LDN Blue

Either himself, Mourinho, or Lollichon (assuming the latter works closely with Courtois) must've looked at De Gea. De Gea had more or less the same reputation when he was Atletico Madrid.. Everyone was a huge fan, from those in La Liga to those only watching other leagues. The Spaniard was an excellent shot stopper but wasn't great at dominating the area when he moved to England. This was because of the difference in the physicality of both leagues. De Gea has learnt his lesson the hard way and is better in his 6-yard box. Courtois was instantly that good and that's the difference between De Gea and himself, the Belgian's adaptability is much higher.

Thing is, I don't think it's an 'intended leg-breaker'. Gary Neville did an interesting analysis on it, albeit he's slightly bias being a former RB, but he suggested as it's a side-foot challenge it's not actually as malicious as it looks. Bardsley believes the ball is going out and when he realises it isn't, he tries to put it out. Because he can't get enough pace to cover the ground, it ends up being late and lunges through Hazard. But he hasn't gone in with his studs. Going in with the side of his boot seems intentional so that he doesn't cause a lot of damage to Hazard. in case he did mistime the challenge. Agree on other counts though.

But that's a natural phenomenon. It's good to criticise and discuss matters, to have others offer rebuttals.. Posts that mention the silence in an 'in-your-face' way discourages conversations that may seem moot, but offers constructive debates.

He's a squad player. Mediocre and a work-horse.. Someone to fill in when the player ahead of them is injured or requires a rest. The right wing must be addressed next summer.

He's a catcher of the ball and it's so underrated right now. When you see guys like Mignolet and even De Gea punching and parrying unnecessarily, it's often infuriating as a neutral.

I don't think he'd have been this effective at Arsenal. Mourinho was smart enough to put him right in the middle of the park with Matic, knowing Wenger he would've put him in the number 10 role and have Ozil & Ramsey getting confused about everyone's positions lmao

Matic is our best player.

Proud of his sportsmanship to put the ball out when the Stoke lad was injured. Even their fans showed their admiration and applauded him

Lol we don't need to praise Mourinho every time he gets it right - A lot of self righteousness here. All this talk about fans wanting him to fail smh

There's one reason I don't like Mikel-Matic playing together and that's Cesc not being as effective, imo, for us in the advanced role. Oscar & Fab need to play for us to be a more attacking presence, but I do understand why José used Mikel-Matic v Stoke away. For Mikel himself, he did well yesterday. Playing alongside Matic has made Obi step-up and it's really positive to see.. You can tell Mikel's instincts are not more active than reactive. More determination to break up the opposition's play early and provide earlier distribution.

Hm, it doesn't surprise me that much because of the Carvalho factor we had in 2004/05. I'd like to see his stats compared to Terry in 2014-15.

Yeah but he held his composure to deal with it, that's what I mean. No mistakes, which is better than he's done thus far.

Better from Cahill. As said before, when he concentrates he's good.. Needs to do that more.

Looks like Brendan Rogers is ready to give up Jones Sakho - Skrtel - Toure Lucas - Gerrard - Henderson - Lallana Sterling - Coutinho - Markovic

Yeah I agree with the last bit for sure. He 100% does add the quality to our side that we do need and he's shown that for us when he is imposing. But the consistency of being that sort of presence is something I think he can work on.. @lionsden and I had the discussion that it is perhaps our tactics that holds him back. He's more effective in sort bursts of pace and dribbling and perhaps his defensive burdens are

Probably not 3-4 steps, but he's not our most important player right now. It's a valid argument. While his consistency has improved a lot this season, Hazard can do more to properly secure his place in our history, that will come with more experience with us, but if he wants to be our most important player then there is room for improvement. We all want Hazard to be our main guy, but he needs to be more imposing on games and show more genius when we're trying to break down tough opposition.

Yeah I don't agree with Mourinho here. Diving is a problem, not in the PL alone, and it needs to be addressed.. It's just not nice to see, especially from your own players. It's cheating and we're better than that.

Lmao, again no-one is allowed to go against the opinion of Hazard I actually agree with Rom2013 to an extent. Hazard is comparable to the best in the world, in terms of the talent he possess and we've seen enough of that to know this as a fact. But if he's going to be standing alongside Messi and Ronaldo in awards and recognition then there is another level Hazard must step-up to. All Rom2013 is saying, is that Hazard has room for improvement to be one of the top 3 in the world. I agree with that wholeheartedly. Hazard is not on the level of Messi and Ronaldo yet

Seems like some girl just trying to get her name in the limelight lmao, she doesn't even confirm it's him.

His wealth should be fine, he's still worth enough money. This is just a consequence of a very volatile exchange rate, because of sanctions against Russia. In the long-term, this should level out for his wealth to increase again. In terms of how much he still has, I don't think he'll be worried yet.

He does, of course. It's one thing to have the squad, but it's another to actually win as many points. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to discredit the work he did in anyway. I'm just saying that records like that aren't as simple as "therefore, Mourinho is superior to them based on this"

And then there's heroes like Ivanovic who shoot long-range knowing they have no hope in hell

It's because we don't have that imposing figure that we've had in the past that makes those driving runs past the 10-men defences of other teams. We've been blessed before with Makelele, Essien & Ballack to an extent. Matic isn't imposing enough in an attacking sense to fulfil this role. Cesc, Oscar et al are flare players but flare has a noticeable weakness vs packed up defences. Pace is also an issue, we don't really have a speedy players who's also effective. Willian is quick, but there's no end product which makes him moot.. Hazard is quick, but when he gets trapped the team noticeably struggles.

The similarities irritate me.

The 2013 edition*