Styles

With the options we have it's Mikel and Ramires. The thing is we've known this since last season.

Schurrle helped make the first goal yesterday. He provided the assist for Torres against Bayern. We can all play this game.

Nonsense, absolute nonsense. Oscar is the Brazil #10 and one of the best young players in world football. It's nothing like Lampard being dropped for MVG. That means Mata can't play top level football. Everybody in the team is being asked to press and put opponents under pressure. There can not and should not be any exceptions. Even Messi presses opponents and he scores 60 a season. Why should Mata be given a free ride? A Mourinho team doesn't do luxury players. I'd advise you to get to grips with that fact sooner rather than later, things will be much easier for you if you do.

Three goals down, 17 to go. Oscar can easily get 20.

Wrong thread.

Pfft, that's nothing! Today Mikel outscored Norwich, Sunderland and Fulham combined.

Mikel has more goals than Mata this season...just saying.

September 21st = John Obi Mikel day Happy Mikel day.

This is the best day of my life.

Hasn't he just had a shoulder operation? When he has recovered I'd expect him to go out on loan.

If that's the case why didn't he make bigger personnel changes in the summer? How are we going to play differently if many areas have remained largely unchanged? Our central midfield should have been revamped if he is serious about playing a different style.

Against the very good teams and in the big/important games I want Oscar in the team playing in his best position. What that means for Mata I don't know. I saw Oscar playing wide last season and it's not something I want to see ever again. It's an absolute waste of his talent, Mourinho is right; I don't want to watch Oscar tracking fullbacks.

Excellent. Mourinho knows.

Interesting; I can definitely see why you say that. There are quite a few similarities, the biggest being that they are both exteremely smart and hard-working players. I think Oscar has the better technical skills and is more of a midfielder, while Muller is more of a support striker.

That fake story has been doing the rounds since at least 2006! It's nonsense.

And have you noticed in the big games - when Ashley tends to play brilliantly - he's asked to defend and nothing else? Ashley is a quality defender. When he needs to defend he almost always comes through. But ask him to cross, or link up with his winger and you notice why he struggles.

Your definition of 'very good going forward' is very different from mine in that case. I'd use that to describe the likes of Lahm, Baines etc who are practically playmakers from fullback areas. Ivanovic is a solid, dependable defender but he isn't close to being the footballer that those two and other top RB/LB are. I haven't said a word about Azpi so that straw-man argument is irrelevant, but since you bought him up I prefer his general link-play - not crossing - to Ivan's.

He's brilliant at set-pieces, but that goes without saying considering his size. It's in open-play where we suffer. He's perfect at RB when we're doing a backs-to-the-wall defensive effort against the likes of Barca/Bayern, but when we dominate play and need better combination play + more guile on the flanks then he's simply not good enough. I'm not singling him out because I've said the same about Ashley. Our wing-play is poor because our fullbacks aren't particularly good technically and clever on the ball. You look around the top European clubs and their fullbacks are brilliant, technically gifted players. Ashley and Ivan are excellent defenders but they provide very little going forward.

Ivanovic is a CB; he's not a RB.

We have many players that aren't suited to playing together and they never will be. Football is about relationships all over the field i.e. fullbacks + wingers, AM + forwards, midfielders linking play etc. We have virtually no good combination play happening anywhere on the field, and that has been the case for a few seasons. Hope it'll get better but I won't hold my breath because some of these players just don't fit together into a team.

Mata is a very good player and I rate him a lot. He's just not the amazing player people think he is, and the idea he can't be benched or not have to fight for a place in the team like everybody else is ridiculous. When he fucks up he should he held accountable like every player is. When Mikel made a mistake against Juve that led to a goal he recieved racist remarks on twitter from so-called Chelsea fans and had to delete his account. I'm not a betting man but I think Mata will still have his twitter account tomorrow morning, just a hunch.

That 'one mistake' is not actually a one off. He is extremely weak and can't shield the ball well under pressure. He was dispossesed like a 10 year old and brushed aside. He was our best player because he had a free role and could do as he pleased, exerted no energy on the defensive side of the game and played a position that made him central to the entire game. Give Hazard that role and he'd be just as good if not better.

Considering the way he gave the ball away for what eventually led to their winner the bench might be the best place for him.

Eto'o has had the better career and is a much better player than Torres, even now at 32 and having spent 2 years in Russia.