn't agree more. That role is also required by the wingers. You also missed out the age factor. I don't want to abuse it, but it is key. It is not about how long those players play together. It is a combination of time and players' maturity. Otherwise, a youngster team who have been playing together since the age of 15 will be able to out play any team when they reach 21. That is why you really can't put a time frame on this. As I said before, either we would wait till the players mature ( and that will not happen all of a sudden, but we will see progress along with inconsistencies), change our tactics (which is unlikely, but can be modified depending on the players' progress) or buy players who are mature enough to carry both the offensive and defensive role according to the system (again you will need time for them to develop a good chemistry). I personally prefer a scoring squad but that is only for my enjoyment. Doesn't mean that the defensive football gets you know where. The Italians are masters of that, though I really hate it.

Well, I agree with you. The key point you made is that Oscar is still maturing. But that is not only the case with Oscar. This applies to Schurrle, Hazard and Salah. Hazard by all means is the best of those three. Having said that, he is not mature yet and he has inconsistencies. That is ok, since it is part of any player's development. I am not going to talk about Mata, simply because he is gone, and I don't prefer the "what could have been" talk, unless you want to discuss it, then I have no problem. Now to solve this "maturing" problem, you have got three choices really (but feel free to tell me of there are more options). You either, through training and proper assessment realize the talent and potential development of those young players, and that case you need to be patient and wait. Or sell some of these players, and buy a ready, fully matured player who fits your system, and pray that the player you have sold won't develop to a level that will make you regret letting him go (like the case of Matic). You third option would be to change your system/tactic in order to have a style of play that creates chances. Something like Barca or Bayern, where the system depends on high football possession, short passes, relatively slower tempo and a lot of movement. But to do so, you will need to buy A LOT of players and have another coach ( because it is just not Jose's style).