Daniel1980

24 years old. Inter, Man City, Milan, Liverpool. Few players can boast such a CV at his age. Love him or hate him, he's very marketable. People love jerks and strong/entertaining/crazy personalities.

Apparently he was out for dinner with Cesc and Drogba yesterday. And here I hoped he was already having a medical at Roma. Is it too much to hope it was a farewell dinner?

Yeah, because of that at times it looked as though we were playing with two #10s: Eden and Cesc. Tactically, Oscar had a good game and was very useful.

Nah, Benatia is the leading defender at Roma. He makes Castan play better. All Roma fans praise him for his influence and leadership on the pitch.

Zouma is just 19. He will have the chance to get into the first team in the next 3-4 years if he proves he's good enough. With JT retiring in 1-2 seasons, we'll need a top CB to replace him anyway and it won't be Zouma -- he won't be ready in a year. It's too much to expect from a 19-year old kid. Rushing youngsters into the first team will do them harm than good, imo. They must learn, train with the team and play in unimportant matches without too much pressure. You're right that there's no need to rush.

That's exactly why getting a top CB who is brilliant individually, fast and isn't as reliant on the entire team defending would be great. Before I saw Zouma play in preseason, I was of the same opinion as you. I believed the Zouma hype and thought we had enough CBs. It was just preseason, of course, but he wasn't convincing in the least and made too many mistakes even though we played against shitty teams. He might become a top CB one day, and we should definitely keep him, but he's still too young, raw and inexperienced to play in important games. We should definitely give youngsters a chance, but we shouldn't jeopardize out title chances because of that now that we finally have a good midfield and attack.

At least Costa won't be the main target for refs.

We must have been watching a different game then. Our defense looked unconvincing, even a bit panicky, against the team that is probably the weakest in the PL. Yes, we conceded 27 goals in the PL last season, but it was largely thanks to the way we played as a team, with all our attacking players tracking back a lot and focused on defending, which was often detrimental to our attack. Against Burnley we played more attacking and aggressive than we usually did last season, and our much-praised defense looked shaky. Our CBs are good, but they aren't the best out there individually, not to mention that JT is slow and isn't getting any younger unfortunately. Last season our defense was very flattered by the incredible defensive contribution of our other players. If we keep playing as attacking as we did against Burnley(and we should, with the players we currently have), a better team than Burnley will exploit it. Zouma? Hype aside, he didn't look good even against the shitty teams we played in preseason, making lots of mistakes. Do you want an inexperienced, mistake-prone teenager to play in important matches? I don't. He's not ready yet. Iva will play RB a lot too, so he's nowhere enough to cover both CBs in case of bad form/injury. The truth is, we have 5 experienced defenders for 4 positions to play 50+ games. It's not enough. In comparison: we have 6 AMs for 3 AM positions, 4-5 CMs for 2 pivot positions, 3 strikers for 1 position(yes, Drogba and Torres aren't good enough, but the fact remains that we have 3 experienced strikers for 1 position). 2 non-HG players? Sell Cech(he deserves better than to sit on the bench) and loan out MVG(it is not ideal, but we have a much better depth in the pivot than in defense. I like the kid, but we all know Jose will pick Ramires over him and Mikel is better defensively). Ideally, we should get rid of Torres and sign a proper young second striker.

Eva? Drogba is a legend.

Nope, he did sit down. Hmm. Did he bulk up for BPL? Thought he was skinnier.

lol Cesc wouldn't need to sit down when it's his turn to do this. He's been nominated too by Andre, right? Or did he do this already?

Courtois should have had the decency to sit down and not to embarrass his assistant.

Yeah, our defence looked brilliant against Burnley. Not worrying at all. Of course we don't need a top defender in his prime.

I feel even a bit sorry for them. It's like Cesc is their ex-girlfriend who ditched them and now they hate her but still want her and try to convince themselves their new girlfriend(Ozil) is better. The way they try to convince themselves that Cesc is unhappy to play for us and is just "going through the motions" is pretty sad. This doesn't exactly look like an unhappy man: Yep, he must be thinking about Arsenal here.

Leicester beat Werder Bremen a few weeks ago--the same team that beat us 3:0 in preseason. Preseason means very little, of course, but still, let's not underestimate the opponent. They managed a draw against Everton last week. I don't expect this match to be very easy for us.

Our team has enough stars as it is this year, tbh. United fans at Redcafe, drooling all over our starting XI before the match against Burnley: Our squad might not be filled with stars like Real and Barcelona, but it's certainly good enough to make other clubs' fans very envious. We have classy creative players, amazing dribblers, hard-working players, fast players, good defence, great goalkeeper(s). There are a few vulnerable positions that ideally should be addressed, but truth be told, if I didn't support Chelsea, I'd be envious of our squad too. Now hopefully Jose can turn them into a well-oiled team.

The pass was clearly intended. Cesc was actively asking for the ball, so I don't think it was hard to spot him, considering that there weren't people around him.

Think this match will be tougher for us. Hope I'm wrong.

It is. Cesc made 2 perfect through-balls this game and both for Andre. Of course Andre is happy to finally have someone who notices his amazing runs and can pull off killer balls. They already seem to have a great understanding.

I feel that Ramires is more selfish and inclined to make wrong decisions than Oscar. When Ramires and Fabregas were on the pitch at the same time, Ramires was the one playing more advanced than Cesc, and Cesc wasn't going forward much, basically playing a holding midfielder. Their dynamic was different from the one we saw yesterday between Cesc and Oscar. It's hard to judge based just on a few matches, of course, but that's the impression I got.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEFPTv0hjw8

The main reason I dislike having Willian on the pitch: he'll take corner kicks--for some inexplicable reason.

This is Oscar: This is Cesc: Yeah, Oscar at times played in central midfield, interchanging positions with Cesc.

This match we needed to chase the scoreline and Ivanovic played a crucial part in our goals, though. There has to be a compromise, a right balance between attack and defence. I liked Iva in attack yesterday, but I didn't like how shaky our defence looked when he left big gaps down that side, leaving us quite open at times.

Precisely. Iva contributed a lot to our attack yesterday, was one of our best players, but to be honest, defensively we looked shaky on his side because of that. People complain about Azpi's no offensive contribution, but he was defensively solid on his wing, winning all of duels and making interceptions and clearances. When Cesc "Can't defend" Fabregas makes more interceptions and tackles than a fullback, it's just strange.