Henrique

With so many players unavailable, Mourinho will have big decisions to make regarding team selection for Sunday's game at Liverpool. 'I can't decide by myself, that's a decision where I have to listen to the club. I'm just a piece, the manager and no more than that. The fact the match is on Sunday puts the problem not in my hands, but the hands of the people who decide the game should be played on Sunday, not Saturday or Friday. We represent English football, we are the only English team in Europe. Spain has four teams and gives them all the conditions to have success.' Any thoughts about those quotes?

This was far from a boring match.

It would be interesting to see how Mourinho will build the team for the next week. Mikel and Lampard out, and probably Terry.

Great game by Cahill. Mourinho got what he wanted. Lets see next week if he got his tactics right.

Mikel giving too much space.

Just trying long balls for Torres, we are not even trying to counter attack.

Ridiculous tactics.

The problem is sometimes being conservative means your are afraid of winning. I already said that, but it seems Mourinho first instinct is not to losing other than wanting to win. I still have in my mind that 05 semi-final, when the team failed to score a single against a team that was in 5th in the PL, around 40 points behind. Being conservative in a game like that was really unecessary.

What are you talking about? Just because the staff lets some things slide? It means just because the staff does not care about some insults (a while ago this gary gordon guy called someone a cunt, and days ago someone was labelled "old cunt"), I can't reply to a post from gary gordon? Just check his record he is one of the most outrageous forum members around, despite his cute baby avatar. Did he send a PM for you? So its okay for some people to have xenophobic like comments about "not having english blood", or suggesting that non-english players are idiots. If you think I should get suspended, okay, thats your forum after all, but I'm sure that would be 100% biased and unfair. Its not secret that you are not my biggest fan. ps: You should instead tell everyone why Tommy was banned, I thought everyone who gets the ban have their names on "banned members" topic.

So Moyes is out. FINALLY people will stop the bullshit that "sacking managers is classless". Moyes had a 6 years contract and is out after a poor season, and we are talking about a club where a manager stayed for decades.

I'm not comparing Matic to Mikel in terms of quality, but just saying people overrated Mikel in the past, saying he was really good, while he was limited. Now people think Matic is football god, while he is not. About the fact he is a DM, I don't agree with people who believe that a player must be DM to play as DM. Essien and Ballack, both played in that position, but they were not considered "pure" DM.

Anyone knows what his contract situation is? I think the only reason he will be offered a new contract, is to keep an english core in the team, but at this point I cant't believe there is no english player around that can be more useful than Lampard has been this season. For example, saturday Luiz was warming up, while Lampard was always sitting on the bench, which means in a game you must win, Mourinho thinks at this moment Luiz is more useful than Lampard to change the game.

If you want intelligent posts here you should never post again.

Probably we will be linked with Hulk again in the summer...

I think Bony is better than Lukaku, and is definitely more suited to the kind of midfield players we have.

Thats up to your opinion. For me what was different yesterday was the result, and again that was a game when the team had to take the initiative and had a lot of ball possession, and as I said before, I believe Matic is not the ideal player for this kind of situation. You are fooling yourselves if you think its a question of who are playing alongside him. I just have to remember you what people thought about Mikel until some time ago: http://www.talkchelsea.net/_/articles/john-mikel-obi-the-keystone-r132 This is one of the most "liked" posts in this forum so far. Mikel never was the "keystone", he has always been a limited DM in many aspects, but he definitely is not useless, he can be useful in some ways. Matic is now the new darling, the easiest path is to join the "he is a monster" behavior. Actually TC became a place for extreme opinions in recent times: a player is a monster, or a player is useless, a player is one of the best in the world, or a player is shit, thats one of the reasons you always find pathetic things like the ironic "lets sell him" every single time a forum member point a player is not playing that well, or the "lets sack him" every time someone say Mourinho got the tactics wrong.

Actually the most "patriotic" forum member here is the one that liked your post. Everybody knows what Ramires can and can't do, and people who knows one thing or two about football (and thats not your case) understand he is a useful player. Actually he has been one of our most useful player in past seasons, he was tremendous in 2011/12, now suddenly he is useless and "should never play again".

I think it was on par with most of his performances for us, if the result was different, people would be here saying he is monster.

If you are talking about zolayes, he really dont know what he really wants, the amount of times he change his opinions in every subject is embarrassing.

That might be true, but how this situation apply to this topics?

But even in Italy the team that win the league is usually the one who scores more. You can win the league with defensive football, and there must be a balance between attacking and defense. When you sacrifice your attacking qualities in order to improve your defense, you end up having problems. Even the great italian teams had some amazing attacking talents, just remember Inter in 2010 with Etoo, Milito and Sneider, and Milan in 2007, with Kaka and Seedorf.

lol I remember that this gary gordon guy used to laugh at my posts as soon as I joined this forum. He is probably the most prejudiced forum member around, not only that, but he is easily the most stupid person I have ever read in this forum. Hazard is our best players this season, and he does not have english blood, last season it was Mata, the season before, Drogba, today our best player on the pitch was Willian, days ago the player that scored an own goal in a vital game against Crystal Palace was english, the best player of the season so far is from Uruguay. 4 years later he became the laughable one.

Ramires is the new scapegoat, replacing Luiz in that role, who replaced Mikel. Also in the waiting list: Oscar, William. Matic still has some seasons before he is finally ready.

To be honest, I think Atlético are favorites. They have a better team, actually they really have a team, while we don't even know how our midfield really look like. They have a terrific defense, while we barely create chances, and when we do, we have to deal with Curtois, who has been a monster this season. They are in a better moment of the season.

lol He wont be sacked this season, no matter what happens, but I dont expect Jose to stay decades as Chelsea manager. SAF is a unique case. Longevity does not necessary mean success, and Wenger experience with Arsenal is a perfect example that changes are necessary sometimes. Liverpool is not spending bigger than Arsenal, in the beginning of the season they almost get Liverpool's best player. Its not a question of spending more money. People love to remember that SAF had "x" trophyless seasons, before turning United into world beaters, but today that would be impossible. United is not the same team they were in late 80s. They can't afford today 6 or 7 years of failure without trying to fix things. They need to sell shirts, they need to justify the amount of money is invested in the club. Moyes has a 6 years contract, but I'm sure the won't stay more than 2 years if they keep this pathetic display for next season. Thats how high-level football works. Sometimes managers are fired, sometimes they just leave seeking new challenges.