Daniel1980

I'm sorry, but this is BS. We wouldn't have won against Burnley if it wasn't for Cesc. He (and Iva) created all three goals in that game. He was the one who stepped up, not Hazard in that game. Yes, Eden played an important part in the buildup of Andre's goal(Iva did too), but that goal would never have happened if it wasn't for Cesc's amazing pass that very few footballers could have pulled off. That was the goal of the month for a reason. Against Everton the one who stepped up wasn't Hazard but Costa. Both Cesc and Hazard didn't play huge roles in that game, though both contributed - Cesc with an assist and few throughballs for Costa and Hazard with the equalizer. Hazard was quite poor in that game, actually--so poor that many were saying he should be taken off. Against Swansea it was Cesc's corner that allowed Costa to score a crucial equalizer(before Cesc, Hazard took the corner kick and was bad at it). It was a brilliant linkup play between Cesc and Eden that led to Diego's second goal, but Cesc deserves more credit there for his great run and great final ball to Costa. He did step up when we needed. You're rewriting history here or just have a really selective memory. Hazard was crucial for us this season, but so was Cesc and so was Costa. This is a really pointless debate that you started without even reading properly what I meant. All of them are important to our team, but you seem to underrate other players' contribution to our wins while overrating Hazard's. They all deserve the credit. They are a team. It doesn't have to be a competition. You're the only one trying to make it a competition. If you actually read my initial post carefully and understood that I was in no way implying that Hazard wasn't an essential player for us--he certainly is, along with Costa and Fabregas--we wouldn't be having this pointless discussion. You accuse Barbara of "crushing" on Cesc and not being objective, while you're doing the very same thing here, rushing to Hazard's defence when he actually didn't need defending. Certainly not from me. P.S. I really didn't want to argue with a lady, but I really dislike when people put words in my mouth. And I never in no way implied that Eden was anything but essential for us. He's one of my favourite players of all time and I consider him our most talented player.

True. He can also be too selfish. But at least he offers something different and actually presents a goal threat.

Think he will play against Villa. He didn't play much lately, so he will be fresh. Andre and Salah will likely play against Bolton, IMO.

Yeah, if only Andre didn't fuck up... It was his chance to claim the RW. He looked ecstatic when he scored, and it was a great goal. Really feel sorry for the lad.

Tbh, I'm not Oscar's biggest fan, but I felt he would have been more useful than Willian against City.

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He was hardly brilliant last season either. His defensive workrate is probably the only reason he starts over Andre, and his speed is probably the reason he starts over Oscar. He offers very little other than that, despite being technically gifted. His decision-making and passing in the final third are poor, he doesn't make runs, and he's no goal threat.

I think you should read the comment I was responding to. You're taking my words out of context. The comment I was responding to said that most of our attacking threat is carried by Hazard this season and without him we'd be nowhere, which I can't agree with, despite being Eden's huge fan. He's been very influential, but other players haven't been any less influential. Hazard could have made 20 dribbles in a game, giving other players space to use, but if the final ball or finishing lacks, we wouldn't have gotten any points for Hazard's dribbles. I'm not disputing that Hazard is very important for us. I'm saying the other two players are as important if not more. Saying that Hazard is doing most of the work is strange, to say the least. All three of them contributed to our points. All three of them were important, in different ways. It's not a competition.

Read carefully. I didn't say Costa and Cesc were carrying our attack. I said Hazard wasn't the only one carrying our attack. He played an important part in most of our attacks, but so did Costa and Cesc, and without Costa and Cesc we wouldn't be where we are, and it's wrong to say Hazard is still doing all the offensive work this season, which is clearly not the case. The trio of Cesc-Hazard-Costa were essential to us this season, all three of them, in different ways.

There's always room for improvement, IMO. I already expressed by opinion on that in Jose's thread.

Hazard was pretty isolated, like most of our players, and largely ineffective because of our tactics -- we couldn't commit players to support him in attack. That's why our strategy in big games needs to change, IMO.

I agree that we have no reason to complain about Hazard's performance, because we played so defensively yesterday, but he's been hardly carrying most of our attacking threat this season, unlike last season. That's an exaggeration. Costa and Fabregas have been doing their share of attacking this season and without them we certainly wouldn't be topping the table now. Hazard has been as important as them, but he's not doing all the work this season.

There's something wrong with those stats, because he was dispossessed quite a few times. I don't blame him -- like all of our attackers, he often had little options, since we were sitting in our half -- but he certainly wasn't dispossessed only once. Sometimes stats can be incomplete.

Hmm, but who is a 100% favorite of Mourinho? Ivanovic? Ramires? Probably Costa too. He would never drop Hazard, even though sometimes he doesn't do much defensive work, and I don't think he's a 100% favorite of Mourinho. IMO, Mourinho can appreciate offensive players. As long as their contribution offensively outweighs their defensive limitations, it can be okay. But Andre's error clearly pissed Jose off.

People often bitch about Azpi's little offensive contribution, but this game showed why he starts for us. He was easily our best defender.

Cesc on Jose: How things change. Cesc has been converted into Jose's fan.

The thing is, there's a fine line between attacking recklessly and creating 2 chances in the entire game because of being too cautious and parking the bus. Our players are good enough and creative enough to attack and get the result, but we gave City the ball from the very beginning, and you can't say it was the players' fault. It was clearly Jose's instructions to be cautious and wait for an opportunity to counter-attack. But I think we were too cautious. I'm not saying we should become Barcelona 2.0, but Jose should make the team practice tactical short-passing to keep the possession. Defending 90 minutes is extremely exhausting, especially for midfielders who cover the most distance in the game. Because of this, towards the end of the game our players looked knackered and started making mistakes and had trouble playing even against 10 men. Despite having the advantage, our players were both mentally and physically exhausted by all the defending while City's defenders were reasonably fresh, since they had been barely troubled the entire match. IMO, that's partly why we couldn't dominate them in the last fifteen minutes. I don't want us to become like Arsenal, but I feel we would have achieved a better result if we attacked and intimidated them from the very beginning instead of sitting deep. We have the attacking talent. We have the players. Parking the bus away against every good team can't be an answer. 1-1 against City is good enough, but we could have easily lost this game.

Playing even against 10 men away is never easy when their fans are urging them on (and our own fans urged on Frank ). Besides, with Drogba we basically played with 10 men too. Jose tried to play it safe. It didn't work and we got a point against the main title rival. It's not the end of the world, even though we could have won.

I'll be very surprised if he isn't benched next week. We should give Luis-Azpi pairing a chance.

The likes of Matic, Costa, Fabregas, Hazard obviously shouldn't play. This game should be used to give our young defenders(Zouma, Ake) playing time. We need one of them to step up and become good enough to get into the first team.

Yeah. I understand that all players should contribute defensively and defending is a teamwork, but if our defenders rely on the midfield all the time, then it suggests something is wrong with our defenders. Ivanovic has been very undisciplined this season, but he doesn't get publicly blamed.

Gotta say I feel sorry for him. The goal really was his fault, but I don't like when the manager blames the player in public.

That's the problem. Some people complained about Cesc's defensive contribution in previous games, saying that he was erratic and undisciplined, but it was to be expected, since he played as an offensive player who was just playing deep. Today he defended the entire match, was very disciplined and rarely went forward, but his offensive contribution suffered. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

I thought both Eden and Cesc were completely wasted today doing defensive work most of the time. Why the hell do we choose to play without the ball when we have so many great creative players that are good on the ball?

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. We played too defensively and created next to nothing, but he did create one of our few good chances when he passed to Costa that could have ended in a goal. He played too deep and defended non-stop the entire match, and defended well, contrary to the popular opinion that he can't defend. He was one of our better midfielders today. You really can't ask a player to defend most of the game and expect that he'll create many chances.