LDN Blue

But to be fair, is that so hard to believe? The players that have exposed him have used their steps of pace they have on him coupled with the decline of his sharpness. You say 'space of 4months' but in the life of a footballer who's in his late 30s, that's actually a period of time where a decline is sharper. I'm not saying he's completely incapable of putting in big game performances, of course he's capable. But the only way he'd be able to do tha is, perhaps, but not playing every game. Gary Neville made the point about Yaya Toure, you'd want a 100% Yaya maybe once a week rather than 70-75% three times a week. The same goes with John Terry, you want him as sharp as he can be 100%

Hahaha, I'm surprised he didn't take Stones off for a farwell tbh

True, competiton to be France's CB partnership should be quite interesting now. They've certainly got options; Mangala, Sakho, Zouma, Varane, Laporte, Koscielny even Mathieu! What a time lol

Haha I know mate. For as long as we've both been here, we've seen this word under so many managers.. From Scolari to Ancelotti to even Villas-Boas/Di Matteo! It's always nice to think that it is true, but I want to give Mourinho the benefit of the doubt on this one. He's strengthening in areas of the pitch we definitely need. It seems like centre midfield will be ignored this summer, even though Wanyama is available now to back up Matic, let's hope that won't cost us.

Fuck me, he's still 25?! Feels like dude's been around forever lmao! What's with these Brazilians choosing the party life over their careers?! Ronaldinho, Adriano, Pato..

That makes a nice change from the previous rules!

I'm agreeing with you too much today bruh. SAY SOMETHING CONTROVERSIAL!

Don't believe for a second it's going to happen, but if ever there was a time it's definitely now. Let's be honest, in a choice between Rafa Benitez and Mourinho...

I'm glad he seeked out Yacob before he went off to have a handshake. Yeah it's all good to see Diego fired up and ready to fight for the cause, but there's a line that he needs to keep in a mind and I think he did that really well today. I'm sure Mourinho deserves some credit there but also Terry, you could see JT telling Costa to cool off when Yacob and he were summoned by the referee.

As far as I'm concerned, José is trying his best to turn this around. Playing Pedro and Willian today was impressive, for me, because he's firstly understood that Willian is capable of that number 10 role ahead of using Ramires anywhere on the pitch. But also he trusts Pedro and that trust was rewarded tenfold today! Yes we've got problems in defence and midfield, but he's solved one of our issues. Which is our lack of attacking depth on the right hand side. Let's hope when Baba's got enough training under his belt that Ivanovic will be phased out. Mourinho's got now Ivanovic and Terry to be concerned with. Zouma put in a good performance as usual, so you can see that Mou's starting to trust him. That's one step. But he also knows he can't just replace 3/4 of that backline and expect them to click. The quadruple of Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry and Azpili took 2-3 seasons to gel perfectly. He'll understand that Rahman and Stones will have to be eased in. I still trust him to turn this around. This season might not be a title winning one, but it'll be a positive transition. Bolded and underlined because our past attempts at 'transition' have been dire, but I really do believe Mou can pull this off. It won't be pretty, but it could be effective.

we're never going to be without a plagued striker, are we?! Shevenchenko, Torres, Falcao. Who's next?! Costa, Remy and Bamford would've been ideal, though I'm glad we loaned out Bamford because he'll have more chance playing for Palace than he will here. Solanke is young, but if he's third choice would it really matter? I hope Loiic doesn't get frustrated and I hope he bides his time, because on current form he'll be 2nd choice in no time!

Ah, the eventual decline of Captain, Leader, Legend. No-one can deny that it was coming, the picture was being painted long before this and John can do nothing but hold his head up high in pride! He'll go out fighting, that's for sure. He wants to be there, he wants to prove it to himself and to everyone else. But alas, he must come to terms with the fact that when you're at a top club and you're on the wrong side of 30, your actions will be under a microscope. I empathise tremendously with him, it's not really his fault that things seem to be going awry at the moment. That whole defensive unit needs a shake up and he's not the only one at fault. However, he's now approaching 35 and in the pipeline comes a fresh 21 year old, talented, defender. Terry must step up to the plate now, become a mentor to Zouma and Stones.. Train with these lads, teach them what he's learned in 35 years. I hope and hope that Terry won't be sour about his predicament right now. I hope we won't see him sulking and whining and bitching to the media, I hope he stays with us beyond this season and eventually eases himself out and takes up coaching perhaps! John Terry, we salute you for years of leadership and graft!

Yeah but I think in that context you have to look at age and positional play too. Sure you probably could sign Ronaldo for that money, but he's now 30 (31 in Feb) and playing in a position where we just already strengthened. Bale is younger, granted, but again it's an area of the pitch where we don't need to be spending that much money. However, central midfield is an area where this team is weakest right now (aside from right-back). Even with Stones and Pedro, we're going to continue to be overrun in this area of the pitch and with Pogba you're getting a number 10 and a CM at the same time. With an inconsistent Oscar, that's literally killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Anyway, is it really going to make his transition harder? He played a lot of football in this country, granted not at Premier League level, but he's not in a striker's position for example where goals are the justification for a large pricetag.

I felt the same about Cesc, don't worry

To be honest, who really even plays 4-4-2 anymore in the first place? All the top teams you can think of now either play an interchanging front 3 (Barcelona, Real Madrid [to an extent]) or they play with a lone striker (Bayern, Arsenal, United). You can argue that Manchester City is the only to keep trying it with Bony-Aguero but even then you see their shape now is going towards a lone striker now that they've got Sterling and Navas flanking Aguero.

“We can work and play with two of them at the same time. We are preparing things and we are working on things where it is possible to have two of them on the pitch.” Mourinho said this about Torres last year too lol.

Well people wanted Richard Rodriguez.. I guess we got half way there?

Only reason I'm in favour of Wembley is because it's so much closer to my house. Otherwise I hate it, Wembley sucks lmao.

True, plus you can't ever trust Liverpool anyway . I do pin a few hope on Coutinho this weekend though!

Well it would be for next matchday, so West Ham isn't a bad opposition for him

Thing is, Ramires does have the basic attributes to play out wide. He's got the pace on most PL fullbacks and he's got the stamina to match it too. Unfortunately he suffers a sever lack of concentration when it comes to passing a football. For the life of me, I don't know how Mourinho hasn't made Ramires stay back in training to practice passing a ball

Yeah I was thinking that when I saw '16.' but I don't know. I mean he didn't do his chances any harm vs Barcelona in pre-season, so it depends on how much Mourinho's really relying on that.

Fuck sake Rooney, that's the last straw. Out the fantasy squad he goes, depending on how Benteke does tomorrow; it's either him or Gomis.

Would be nice to see him play as Hazard's understudy I guess, but let's be honest. He'll go on loan to somewhere and we'll never see him again lol.

Come on guys, he was never going to go and be an instant first choice at his first premier league club. He'll be blooded in, earn his stripes and prove himself.