The Skipper

Can people please list the amount of mistakes Cech has made this season? I'm intrigued.

You're right, England's best midfield three is definitely Carrick - Gerrard - Wilshere. SFL is a great option to have but he isn't a starter anymore. England's best XI is probably (in my opinion atm): Hart Johnson - Jones - Cahill - Cole(?) Carrick Wilshere - Gerrard Walcott - Rooney - Sturridge

He should go especially if we get a striker in in January.

Yup, don't even know why there's 6 pages of unnecessary bickering on here to begin with. It was clear he was obviously angling for a ban - it's gone from Kojo being banned to the forum not being good anymore to TOPTB and Choulo arguing... There's no objective in this thread IMO. Should be closed I think.

Whilst a link player would significantly improve things, it won't magically fix our problems. We need to improve when the AMs do have the ball - there is a serious lack of movement or risk taking in the final third even as of now. Yeah we don't have a DLP but that doesn't excuse why our AMs aren't doing anything when they do get the ball.

Ronaldo deserves it.

So do Ba and Eto'o...

Stoke Away.

Go ahead, go and watch the other games, no one will miss you.

I was against this earlier in the summer as I thought we could get someone better but I actually agree now. Cabaye would provide a fantastic fix for the pivot short term wise. I would love for this to happen.

This is the team we should've played against WBA, I agree. But against WHU we might want a little bit more physicality - which is why I might start Oscar in the middle again and also Ivanovic - but apart from that I'd have pretty much the same team.

I edited my post to say that the referee got us the result, which was a draw. Perhaps you should go rewatch the match, especially the last 10-20 mins if you think the ref had a horrendous inadequate performance. That's laughable. If it wasn't for the ref WBA would've left with 3pts, that's clear for anyone to see.

Bar the Ivanovic 'foul' which led to their second goal (which I still believe had more to do with Ivanovic's lack of ability to effectively attack) the referee got us the result. Not sure how anyone could say the ref was a joke to us, in the last 10-20 minutes he gave nearly everything our way. We have no right to be annoyed at the ref.

I honestly think right now Hazard *should* be our best player. Mata & Willian haven't played enough, and Oscar has in general this season been better than Hazard. Hazard has played the most games out of all of those as well but I can honestly not remember the last time we witnessed a truly excellent Hazard performance (bar perhaps Bayern) this season.

Oh dear. Spun by Liam fucking Ridgewell.

Yeah everyone else was average, but for me, Eden needs to be the sort of player that becomes the one to rescue the team when shit fucks up, just like today. I didn't think he was that good today but it was an improvement on previous performances, but I'm still looking for a lot more from Eden, I know he has the capabilities to do much more. In the last 20 minutes when we were trying to look for a goal and when he was trying to force things he looked a thousand times better than what he did in the earlier parts of the game. He needs to play like this for the whole 90 minutes - but I'm not even fully blaming him for that - I think Jose's instructions have more to do with that.

Shackled by Lampard going forward way too often.

I don't participate in any of those activities. And it doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to express my feelings about who played badly or what I believe the manager got wrong, whether that is on here, or with my mates, or at the Bridge.

Wait what? What is the point in the existence of this forum then?

Yeah, it seems to be something that's trending. He's a CB that's transitioned into a RB, that's why he isn't as comfortable on the ball as others. Azpi must play in these sort of games instead of Ivanovic. When we really need defensive responsibility at the back then yeah, play Iva.

Also: These are both ridiculous things to say Jose tbh, a lot of teams will play exactly like the way WBA play today - you can't say you don't know what to do to break it down. He needs to stop starting so defensively minded in games like these. In these games you start people who can directly influence and create something against walls of players - I'm talking Mata in the lines, Luiz trying to find someone from deep, Bertrand and Azpilicueta bombing forward - this contributes to the penetration of these sort of teams and thus creates chances. We honestly need to stop trying to wait for a mistake from the other team to score and start creating chances via ourselves.

Stinker of a game today. Don't blame him though, Mourinho needs to select Azpi on the right in games like these. It was infuriating how comfortable WBA were with Ivanovic having the ball, and it was also embarrassing how we always searched out for him.

Agree with this. Against teams that just sit deep with a low block, start Mata or KDB or someone who actually has the ability to (regularly) produce a great defence splitting pass. I'd also make sure Mikel plays to negate the work rate we lose from Oscar - and also to allow us to play more forward thinking fullbacks. I feel like playing Mata and Lampard together is too much of a liability defensively. For teams like WBA my team would probably be something like Cech; Bertrand Terry Luiz Azpi; Mikel Ramires; Hazard Mata Willian; Eto'o/Torres.

Agree with this. Against teams that just sit deep with a low block, start Mata or KDB or someone who actually has the ability to (regularly) produce a great defence splitting pass. I'd also make sure Mikel plays to negate the work rate we lose from Oscar. For teams like WBA my team would probably be something like Cech; Bertrand Terry Luiz Azpi; Mikel Ramires; Hazard Mata Willian; Eto'o/Torres.

One must wonder, why is there no pattern in our attacking play? We honestly can't regularly play counter attacking football because 90% of the time we will face teams that sit deep with a low block. Mourinho must find a formula for the attack that works and that brings the best out of the likes of Hazard, Mata, Oscar, Willian, KDB, Eto'o, Torres etc.