Naked Mole Rat

Those are good points, but what I'm trying to get at is that since different countries have different economic conditions (tax, prices), some players will naturally choose to go to places where things are cheaper and where they don't have to pay much tax. Also, I don't see how UEFA will be able to regulate other forms of wages (?) like housing and, for Sneijder, a helicopter. I'm pretty sure there will be lots of ways clubs and players can get around the salary cap, and players will even expect the clubs they are to sign for to do what they can do to get around it. So, I don't really think it will help significantly reduce player power.

Wouldn't that put certain leagues at a disadvantage?

I'd be lying if I said I'm content with how things went so far. Things have turned out way worse than I had imagined in the beginning of the season, and my expectations weren't that high; I just wanted us to do a little better than last season, so around 2nd to 3rd place in the league. Even if we struggle, I never imagined we'd be around the same level as Liverpool and Arsenal, who are struggling by their own standards as well. And it wasn't even like we were unlucky or anything. We lost so many points due to our manager's stubbornness. I believe managers should have faith in their philosophy, but if something goes severely wrong, they have to be able to quickly reassess things and correct the problem. Villas-Boas didn't do that until that do-or-die game against Valencia, and if it was fair to criticize Carlo for lacking ideas, Villas-Boas needs to be criticized for being stubborn and delusional. There are many other things Villas-Boas have done that don't satisfy me although I have to say that his ability to assess players is superb as he's demonstrated in the transfer window. So yeah, Villas-Boas is one aspect of the team that doesn't satisfy me. Another aspect of the team that's really disappointed me is the team's attitude. As we all know, we've struggled against big sides this season, which means it's become ever so important to do well against weaker sides. But, it seems like some of our players think that even in the midst of the worst run in a decade or so, they can afford to be complacent against weaker sides. This is obviously nothing new, as we've always had this sort of problem. Nonetheless, this is what makes me think that although we've always managed to do okay even when we struggle (in other words, a spot in the CL) perhaps this can be the season where everything falls apart for us.

That one-one-one chance with Friedel wasn't particularly an easy chance, and I know Ramires usually does well in front of the goal. But that header has got to be the miss of the season. He really needs to learn how to head the ball.

Another fantastic display from the captain. Who says his days are gone?

What, guys? This is something that needs to be discussed, although I guess it could have been included in the Torres thread. Anyway, Torres has no desire whatsoever to achieve anything. I mean, he misses a few games and is finally given a chance to show what he's got, and he doesn't even want to head the ball. I was an idiot to think that he would be fired up enough to get going. And what was up with that dribbling when there were at least a couple players getting into decent positions? Villas-Boas was completely right about leaving him out, and I hope he does that with Torres until the day he leaves.

Not too satisfied with just one point as I thought we deserved more, but nevertheless, I'm very happy with the heroic display from Terry and Cole. Yes, what the fuck is wrong with him? The manager gives him a chance to prove himself and he doesn't even want to head the ball, and when he gets the ball he just tries to dribble past five defenders and loses out.

Everyone knows that Meireles wasn't the type of player we were looking for, but that's besides the point. The point is that TX has unnecessarily singled out the moment we signed Meireles as the worst moment this season when it was either that or 50+ starts for Lampard. And it's pretty disrespectful, too, like Kez said.

There weren't many positives to take from the Wigan game, but maybe against Napoli, we can expect Sturridge to do something similar to what he did to get his goal at Wigan? If Napoli do field a 3-4-3 or a 3-5-2, they may leave a bit of space behind the wingbacks for Mata and Sturridge to exploit. But we have to also remember how we failed to dominate the midfield at DW. I guess complacency was a big factor, but three-back-systems seem to allow using more midfielders, so maybe that's something we should be aware of as well.

Salomon Kalou for not playing in 12 out of 16 PL games this season. On a more serious note though, for me it'd be Sturridge. Our top scorer, and also the most eager player on the team along with Ramires. (It was his determination that changed the direction of the City game and many other.) And of course, Mata, Ramires and Luiz deserve an honourable mention as well. I'm surprised Luiz isn't on the list because other than the QPR match, I think he's been very solid so far.

Well, off form or not, he hasn't done a great job pressing the opposition or making himself available, and he loses out fairly often trying to dribble past a bunch of players.

Lampard will get used to it, and Mikel will probably leave soon anyway. But I don't think the players have the same respect they had for Mourinho or Ancelotti for AVB. But the good thing is that he probably doesn't live in a fantasy where players automatically revere and follow him, so I'm not particularly worried that the players will outright disrespect him. He's got a lot to prove, though.

Um, how do you know that? We were never really put in a situation where one of our key players desperately wants to leave. We just never had to force players to stay. Of course, we won't try to stop a 34-year-old Lampard from leaving if he really wants to leave, but I'm pretty sure we'll do our best to keep our world-class Spanish international if Romeu ever becomes one.

We all know how the team's attack dies when Torres plays as our CF instead of Drogba. Torres is too weak and his work ethic and teamwork skills are not good enough to assume that lone forward role. And as far as I'm concerned, Torres is a bit stronger than Sturridge and is a better teamworker, so how is Sturridge going to make a great centre forward? I'd much rather see him stay on that right hand side where he can take one fullbacks who are relatively easier to beat. If Hazard does come, he should play on the opposite side while Mata moves toward the centre, which is what he does anyway. So yeah, similar to what natavTKL said: -------Lukaku (in the future) Hazard-Mata-Sturridge

I don't see what you're getting at, but Romeu won't be able to leave that easily. For one thing, the Barcelona buy-back clause was bogus, which means they won't be able to just bring him back as they wish, and we're terrific at keeping players. Perhaps too good at it. Romeu will probably stay until he's 37 and everyone wants him out.

I don't know much about the team before Mourinho, but maybe one of the reasons many of our strikers failed is because of our 4-3-3 system? The lone forward in our system has a lot more to do than the strikers in a 4-4-2, and I think a lot of the strikers who failed weren't versatile enough to fill that role. As far as I'm concerned, Drogba's the only player who can score, win air duels, hold up the ball, make runs, make assists, press for the ball, and do a lot more, which is probably why he's been so successful.

Call back Bruma and purchase a winger. To be honest, I don't care who it is as long as we get one. Surely anyone can do better than Anelkalouda.

He made one heroic save and one mistake, but I've seen worse. Also, that mistake was initiated by a mistake by Ivanovic, who had a very poor game. And it wasn't just Ivanovic and Cech. Everyone except Sturridge had a bad game, and I can pick at least a couple players who did worse than Cech. It's not fair at all to call Cech a weak link based on that performance after what he did last season to keep us within the top 2 in the PL.

Well put.

Sturridge. Not just because of the goal, but also because he played with great determination. He always gives his 100% and I wish we had more players like him.

Terribly disappointed with AVB's selection and substitutions yesterday, especially with his decision to start Drogba ahead of Torres once again. I don't really mind that Drogba is still our first choice striker, but if that's so, why not give the guy a rest? He's 33 now and his role is very consuming. Torres has been looking pumped up recently, on the other hand, and I don't see any harm in giving him a run out and a chance to prove himself.

I'd say we were pretty lucky not to lose against Wigan because we were so undetermined. Had Wigan been in the right mood and played with the same sort of passion they played with two years ago at DW, that would have been THE ass-kicking of the season.

I think we'd be better off with a hard-working and physically intimidating forward. I guess there are different ways of looking at it, but we've had a great success with Drogba, who's tall and strong, while Torres hasn't been able to do what a centre forward should be doing.

We're simply not good enough this season. You need luck to win the CL, but you still need a very strong side to win it, and in recent years only the strongest sides in Europe (teams that were going for doubles and trebles) were able to win it, and I expect the same this season. This season it will probably be Real Madrid... led by Mourinho.

Drogba hands down. He showed exactly what is expected from a Chelsea centre forward: press, hold the ball and score. Even Rami, who pushed Torres around like a rag doll last time we played them, was no match. I don't know about that... He was always on the wrong side of the player he was marking.