Kostas

Because reverse psychology works better than retirement checks.

Yup that's the cunt. Can't say you're missing much, he has never even been the best CB playing for the Greek national team.

Almost as premature as the frequent shouts in favor of Terry losing his starting place in the team and being replaced by our fans' latest CB sensation.

Why don't you wait a couple of weeks to start with the Enhanced Edition?

First post-match thread that I manage to fully read and post before it gets locked Not much to add to what's been said but I agree this was a particularly poor game quality-wise both for the neutrals and from Chelsea's point of view. Credit is due to Benfica for managing to dominate us for most of the game despite being 2 goals down, 1 man down, having half their players yellow carded thus unable to commit fully to challenges plus having no regognised central defenders in the game. On the other hand it's a mess that they got themselves into by giving away a pretty needless penalty, and losing their nerve for the rest of the game over a decision on which the most vocal of them did not have a good view of. Their manager has got to be as much responsible as the card-happy ref for his team's ill-discipline and constant pathetic attitute. As far as we're concerned we can only hope that we'll be at the very least 200% better in the games versus Barcelona or we're in for some embarrasment. They only possitive I can keep from this game is not letting Benfica create many clear-cut chances. Given how many factors went against the Portuguese there's no denying that defending well as a team was not good enough. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ While I can't dissagree with any other part of that post I have my doubts about stupidity being one of his weaknesses(the how he got into professional football has been bugging me for quite some time, my guess would be nepotism with his brother in the begining and then Drogba helping him achieve much greater recognition than his ability ever would) With all of Kalou supposed advantages being little more than myths (e.g. decent score-rate, pace) it may actually be his footballing intelligence that has helped him being occasionally useful to his coaches. Thursday's match was a fine example of how he successfuly gets himself into positions from where any player could potentially do harm but ultimately fails to contribute. Despite him having acres of space like Mata and Torres he did arguably get into better positions than any of our other forwards partly due to him not being as closely marked (a very frequent theme in his Chelsea career) but also partly because he made his runs into the correct space,only to be later let down by his technique. The same goes for his defending where his only real advantage over our other forwards (workrate) is enhanced by smart rather than desperate positioning. It is actually when he has the ball that he looks the dumber as he has to constantly look at the ground to figure where his touch moved the ball and 7-8/10 times dissapoints with either his choice of his inability to execute it. I can only assume the following: a) You have not seen over 10 games of him. b ) You have not been following the Premierleague or Chelsea's not-quite-big-games very closely for the past 5 years. c) You are not aware of his wage demands, and more importantly how do they compare to that of other similar (in either role/ability) strikers in Europe.

Look way too futuristic to be a working commercial product before at least 2015. OT: Sh0n3x, a huge like and thumbs up for your sig.

Sometimes I feel like xPetrCechx posts just anything that comes his way.

If we score first it would be mad not to sub Cole immediately.

We haven't had the same (group of) person(s) picking the team and assembling the squad in years. He's never going to get a new contract no matter how many desperate starts Di Matteo provides him.

Not one to speak against negativity that that's just way over the top.

Hoping the football will be tolerable. We should should qualify without much trouble as long as we defend like a decent team and don't concede from a set-piece. A Torres goal at this stage would be golden for many reasons.

Did the view new posts balloon get fixed (for the old threads) or is it just not working for me?

Not much wrong with him as far as ability is concerned but as far as character, on and off pitch behavior, general attitude and apparent(=based on all he's shown rather than a media image) intellectual level is concerned he's no different to the current generation of Greeks playing for(or unfortunately supporting) that team. I believe the following phrases will give you a better feeling/view than anything I could say. Think of C.Ronaldo acting tough. Think a mix of Suarez/Bellamy with RAWKite devotion, delusion and cuntishness.. Think a lifelong brain-dead QPR/Millwallf fan who manages to play for his team in every game like they're playing against Chelsea/West Ham. Think a Juve fan who's at best proud of Calciopoli and the methods used. Think Dani Alves whenever Barcelona are not winning. Think of Roy Kean being smug.

Didn't we use to have a member number somewhere?

I thought you were talking about the one who plays at CB for Olympiakos. I had the impression the other one was actually a defensive midfielder, or at least that was his position when they played against United. Guess confusions like that are bound to happen with the most common Greek surname.

Keep that inbred away from Chelsea.

Surely it's all Emenalo's fault.

Second time's the charm

That's the most important point IMO. The chance Luiz created for him in the first half was the first purely Torres-que chance I remember him getting at Chelsea, at the time I wasn't sure whether to read more into him getting that chance or failing to score from it. His second goal was a result of a tidy and calm finish, a pretty shocking fact considering what we're used to.

As almost always, I agree 100%. I can't believe there are a couple of dozens pages of hate/posts slating him while happy smiling "triers" like Kalou, Ferreira and Essien have more pages about them being underrated and criminally scapegoated. It's like fans are more affected by smiley hat doffing faces than performances and abilities.

Ditto. The people who go on about 'plastic fans', 'no history', 'big club' etc show themselves up for what they are - the fakest spoilt glory hunting muppets going.

I think it's safe to say we have reached a point when we should be placing the blame on the players, or rather our overblown confidence in their abilities/potential, instead of the loan itself. I'm beginning to lose count of the loans that seemed ideal both toevery single one of us and made sense football-wise but resulted in disappointment. McEachran is barely 19, he still has around 3 years ahead of him before the club gives up on him.

Same here, last time I run out of likes was while reading a long closed Ancelotti topic and the annual new Chelsea manager thread back in June. I see however no harm in upping the limit for the more generous of users. Oh and while you're at it lower the limit of Justin's likes, it's like he likes every post that answers or refers to him. *craving for attention*

Those two chances plus Terry's handball (which was a pen to me) look much worse when compared to the squat we created in the first 75 minutes and especially the football we (didn't) play.

Nevermind Kalou, apparently getting the result needed also turns embarrassing games into displays of tactical intelligence and defensive solidity. This game is easily one of the 5 worst I've seen this season and despite the inspiring performance by David Luiz we could have easily been 2 down in the second half.