Styles

Amazing that with such a thin squad and 67 games played we managed top 4. I was certain it wasn't going to happen for us but somehow we're there. I hope this is the last time for a while that top 4 is an issue for us.

Salute. Chelsea legend and one of our very best players. He, like Drogba, deserves to leave on a high. http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xzs6vp I love this picture

Haha it'd be crazy but the football would be quality. Two very good athletic, ball-playing CBs is a dream. Either one could step out of defence carrying the ball creating mismatches on both sides of midfield. I'd love it! Agreed same goes for Ake. We're bringing through so many good all around footballers most of them are going to be able to play different positions.

Watford as a whole were very poor which may have affected his performance. I think 'great passer' is pushing it a little however. When he gets them right it can be great but great passing implies some level of consistency which I haven't seen from him. He is just as likely, if not more likely, to get it wrong than he is to getting it right (I'm talking about overly ambitious passes here). I'll admit I haven't watched a lot of Watford this season so my sample size is small. Chalobah has all the athletic ability in the world and good technical ability. I see his long-term future at CB which is really the crux of my argument.

Fair enough. He could do with learning the role properly because at the moment he's making way too many mistakes. He has to make smarter decisions on the ball. With regards to switching back to defence I don't want us to end up with a Chalobah that's not quite good enough to cut it in midfield (which may happen especially at the top level) and that hasn't played CB for years which leaves him in a weird place.

First of all this Zonal Marking guy isn't some sort of tactical guru. He's just some guy watching games at home sat on his couch. He doesn't have any more insight than anybody else. I wanted to stop reading at this point: Oscar was extremely comfortable and was one of, if not the, best performer on the pitch that night. This cliché that he isn't comfortable in a defensive capacity is laughable and even more-so coming from a supposed tactical analyst. Anyway our problem is the central midfield. Look at the two players we had in midfield on Wednesday night. Luiz had a passing accuracy of 71% and Ramires was even worse at 64%. That is a lot of possession wasted. That isn't even good enough at League 2 level. A guy like Mata is never going to cut it in a counter attacking team. He doesn't have the legs for that sort of game. We need to become better on the ball and that means completely revamping the midfield. You look at all the top midfields in the world and not only are they dynamic they're also good passers that do not give the ball away cheaply. Once we sort out the pivot and get a quality striker we will be the best team in England and one of the top 3-4 teams in Europe. And with all that said we should have beaten Tottenham so style or no style we're better than that shower of shit.

He attempts way too many risky, low-percentage passes like David Luiz. It looks great when it comes off but they usually don't and it just puts his team under pressure. Maybe I always watch Watford on one of his bad days but I'm usually not impressed with his passing at all. It's no use having great attacking players if your central/defensive midfielders give the ball away every other possession. We need specialist ball-playing midfielders that don't give the ball away cheaply. Chalobah is naturally a CB. It's great that he can play in midfield if needed but just like Luiz I want to see him play his proper position.

When Hazard wins Ballon d'Or next year Chelsea will offer him an extension.

He signed a five year deal until 2017.

It starts around two minutes into the video :tophat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqxffDCUwJ4

His defensive qualities are brilliant. He works hard, presses the opposition and always provides cover/support for other players. He won 5 tackles yesterday which is more than both Luiz and Ramires made. He is a workhorse. That was his 67th game of the season and he still put in a big shift. He is an amazing young player and he hasn't even scratched the surface with regards to his potential.

The thing is he's so good we have no choice but to use him so much. It's a gift and a curse. Even Ferguson made a comment expressing surprise about how much we've used Hazard, Oscar and Mata this season and that they keep performing. He was amazing last night. The most talented player on the pitch by far.

He was awful yesterday and proved why he's isn't a midfielder. I hope we never see him there again after this season. He's a very good and potentially great CB. If he played as a CB last night I don't think we concede either of the two goals scored against us. He can't keep his position and we were exposed in midfield all night.

I haven't ignored what you've said about them. I'm just making the point that Manchester United are a very stable club with regards to their finances, more stable than either us or City because we don't have their revenue and will be handicapped by financial fair play.

I'll ignore the ad-hominem and address the topic. Their profits are rising and they're reducing the debt. Here's the latest from Swiss Ramble (an excellent blog on the finances of football clubs): To sum it up he wrote: They have debt but it's nowhere near the problem you're making it out to be. You don't even take into account how financial fair play will change things. It will reduce our's and City's spending and strengthen their position immensely. Here's the blog by the way http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/manchester-united-higher-than-sun.html

You clearly have no idea just how much money Man United make. They are third only to Real Madrid and Barcelona. They made 367m last year compared to our 249m and City's 169m. And that doesn't even take into account all the new sponsorship deals they have done lately. FFP means you can only spend what your earn and aren't allowed to make huge losses. Man Utd are by FAR the dominant financial power in English football under FFP. Financially fucked? Not even close.

Pretty much rules him out that.

Think Ivanovic + Cahill will be the CBs tonight. I can't see Terry starting at all, Benitez doesn't trust his pace/mobility against quick players. No Mikel and Lampard played 2 games in a row I think Luiz will play midfield.

I'd love to see it that way but Utd just aren't going to fall away. They make big money, have a huge stadium and with FFP limiting both us and City they will be the dominant financial power in English football for the foreseeable future. They could also get a manager in that could make a better team than they currently have which lets be honest isn't much to write home about. They're functional but not very good compared to the top European teams. They have more potential to continue to dominate the league than either us, City or anybody else in my honest opinion.

Harsh. If he goes to Man United he will be doing what he thinks is best for his career. No love lost because really there wasn't any to begin with.

He's going to Manchester United. I am 10000000% certain.

Must win. I don't trust us getting a result on the last day against Everton if we need to.

Haha Jose speaks better English than Steve Kean. This story is clearly a bad joke and somebody having a laugh.

That has been one of the great things about our team over the years. We spread the goals out and aren't reliant on any one player. Hazard and Oscar could easily score 15-20 a season each. Mata already does that. Moses is in double digits. Then there's Ramires who chips in with a few. We may lose Lampard's goals but Schurrle, currently on 14 for the season in Germany, would make a great addition. That's why our forward needs to be more than a tap-in merchant. He needs to have a good all-around game, link well with our midfielders and just be an intelligent and technically good footballer. Basically all the things that Torres isn't.

100% agreed. Benayoun, who the club has been trying to get rid of for nearly 2 years, is trusted more than Marin. That says it all.