bababoom

What actually happened to Torres? i mean five years ago he was the best striker in the world. I know he had so many injuries and of course you would expect him to lose a bit of pace and explosiveness, but his whole game has deteriorated. He was known for his Acceleration, movement and finishing, very similar to Owen in that regard, but when Owen lost his pace through similar injuries, he still had great movement and finishing.

:LOL:

Why would Hazard go back to Ligue 1? he's outgrown that league, he may go back when he's achieved things in the game like Zlatan, but lets be honest, he's on to bigger and better things.

Ki is quality to be honest, so calm on the ball and always picks out the right pass.

Mikel for ballon d'or next season once he leaves Chelsea? it's obviously not Mikel's fault he's been average here, it's the club fault. Once he leaves he'll be able to play in his more favored position, than we'll see the real John Obi Mikel. Think of Messi, Zidane and Pele all rolled into one.

So Jose wont be in the dugout?

The Olympiakos GK was dreadful, truly dreadful. I want to get United in the CL, olympiakos' pacey players on the counter attack caused them a lot of trouble, imagine Willian and Hazard against them.. It'll be a walk in the park, unless of course they park the bus like we did, but i don't see that happening.

London, England

Just awful defending, also have to remember they had 10 men with Sandro at the back for the majority of the second half.

We've been fucking awful.

And so they should. I find it funny how commentators here (mainly the BBC and ITV) are still surprised when Cole doesn't start... lets be honest he's been a bit shit for a year now.

Well Hazard was average in the first part of the season, he only started to shine a few months ago and now this month he's gone back to being average (Probably a bit harsh saying he's been 'average', but compared to how he was playing a month ago, looks like a different player). He's pretty inconsistent if you ask me. I will say he's young so it's to be expected but because we rely so much on him he cannot afford to have a cold patch. If Oscar and Willian were pulling their weight in this team Hazard could have a few average games, but the fact is their not.

The last three games he's been very average. Still very inconsistent, a shadow of the player we saw a month ago. In the last 3-4 months Willian and Oscar attacking wise have both been poor. Willian seems to offer next to nothing in attack, while Oscar is very inconsistent, maybe he needs a rest to regain the form he had at the beginning of the season when he was our best player. Still very worrying. Hazard, Oscar and Willian NEED to step up if we want to actually win the league.

It sad seeing him struggle on the ball when closed down, he hasn't got the pace or mobility to keep the ball in tight situations. Ramires is the same, he has the mobility and pace but not the composure and technique. Mikel is the opposite, he can keep the ball in tight situations but holds on to it for far too long, he also struggles to pass the ball forward. I'm glad we have Matic, he's composed on the the ball, knows when to pass forward and is great defensively. It's a shame he cant play in the CL, but he'll be vital in the PL.

Attacking wise he's been pretty poor, you cannot fault his work rate and defensive abilities but lets face it, for £30 million he needs to step it up. The last three games Hazard has been anonymous, that's when Willian has to step up and contribute attacking wise.

Maybe i'm overreacting with him being awful, but the last few months, yes months, he's been hit and miss. No where near the level he was at earlier in the season. He should be dropped for awhile. Of course we're trying to win the bloody league... we're top with only 11 games left, obviously Jose is playing it down but inside the camp he'll be telling the players we can win it. I agree with the fact that we're trying to build a team for the future and maybe Jose has over achieved but we're top, that's the reality.

If he's burnt out we should drop him, the last few months he's been awful, absolutely awful. He may work hard for the team, but i'm sorry, on current form we need more attacking wise, lately he has looked useless going forward. I'm just being brutally honest, we cannot afford to have any more passengers... we're trying to win the league.

Been awful the last few months, I lost count the amount of times he lost the ball today. You can say he's tired but he did miss the two games against Man City so i'm not buying it. On current form he should be no where near that first eleven.

Barcelona these days are so boring to watch, under Pep they were great mainly because they had the end product, whenever they were in the box a few 1-2s and they'll be in... but this Barca suck the life out of the game, constanly passing at a slow tempo with no end product at all.

It was pretty even before the penalty tbh... Barcelona had the majority of the possession but never even put City under pressure. Pellegrini went too defensive, Kolarov on the wing? they play their best when they have two strikers, they beat Bayern with two not one. It may suit them going to the camp nou needing a win, it'll force them to attack. Aguero and Negredo need to play together, if they have any hope winning. Apart from that one slip up from Kompany, he was a beast, had the better of Messi today. When we had Mata i was sure he was better than Silva, last year he was pretty poor, but this season Silva is amazing, today he was City's best player.

Kompany today was excellent, technically great, pressed our attackers at the right time and knew when to drop deep, he was the only leader out on that pitch today. His passing was spot on as well, he is the player i hoped Luiz would be, somehow i don't think that's going to happen. Luiz was poor again, he constantly keeps running out trying to press the attackers but almost always fouls them. He's clumsy, lacks focus and concentration (As Stingray said). Kompany has the intelligence to play as a CB, he knows when to press and doesn't just run out like a headless chicken committing fouls left, right and center. Earlier in the season people were crying out for Luiz to be our defender, their argument was that he will start our the attack of with his amazing passes, i'm sorry but in the last two games we couldn't start anything from the back, In the West Brom game Oscar had to come deeper than usual to collect the ball. It's hugely embarrassing watching our defence pass the ball side to side for five minutes straight. I'm sorry, Luiz is not Scholes, Xavi and Pirlo mixed in one, he doesn't start our attacks, the last two games has debunked that theory. People will say 'you cant judge him on two games', i'm not, I've been saying this for months, years even. Its funny because now this theory has been debunked, they will now say i only slate him because i'm English and we have some sort of an agenda... xenophobia, that is. In the end, it's only forum, no need to somehow discredit another member's opinion based on their nationality.

What does he do? attacking wise he offers next to nothing, defensively he's lazy, hardly ever tracks his man, rarely wins back the ball... when he does it takes him 30 seconds to actually release the fucking thing. In the last 20 minutes he did try, he passed the ball forward more times than in his whole Chelsea career, but it wasn't enough. As poor as Matic was today he was still better than Mikel in almost all aspects. 8 years of mediocrity, hopefully he'll be on his way out in the summer.

We cannot have anymore slip ups like today and against West Brom, blame it on the players being tired or whatever, if we want to win the league we have to look interested in actually winning... 0 shots on target says it all really.

Um... No.

Everyone was useless today. The most embarrassing thing was watching us constantly pass the ball around the back, same against West Brom, we're so poor at starting attacks from the back. This leads me to my next point, i thought D.Luiz was king at this? many people keep on saying he's vital in our team because he starts our attacks, nonsense. Mikel, Luiz, Willian, Ramires, Ivanovic, Matic and Hazard were all poor today, just looked disinterested. Also Mourinho was on bad from tonight, Salah for Eto'o? very weird sub. The thing that annoys me the most is that this was against City's second team...