The Skipper

'Playing' being the key word here. I'm not arguing about whether he's better than our current strikers - I've always said he is but you and I both know that Mourinho was not going to make Lukaku his number 1 or even number 2 with the way things were looking, which is why I said in the first place that it's better that he goes out on loan to a club with the right manager, ethos, ambition and where he'll play a lot.

Jose would've loved Sturridge.

Surely Ashley is fresh enough to contribute again now.

It's a shame, because in pre season he really pushed for a decent role this season, but I'm not really surprised this is happening. I said it as soon as Willian signed that it'll probably be the end of KDBs CFC career and I and some others got flack for saying that the signing was unnecessary but alas, here you have it. KDB will likely leave us in January IMO.

I'll hold my hand up and say that right now, I'd drop him for Schwarzer.

He can take up the 6th attacking mid spot.

Gave up on him being our number one striker nearly a season and a half ago - thought he'd produce decently as a squad player which he has been doing in general this season but he needs to stay at that level and not go back down to that horrible poor form of his.

He just came back from injury and hasn't played in ages ffs. Of course he's going to be rusty. The overreaction in here is ridiculous.

Do you agree with me now that they do play the right sort of football for Romelu (who has started almost every game since he's gone there) to be developing at?Honestly, this is good. Everton loan spell will be fantastic for Romelu's future here IMO.

Yeah, I was saying in the match day thread Luiz would've thrived in this game, the space they afforded our CBs was absolutely criminal.

People are forgetting Arsenal have City then us after the Everton game. Relax guys, it's a marathon not a sprint.

People are getting over excited. He was brill today but he needs to prove he can pull of those performances in a better league, on a regular basis.

Ah, misread what you meant. Yeah, I agree with you.

I agree. Dropping Cech isn't so much of a problem now either since we have capable hands in Schwarzer.

I really wish people would stop saying this. We scored 9 goals in the last 3 games - granted not many of them by our strikers but the main problem we are having right now is our defence being too vulnerable. I agree having a top class striker would definitely help the situation but we should not be conceding 3 goals against teams like Sunderland and Stoke, sorry. That's the main problem right now.

Yeah because not scoring goals is our problem at the moment right...

Rotation is vital here. Any team we put out should be able to beat Steau.

Uhhm... Benzema is obviously a good enough striker. He's killing it this season. 12 goals and 8 assists in 21 appearances. Nearly a goal/assist every game.

Hmm, I get your point but hopefully the last few performances has opened Mou's eyes and made him realise that it'd be better to just stick with Luiz because he brings so much more to the team anyway. Cahill isn't even 'on form' anymore at the moment so there is no reason to play him ahead of Luiz anymore.

Tbf, Arsenal have been the only consistent team this year and it's why they're on top. I'm just hoping us and probably City hit that consistency too - that's when the title race will get interesting.

I disagree. Stoke grew in confidence in the second half because we weren't solid defensively. We lost control of the game when we conceded the first IMO. But I agree with the rest of your post, Mourinho was trying to win it, and like you said it didn't work... But as I've said before we shouldn't have to put him in that situation to begin with.

I agree with you, Torres was rubbish - however my point is, we shouldn't be put in a fragile situation against the likes of Stoke and Sunderland (6 goals conceded in 2 games against average teams is mediocre) - the defence let us down today and unfortunately our offensive players couldn't bail us out like against Sunderland. The problems aren't up front atm IMO, defensively we need to improve a lot. We'll struggle to win anything if we keep conceding 3 goals against average teams.

I agree that he could've perhaps taken off Ramires instead and let Mikel sit in front of the back 4 but at the same time Ramires' drive and energy on the counter and his ability to score goals (even though that wasn't on show today) is possibly why he kept him on as well. I also said in the MDT that I would be tempted to take off Rambo too for Lampard but I could see where Mou was coming from with that sub. Regardless, IMO Mourinho shouldn't have to be put in that situation, we had the game under control until our defence shot itself in the foot.

Mourinho: 'Schurrle came off because he had a calf injury. He told me he couldn't continue.' Now can people stop saying Mourinho didn't make the right sub with Schurrle. It was pretty clear that Andre wasn't fit in the second half, especially after his goal.

So easy to say in hindsight that he got it wrong with the subs today, I disagree. The subs were okay, it was a reaction to our defenders and GK having a nightmare and putting the team in that situation when we should've been comfortable. I don't think Jose did much wrong today.