The Skipper

No, I don't agree with your first point, simply because I'm a firm believer of defensive cohesion as a team. We shouldn't solely be relying on the pivot to do the majority of the defensive work, it needs to be a collective thing. It's what Bayern do so effectively for example. Besides, ask yourself this - if we are facing teams like QPR, Southampton and other mid table teams - do we really need as much protection in the pivot? I don't think so - I'd rather us take the initiative and someone like Modric in your team would provide you that. You make valid points regarding Modric's situation at Tottenham but surely you can't say he's an awful CM even if you don't like him? As I mentioned above - having someone like Modric against the lesser teams would be so beneficial to the team it's unreal, in my honest opinion. Having someone who's as proficient as Modric is in his passing or driving forward the ball from deeper positions is priceless - it's what Luiz has sort of been doing for us. We obviously disagree on the matter though so we'll just leave it there.

But the thing is though, Modric played at CM in the PL for years and performed excellently, a lot of people mutually agreed he was the best CM in the PL. He wasn't playing at CAM. I don't see why a team consisting of someone like Mikel who compliments Modric quite well, whilst still having Oscar, Mata and Hazard in front of them won't work. The notion that Modric needs to be in a 3 man midfield and be the most advanced midfielder in that is invalid IMO simply because he played with a more forward thinking midfielder (VDV) for years at Spurs. His two of his three best performances in Real shirt have come in their pivot. People are acting like playing Modric in the pivot is like playing a striker there. He does have a decent defensive game, he got away with playing next to the likes of Parker and Palacios for years at Spurs whilst having someone like VDV in front of him - tell me, how does that work if Modric isn't decent in his defensive work? We're reliant on our pivot yes but one of the problems we've had this season is the distribution out of the pivot, and if we're aiming to become the dynamic team that we want to be then having a player like Modric who alleviates the pressure and keeps possession is vital. We don't have anything like that in our pivot right now, so signing Modric would be a brilliant signing in my opinion.

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Are people forgetting that Modric thrived as a DLP in the PL? He didn't play as a CAM when he was playing with Tottenham. He played next to Scott Parker in midfield and had VDV in front of him. This guy was hands down alongside Yaya Toure the best midfielder in the PL over the last couple of seasons and people are now saying he isn't good enough? What are people looking for when it comes to improving our pivot? Is it not a link between our defence to attack? That's exactly what Modric excels at - linking up play effectively to his forward players, being a threat outside the box with his decent long shot, holding on to the ball, creating that pass before the assist etc... there's a lot of upsides to Modric's game. I can't genuinely believe anyone with any footballing IQ would call Modric "awful". Yeah he's not as excellent defensively but you don't always need extra defensive cover in your pivot at all times. You don't need two overly defensive players in your pivot. The majority of teams we play against sit deep and allow us to have the ball - if you have someone like Modric in your team when you're allowed to have the ball your team is guaranteed to play a lot better. Modric would still be an outstanding signing if the fee wasn't too high IMO, he fits the bill exactly. He didn't play CAM against Dortmund in the second leg. He had Ozil in front of him and then Kaka - he played in the pivot and was one of Madrid's best players. Xabi sacrificed his role as the ball distributor and gave it Modric simply because he's the more dynamic ball distributor - exactly what Real needed as they were down by three goals and Borussia sat deep trying to counter - doesn't that sound familiar? Teams do this against us ALL the time, they give our pivot too much space/time because our main offensive threat are the three behind the striker - Modric would completely change that as teams would be forced to come press him and thus creating more space for those in front of him - and you wouldn't even have to be scared about Luka losing the ball as he's excellent at holding onto it. Modric would add SO much to this team. More so than Xabi would - but Xabi would still be a great signing if we could get him for a good price as he's an excellent ball distributor himself. I prefer Modric because he's more dynamic and because we've got dynamic players such as Hazard, Mata and Oscar infront of our pivot he'd fit in a lot better.

He hasn't played in a deeper role in midfield that often. He's often been deployed out wide or even behind the striker... I did say that he's playing with poorer players and I did say that I'm not defending Marin's poor season here, but what I'm trying to get across is that KDB wouldn't have developed as well as he has at Werder if he stayed here this season. I'd rather have him as a starting player than him playing that squad role, it's done wonders for him. He's ready now to challenge the first team squad for next season - not sure we'd be saying the same if he stayed here.

Hmm. I think that's a bit unfair to say. I'm not really defending Marin but... 1. If KDB didn't go out on loan, he wouldn't have developed as nicely as opposed to him staying here... 2. KDB has played a lot more than Marin, granted with poorer players but still - if you look at the goal+assists ratio's then it isn't that impressive. KDB isn't really that much of a stats player anyway but yeah.

Did he really say that ...

Are we still building our squad up from the ground up though? I don't think we are anymore. We've now established a nucleus for the following seasons to come: Oscar, Mata, Hazard, Ramires & Luiz. With the likes of Courtois, Lukaku, KDB, Chalobah etc. coming through as well, we've got great potential as a squad - what we need now is a manager that can bring these players to the next level, and I honestly think there isn't a better man than Mourinho out there to do that for us. Mourinho was our last long term manager (he was here for 3 seasons which is very long term for us). He could've easily stayed for another season or two had it not been for the off field shenanigans with Roman. Roman's changed. He now wants to build a team that can sustain itself for many years to come rather than the instant glory he craved for earlier - we've won the holy grail now anyway. Mourinho's been everywhere and accomplished most of what he wanted to do. He's changed too. I honestly think Mourinho will stay with us for at least 3/4 years if everything goes well.

Why is Higuain way better? Because he scores more goals or...? For us, Dzeko would be a much better fit than Higuain, simply because he leads the line better than Higuain does.

Fair enough, can't disagree. You watch Mikel play for Nigeria (granted against poorer opposition, but still) and everything goes through him. These intangibles can be fixed though - one thing I am looking forward to if Mourinho does return is a fully, pushed, motivated Mikel.

Higuain is a good striker but he's very limited. He scores goals yes, but he has the tendency to go missing in a lot of games. Why do you think there's always speculation about Real getting a new striker? Because the Higuain/Benzema duo isn't good enough for a club that's one of the best in the world (Granted, Benzema brings a lot more to the team and when he's on form he's brilliant - but Karim is too inconsistent). I too would take Dzeko over Higuain simply because he brings a lot more to your team. We can do a lot better than Higuain. Higuain isn't good enough to be the main striker at a club like CFC or Real in my opinion.

Mikel is far more talented than all three.

As I've said before, we shouldn't be relying on Tottenham and Arsenal to screw up, they have very winnable games remaining. Saying that - our destiny is still within our own hands. We beat United tomorrow and we beat Tottenham on Wednesday; we're practically top 4 as we'll be 6 pts ahead of Tottenham with 2 games remaining - due to our goal difference there would be no way Tottenham would catch up unless they went AWOL in their last two games (assuming we lost those, which I don't think will happen). 2 cup finals ahead basically. If we don't win at least either, especially the latter, then we don't deserve top four.

Everyone loves him now, before the majority of people didn't rate him at all. My point is you don't completely write off a player because he's going through a rough spell.

You should. That would be the natural reaction of a Chelsea fan.

DAVID LUIZ. Does that ring a bell?

Ivanovic is just as culpable of losing his man as Cahill is. I don't mind whoever, just hope that Luiz plays at the back as he does have the ability to put whoever United have upfront in his pocket.

Reminds me of a young JT.

Mikel's going through a very rough patch at the moment so it's easy for people to slate him, after all, people were doing the exact same with Luiz, they used to ridicule him from here to the sun, and look now. He's still a good player in my books. I've seen people now say because Essien has had a few decent games (at RB) that they'd rather have Essien at DM than Mikel which I think is bollocks tbh. I love Michael but it just shows the fickle nature of our fans, and football fans in general - the grass is always greener on the other side right? A few weeks of bad performances won't completely change my opinion on him, he's still got a lot to give to the squad. Mikel has the top performances in his locker, as we saw at the end of last season and the very start of this one, and he has shown a few flashes e.g. when he came on against United. It's very easy for people to say Luiz>Mikel because Luiz has that adventurous, attacking side to him - they're different types of players. People have always rated a player who can score goals above one that doesn't. I still think Mikel is the better DM with the right partner but then again, that depends on what you look for in a DM. What I look for in a DM is someone that can provide a platform for the rest of the team to express themselves - Mikel at his best does this brilliantly. Luiz's performances in midfield are being overhyped because he's scored a few goals from that position (even though he has done the same at CB). His general performances have mostly been average there. Mikel could flourish under Mourinho as well, after all it was Mourinho who reverted him to that DM role. He's still a great asset to the squad IMO. Grill me if you want but I stand by that until I see anything else to suggest that I should change my opinion, which I haven't.

Sting, I'm delighted we have Hazard, but if there was one thing he could improve on it would be his composure infront of goal. Hazard has the potential to be a great finisher as he does produce some brilliant finishes as we have seen this season, and even last season where he scored 20 for Lille, but had he been more consistent in his finishing he would've easily been on 15+ goals this season. There's nothing wrong with a bit of constructive criticism. It's the only slight criticism I have for Hazard - the consistency in his finish.

Fully agree... I said that at the start of the season and got blazed for it. When Hazard becomes more clinical in his finishing he'll be unstoppable.

I'm not sure. I hope he does.

He's basically been forced out by Bayern, that's why he said he's retiring because he's basically had enough - and right now he's proven the Bayern board wrong on every account. They're on route to a historic treble. Jupp has said that he would reconsider retirement if interesting offers came along so he's another great option. I've said it in the thread earlier, if we don't get Mourinho I'd be happy with Jupp.

I've skimmed through and it's more people scapegoating Luiz for our bad defensive performances rather than him getting criticised for his individual defensive mistakes, which was my point - he was still our best defender back then.