joshmercury

I dont know whether Pat Nevin has credible sources to make such insinuations, but the larger point is Mourinho is gone, whether he was sacked rightly or wrongly is a different issue. Once he is gone this whole mud slinging on who is to blame for the debacle is such a pointless activity. Now everyone gets a clean slate as Abramovich himself stated and it is only fair we also give it to the team. On another note why isn't it possible for the team to just perform badly without any bad apples? It is sports for christsake every team goes through these phases. Sometimes things don't just add up like the plethora of ways we seem to discover this season in conceding cheap goals. When the team starts performing again and trust me it will, the board will feel it was vindicated in its decision and we will once again move on for the nth time like the hypocrites that we are. And guess what will happen the new guy will also fail and the cycle will start again only this time with milder fan reactions as it is not Mourinho. Manegerial Stability is so overrated these days the only stability that is necessary is in procuring trophies with high frequency and that we have managed, if not without a Sir Alex or a Wenger then so be it, I can live with that.

Very rarely do I comment in this forum . I am not pro fabregas, but the stick that he gets is so undeserved. You just have to look at the recent Spain game against England to know his quality. This is a worldclass playmaker. But admittedly Cesc's recent form has been poor due to two reasons. He is overburdened, has too much gametime with no rest whatsoever. Against Leicester he had legs after subbing in and you could see the quality and impetus he could provide. Ultra Defensive Tactics focused on making as few mistakes as possibles rather than creating as many opportunities as possible. This is a player who take risks with the ball. He is not suited to chasing shadows without it. He just doesn't have the legs. Instead of criticizing him for it why not play to his strengths. Actually this goes for the entire team. We look so nervous because Mourinho feeds our players to be as precise as possible in minimizing mistakes and this has inturn hindered our attack drastically.In short I see a change in tactics and more rotation see Cesc and the whole team improve.

The most damning statistic of the match was not that we had 35 odd shots, but that west ham only 1 shot.While their ultra defensive attitude was the primary reason. I think as most would agree we just have a tactic and defensive shape that is more aligned towards defensive solidarity than attacking play like Liverpool or City.Latter 2 s tactics are spot on when they face these teams.But my question is when the opponent has only 1 shot the entire match, why not compromise on some stability and commit men forward.Although hindsight is wonderful i will argue was mourinho really expecting a big Sam's team to come attacking.I wish that some irrelevant game we try 2 up top and play with only 1 holding midfielder.Finally there are 2 ways at looking at west ham having only 1 shot While some would say the defense was very good, I would say it is inexcusable to not score in a match where the opponent has only 1 shot. It simply means our team was afraid of not conceding over scoring especially in the first 60 mins. Our recent defensive record is remarkable but when you are not scoring it means nothing.

His fitness is a major issue. Faded out badly both in newcastle game and today in the second half. I think if at all he makes it here he will be more of an impact sub like hernandez . Give him 30/45 mins to go all out ,like steve clarke did he will be most effective.

I dont know if someone has pointed this out, but every one of the league winning teams for the last 4 seasons have either lost or drew at Goodison park. United lost last season, City before that and we lost in our double winning season. So overreactions are unwarranted, and for the superstitious fellas you can even consider the loss as a good omen for the season.

Three things 1) People forget he is homegrown , one of the main reasons we bought him. We are struggling to fill the quota and when lamps, cole and terry leave I expect the problem to be compounded. Probably the main reason we were after rooney. 2) He is direct similar to schurrle albeit a bit inconsistent and these 2 are the only pure wingers in the squad. I think we may need moses if god forbid schurrle becomes injured or may be even loses form. The little I've seen of willian he too is a play maker and for jose's counter attacking style we need off the ball runners, moses is ideal for jose's system. 3) The most important point is Moses has potential, I wont be surprised if we take him back next season after he has a stormer of a season.

Cole had a shocker of a game. For a team having 70% possession the first overlapping run he made was in the 93rd minute. No wonder he doesnt cross. His attacking play is virtually non existent. Rather have bertrand. Part of the reason why the midfield was congested was because the full backs did not provide width. I hope we get a new lb next season.

Part of the reason why we've been struggling is because of this guy's absence.Moses provides balance to our team. He is a first team player. Whether he is good enough or not is debatable but he can hold up the ball and in the second half arsenal game he would have been ideal.

Atleast he will get some much needed rest . If I am not mistaken Hazard has pretty much played in every 1 of our games, he needs rest and has got one

KDb is the closest we have to a lampard replacement. Oscar is more of attacking mid who can do a job in the pivot. Josh i dont think will make it(atleast for next 2 seasons). Kdb will be given chance next season in lamps position if it doesnt work out we'll buy someone.

could well turn out like anelka so definitely worth the punt

Ever since the Falcao rumors started surfacing, I was quite sure they were all media driven BS, I thought our board after Shevchenko and Torres would never throw cash again in Jan, guess I was/ am wrong. I was naive enough to not understand that FFP is a mythical entity and was never to going to materialize. So now we are sure almost to get falcao, there are several qns I want to ask board (I know they wont see this but anyway ) 1. Is falcao really worth 50m? (tradeoff b/w goal scoring record and age) 2. Is'nt Atletico's style of play better suited to him, can it be matched with Chelsea?(was focal point of attack, personally think goal tally is slightly exaggerating his abilities) 2. Will it not be wiser to spend 50m on a CM and sT instead of falcao? 3. Will falcao succeed in England? 4. As a Jan signing would he not require time to adapt? 5. Would we buy him if he had'nt scored the hatrick against us?(torres) The last qn If are to buy him now why the hell din't we buy him in the summer for pretty much same price. Would have had preseason and could have helped us challenge for the title. If we are buying because we thought torres, sturridge would be sufficient but torres turned to shit, then why did we sell sturridge instead of torres. 6. My last qn if falcao is a replacement for sturridge why dint the swap happen in summer?

someone posted before me

I totally agree I thought he looked good today. You cant complain against him wandering off we were playing leeds not atletico madrid. Someone should have covered him Btw Ivanovic was absolutely woeful, before he scored.

He has a point mikel ramires, luiz, hazard torres, mata and oscar have been playing 2 matches a week since september with a occasional rest here and there.Naturally we have looked tired in passing and movement, hence lack of goals. Another thing personally i dont like mata oscar hazard playing together, all 3 of them are effective only in the centre. Our attack becomes very imbalanced when all three start. RB went for bertrand as an option but he was never more than a solid lb. One of marin or moses should start winnable games in my opinion. It is a myth that torres is the only problem right now, it is not as if when we sign falcao we are going to play beautiful football and score loads of goals.We have no tempo to our game it is what sets winning teams apart, I guess we need to be patient and wait till next season.

fair enough yes I'm speculating to an extent but you must also add the fact we are going to spend 40 odd million on a 26 year old with negligible resale value compared to the investment. At the end of the day our miserable signings of shevchenko, torres in jan is a fact no one can deny, and I dont want falcao being added to the list for both his and our sake.

The same way you know that he will be a big hit at chelsea. And going by our past striker signings I have more chance of being right. But going by Falcao's record conventional wisdom would say he will score bucket full of goals. But the fact remains he is at the peak of his powers, he will slow down and hit a rough patch like torres(although the extent and duration is anyone's guess) and I dont want it to be in chelsea. (will be more than happy to be proven wrong)

Falcao is in the peak of his form the only place for him to go from here is down. We should have bought him from porto now i don't see any point. i'm sure his remarkable goal scoring record will normalise by the end of season( if he stays with atletico), by which time we'll be looking at some other in form striker. I hope some rational person in the board will reject this move .

Falcao dont get me wrong is awesome Right Now. But after Shevchenko and torres do any of you think it is prudent to buy him in january for 40m. Believe it or not once upon a time torres was as good as falcao if not better. I honestly believe if it werent for the 2 goals he scored in anfield we wouldnt have bought him. Similar thing is happening with falcao he scores hatrick against us and we're in for hm. It is as easy for falcao to turn into a flop like torres /shevchenko. The best approach would be to buy someone like anelka in january and wait till summer, this whole falcao love may become extinct by then.

i find it difficult to work this one out. Yes we won the champions league but 67M loss to profit in 1 fiscal year. Not to mention the 28M profit in transfer market (even considering transfers based on parachute payment ) is unbelievable.We dint sell anybody only released 3 players and even if you say wages were slashed how can 28M profit result out of it. I guess Im being paranoid for no reason hope no window dressing has been done to our account books to meet FFP. Atleast our accountants are working overtime

we only win when a defender scores why is that?

whenever we have won a game this season some defender or the other has scored (except for the newcastle game). tells 2 things defenders scoring goals strikers not scoring goals

2 problems 1. The no of shots that both Spurs and Shakhtar were allowed to take was unbelievable. Very poor in closing down and defense sitting very deep . While the goals were individual errors and from setpieces those can be sort out but the fact that we are getting torn apart in counterattack is the worrying problem.We need a proper ball winning midfielder not Mikel who relies on positioning and recycles the ball someone who chases and muscles the ball. 2. Torres not good enough to lead line - already voiced by many . Coming to Shakhtar they were definitely good but they are not a worldclass team, any team worth its salt would have scored more than the 1 we scored especially considering the chances they gave.

lets put things into perspective liverpool looked awesome against the same team last week. We played well. A rather customary win for a team challenging for the title, nothing more nothing less. On another note really worried about terry although luiz has looked solid enough though.

We actually won a match without one clear cut opportunity from open play.