The Skipper

Amazing mate. We're not even in performance mode and it's still beastly.

Brilliant all around. Great bit of break up play from MVG, GREAT run from Big Vic, and an excellent finish from Oscar. That's what I like to see.

BRILLIANT GOAL!!!!

Terry's technical ability is forever underrated.

http://nutjob.eu/chelseatv.html for anyone that needs the link.

Such a strong bench but still a decent team out there. Our squad is so much better than last season's. Love it. Also interesting to see Oscar as the only Confed Cup player starting the game.

I was merely responding to the use of stats - what I said about goals was meant to be applied to assists as well. You're right in saying that Khedira and Gustavo are usually the deepest midfielders in their team, but they play with different people; they can join the attack and score goals because of who they're partnering in midfield - usually Xabi Alonso or Schweinsteiger - whom both can comfortably stay deep as well and both are excellent pivot players. However, the situation at Chelsea doesn't allow that for Mikel. When Mikel played last season, he's usually paired with Ramires and Lampard, especially the latter, and sometimes Luiz. All three of these three players enjoy going forward a lot whenever they do play with Mikel and this forces Mikel to be the deepest midfilder - to provide a safe haven for when we can't pass the ball forward. Mikel does not get forward as much as Khedira or Gustavo do for their respective clubs and that is very much down to the partners they have in midfield. Well, you can't just disregard his performances for Nigeria when he is given that freedom and when he isn't the furthest/deepest midfielder back (he's often the most advanced, paired with a B2B and a DM). When Mikel gets this freedom, his range of passing increases tenfold, he struts his stuff creatively and gets himself into decent goalscoring positions (surprisingly). Your argument that Nigeria are a mediocre side (quite laughable since they won the recent ACN and put up quite a few decent performances in the Confed Cup which shows that they are a decent side) is baseless. That's like saying Bale is a mediocre player because Wales are a mediocre football team when that's clearly far from the truth. In Moses, Mikel and Omereu we have some of Nigeria's best players so it I don't know why you're so worried about that. I don't think Duppy Conqueror was comparing Mikel to Makelele, what he was saying is that goals/assists do not define a DM - he simply gave an example of how Makelele who is considered one of the greatest in that aspect only scored once for us from the penalty spot - and I agree with that. Like I said, personally I don't really look for my DM to score goals or provide assists. Whilst it is nice to have one that does that, it's more important for me that he does his primary job - shield the back four, provide a safe haven/easy options for your team to keep possession, positional sense etc. Mikel is a good DM, not world class like De Rossi for example but he's definitely our best option right now (I don't buy that Essien's ahead of him, sorry) but I think he's being misused at Chelsea because he's being shackled too much and can't express himself properly. Hopefully Mourinho gives him the chance to do so this upcoming season, I think he'll surprise people if he does get the chance to have a bit more freedom.

We need a big man up front for the youth so the signing makes sense. Feruz can't always do it on his own. There were plenty of games where we needed a focal point in attack and Feruz/Kiwomya couldn't provide that. Our attacking options look miles better now with Izzy Brown, Feruz and Perica as options now.

^No need to call people cunts but I agree with you in a sense that Mikel will play quite a lot of games.

Pep is experimenting with the team too much IMO, trying to stamp his authority/look on the Bayern squad because he knows that he walked into a dream job with pretty much guaranteed trophies. I'm not going to look at his time at Bayern too seriously to be honest. It's all too easy for him over there, I'm disappointed he didn't take a bigger challenge.

Yes, it's why David Luiz is such an unique defender/player because he brings you goals wherever he plays. My point is that you shouldn't really be looking at goals/assists from DMs in order to evaluate their ability in attack because their primary role is to be the deepest midfielder in the team so they won't very often be in the final third to create or score goals. Mikel has the ability to create and score goals as he shows for Nigeria time and time again but at Chelsea he's given different instructions and he adheres to them more because he understands that when you have 4/5 players ahead of you and David Luiz, Ashley Cole and Azpilicueta also coming out from defence to join the attack on occasions that he can't just bomb forward and join attacks whenever he wants to. It's nice to have a DM that can score the odd goal here and now but I certainly wouldn't expect or penalise against my DM if he doesn't. DMs should be one of the last people you look to for goals assists IMO.

Still don't know why people look at goals and stats from DMs.

Not surprised to see that none of the news outlets are reporting it.

Guess we aren't signing another foreign player then.

If he was going to go there he'd obviously have to take a wage cut. I don't think he'd mind that as much as people are trying to point out here though.

Lol, he's about a season away maximum from his prime, maybe even next season. Luiz is barely potential. Sure, he can still improve mentally but physically and technically his game is set. He's one of the best CBs out there in those aspects and can walk into almost any team. We're a club that don't sell their best players. He's still got a long term contract here with us. That's why he's being quoted at £40m.

We're talking about a team that don't want to sell to their rivals to begin with though so of course prices will be slightly higher, which is why I think £35m is fair.

£35m is fair.

You used to be one of his prime defenders, so are you laughing at yourself too?

Why is this thread in the MHS?

Great signing for CCFC. Rumoured to be getting Capoue In as well which isn't bad at all.

I don't think anyone is saying he's one of the best players in the world. What we are saying though is that he is one of the best young talents out there. No one is saying he's the finished product at all - what we're discussing about here is whether Oscar deserves to be mentioned as one of the better prospects in the world, and I think he definitely is. Yeah, okay, he only scored 4 in the PL but he scored 5 in 6 appearances in the CL.

Good job. Server seems to be a lot faster. Will be interesting to see how well it performs on match days.

He's only 18. There's no need to rush whatsoever.

Transfermarkt fees are nowhere near the real life valuation of a player. Like I said before, there's no way Dortmund would sell Hummels for a mere £23m when they don't need the money. I doubt they disclosed how much Hummels is worth to transfermarkt. And again, everyone knows that Porto never sell their players for anything less than the release clause (or close to it). His release clause is £42m. There's no way he'd go for a mere £13m. I'd go by that more than going by any fee transfermarkt puts up. The fact that Luiz is being quoted at £40m whilst transfermarkt had him at £26m should tell you why the fees they put up aren't meant to be taken literally. I don't know why you can't comprehend why people are saying Luiz is better than Hummels. Your example is flawed - we're talking about their form from last season, not their form 3 seasons back. Hummels has been very, very error prone last season and had a bad season whether you like it or not. If going by their recent finished season, a lot of people who watch both on a regular basis would have Luiz over him 9/10 times, I sincerely believe so.