dodojojo

Both AS and Marca are reporting Torres and Mata to start against the Czech Republic tonight. Goals from Torres and Mata? Or a clean sheet for Cech?

LDN, tomorrow night, tomorrow night. Yep, it'll be the two Fernandos at CF, so let's hope Torres gets at least one start and stays healthy.

Braces self for inevitable English press-generated 'controversy' and scousers angry that Torres even dares to say the word, "Liverpool."

If so, will Lampard have an inquiry opened against his statements and have the manager give him a stern talking to? No? Will media harp on it? No? Just goes to show how much crap Torres has to put up with. And Torres with his big money move from a popular sentimental favorite like Liverpool to Chelsea continues to make good copy. You can replace Torres with "Player X" in the circumstances and still likely get the same shit from the press. I agree the DEGREE of venom against Torres is upsetting and unfair. It comes down to him (or any other player) having the temerity to spurn good old Liverpool for Chelsea. It makes it jucier if said player is a foreigner who was beloved and popular. Easy target.

I brought up Pique as a hypothetical. Of course he's not leaving Barca any time soon. But the point was that a poster said John Terry is still the best defender in the world. I disagree with that and brought up Pique as an example of a CB I would play in place of Terry. In other words, there are now better CBs. This is not to slight Terry but does bring up the question of when to give others a chance to step up. I think Terry should still play the majority of the games for now. But I think it's a legit question of whether or not Chelsea should seriously consider bringing in a CB in January or next summer.

Far too sensible, I won't be reading your sensibleness anymore. So many threads seem to devolve into "oh, we can't drum out Lampard, he's a legend!". But I suspect the majority of us are only saying he and the other veterans can't start 40-50 games anymore. It's time to get the best out of them for fewer starts and truly begin to integrate the next generation of great players. That's all. I would say a very valid reason for letting a Drogba or Lampard leave is if and when their current superstar salaries do not match their squad player roles. Sensibly at that point, it'd be beneficial to Chelsea to kill two birds with one stone--give a squad place to a much younger player at a greatly reduced salary. Hopefully that player has been given time to bed in while the likes of Lampard have had their roles gradually reduced.

It's not a Torres thing. I'm convinced the English media operate entirely on a day by day basis. There is no backbone, no policy, no belief. Carroll scores a goal in a otherwise poor performance and he's worth 35M. Chelsea batters the table-dwellers without Torres so their future is brighter without him. Lampard was finished 8 eight days ago. Now he's made all his critics eat their words (who are btw, the same people in the media who created the "controversy" of Lampard being dropped). Let's see the new headlines will be after the next round of PL games. Won't be surprised if we see glaring contradictions of this week's headlines.

No, overrating is when you claim John Terry is still the best defender in the world. So Terry's the only leader at Chelsea? The only one who can organize? What will happen to Chelsea when he turns 60 and retires?

Terry shouldn't be sold but he'll be rotated just like Lampard. Let's not get into a Jamie Carragher situation here guys. Learn from Liverpool's current situation. Terry's not the best defender in world, come on. If Pique said he wanted to be the starting CB for Chelsea, I would pair him up with Luiz, no questions asked.

You mean Alves. If Valdes saved against Torres on Wednesday, you know Fernando is having some bad motherf...luck...

I bet Torres pranked his fellow Atleti De Gea by telling him donuts are free in England and to help himself to one whenever he feels like it.

Non-sensationalistic take on AVB's new regime. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/soccer/09/30/smith.villas.boas/

Del Bosque chose Torres over Saldado Let's hope he gets some good minutes to keep sharp, a goal or two and no injuries. Commence praying now...

If we can critique players for game performance, why not the manager? It's not anti-AVB to say that his subs for the game weren't top notch. Easy to do of course from our sofas with 20/20 hindsight. But that's why we watch the games and comment on the boards. Kalou was idiotic, just like Torres was last weekend. He deserves criticism but not abuse. Simples.

If he doesn't get selected for national duties this month, he basically doesn't play for 3 weeks, which is a worry. The bright side is that the chance of an injury is greatly reduced.

This is from the We ain't got history site and sums up Torres' feelings about Diego Alves:

Who said it was alright? I've pointed it out when posters used Yids but stopped doing so as it seems the board is fine with using this term. I don't think it's alright. Why not ask posters to kindly keep the racial stuff off the board? This isn't about being precious, it's about basic respect.

Thank you for following up with this post. My condolences for your loss.

But hey, it's okay, they're good lads.... On a serious note, I'm sorry you had to read this shit. Should be about the game but a moderator falls down on basic board behavior. Steve, Admin, I'm not asking for a witch hunt but please do not brush this under the carpet. There's a difference between being angry about a game and being angry with racist language. A big difference. Most of us can post here without crossing that line, I don't see why a moderator can't do it.

Maybe the bandwagon represents a near universal disgust with the post? Maybe we hope the Admin will address the issue? And maybe it took a page or two because some people only read it a few minutes after it was posted? Or maybe there was a busy posting period because of all the post game comments? I don't know Shonex the person, my comments are in regards to the post he made.

It's a racist pejorative in English. This is an English language board, what do you expect the reaction to be? Should the board be comfortable with casual racism? How about the fact Chelsea has many players of African descent? Racist and completely myopic.

AVB's subbing was way off today...obviously. I wouldn't trust Kalou in such a tight match. Wish he'd have kept Torres on with Anelka as they have a good understanding.

Shameful by a moderator. Please edit your post for your own sake at the very least.

Either Torres keeps running into defenders or they're blocking him...Ref?