Styles

When was the last time we had a good team performance? I mean the whole team clicking and playing well, and not just Hazard and one or two others playing well and the rest playing badly.

Benzema is a better all-round player than Falcao. Falcao is a better finisher than Benzema. Just my two cents.

Yeah we've changed the players but I still think it's an underlying issue that manifests itself especially against quality opposition when we park the bus plane and rely solely on the counter. Even against the smaller teams - that we should blow away really - we lack precision and are very laboured/clumsy on the ball.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/dec/12/paul-clement-english-coach-real-madrid I know we've changed the squad massively since Clement's time but I still think we have a technique problem which explains why we play such rubbish football most of the time.

Breathtaking display. It really doesn't get much better than that.

Torres, silky? TORRES?

We have better individuals but I'd say they work better as a unit having watched them several times this season. Whatever game-plan we have rarely seems to work and we get by on moments of individual brilliance. Fair enough we're short on numbers in the middle of the park so underperforming players will have to be played through poor form. The MVG injury is really starting to take its toll. It'd be great if Jose got creative and tried to use players like De Buryne/Oscar deeper which allowed Mata more minutes.

Southampton are much better than West Ham. They are very athletic and press incredibly hard. West Ham are one of the worst teams we will play all season, having that as a yardstick of Lampard's ability and importance to the team is misguided. We saw how he fared last night against an antletic and aggresive pressing team and I fear Lampard will really struggle again if he plays on Sunday.

I know it sounds defeatist but what can you do eh? Just hope it gets better. I will send my CV to Roman though. Salary negotiable

That's the thing, I agree with your sentiment. We don't have many players suited to any style of football which is why we almost always play crap, disjointed football. There has been very little thought, if any, that has gone into how our squad has been built. It's just a random assortment of players thrown together with no idea how each player affects the other(s) and the overall style of play. I've just learnt to accept that's how things are and try not to complain much any more to be honest.

Counter-attack. I'm not saying I'm happy with that being the style by the way, but it's obvious what the plan is: defend deep and break quickly. Now Mata is a quality player but he doesn't really have the legs for that sort of game.

Relentless

My guess is Paulo Ferreria.

I love his game. One thing I ask from each player is that they compete and this guy does it every game. Sometimes things might not go his way but you can rely on him to work his socks off every time he wears the shirt. He never takes a game off, he treats every game the same and puts in a shift. To think he put in that kind of effort after travelling around the world with Brazil is just astonishing. I was watching Saturday's game with some friend who support other clubs and they kept speaking about Mata. I was saying to them how the Mata talk is such a disservice to Oscar who is a quality player and within minutes he's won a penalty and scored a goal. I was loving it Thanks for making me look like I know what I'm talking about Oscar

I don't know what game you watched but Hazard was very good today.

In my opinion it's because they very rarely get the ball when they have found the space + time. Our distribution from midfield is laboured and lacks both creativity and precision. For example I've seen Hazard find space - in which he can turn and make things happen - but he either gets a bad pass, the ball takes too long to arrive, or (and by far the worst) he just goes ignored. How often has Hazard received the ball with two men on him and a third making his way towards him? I've seen that plenty of times. My opinion is that from back to front we lack guile, precision and creative passing. Ivanovic at RB is the best example of that. Sure the AMs can and should be doing better, but if they keep getting late inaccurate passes then I can understand why they're struggling.

Ramires has been a legend (in my mind at least) since this moment

Think we'll be safe but we need to get to 40 points asap.

Have to be honest; everything I feared is kinda happening. As cliché as it sounds I'm hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. We really aren't improving at all - not in any significant/tangible way, in my opinion - if anything we're getting worse.

I hope the babies Oscar, Hazard, Schurrle and De Bruyne get a few minutes...I think they're ready

The fear is not that he'll be bullied but that he'll be bypassed because he is slow and lacks agility. I hope he can keep up but I fear the worst.

Klopp is quite similar to Mourinho in that he wants his players to be hardworking, athletic players who can press and regain possession and then do the business going forward. I disagree that Klopp would be brilliant for Mata; in my opinion Mata would have more or less the same 'problems' with him that he's having with Mourinho now. I've just taken a look at Dortmund possession stats for their last two games (Arsenal and Schalke) and they had 42% in both games. They play a very direct counter-attacking game and that does not suit Mata's game at all in my opinion. I don't think he's any more of a Klopp player than he is a Mourinho player.

Carling Cup on Tuesday, a game Mourinho said he'll play some of the younger lads. We just have to wait and see if he's true to his words.

Here's a pic of him in training: Looks like a really athletic and powerful player. He has played at RB in Holland and can play CB so he's versatile. Relly looking forward to seeing him play for the first team.

Agreed. He needs to start scoring in the league too; just one in his last 25 league games.