The Skipper

He's an attacking midfielder. It would be like playing Mata in the pivot.

Shotgun United!

And create another problem at the back. We don't need to raise funds to sign a striker, especially if it's the only player we'll bring in in January.

That's what it does if you aren't signed in.

We have to play Luiz on Sunday to counter Suarez IMO. If Luiz has a good game Suarez can be controlled. Cahill would get shredded by Suarez due to his nature of backing off.

The 'JT will get shredded by pace' facade is so stupid. JTs positional play is still world class so it doesn't matter.

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Yeah, I agree with all you've said but I was saying to @Alex that what he said is harsh because the other aspects of his game apart from finishing (which is still one of the most important parts of a striker's game obviously) were okay so it's harsh to say that he can't do anything else. And off-topic regarding Lukaku but Romelu has recently reinforced that it was him that wanted the loan move and that he asked Mourinho. Granted Jose could've stopped the move but I don't think anyone could've imagined our striker situation to be this dire. That's another discussion for another day though.

That's the way the manager instructs him to play though. He is perfectly capable of disciplining himself to not be the aggressor as well if the manager wants him to also, as he's done so before. A quick look at WhoScored (who I don't like to use but I don't have time to delve deeper into it) shows that David Luiz is our leading CB in interceptions (2.2 a game), whilst JT follows him (1.6 a game) and Cahill is even further behind (0.6 per game). Even if he has played less this season (a total number of 10 starts in all competitions) he's still leading the way in that aspect.

That's harsh. His finishing was atrocious but everything else in his game was decent.

Fixed those video links for you.

Eto'o's contract is finishing in the summer. There's no reason to sell him. We can just let him go next year. If there was a striker we were selling it'd be Torres or Ba.

Should've had a couple of assists yesterday, decent game from Juan.

He wouldn't even be in the position to score them.

You act like Luiz has been absolutely terrible since he's signed. Up until the start of this season Luiz progressed as a player, was fantastic in quite a few games in the second half of last season and was well on his way to establish himself as a top CB but he's regressed this season due to unfortunate circumstances like having basically no pre season, being injured at inconvenient times etc... These are not excuses, they simply explain why he's had a bad start to the season in general. I cannot believe you are comparing the Torres signing to the Luiz one. Talk about completely over exaggerating. If Torres was even half as decent as Luiz has been for us he'd have a lot more goals under his belt. It's also very ridiculous how you practically think Luiz has never looked like a £21m player. Wow is all I can say.

Torres has a similar game (except he won't get into goal scoring positions) and he gets commended for working hard. Granted Eto'o's poor finishing was inexcusable today but there are a lot of double standards from some on here.

Yeah I think I described him as the South American Drogba to someone before (but obviously not on the same level). I'd be satisfied with someone like him.

Ibra, Benzema, Lewa could also do the job for us. Diego Costa isn't a bad option either.

Cahill was excellent against Arsenal definitely, but what about the games versus Stoke, Sunderland?The JT - Cahill partnership isn't as rosy as you're making it out to be. Right now though, especially after the Arsenal game, he deserves to be in the team.

Cahill was excellent against Arsenal definitely, but what about the games versus Stoke, Sunderland?The JT - Cahill partnership isn't as rosy as you're making it out to be. Right now though, especially after the Arsenal game, he deserves to be in the team.

Haha. Next joke.

Diego Costa is a very well rounded player, used to play off Falcao or on the wing when Radamel was there. He has the potential to be a complete striker.

I understand fully but if you think that Eto'o's mistake solely lost it for us against Stoke then I'm afraid you're wrong IMO. If we weren't as adventurous Eto'o's mistake would've been mopped up in midfield by Lampard or Ramires who had both pushed up so Eto'o's mistake was easily punishable due to us having virtually no midfield at that moment of time. All it took was a few passes and Stoke were in front of goal. Besides, what Mou also could've done if he didn't want to bring on Eto'o is stick Schurrle up front and then bring on Mata. Him sticking on Luiz still didn't stop Arsenal from creating the best chance in the game.

We lost against Stoke because the whole tactical approach was changed and left us open at the back. We went 4-4-2, I didn't ask that of Mourinho at all. I don't understand what you don't get by me saying that we should've kept the same approach we did in the earlier stages of the game because that approach (the one in the Arsenal game to spell it out for you) wasn't really going for the win either (we were playing not to lose) but it does give us a bigger opportunity to nick the game (like in the Man City game earlier this season).

Yeah, we aren't the end product yet, I obviously understand that completely, and I understand that it takes a season or two for a project to really come to fruition. I have the patience for that. Heck, I can even wait 3 seasons for that as long as things are moving on in the right direction; but my main gripe is that it's been half a season now and it still looks like we don't have the foundations in place for what we are trying to do (in regards to our playing style) and it's not looking too promising so far. It doesn't look like we are trying to build an identity yet - it just looks like we're trying to grind out games for now, mis-utilising the players we have at disposal (the players we have and the supposed identity we're trying to build require a more universalism approach than specialist approach in my opinion, and I've seen a lot more of the former). Yeah, we're missing a few players here and there but that still doesn't really excuse it. And no, I am not 'not happy' that we 'only' got a point at the Emirates, it's just people are overstating how amazing of a result it is IMO. I didn't expect us to go out guns blazing against the Gunners at all, I really liked Mourinho's (initial) approach to the game considering our recent performances and in that sense it was a decent result but it wasn't superb or amazing. Superb or amazing would've been beating them.