Styles

Nah, that'll be the final.

We need a player like Modric, badly. He was amazing last night.

I'm pretty sure I've seen stats that show Hazard has made the highest amount of passes in the opposition half (up until his inury, that may have changed now). It was either him or Yaya Toure and considering Yaya plays deeper it says a lot. Hazard's ability to keep the ball under pressure higher up the pitch means his chance creation may not be as exaggerated as others like Mata. And he doesn't take many set-pieces either. Oh and I'm a Hazard fanboy so there's that too, definitely not exaggerated stats

With all due respect to Schwarzer, if Cech is fit to play then he has to play. The same way that if Hazard is fit then he has to play.

Very good debut. He's a solid athlete, very mobile and quick over the first few yards. His performance is further proof that we do have capable young players at the club. That really would have been like Ivanovic scoring 2 goals against Liverpool in the Champions League.

His best performance of the season.

If everybody, and that includes the FA, is going to hate us then there really is no better manager to have.

:lol: :lol:

What a win.

Watched about 70 mins and he was really poor, the worst kind of poor, the he 'didnt do a single thing right all game because of shocking technique' kind of performance which is a Torres speciality. Games like this just put me off the idea of him leading the line here, even as a second striker.

The group of journos in the presser today were embarrassing. They asked some truly ridiculous questions and the one about Vilanova was particularly classless. The press in this country to a man are utter c****. They have no interest in the game itself, they work just to add fuel to negative narratives, and they seem to have taken a particular interest in our club. Mourinho showed them the contempt they deserve. “Do Liverpool deserve to win the league because of Hillsborough?” "Does Gerrard deserve to win the league?" :mouthclosed: :mouthclosed: :mouthclosed:

Really? Don't believe that myself. We're a decent counter-attacking team and no more than that.

If we had everybody available and in good form I think we're a hell of a lot closer to them. Fair enough we were far more conservative than Madrid, but we didn't have the attacking ability on the night to be more of a threat on the counter. If Eto'o, Hazard are available and Willian can play through the middle then I think we will pose far more of a threat. Don't get me confused guys, I hate that we can't go toe to toe with these teams and have to park the bus but we're just not that good no matter how much we've spent.

I get what you guys are saying but my point is Madrid were overmatched. Simply put: in an open game of football Bayern are comfortably better and would win because of their superior ability. There aren't many teams Madrid will play like that against. Why that's relevant to us is we're lower in the food-chain and will have to play like that against more teams than Madrid will need too. Let's not kid ourselves and overrate our players; in this moment in time Atletico Madrid are to Chelsea what Bayern are to Madrid. They are comfortably better and we need to play against them in a way that allows us to compete. The only difference between Madrid and Chelsea's game plan is they have Ronaldo, Benzema and Di Maria to make better use of their limited possession.

20% possession in the first half for Real Madrid at home to Bayern Munich. That's TWENTY PERCENT of the ball AT HOME. This is a Madrid team that has technically brilliant footballers all over the field (faaaaar more than we do) and they still have to resort to defending extremely deep and counter-attacking. Hope that puts things into perspective for some.

A number of reasons but mainly because it takes more than just buying a few players to develop that style of football, which has ultimately been our approach. And it goes beyond just the manager, it’s an entire club effort and I don’t think we have that*. We’re not a 'philosophy club' like Barcelona so what’s the driving force for us to play a certain style of football? We're just not as committed to the idea of that style of football as other clubs are. The club is however infinitely more committed to winning trophies. *Our youth/u21 teams are technically very, very good but if we're being honest we know they're not going to play for the first team. We'll continue to buy players that allow us to compete in the here and now because that's what the club cares about more than anything.

He tried to find that manager for years and failed repeatedly. In the last 2-3 years we became so uncompetitive and a joke in the league, especially considering our budget. We were essentially a glorified cup team. I truly believe that the type of football we're talking about will never happen at Chelsea. The best we can hope for is what Dortmund was last year and Atletico are this year: a highly athletic, hard-working, counter-attacking team with a quality striker leading the line. That should be relatively easier to achieve than trying to copy these philosophy teams/coaches and failing.

I really don't think it's that much of a wrong fit, if at all. Our squad isn't brimming with world-class, technically gifted footballers being shackled by the manager. How many of our players would get into teams that play highly-skilful football? Not many. Hazard and one or two others at most. The club really only care about being competitive. Our business model demands a team that challenges for the league and in Europe. Good football is just a bonus at this stage.

The game suited him yesterday. When we park the bus Ashley has always been brilliant. Look at the Super Cup against Bayern, he was one of our best players and had Robben in his pocket.

What's the point in risking in players? We're not going to beat the FA this season so again, what's the point?

We're in with a chance of going through to the final. We're one home win away from going to the final. I didn't enjoy the football tonight but to be honest I stopped caring a long time ago.I just want us to be competitive now more than anything.

Expected a dogfight and got one. We have something to play for, at home. I'm very happy.

That's a big call right there.

This is going to be like first two Chelsea-Liverpool champions league ties. Completely shit to watch but no one will care if we win.

Why some people think this is an insult is the weird thing.