Madmax

Turns out you can sit atop the Italian league without having refs on the payroll. Who knew?

Posting advice from a guy who regularly gets pulled for racist and abusive behaviour? It's embarrassing you even tried.

I don't know if this was picked up on here but before the second half at OT Giggs walked over to Dowd on the touchline and they shared a laugh over something. Are assistants allowed to approach the ref in that manner?

What I liked the most about yesterday was that he played his game and looked the part even with a non-functioning partner. Cahill didn't dominate proceedings, Mikel was sloppy and Zouma a mixed bag but even with a below par support structure, the teenager looked like he belonged.

You can try being disingenuous now but there was only one post referring to Baker and Brown on that page and it was mine. So even though you didn't quote me, your passive aggressive remarks certainly were directed towards me.

I'm not going to lose sleep over what a special one like didierforever thinks of my opinions. I posted his early season quotes in the Baker thread. It mentioned playing Solanke among others in the League Cup but obviously the manager underwent a change of heart when the time arrived to actually practice what he preached.

Like before, I've said all I want to on the matter. I've covered all arguments and have no intention of going around in circles when we clearly hold radically different view points. All it does is frustrate others, as can be seen in the post above yours, though what is there to stop someone knocking themselves out eulogizing Mourinho in the Ake and Christensen threads, I don't know.

I'm watching highlights of the 6-0 against Arsenal (mainly as mind bleach to forget Schurrle's performance yesterday) but I won't post because you know, it's porn.

u21s needed Solanke more than the first team whose only senior striker is 36 and winded? I can't get my head around that reasoning. He didn't need to start, he didn't need to play as a lone striker. There are ways to set up teams IF you have the intention to try people out and give them chances, which Mourinho didn't (on last night's evidence). Again, I get that he wanted his fringe players to play, but when they didn't and things went south, he brought on Matic, Willian and Hazard. So Brown and Baker are not good enough to start, they're not good enough to play bit part roles, and they're not good enough to chase the game either. And this is in the league cup against a league two side. It's fine if you come out and say it'll be a while before we can expect to see these players, just be honest about it. Why make grand statements about developing England internationals when you cowardly turn tail at the first genuine opportunity to put words into action? That's all I have to say on the matter for now. I'm getting sick of whining about this as I'm sure the ones reading are.

I must have missed this Baker debut you talk about. See, 15 minutes when you're winning 4-0 is nice for sentiment and all (I say that genuinely), but when it came down to choosing a team against 4th tier opposition 2 days after OT, he chose to stuck with the knackered pensioner. We all knew Solanke needed that u21 game, he must have learned so much. We can't win a League Cup 4th round game with more than 2 academy greenhorns featuring at some point? Well we sure romped it with the world champion and the Egyptian Messi. That own goal - boy, that'll show them. I'm not asking to bring them on in every league game. I'm asking for Mourinho to show some heart and conviction in these guys on a stage he said he would :

People will appreciate Oscar better if they stop looking for the player he is not and is not being asked to be. Evaluate him as the guy who facilitates a pivot of Matic-Fabregas.

I was naive enough to base them on the manager's words, so that is the frame of reference. I couldn't care less about City or our past seasons and you'll find I haven't uttered one word about either of those situations. You can look at it as it still just being October, but the biggest chance to walk the talk has already been passed upon. I'll give him credit for Ake but not £12m signing Zouma or Christensen, whose inclusion was necessary to field a back 4 without performing gymnastics like playing a 34 y.o twice in 48 hours.

Or conversely, it's no wonder that some people will always be extremely easily pleased because the sum total of their expectations amounts to 500 mins between 5 players.

Of course we'd (I know I would) like him to score more (17 last season was a step in the right direction), but this desire cannot help but be overshadowed by the immense ... I don't know, joy that his performances bring. He very well could've stroked home the penalty against Maribor, but what did he do? Give it to the man whose penalty brought him to this club in the first place. You can't be mad at that. It's the sort of thing that can't be coached, can't be taught. It's natural and genuine and that makes it special. I wish he never leaves.

Don't try and twist this. You lamented my "embarrassing and hopeless cribbing" about youth when he'd started Zouma and Christensen. I merely pointed out that it didn't deserve credit because the suspensions had his hands tied in that matter. Excepting Ake he didn't give a single minute to anyone where he wasn't obligated to. So yeah, thanks for not running Matic into the ground, I guess. Mourinho said Solanke will play in the League Cup but the moment it came to backing up his words, he turned instead to playing Drogba for 180 mins in 48 hours at the age of 36. He said 3-4 years, yes, but when Baker, Brown and Solanke are not played against fourth tier opposition in the least important trophy of the season while there are 4 seniors either injured or rested, when will the (meaningful) chances start arriving? You think they'll be played in the next round? In the FA cup? In the league?

Ah yes, we should worship the ground he walks upon for playing a £12m signing and the best defender in the academy when 3 of our only 5 senior defenders are a. suspended or b. 34 year old. Bravo Jose, such big balls. I only spoke about Baker and Brown because he put them on the pedestal with his comments about English players. What good did Oscar, Salah and Schurrle do today? I get not starting 5 of them together but did Schurrle and Oscar justify getting the full 90? Would Salah have even come off had they not equalised? Was there such a massive need to play Solanke in the u-21 while Drogba had to slog on and on? I said pre-match that I'd have been fine had we lost while giving genuine game time to Ake, Baker and the lot. Now that we are in the QF, do you think even Ake will get a game unless it's against Bournemouth? This was the chance to do it but he backtracked over his earlier comments. I'm disappointed about this and the arguments so far can't convince me otherwise.

"If Baker and Izzy Brown aren't playing for England in 3 or 4 years, I will consider myself a failure" Gives them a combined total of 0 minutes against 4th tier opposition while half the squad is injured or completely exhausted. It's okay though, because with our great experienced players we forced the said fourth tier opposition to score an own goal.

Lol Mikel

I like Schurrle but he should pull his finger out FFS. He looks like a Lego World Champion. Baker should be pissed off having to sit out for this shitshow.

Schurrle and Salah cost 30 m between themselves ..

Wow, read a lot of guff over the last few pages trying to write off a solid player who also happens to be one of our own. Always amusing when people try and flip everything around to it somehow being the player's fault when in reality it comes down to this - we simply don't give them a chance. If Ryan had been bought for £20 million from overseas.

In sporting terms -Ballack, Sturridge, Eto'o On an sentimental level - Ballack, Ashley, Joe Cole and Mata

The quality of the top teams in the league doesn't decide the overall quality of the league. Otherwise Bundesliga was the greatest league around in 13-14, seeing as Munich won in record time and La Liga is the default best league ever since Ronaldo moved there. Create a competition with the bottom 5 teams of England, Spain, Italy, Germany. Who'll win? Do it for the ones finishing 8-15. Who'll win? Chelsea's record points total and Arsenal's unbeaten season are unlikely to be replicated not because Chelsea and Arsenal's current sides are poorer than before, but because back then you didn't have such quality in the middle and lower-middle reaches of the table. Would you ever have seen Sigurdsson playing for Blackburn, Bolton or Middlesbrough in 2004 to 2008? The clubs are wealthier, the wealth is distributed somewhat evenly and that has raised competitive levels. P.S. Fernando, we'll see if Mourinho extends his logic to us this season if we do end up winning at a canter. I thought even Chelsea fans would've started to take his words with a pinch of salt by now, but apparently not.

Away being put down by the RSPCA, hopefully

We should have a lineup predictor competition for the cup games. Everyone would get at least 7 or so right for the league games but for the cups, it would spice up the match buildups and keep everyone's XI out of the match thread.