WNDS

Truth be told, I actually think that Azpi is the FB that currently 'deserves' to be on the bench when going purely by the level of performance and impact shown by each of them over the last month. Azpilicueta: Poor against Spurs, very good (at RB) against Watford, awful against Newcastle, poor against Bradford, and decent (off the bench) against Liverpool. Ivanovic: Awful against Spurs, average against Newcastle, very good against Swansea, poor against Liverpool in the first leg, and decent (with a goal) in the second leg. Luis: Average against Watford, decent (off the bench) against Newcastle, very good against Swansea, and good-to-very good in both games against Liverpool. Please note, however, that I DO consider Azpi to be the best of the three when all of them are playing at (or near) their maximum levels.

Add Remy up front, and the pace we would have in that team is extraordinary. Perfect for playing on the counter against City.

The Good: - THAT'S the sort of big-game (or 'any-game') performance I would like to see from Willian more often this season. After half-time I thought he was MONSTROUS. - Hazard was brilliant until extra-time (where he was 'merely' good) - Ivanovic with a vital goal (but still pushing too far up the field for his own good at times) - Zouma improved massively as the game wore on; awful in the first-half, much better from half-time onwards - WE'RE IN THE FINAL! The bad: - Some of our play in the first-half - Matic still looks out of sorts to me - Extra-time - Costa is going to be banned for at least 3 games; that first stamp looked deliberate to me, I have to admit - Fabregas and Luis will likely miss the game against City as well due to their injuries - As a result of the three points above this one, we're probably not going to be able to win the match against City

Regardless, Cuadrado does not have a low centre of gravity like Sanchez and Hazard do, and so is less able to ride strong challenges; he relies much more on pure speed and agility (like Di Maria does when dribbling).

More combative? Possibly. But stronger? He seems to get eased off the ball a little too frequently for my liking. To me he looks less like Sanchez and (much) more like Di Maria in terms of both his playing-style and body-type.

Or yellow cards for Cuadrado instead. He has many genuinely positive attributes to his game, but he is also a VERY frequent (and often blatant) diver.

Yep, I've just seen this on twitter. Normally anything on Goal.com can be ignored, but this development has been reported by Duncan Castles who has connections at the club and is fairly reliable. The article states that we nonetheless remain confident of signing either Costa or Cuadrado, and that Mourinho is willing to get rid of both Salah AND Schurrle to cover the cost of the transfer. Link to the article: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2892/transfer-zone/2015/01/25/8291972/chelsea-consider-options-after-cuadrado-douglas-bids?CMPID=TWUK_150125_CuadradoChelsea

Well, Costa certainly seems pretty intent upon emphasising just how keen he is to join us; he's got it all pictured in his head . This entire interview reads like a premature thank-you-and-goodbye to Shakhtar: http://globoesporte.globo.com/futebol/futebol-internacional/noticia/2015/01/na-mira-do-chelsea-douglas-costa-elogia-mourinho-esta-no-topo.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter I wonder if he will still feel this way if (when?) the move falls through . I guess we'll find out in the next few days....... On the other hand, if it DOES happen, it is either going to turn out to be a genuinely inspired signing or a completely ridiculous waste of money; there won't be a middle-ground here. Given our recent record with both RW and squad player signings, it will probably turn out to be the latter, unfortunately.

Well indeed, but my initial post was made to clear up any lingering doubts that some posters still seem to have as to whether we are actually at least somewhat serious about this transfer. I've seen quite a few posts in the last few days that were along the lines of 'bullshit, it's a smokescreen' and 'the player is only saying we're interested to alert other clubs that he wants to leave'. To me, this latest piece of news appears to remove most of the remaining ambiguity from the situation; the player has claimed that we are trying to sign him, and the CEO of Shakhtar has confirmed that his club are negotiating the player's sale. I'm still far from certain that this transfer will happen in the end, but it's certainly no longer a mere 'rumour' either.

Maybe so, but when you combine that statement with the one that the player himself has made regarding our possible attempt to sign him, it now looks extremely likely that that is exactly what is currently happening.

I've seen quite a few posters express their view (out of desperation? ) that our interest in Douglas Costa is not genuine, and that we are using these rumours to gain some potential leverage with Fiorentina regarding Cuadrado. Well, bad news: http://isport.ua/football/ukraine/318207-palkin-podtverdil-peregovory-s-chelsi-po-duglasu-koste.html (Shakhtar's CEO supposedly confirms that we are in negotiations with his club regarding the player). Interestingly though, Di Marzio is now reporting that Roma have pulled out of the Salah deal so that they may focus upon their efforts to sign....... Shakhtar's Luiz Adriano. Meanwhile, he is also reporting that our good friends Fiorentina are now expressing a more concrete interest in Salah themselves . If Shakhtar sell Adriano to Roma, then surely they will not also sell us Costa? As for the business of Salah-to-Fiorentina, maybe it could yet help us land Cuadrado.... Transfer windows .

All these football stat sites are near useless for evaluating defensive players (or defensive play in general for that matter). They only take clearances/tackles/interceptions (etc.) into account, and have no real way of measuring if a defender is a good man-marker, is good at cutting off passing lanes, is able to help maintain a good defensive line, or if they have good levels of concentration more generally. Defenders that score well in the former categories will frequently do so BECAUSE they are poor at marking and positional play, or otherwise because they are simply exposed all the time due to playing in a team with huge systemic defensive problems. Unsurprisingly, given the above, their definition of a 'defensive error' is very narrow, and only includes things like passes to opposition players, failed clearances etc; they do not count poor man-marking/positioning/decision-making as being 'errors' because they are not purely objective measurements.

KDB was never a viable long-term solution for our issues at RW, unfortunately. He is another player like Schurrle/Willian etc. who 'can play' in that position but is not a specialist there. His style of play and the key attributes he possesses are all those of a pure number 10; if he had made it here in the long-term, I suspect that it would have been at Oscar's expense rather than playing as a winger.

But Cahill IS probably the most at fault for the fourth goal. If you watch him, it seems as though he is attempting to get into a position to track the runner. If he simply continues to move across behind Christensen he probably succeeds in preventing the goal. Instead, he decides to hold his ground and cover Christensen, which is unfortunate because Willian is clearly expecting Cahill to pick up the run. The goal isn't ALL Cahill's fault of course (Willian and Christensen could/should have done better themselves), but he appears to be the main culprit.

There is no way that both Ivan and Azpi should be getting in the team ahead of Luis; he's outperformed them both since the turn of the year, and is one of the few squad players we have who is playing up to standard at the moment. I'd argue against Cahill starting as well; by most accounts he was outdone by Zouma today, and he has looked very shaky for a good while now (as most will acknowledge). Other than that though, this is the team that should start against Liverpool. We can't afford a poor result ahead of the City game, even if it means giving the probable starters less rest than would be ideal. If the negative results start to pile up, the fatigue felt by the players will be mental rather than physical, and will probably be more difficult to shake off.

It probably was. Either way, it was the goal that mattered least in terms of the raw result; it just made the result sting all the more.

From the highlights: - I'm not sure there was much that we could have done about the first goal we conceded; it was just a great strike. - For the second goal we conceded, Zouma loses out in an aerial duel, and someone (Azpi or Remy?) has left their man free at the far post. - Third goal: Azpi allows the cross in, it isn't cut out, and Ramires vacates a good position on the edge of the box to attempt an unnecessary tackle on the man in possession (this leaves space free for the goalscorer to run into) - Fourth goal: From a counter? Players aren't in position, and Willian fails to track his man into the box (I think he was expecting Cahill to cover the run).

I'm truly gutted we're out (and in this fashion), but ultimately, the situation IS rather amusing when you take a step back from it all. Besides, don't some say that laughter can be a fine cure for pain?

Well, the one truly positive thing that should come from this result is that TV execs/companies everywhere will probably not continue to turn their collective noses up at the prospect of televising our future games against lower-league opposition. Can't say that the club and players don't care about the fans; look how far they have shown themselves as being willing to go to ensure that all future games WILL be available for our viewing pleasure .

Phil Jones.

Montella is probably saying that he will quit (or consider quitting) if Fiorentina sell Cuadrado to us for less than his buy-out clause. This will prevent us from being able to negotiate the price down to an amount that we are more comfortable with paying. Edit: see his comments posted below; they pretty much confirm this (if he even made the threat in the first place).

The good: He's fast, a good dribbler with excellent ball control who is very willing to take on his man (more agile and direct than Willian), a good passer of the ball, has decent vision, takes a good free-kick, is effective when pressing, can cut inside from the right onto his stronger left foot, will probably be happy to play a squad role here. The bad: Currently very inconsistent, not much of a goalscorer from open play, doesn't send crosses in from the right regularly (he's pretty one-footed), untested at playing the highest levels consistently (although he has performed very well for Shakhtar in the CL for the last two seasons), isn't world-class or worth 30M pounds . As a 20M-ish replacement for Salah (who might get us 12M from Roma either now or in the summer) he might work out for us. As I've mentioned on one of these threads already, he will probably be a better fit with our style of play than Salah has been. Will it happen, though? Probably (hopefully) not if the rumoured asking price is being reported correctly.

Well, I'll certainly agree with you that a sequence of 'potential transfers' that begins with MESSI, and then moves on down through Reus, Cuadrado, Douglas Costa, and finishes at ENNER VALENCIA is pretty hilarious .

We were never in for Messi, and Reus can pretty much name his club and price. From what has been rumoured recently, it seems that Cuadrado would be Schurrle's replacement in the squad (direct/long-range shooter/counter-attack threat who runs into space etc), and if Schurrle is going to end up staying then the club is unwilling to meet Cuadrado's buy-out clause. Salah looks much more likely to depart during this transfer window, and so we are looking for a direct replacement for him; Douglas Costa may fit the bill. We might look to upgrade the starting RW in the summer when there will be more viable options available to us.

Some teams played more than 6 games in the CL group stages? Squawka don't provide stats for the Ukrainian league, so only his CL stats are available for the comparison.