The Skipper

PL teams don't defend as extreme (or as well) as we did against Atletico in the first leg. Also, Messi comparisons are off, fine, that was years ago. Let's bring up more recent examples. What about players like Suarez, Ibrahimovic, Cavani... Would you say they wouldn't be the answer either? Us consistently breaking down 10 men doesn't solely come down to signing a good striker, people need to understand this. There's a lot more to be done in regards to that. It's about the general approach, the system you implement, having the right mix of players, overlapping fullbacks for width and angles to create passing lanes, great movement off the ball, a creative switch in the pivot and in the attacking midfield strata to find players in those passing lanes etc. There's much more to it than just signing a striker. It's funny, you can tell that a lot that wanted him before didn't actually watch him. Too many on here are judging Costa off the two Atletico games. Before them there was almost an unanimous yes to the transfer.

If you read what I said I'm not saying he did not make mistakes.

Well, City are still splashing the cash on wages so they can do that, we've wised up now. And Manchester City consistently play with 2 strikers. So not really comparable.

Tracking back 10 yards into their own box? Or just tracking back outside of it? There's a huge difference between the two. Again, if you read my post above your initial one you'll see that I'm not saying Hazard should not track back - just how far he tracked back is what I'm disputing. As I said before, I'm not advocating that he shouldn't track back but making a player like Hazard track back 10 yards into his own box is nonsensical. The Atletico wide players did their job well because they were used well and they had a more cohesive system than ours. Hazard wasn't, and our system wasn't cohesive enough. Schurrle would've been the much better option for the role Hazard played in that game. Yes, modern football requires more from both ends of the pitch, I completely agree with you on that aspect but you have to be smart with it, not that extreme. I've watched the game 3 times since, so I know what I saw. I'm not even discussing him being bigger than the club either - I'm merely stating that it was tactically wrong to put Hazard in such a role.

He obviously did try to do what Jose asked of him though - only he made mistakes and unfortunately those led to goals. If Jose wanted his winger to track back like that he should've started Schurrle there who's perfect in situations like that. As you said, it isn't anywhere near one of Eden's strengths so it was the wrong gamble from Mourinho - if he was going to play Eden he should've asked him to stay forward more and maybe that would've forced Juanfran to stay deeper because of the counter attack - that is the best way to get them to stop overlapping when you have an attacking talent as impressive as Hazard. And yeah, obviously Hazard isn't bigger than the club but personally I'm just ignoring those comments.

No. Their attacking mids were not defending in their own box, why would they when our players barely breached it from open play, and when our fullbacks were barely overlapping to begin with? Modern football does not say, "get your most creative player to come and defend the overlap 10 yards into his box". Hazard made mistakes yes, no one is denying that but what you're saying is false on modern football simply because Dortmund nor Atletico do that. Certainly not with their most talented forward player.

To be fair, Ronaldo wasn't asked to cover overlapping fullbacks at Real. Ronaldo barely tracked back actually. He was often Madrid's most forward/open player in their defensive phase. Something I hope Mourinho similarly does with Hazard next year when the team is more complete.

He's not bad, but as some have said above, if we're going to spend €20m on a LB that's 29 then we might as well add the extra millions to get Luke Shaw.

The only capacity I could see Didier coming back as is as a coach. I'd rather keep Lukaku than buy another number 2 striker as well. Unless Romelu really wants to go (which is nothing but unfounded rumours IMO) he'd be the ideal number 2 striker for us.

Some people are not getting it... No one is saying that Hazard shouldn't track back and no one is saying that he wasn't at fault for the goals (it wasn't just him though there were a lot of players at fault for both goals, just bad goals to concede as a team in general), but asking your winger to track the run all the way into their own box is ridiculous. Atletico's wingers were passed off inside, so naturally, a midfielder should've picked them up whilst our fullbacks should've been wary of the threats their fullbacks could make on the overlap. Our wingers should track them but only to a certain extent, not 10 yards into your own box. You pass the player off at a certain point because defenders are obviously more skilled and talented at defending in the box. Someone who isn't a natural defender is bound to do something like that (even though Eden has been very good in tracking back this season in general), especially against a team who exploits that well. Also, those slating his offensive performance on Wednesday need to get real - whenever Eden had the ball he was surrounded by 3 men. We defend well as a team but when we go forward we offered no support to anyone (especially after their goal when Mourinho brought on Eto'o & Ba, we just seemed to skip our attacking mids and boot it straight up to our average strikers), and it was quite bad how even though they were clearly triple marking Hazard that we still couldn't utilise our free men properly. If only we could support as much as we do at the back going forward... I sincerely hope that when we do get the right players that this will be the approach next season. Attacking + defending with numbers. Instead of purely relying on Hazard's creativity going forward.

No, I would prefer Drogba's last kick for CFC to be that famous penalty kick in Munich.

Diego Costa, Lukaku + X (someone like Eto'o would be perfect) for next season would be a massive, massive upgrade. I don't know why people think players like Bony, Mandzukic or Remy will come here as a 3rd choice striker... That's fantasy football right there. Add a top CM and a top LB to that and we're set.

Lol, it's ridiculous right. Makes you wonder whether the people that said that have even seen him play before this or not.

I wouldn't say Benzema's finishing is 'awful' but it certainly is very inconsistent. He'll score the impossible, and miss sitters. Kinda like how Suarez used to be. I think as he matures he'll definitely be more consistent with it though. The ability is definitely there. But yes, Costa had a good game in my eyes too. Lead the line very well, never stopped running, moved well into the channels, won a penalty and took it very well. His £35-40m price tag is decent as well. I wouldn't be unhappy with his signing at all.

Ashley Cole was too narrow, tucked in inside, marking another man. It should've been one of our defenders turned midfielders tucked inside to help Ashley stay wide but instead Hazard was asked to come that deep to cover the fullback. Hazard should never be that deep in our own half. The team was set up incorrectly and Simeone and Atletico exploited it very well.

We need a lot more than just a striker to fix our attacking issues though. Of course a striker would paper over the cracks but the underlying problem that we faced this season would still be there.

Class act those lot.

FWIW if there's any (that's remotely attainable) striker I would get over Costa it'd be Cavani or Benzema - and they're both very unlikely at the moment. Costa is our best option available and he's a very good one at that too.

For his size, Lukaku isn't as physically imposing as Drogba was but then again one thing he does have over a prime Drogba is his pace for his size. Drogba was great at holding up the ball, beating defenders in the air, just a proper complete forward, matched with his very underrated technical skills. Lukaku is more like prime Torres, very good when he has spaces to run into and a very good finisher. Not as complete as Drogba. He'll (Lukaku) be a very good 2nd choice striker for us next year because he's ideal to bring off the bench against tired legs and also can play with another man upfront, behind him.

He had a solid outing today and was a real presence in his area, but he's definitely had many better games, he wasn't outstanding or anything - we barely troubled him. All the saves he made should be routine for a good goalkeeper like him. Nevertheless, looking forward to seeing him back next season.

Yup, pretty much this.

Yup I agree, I wouldn't say we overachieved either. We've done well though, at the start of the season I expected a top 3 finish, a deep run in the CL (quarter/semis) and just maybe one of the cups, which is exactly what we've done.

Yeah I'm not disagreeing with any of that pal - and I did say that it was a lesson for some of those players (not all). Atletico were definitely the better team and definitely deserved to go through, no denying that.

Yeah, I didn't know that - he could've still perhaps shifted Willian to CAM and started Schurrle who isn't shabby defensively either obviously. But it's done now, easy to say it in hindsight. We were unfortunate not to have players like Mikel or Matic today - they definitely would've helped the setup Mourinho tried to implement. Anyways, onwards and upwards.

That is a lesson for Mourinho. The lesson for the players is that they came out not believing in themselves after HT, and that was our ultimate downfall in the end. We never got going after HT. It's an experience some haven't experienced before.