The Skipper

Really feel sorry for Schurrle, KDB. Can't believe Mourinho is already throwing on Ba. Route one football here we come.

Should've brought on a wide player like Schurrle or Willian Mou.

Why we're playing Mazacar and playing Essien and playing Azpi at LB again I will never know. Too narrow, too rusty. We can still probably win but the wrong team was picked.

The team is so narrow.

When it comes to finishing and off the ball movement yeah, but all other aspects I think Lewa is superior.Lewa really isn't that far off Radamel. I'd put them on the same level personally.

RIP Paul Walker.

Still got Aguero, Suarez, Yaya Toure, Zabaleta, Mignolet, Shaw and Lovren to play and already have 32 points. Hopefully they all have good games tomorrow (apart from Shaw and Lovren, they can just have decent games ).

Fair play, went to watch the game with a couple of Arsenal fans today and Arsenal were fantastic. I've seen plenty of Arsenal games this season, nearly as many as CFC due to my mates and they deserve to be leading the league at the moment - however their players will start burning out soon if Wenger doesn't rotate this month. I'm still confident us and City especially are able to claw points back because we haven't hit full gear like they have yet. Once we (hopefully soon) do, we'll definitely be able to do exactly that - especially in the games against Arsenal.

I do remember me and a couple of other posters practically being murdered on here because we thought selling Sturridge and not giving him a new contract whilst buying Ba was a mistake. As TOPTB said, a strikeforce of Lukaku, Sturridge, and possibly Torres (which is exactly what I wanted last year in January) is miles better than our current strikeforce. He is actually the ideal striker to our system right now as well ironically, and even though he plays for Liverpool, he still remains one of my favourite players atm. Lukaku would've had plenty of more playing time as well because he would've been able to play with Sturridge due to Daniel's versatility. Real shame that Dan's not with us anymore but what's happened has happened.

Right, so you've been told by the club personally that they haven't been scouting Luke Shaw? If he was so easy to obtain, another top PL club would've snapped him up as well by now. Like I said to you before, Luke isn't as attainable as you're trying to make him out to be, especially now So'ton are doing great in the league.

Lol. So everything bad that's happening is Emelano's fault, but Michael gets no credit for bringing in the likes of Oscar, Ramires, Hazard, Cahill, Azpi etc. (basically rejuvenating a squad that was going downhill anyway) from you? Right.

Similarly, there were only 2 days between the WHU and the Basel game - hence why I said I wanted them to be rested. I even said before the game that we should rest people and give players like KDB, Mata, Schurrle etc. some more game time which we could've easily done against Basel. Oscar, Ramires, Iva etc. have played a lot but they're youngish enough to carry on playing after 2 days of rest. The same can't be said about SFL. Felt it was unwise for Jose to keep playing a 35 year old who obviously doesn't have the stamina to do what he did years ago - should've saved him for Southampton.

Don't see the point in Martinez - not the type of striker we should be making our number 1 striker in my opinion. Would rather make Lukaku number 1.

Not really, he's a bit like KDB in where he could probably do a job there but would need someone like Mikel to play next to him. He plays best as the most advanced player in a midfield 3.

Sure, if Jose was going to play Lukaku all or most of the time then I'd agree with you but I don't think that's the case, the way things were looking before Romelu left, hence why long term it's better if the kid just gets as much game time as he can at a very decent club.

Yeah I agree but Mourinho really should've rested the likes of Oscar, Lamps, Ramires etc. There was no need to start them IMO especially when we have Southampton on the weekend. Jose got it wrong in that aspect and he knows it - there's no reason to play a 35 year old in every game when we have other players who are more than capable of stepping up and putting in a performance.

Surely the likes of Mata, KDB, Schurrle deserve minutes now?

Don't see why you bother, especially with Phil, he will never admit that Mikel has had a good game. Granted Mikel wasn't amazing against Basel but like I've said before, every loss is Mikel's fault, and every win he's involved in he's "just a passenger" according to these lot.

Should be given more chances considering our AMs are not impressing consistently at all.

Yeah, let's disregard all of his previous performances because he had one average game...

Not too fussed about the loss tbh considering we did qualify. Jose shouldn't have played pretty much the same team though. It was clear that there were a few tired guys out there. Anyway, onwards and upwards.

Lmao.

Blames Mikel for everything. He's blind. When we win and if Mikel plays he's supposedly a passenger.

You're not getting my point - I'm not saying that if I was CFC manager I would've put him out on loan too. Listen, if I was CFC's manager Lukaku would be my number one striker too, but Mourinho doesn't think of it that way, thus obviously it's better that he went out on loan. I can understand where Jose comes from, and that's why I'm supporting the loan system for him because it's far better for Lukaku to get as many minutes as he can than him being here sitting on the bench as an impact sub. Being a first choice striker at a top 6/7 club far outweighs just training with world class players and getting minutes here and there in my opinion.

Our strikers need to do much more than just score, that's pretty obvious with what we're trying to create here. 'Pathetic' is probably an over exaggeration but his general play in that game was fairly average, and sometimes very poor. Him scoring 2 goals doesn't mask that - as I've said before, Romelu isn't going out on loan to prove he can be a reliable goalscorer, everyone knows that already, as you'd probably know very well he's shown that since a very young age - he's going out on loan to refine his general play in a possession based side where he'll get 90 minutes every week.