Tomo

If Maka was around today, he would have to adapt a bit and work on his attacking side a bit more, such is the demand for players to be good at both aspects of the game these days. Even the CB's are expected to chip in with their fair share of goals, Nesta for example only ever got 13, how many CB's playing today (over 25) have that low a tally? Varane is already half way there and he's 20. Also with every passing year it's getting more important that keepers are good with their feet, that aspect is only going to continue evolving, give it 10 years and 'sweeper keepers' will be an important tactical aspect off the game.

I thought his game overall was one of his worse here, usually what Eto'o brings that Torres and Ba don't is vastly superior technical ability, even if he is not playing well he will atleast get the ball and keep the ball firmly planted to his feet before giving it to a teammate, today i felt he lost it cheaply, which wasn't like him atall. But like you said he got the winner (Cardiff was a winner because he got the 2nd in a 4-1, Schalke was a winner because he got the first in a 3-0), so happy days.

I think he has been brilliant for most of the season if im honest, yes he has had his stinkers but he is 35 and playing most games due to lack of CM options, all things considered he is having a very, very good season. I just hope we can get these CM's in by next August at the latest, then Frank can probably give us a good 2/3 years more in a lesser role giving us displays like today. With Lampard from here on in, the motto must be, less is more.

All Mourinho has left to prove at club level is that he can build a stable club for a long period of time. He has proved he can go anywhere and get instant success, this is his next step. If he stays here for 12 years, wins 7-9 title's and 2/3 CL's the goes to the International scene and wins the world cup, he would be the ultimate manager and comfortably surpass Fergie. Fergie's great for his longevity, Mourinho could quite easily retire being great for longevity, instant success in numerous league's and be a World Cup winning manager. That probably won't be surpassed or even matched for generation's if he can do it. All i do ask is if he does stay for 12 years, we don't let him pick his own successor.

If he can even take responsibility like today and against Swansea once every 2 games, we will win the league for sure.

What's the odds that when we go to The Hawthorns and Anfield, the ref's will want to "right the wrongs"?

Flat track bullying is actually a very good trait to have, especially in league football. Ronaldo was the king of that in the PL (he never scored a PL goal against Chelsea and one vs Liverpool from open play) but his flat track bullying was what won United 3 in a row. I think Jose was a genius defending and praising him to the hilt pre match, he must have been aware of what happened with Luis and Moyes last season, and knew that the more you slate him, the better he plays.

After the momentul fuck up off the 2010 transfer window and the subsequent season which imo set us back years. We were always going to be for a painful couple of years no matter how much we spent. But now their seems to be genuine light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully it won't be long before we reach the consistency level's of 04-10 once more. Hopefully with Jose here for all off it this time.

True, but last season Suarez equalized in this fixture after fouling Ramires, and im not even going to bother commenting on the Anfield game. They got lucky against us last season, now it's the other way around, they should just accept what comes around, goes around and move on.

It was a naive decision be Rodgers, very naive. That kid probably has talent, but mentally he couldn't have been less ready if he tried. It's a cliche saying 'kids aren't ready', but 99 times out of 100 they aint. We made the right decision letting McEachran and Chalobah especially develop their skills away from the spotlight.

Just had a look at RAWK for the opposition perspective (i always do it post match) and 3 people so far have proudly stated that they want to kick Oscar's head in. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

This is the time of year were the strength of squad's show, Southampton don't have the type of depth we do and we really need to go to the St Mary's and take advantage of that. It's not going to be easy, but it certainly won't be as hard as it would have been had we gone their in October or early November, and if we rotate properly and don't get complacent, we can defiantly win this reasonably comfortably (if we take our chances). ---------------------Cech--------------------- Azpi---------Cahill--------JT----------Cole --------------Mikel---------Rami------------ Hazard-------------Mata------------Schurrle ----------------------Ba------------------------ Defense pick's itself, only Hazard played a full game against Liverpool out of that attacking 6, only Mikel out of the other 5 played at all, so that will be a fresh enough team to go and hopefully do the business.

We played fantastic football in the first half, in the second half we didn't as much, but made sure we held out for the win. Jose is king at the percentage game.

As much as reading those RAWK meltdown quotes are hilarious (apart from the Hillsborough one, which was sick) i think if im honest the quotes are some saddo making them up out of thin air. He doesn't even give the link, and is he really scouring RAWK just to find one stereotypical Liverpool fan quote? i doubt it, it's easier to just make them up if you are not providing the link.

Brilliant.

I actually thought this was one of his worse overall performances, usually if all else fails he will atleast keep things ticking over and get positively involved in general play. But today he wasn't even doing that. But he got the winner, so happy days.

After what happened last season at Anfield, the fact Liverpool fans are moaning about ref decision's had to be the biggest form of irony i have ever seen.

Because vs Liverpool, Torres crumbles more than he usually does, and Eto'o will harass Mignolet, who's distribution is poor.

Fancy Eto'o to maybe sneek one through relentlessly harassing Mignolet as his distribution is shady at best.

Could this be 5-4-1?

Just had a look back at this thread roughly November last year, and it all came flooding back about how angry i was at the Torres situation and quite frankly still am. I thought i have become begrudgingly acceptant of the whole farce, but reading back the thought's i (and other members) had, i am still just as angry and deep down, i always will be. He moans about not starting the CL final while the rest of the players are getting drunk enjoying the moment, we respond by letting him be #1 forward while letting a hungry forward kick his heels on the bench, he repays us by walking down the tunnel at QPR and saying he didn't care about results. Aswell as looking disinterested almost every game, and worse off all, he gets rewarded by getting the loudest cheer in the stadium every single time along with excuse after excuse made for him and then to top it off i have to hear about how 'hard' he works. While on the other hand Eto'o, Ba and Sturridge get/got slated for any little thing. Torres has even a good game for his standards and you can't even say anything of any form of critique for about a month without getting a firing squad onto you. All he will have to do today is one decent thing and someone will probably quote this saying "he has proved me wrong", no he aint. When you factor in the performances aswell as the affect he has had on this club, he for me is the worst player we have had in my lifetime, and bit by bit he wares me down, when Bosingwa and Turnbull left i was relieved, when Torres leaves i will be ecstatic. If he has a good game today, i will give credit for that isolated game, but in the grand scheme of things it changes nothing, i can't wait until June 2016, and with any luck a nice surprise will come and his departure will come sooner, but i won't hold my breath.

Unlike the Torres fanboyism (which quite frankly has me banging my head against a brick wall) i can understand why Chelsea fans are so defensive with Mata and to be honest don't really blame them. We were just off the back off an dreadful season in 10/11 and a frustrating transfer window up until the end of August, all off a sudden we finally get that creative midfielder we have been fantasizing about to the point of obsession and he really did stand out like a star in a stale, stagnant Chelsea team that have hit father time. Then go further into the season (for example, Naples), our club was in such a mess it actually got the point where Mata was the only shining light in a dark, dark tunnel, literally the only aspect of our club at the time we could talk about without cringing, let alone brag about. Mata was our hope, the one player that was on form and we could enjoy watching during a horrible run of form and the club in a crisis, Mata was their to make everything that little bit less painful, like a young child's mum when the child is poorly, or your best friend when you are on a job on the other side off the world, living in a tent with complete strangers (apart from your best friend), getting 4 hours sleep only every night and waking up to Porridge. I will always love and be grateful to him for single handedly getting me through most of that season, and the sentimental part of me is a little bit sad we are unlikely to see him in that sort of form under Mourinho, but my happiness that we had a great player on top form like Mata back then, that feeling was overpowered with the sadness of the state the club was in on a whole, just like now my sentimental sadness that Mata is looking a shadow of what he was back then, is overpowered by the fact i am really happy we are still in the title race and look to be making an effort to sort out problem position's in January. To cut a long story short, i will always love Mata, but club comes before anyone.

This ship well and truly sailed years ago, we should have got him when he played for Ajax.

When i went away i meet a couple of Napoli fans aswell (talk to him on facebook a lot) as Madristian Madrid fan. Both think Higuain is horrible.

Signing this guy would be the ultimate game of Russia roulette. I believe his ceiling is a high as any striker around, i really do, at his best like against Germany in the Euro, Mexico in the Confed, Milan the second half of last season he's the best around. High risk with a possible very, very, very high reward.