Styles

Luckily for them not a lot of people outside Chelsea care for their opinions. Hazard is huge in Belgium and France; he can't avoid the media as easily as those two. Hazard just needs to learn how to handle himself when speaking to people who desperately try to goad him into saying something controversial and who will twist his words if he doesn't.

It obviously wasn't misinterpreted, Mourinho speaks French ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baiLQmhdyiU is there a language he doesn't know? ) and he said he watched the interview. Personally I'd say both player and manager are wrong here, this stuff should be kept in-house but Hazard put it out there and the manager responded. It is what it is.

I get what you’re saying but Mourinho actually addressed two separate statements from Hazard. The ‘we are not set up to play football’ line was a clear case of hacks twisting Hazard’s words to promote a narrative, and Jose said so. No issue there. The second which I’m guessing wasn’t misinterpreted is what Jose took offence to. For Hazard to say he has to do everything alone but be the player who let his team-mates down by failing to track a runner needed to be addressed. I remember several years ago he criticised Carvalho and called him stupid for comments he made in the press. If Carvalho - a world-class footballer who was one of Jose’s most trusted and senior players - can get it then so can Hazard. I have absolutely no issue with that and I'm a huge Hazard fan.

Hating on Torres for not celebrating against his former club is a bit silly when we have enough legitimate reasons to dislike him.

If this guy flops....

You and me both. Such a ridiculous transfer that if it went through I'd lose all faith in us ever getting it right. Such a nothing player.

We should produce our squad players really. Then there are the likes of Van Ginkel who can fill in if needed. We have to stop wasting money on players like Paulinho that don't improve us significantly, in fact I'll go further and say every transfer this summer has to be a player that walks into the first 11. No more of this squad stuff, we have loads of players out on loan that can be recalled for that purpose.

I've seen Paulinho play several times for Spurs and he's nothing like the player you've described there. He's average on the ball and doesn't excel at any one thing, pretty much a jack of all trades and a master of none. We can and should do a hell of a lot better than him.

Paulinho is exactly the opposite of what we need. He's another Ramires. The kind of midfielder we sign to partner Matic + the other signings we make this summer will tell us a lot about Mourinho. We'll either try to become a better ball-playing team or just try to be more efficient counter-attackers.

I don't blame Mourinho though. We can't play better football with the players we have, training/coaching plays a part but if a player can't pass the ball accurately what do you want the coach to do?

No mate, it's definitely not a dig at Mourinho. If anything it's a dig at the group of players we've assembled for a huge cost that seem incapable of keeping the ball/doing the basics like passing accurately to a teammate. I expect us to get better under Mourinho.

They showed that although a counter-attack is their plan A they have a lot more to their game than that. The second half was a clinic. They did exactly what we were incapable of doing which is keep the ball, make them work and then pick them off. Their passing was ridiculously good, they worked the ball all over the field with no player letting them down in possession.

They're the best team we've played in a long, long time. The way they managed and controlled the second half was superb, it was a clinic in game management. How many passes led up to the third goal? They sprayed the ball about for fun and then hit us when our guard was down. That's exactly the kind of football I want to see us play.

And even the 'accurate' passes Ramires makes are anything but that; they're usually behind the player, under/over-hit etc. Just woeful really.

You should only care if/when you're a superstar! Protect the symbolism!

Luiz 70% pass accuracy, Ramires 79%. I hope and pray that this is the last time we ever see these two as a midfield partnership. And I hope we never have to see Luiz in midfield again, in any capacity. If Mourinho doesn't rate him as a defender then it's time to sell. We can't keep playing this guy in midfield.

Technically? Yes. They're comfortably better in that regard.

I want to believe Jose is too cautious because he knows the teams limitations. It's up to him now to improve and assemble a team that can compete with the likes of Atletico. We opened up in the second half tonight and we couldn't get near them, they took us apart. We really have to develop a style of play beyond just soaking up pressure and counter-attacking.

Tough but this is easy to swallow. Reaching the semi with this team is a good run. Atletico are just too good for us. They're what I hope we become but for that to happen we really need to address the technical quality in the team from front to back. They absolutely killed us in the second half and we couldn't live with them

Why?

Paulinho is exactly the opposite of what we need. We need a playmaker and he's just a poor man's Ramires.

Keeping things tight and bringing him on in the second half might be a sensible option. The game will start to open up naturally and Hazard is dangerous with space.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/10796767/Chelsea-v-Atletico-Madrid-How-striker-Demba-Ba-survived-life-on-the-sidelines-at-Stamford-Bridge.html Really good piece. I have nothing but respect for this guy

There can be no excuses for Oscar today. He has to perform. I have faith he will.

Van Ginkel if need be? He's been fit for at least a month now. Although Oscar can and should play a big role in midfield today.