CurlyHairLikeLuiz

It's Man U all over again. WE WANT SHIRLEY

Nope. We fucking need him now, though. On a side note this performance is sickening.

It's just a question of who's gonna get sent off first. My money is on Cahill.

I didn't say he was playing well. Just that he's playing less worse than most.

Mikel is outperforming half of the players. This is a new experience...

If Lamps stays with City and wins them the title, I will never forgive him. There's only so much you can let someone off on reputation alone, and that is the point of no return. What a fucking disgrace. Willian is still on too. Fucking christ it's a rainy day in Chelsea.

This is where the Chelsea team fails, and this is also probably why we don't rotate. The system only works with ALL the regulars on the pitch, otherwise we play like 13/14 Chelsea again. No creativity, too many mistakes. Also, cheers Lamps.

Fingers crossed for Schurrle second half for Willian

So was Mikel

I'd like to see Dave rested in favour of Luis who will give us much needed width against what I reckon will be another Newcastle style penalty box packer team, as well as Schurrle again who has a nice RW strike, who is good for this sort of team. Finally, surely Costa would play in a centre of a 4-3-3? (RW-Costa-Hazard) My bench prediction: Schwarzer, Drogba, Remy, Mikel, Willian, Dave, Zouma

Still saves us some £400k in wages, though!

and we can recoup some of our investment... £10mil is 1/5 of what we spent to buy him - That's enough to buy another Loic Remy - Or maybe we could invest it into the academy/cheaper tickets? Wishful thinking!

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/546686/Brendan-Rodgers-could-RESIGN-former-Liverpool-star-Fernando-Torres Bloody told you so!

Just saying a worst case scenario. Other than that, Friday night football does seem appealing...

Right after a Wednesday night CL game..

I take it you're talking about summer; 1. I think Zouma can be relied upon right now. I actually rate him to be the same level as Cahill right now, as shown against Sporting. Plus no way will Real Madrid give him away, and they also just something like quintupled his release clause. 2. I don't think we should buy Pogba: in our current formation, Willian Oscar Hazard, de facto Hazard is played whenever he is fit. Willian should (and does) rotate with Schurrle, and having Cesc in any capacity up front will further congest the AM starting positions, if Hazard and/or Willian are injured then Schurrle and Reus (who we should sign) can fill in, if Oscar is injured then Cesc can push up and Mikel or (more ideally) the youth can fill in in the CDM role. Unless we can sign Pogba for a budget price then it's simply not worth it. Salah should be loaned out, I think when he becomes more experienced he could still be a valuable asset for Chelsea. 3. Talisca, however, would be an ideal signing to replace the Drog.

I suppose having a backup forward for any AM/ST position would be okay, but that does then make him 4th or 5th choice in every position. Also, that would mean he would have to take a wage cut if he is going to be an attacking version of Mikel. Liverpool are having a striker crisis ATM, sell him to 'em for £10 million, and take the money and run!

I would. Also, if we lose and then draw in what should be an easy game then that's damaging for team morale and also will make the media go on and on about it. My point is, that nobody can seriously expect Mou to take off first team players just because some forum wants him to give the youth a chance. He knows the team need a boost, first loss always hits the conscious badly. I think he was planning on sending on RLC anyway, but the SL goal delayed him. He was unlucky. Having said that though, it would be nice if he would loosen his grip a little on the dead rubber games.

As another person on here said, it was just RLC's bad luck; if we had started him and we ended with a 1-1 draw while Fabregas was available, people would be asking for his head. There'll be a next time, and I do fully expect him to play 45 mins in the Derby game at least, hopefully at a stretch with Ake if things are going smoothly, I think people are focussing far too much on just a single game, and then using that to try and shut down the academy. There's half a season ahead of us, everyone needs to cool off a little. Their time will come.

Doesn't look like he's suffering to me

What's wrong with the 2nd? Pretty much the only difference between the normal side is Schurrle.

What I want: (unrealistic) Cech Iva Zouma Terry Luis (Azpi has played so many games so far and needs a rest) Ake-Matic Schurrle RLC Hazard Drogba Subs: Remy, Beeny, Solanke, Cahill, Mikel, Willian What I want (realistic) Tibo Iva Zouma Terry Luis Mikel-Matic Schurrle Oscar Hazard Costa/Remy Subs: Dave, Cahill, Willian, Drogba, RLC, Cech What will happen: Tibo Iva Cahill Terry Azpi Mikel-Matic Willian Oscar Hazard Costa Subs: Drogba, Zouma, Schurrle, Luis, Rambo (prefer RLC tho ) Cech If we have such a defensive pivot then we can afford to play more attacking wingers, which has Schurrle written all over it, and we need to give Cahill some rest to recuperate, still looks more shaken than usual, hence Zouma's inclusion. Costa will almost certainly start but I would prefer Remy or Drogba because, again, he has been looking shaken as of late. Having said that, perhaps banging a goal in will be a straight cure. Regardless, more of the same please!

I don't think the lack of rotation was the biggest problem. What has become obvious is that the defensive failure of Cahill which has until then been covered by Matic's sheer physicality has been revealed, and now every team knows exactly how to beat us; quick counter attacking and packing the penalty box. This year the defence has been pushed up a bit due to the more offensive nature of Cesc, which John Terry has had no problems with, but Cahill always seems to have a look of despair on his face whenever anybody runs at him. However, this isn't just a Let's-bash-Cahill-and-use-him-as-a-scapegoat, I just think he needs to be rested and improve his mental stength a little and then I think he will be up and at 'em again after a few games' absence - also gives him the chance to shake of any minor head trauma he got from clashes in the last few games. Zouma can easily fill his shoes and the experience will probably be great for his mentality. I think that in Matic's absence we should definitely play a 4-3-3 either until our defence is reinforced or indefinitely, with Ake or Rambo - Mikel - Cesc in the middle, and Willian/Schurrle - striker - Hazard for AMs. Rotation is 1 thing I must criticise Jose for. We could have played Azpi as an RB and Luis as an LB and had no defensive defecit due to it, maybe even with Iva in the middle to test it in our next DR CL game. We also can't risk burning out Cesc and Oscar, who are both players we can rotate quite happily with Rambo and Schurrle, or even Remy, respectively. Having said that though, Hazard is pretty much irreplaceable at this point in time... I suppose we could run Salah in the smaller games. This is going to be criticised but I think in the games like Sunderland and Newcastle we would actually be better off running Drogba due to his aerial capability, especially in set pieces - that is where we are going to get the goals in those kinds of matches. Finally, I think Mikel actually did quite well. He isn't Matic, but, eh, he was good enough for a bench warmer.

Cahill was at fault. I'm sorry but he could have prevented both Cisse goals but he sliced his tackles and didn't. Terry had to do 2 men's work Always was of the opinion Zouma was better than him.

Can we bin Mikel for this lad, please?