Daniel1980

You clearly rate Cahill much higher than I do. To me, he's no better than mediocre, so we'll have to disagree on that.I wanted a fast, individually good world-class CB this summer for a reason. Though Pique obviously doesn't fit the description either.

I agree that Pique is a pretty mediocre defender, but I disagree that Cahill is a billion times better. He's just as mediocre as Pique; but at least Pique is good on the ball. Our system is making Cahill look a lot better than he actually is, IMO.

I've read somewhere that Pique is one of the most popular footballers in the world thanks to Shakira. Maybe we want him for marketing reasons.He's not WC, but IMO, he's better than Cahill. But then again, I don't rate Cahill.

*whispers* Is that a sign of November coming?

I'll be beyond pissed if Eden will have to come to save this match.

I'm choosing to believe if Drogba is playing, it means either Costa or Remy will play against QPR.

And that's the main issue. Teams just aren't scared of our other AMs besides Eden and Cesc; and that's why they get heavily marked. Teams rarely attempt to mark Modric and Kroos, because you can't leave spaces for CR7, James, Bale, Isco, etc. The lack of attacking threat from our other AMs is really hurting us tactically.

I agree on Kroos--he can be very nervous and sloppy under pressure--but disagree about Rakitic. I watch many Barcelona games, and he's a solid all-round midfielder, nothing more, with next to no creativity, and his passing isn't better than just above average.

Bloody hell. But if it's true, it's better to get it done as soon as possible rather than keep delaying it. We need to wait until Remy gets fully fit, though.

That has nothing to do with him being marked out of the game. He wasn't more marked out than any other Chelsea player. Against City we rarely went further up the pitch as a team. Against United he was so well marked out of the game he couldn't even pass the ball to Terry and Cahill and back enough times. Yes, he was sloppy and marked out of the game against United, but let's not rewrite history and pretend the same thing happened against City and Arsenal. It didn't.

The amount of touches he had demonstrates the difference pretty well. The amount of touches he had against United is abnormally low for him--he was marked out of the game, and he wasn't marked out of the game against City and Arsenal.

No, he wasn't. We played too negatively against City, but in that game Cesc rarely put a foot wrong and was careful in possession and stayed focused throughout the game. Against Arsenal he was very good both defensively and offensively and was one of the most influential players on the pitch. Even stats make it obvious: Against United: 43 passes with 84% pass accuracy, 62 touches (very low for him, about the same amount of touches as Hazard, Matic, Luis, Cahill)Against City: 66 passes with 87% pass accuracy, 81 touches (more touches than any other Chelsea player)Against Arsenal: 70 passes with 89% pass accuracy, 89 touches (more touches than any player on the pitch) The difference is glaring. He was far more influential and careful against City and Arsenal.

Yeah, I didn't understand either what was the point in taking Eden off. Eden is the best player to hold the ball when you need to hold onto a lead. Really questionable decision.

Can't see Jose playing more than 3-4 youngsters. Probably Zouma, Ake, Solanke.

Yes, he had a bad game, but it's just one game, FFS. I'm not Oscar's biggest fan, but he was wonderful in the previous 4-5 matches. Hopefully it was just a one-off.

The overreaction here to one poor game is unbelievable. Suddenly Fabregas can't control midfield and can't make the team tick. If anything, yesterday's game proved how much our entire play has come to depend on him, which is, in my opinion, not a good thing. If he plays well, the team looks like a well-oiled machine. If he makes mistakes or isn't influential, our entire midfield looks poor and error-prone. That shows how much playmaking he usually does. Yesterday he couldn't do it properly and wasn't effective partly due to the absence of runners in the team, and was outmuscled, marked, and he misplaced 5 friggin' passes in the first half. And suddenly it's the end of the world and he can't do what he did very well in most of the previous games. If he's that ineffective in 5 games in a row, then such reaction will be appropriate. Shit happens. He had a bad day. If you expect him to play well in every single game, you're in for disappointment, because no player does.

Don't think Drogba can play this game just after a day's rest. He's not young anymore.

You're joking, but you might not be that far from the truth. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I get the impression Didier doesn't completely accept Cesc as a Chelsea player. Their dynamic is very different from the one Diego and Cesc have, or even the one Remy and Cesc have. When Cesc talks to Costa and Remy on the pitch, he seems to be the one telling them what to do. He looks confident and in control. With Drogba it's the opposite: Drogba always seems to be telling Cesc what to do or that he's doing something wrong. I don't know, maybe it's a clash of egos, but Cesc looks uncomfortable and thrown off-balance around Drogba. Maybe I'm wrong, but either way, Costa needs to get back on the pitch ASAP.

Random comment is random, and maybe it's just me, but I get the impression that Drogba and Cesc don't get along. Cesc seems uncomfortable in Drogba's presence and Drogba kind of looks...I don't know, condescending or something. IDK, they don't seem to have any chemistry on and off the pitch. Or maybe it just seems so because Cesc and Diego have amazing chemistry. Hope I'm wrong.

He probably made this comment hoping to make up for his mistake in the fans' eyes.

Yeah, the yellow cards fucked everything up and I guess Jose really was forced to take one of the booked midfielders off, but still, I think we would have had a better chance of winning this if we didn't decide to sit deep and kept playing as we did. To be fair to Jose though, Oscar didn't contribute much defensively in this game and his pressing was unusually poor, so I can understand why Jose decided to take him off.

Yes, he didn't start well, but I think it's also the case of the narrators influencing the public's opinion. I watched the game with no commentary and while I noticed that Cesc and Oscar misplaced quite a few passes, it wasn't as terrible as those stats make it look. Both Cesc and Oscar misplaced 6 passes each in the first half and 2 passes each in the second. Most of those passes were in the attacking third. That amount of misplaced passes is pretty normal for Cesc, actually. He just didn't make many passes today, that's why the passing accuracy is lower than usual. They both got a lot better in the second half and IMO, it was a big mistake to bring in Mikel.

I agree that he(and Oscar) had a very sub-par performance today. When I heard that Drogba was starting, I knew Cesc wouldn't be very effective in this game, though he and Oscar still obviously could have done better. Cesc's sloppiness in possession is a bit exaggerated, though. He misplaced 8 passes today. It's not a lot, and almost all of them were in United's half. But I agree he was far worse than he usually is. What I don't agree with is ridiculous overreaction after one poor game. They're all human and all have bad days. Matic's being poor for many games gets excused and ignored(he didn't exactly cover himself with glory today either and was quite sloppy in possession at times). Eden's subpar games are excused because it's Hazard and everyone can have an off-day(which I agree with). But apparently, Cesc is supposed to be good every single game. It's not realistic. It doesn't make him a bottler. He's been incredibly consistent for us, far more consistent than I expected, far more consistent than he ever was for Barcelona. I think people are getting a bit spoiled here. He won't be good in every game. No player in the world is.

You're rewriting history here. He was great in many big games at Arsenal, but most of the time Arsenal choked as a team and it was much easier to man-mark Fabregas as the main source of creativity, but he was still great in many big games. Don't let Barcelona fans' propaganda cloud your memories. Fucking hell, the overreaction here is amazing. Iniesta, Messi, CR7 all were poor yesterday. They must be bottlers too.

He was anonymous for most of the game due to him being heavily marked, but it opened up spaces for others. He could have definitely done better, but I'm against calling a "bottler" on the basis of one sub-par game. Everyone can have an off-day, especially when you play a striker he has no chemistry with. It's bloody amazing how quickly people are scapegoating him and calling him a bottler. You're only as good as your last game and all that.