Styles

You're right. They have strong legs and are both very quick over the first few yards. Josh doesn't have that little burst of acceleration.

Stunning strike. Would be interesting to see how he copes with the pressure of the playoffs if Watford aren't automatically promoted. To play well under that much pressure at 18 could really be the making of him. I don't blame him honestly. I secretly thought McEachran would be in with a shout for Euro 2012 if all went well at Swansea. A strong season in the Premier League for Chaobah and you just never know. Stranger things have happened like Walcott going to the World Cup in 2006.

:tophat: Thanks. I bet he'd be on 40 assists for the season if our midfield play* was better and he had a better striker to work with for the first 5 months of the season. *We don't get him the ball quickly enough when he finds those pockets of space. Same applies for Hazard too.

Hahaha Robben and Sturridge must have pissed him right off.

Would be very surprised to see him get criticised for that. We need variety to our attacking game so somebody more direct would be a plus.

He was so bad tonight you can't help but laugh. I really hope the people who make decisions at the club are watching this farce.

Pleased to see Hazard taking penalties again. Reina is good at pens and Hazard completely fooled him

Fair enough. Doesn't it worry you that Madrid's players didn't look up for a semi final game in the European Cup? Jose is known to be an excellent man-manager and motivator yet Dortmund ran all over them from start to finish just like they did in the previous two games this season.

You're right in that there's maybe a bigger risk with Klopp but on the other hand perhaps there's an even bigger reward with him if it works than there would be with Mourinho? There's no reward without risk. Mourinho is the safe option but he's also the more volatile and expensive one. He earns about 12m a season now according to most reports! I doubt Klopp gets even 1/3 of that a season. When I look at Dortmund I see an excellent, young, hungry team that have been coached to the highest level. When I look at Madrid I see everything I don't want Chelsea to be. *This is all irrelevant anyway because Klopp will never come here but we're just speaking hypothetically of course.

See this is what puts me off Mourinho. There is so much baggage and off the pitch nonsense like fighting with his own players that is a massive concern. There also seems to be a lot of people who give Mourinho credit when he wins but blame his players when he loses. He can't have it both ways. By the way Spurs are no better than they were last season. Harry Redknapp finished 4th and Tottenham are 5th right now. They were a decent team last year and they're a decent team again this year. I don't see how AVB's reputation seems to have grown for doing very little.

I wish somebody would make a video of his assists this season. Would be interesting to see how many are from open play and the quality of chances he creates. I don't doubt he has an excellent final ball. To be fair to him he would have many more open play assists if we had Demba or any other striker for the first half of the season in place of Torres.

Another homegrown player which we're desperately short on. Around the same age as Wallace and Azpilcueta is still only 23 so it'll be interesting to see what happens at RB in the long-term.

This! At least it keeps BuLi interesting and Dortmund have the Gotze money to reinvest in the squad. Amazing performance last night. The third goal was sensational.

No but then again Ferguson tactically has never been the manager many think Mourinho is. Ferguson is a legendary manager mainly because of his longevity but tactically he has never been one of the game's great coaches. Klopp has taken Mourinho to school this season. Twice beating him and Madrid escaping with a draw in the other game at home. Losing so emphatically and being outplayed to that extent is far more damaging for Mourinho's reputation than Ferguson losing games to Benitez. 1 league title in 3 seasons and no Champions League with the most expensive sqaud ever assembled is a massive failure.

Klopp has shown up Mourinho three times this season with a squad that cost a fraction of what Madrid's has. That is the sort of coach we need who will not only improve our players individually but can integrate young players and make them work as a team. But we seem to be going to Mourinho route again and splashing another 50m+ on one player.

The worst thing about this incident is probably the photoshops lol. They're all rubbish!

Stop being so precious! What's wrong with you man? I'm not going to ignore you. We've debated perfectly well before. I have no issue with you whatsoever. What specifics are you talking about? We've already addressed the 'attitude problems' nonsense in one of the Chalobah threads. He was late to training when he first joined the club. Big deal. Have you never been late in your life? It's an odd thing to hold against him after nearly 7 years since he joined the club.

Laughable. Good day to you :tophat:

Don't flatter yourself. It's a forum and I responded to a post. Mikel might not be a leader in comparison to past midfielders but in this team he is one of the more vocal players and yesterday was case in point. He was the only one remonstrating to the ref for his decisions and the reckless tackles from Liverpool players. That's a leader in my eyes.

I don't see Mata as a 'spine' type of player. He's a luxury player that should be used according to match situations/opposition. He is far from a leader. He would get his minutes drastically cut by Mourinho if he returned and I would bet my life on that. Mikel yesterday was constantly speaking to the referee and making himself a presence when Carragher and others were trying to bully the ref. He was giving it back and was the only player on our side doing so. He might not be a Ballack but he is far more of a leader than meek guys like Mata. You don't rate him as a player, which is absolutely fine, everybody is entitled to their opinion, but you do go to some extraordinary lengths to criticise him.

You see even in those games a pessimist like me finds something. We outplayed Utd after going down 2-0 and it could easily have been 3 or 4 before we got our act together. Arsenal are rubbish and even against them we were hanging on for long periods. We beat Spurs without arguably two of their best players and I'm not looking forward to the game at the Bridge on current form. City took the piss the first half and should have been ahead by 4 or 5. We play some good football occasionally but so do many other teams. This team is weak, it lacks cohesion and quality in many areas. We don't have a strong squad. If we did we wouldn't be battling for 4th with Spurs and Arsenal. That's our level now and it perplexes me to see you talking about a title challenge!

It's the only reason I want Mourinho back. He sees a conspiracy in everything and would back the boys to the fucking hilt. Sick and tired of referees having their way with us.

I would love to be as optimistic as you but I just can't see it. All I can see is the club continuing to underachieve because of incompetence at management level.

That run of games against QPR, Southampton and Reading where we managed to lose two 2-0 leads and lose to the bottom placed team at home sealed our fate in my opinion and that was around January if I recall correctly. You say we control our own destiny but that can change in one game and with our fixture list that is likely to happen. You talk about plans going forward but what about the here and now? These idiots have managed to screw things up at every turn and you think bulk buying the best kids in Europe and loaning them out solves everything.

To think we let this player go and have that waste of space playing for us is sickening. Hope Roman was watching yesterday.