didierforever

you mean when he came deep and broke off swindon's momentum... and probably the exact thing that jose wants him to do... seems legit that he gets called on for conceding 2 FKs (despite us keeping a clean sheet) rather than look at his whole performance and the effort that he put in last night.

a good performance against a lowly team does not mean he gets to start against tottenham. will he be able to do half the things he did yesterday against tottenham. NO. cant believe after 2 and a half years of pathetic-ness, we still have to go thru this everytime he puts in a performance against a team 2 leagues below us, and mid-table even in that league. jose has made it pretty clear that etoo is his first choice, and i have no doubt that he sticks to his guns.

we did what we had to do. the scoreline could have been MIGHTILY different if we had finished our chances, i mean kdb should have been on the scoresheet, willian should have been on it twice, torres twice. should have been 5-0/6-0. our finishing altogether is POOR and i can safely say that among the 25 people squad if u give me an option of choosing one player who i would like to have the ball when any of our player goes one-on-one with the opposition GK, then i would say it should be RAMBO. just goes on to show how poor the finishing of our strikers and AMs is. here is my take on the players schwarzer - good display. the reflex to stop that goal on the line (even though it was off) was brilliant. the distribution was good too except for that one poor kick. 8.5/10 azpi - should be our no.1 RB. gives so much more in attack and performs the duties of a RB by closing wingers. but sometimes lets players take runs behind him. i m not sure he knew where the striker was when that guy went one v one on schwarzer but was called off. happens too often with azpi. still a very solid performanc. 8/10 cahill - very unlike cahill performance.too many mistakes from him. he has been solid for us this season so far and i hope it continues. 6/10 luiz - keeps wanting to go ahead. makes mistakes. i can easily see him being relegated to our 3rd choice CB. shame since he is such a talent. 7/10 bertrand- solid. provides so much more than cole in attack. should have had atleast one assist. defensively was brilliant too. he should be getting a lot more playing time than he currently is.8.5/10 mvg - unlucky. injured. dint get much time. essien - impressive. made some great runs in the mid like the BISON of old. 8/10 willian - poor finishing, poor link-up play, brilliant workrate. give him time to settle, he ll be great. 6/10 kdb - was not much impressed. should have been on the scoresheet. 6/10 mata - dint do much in the match. put torres one on one but that is pretty much it. but did try defensively and committed fouls deep in our half but just dint do anything to get him into the TOTTENHAM match. 7/10 torres - brilliant. MOTM for me. good hold up play, brilliant runs. 9/10 subs - ramires - our best mid-fielder by a mile. our best finisher by our mile. i ll be gutted and we ll have a very very hard time if he is injured. 8.5/10 JT - our best CB by a mile. 8/10 BA - was better on the wings than kdb and willian. 8/10

he provides a way way way better option in attack than cole. defensively he is good. does his job.

cech iva cahill JT cole rambo mikel schurlle oscar hazard etoo the team that started fulham will probably start this match too. hazard HAS to have a great game. they will dominate us in the middle of the pitch with the likes of dembele, paulinho, eriksen. i dont know how good lamela's work rate is, so hazard might get a chance to go up against the mightily overrated walker. remember how mata OWNED him last year!!!

we have moses, marin, kakuta, piazon on loan and want another winger/no.10...

line ups???

i think jose has purposely told iva not to cross the ball into the box. in jose's post-match press conference with chelsea tv, he says it loud and clear. he even said something like he wants iva to be more patient on the ball, let our AMs make the runs and then play them in. otherwise he said he would prefer low crosses (like the one iva gave to etoo, when etoo got ahead of stockdale but could not get a definitive touch). still early days though. lets see how things pan out.

totally accepted. and that is one of the reasons i just said that mou would be 100% sure because, i cant see how azpi is a better RB than iva under the tactics mou is applying. azpi's pace is better, link up play is better, he workrate is normally very good and he should be an ideal choice as a RB under the tactics mou is using. but for some reason mou thinks otherwise and i cant say that it has not worked. so lets see how it goes. also 100% agree with iva being our best cb. he showed it last season. u must be the 5th or 6th guy INSIDE a week to use the same exact phrase "get off your high horse" against toptb.

ohh... i am gonna have so much fun rubbing it in the faces of some of the jack-asses here when mou makes us a world-class team.

i dont remember when those 4 instances happened during the basel match but i ll take your word for it. still i would say, for me, iva was the MOTM in that match, (u can go to the basel post match thread and see my vote). i felt he was great defensively, twice he saved luiz's ass when he was out of position. one of those was when strellar would have gone one on one with cech if not for iva's timely interception. attackingly, i felt, he seemed to be our best option on the pitch. provided with width, made some brilliant runs towards the end of the match. all throughout the match he was shouting at willian to make a run ahead of him but to no avail and i remember in the 2nd half oscar made on of those, iva put him thru on theline and it resulted in a half chance. we are playing a different system and its pretty clear from the amount of ball iva and cole have got in the last 3 matches that jose is going to use them as attacking options. look at how cole is struggling in this new system, while i feel iva has been better than just good. moreover, just like in the mata-case, i would trust jose for knowing what he is doing. i dont see any reason why he would say something like "do i have a doubt that iva is my first choice rb? I DONT." unless he is 100% sure.

etoo has alread started 3 games in 7 days. so far his workrate has been pretty good, his movement has been decent and i would say he would definitely start against TOT. so not knowing how well the body of a 32 and a half year old will hold after 5 games in 2 weeks, i would give him a rest for this one.

BOOOM!!!! dude, seriously??? iva's workrate has been BRILLIANT. absolutely phenomenal. he is always available on the right wide providing us much-much-much needed width. also, iva never closed down wingers. it was always one of his poor points. i mean even in 2009-10 when he got RB of the year, he still had the problem, so this is not something that has "developed" now. as for offensively, iva so far has been a very good outlet. look at his cross to etoo at the near post. a couple of brilliant runs in the basel and fulham match.

damn the wait... simply cant wait for mata...

ten action...

this is very different from You can't keep starting a player for what he has done in the past. but do agree with your current post. even i was baffled by jose's decision to not have mata as a certain starter. but now i do get what he is doin. he is making a TEAM. he is giving us an IDENTITY. since 2010, we kinda lost our identity. we were playing games on the talent of the players rather than a game-play. now, everything's gonna change and the slate's being cleaned by jose of every player. each player fights for his place.

seriously??? PAST?? so mata won his last POTY award and was our most influential player 10 years ago, right?? he has had 2 starts in the season out of which the 1st one was after he had just 45 minutes in the whole pre-season. he was not even physically fit, forget about being match-fit (i dont think he is match-fit even now). mata is benched for very valid reasons, but to give the argument u have given here is like saying mata is a worthless and has been on a declining trajectory for sometime now.

he benched casillas because casillas was starting to suck. even carlo has taken the same decision and any1 who has watched RM continously would say that it was the right decision. the benching had nothing to do with the fight/discontenment. they were fighting way before casillas was benched.

wow... di canio - di matteo... POLAR OPPOSITES... someone who wears his heart on his sleeve to some1 as calm as rdm. i feel it would be good for both the parties (i mean rdm and sunderland)..

every1 and any1 who says mata wont be a part of jose's teams and is not a part of jose's plans is going to be in for a BIG SHOCK. mata is a creative genius. jose knows that, fuck it, every one knows that. jose wants mata to become a far more complete player than what he currently is. he does not want mata's defensive liabilities to hurt if attacking awesomeness. jose has come out and said exactly what he wants off mata and i expect nothing short of 100% commitment from the genius. mata is a real professional and seems to be a wonderful person by nature, he ll fight for his place in the team. as for peopl who are saying that jose is DESTROYING mata's career, its the complete opposite of it. for the people who are saying that mata has no place in the team, u r going to be enough embarassed in the future, i dont need to do that.

chill dude. he ll be back. jose has said EXACTLY what he wants from mata. that is better workrate and better defensive display. he has not minced any words in doing so. it is upto mata now to change himself a little. become more of a complete player. chase after balls when we lose it and get it back and things like the man city goal, where he simply let yaya toure run free into our box, should not happen. jose is making a more complete team and wants mata to become a more complete player so that his defensive liabilities dont cut off his attacking brilliance. close your eyes, TRUST IN JOSE and let things be.

why u say that? i actually felt that jose liked him a lot. i mean even putting lukaku in as a sub against bayern when we were 10 men and to give the responsibility to him to lead the line shows he has faith in him. i think sending lukaku out on loan was more because we could not find a loan for ba and the board made a very good call by not loaning ba to arsenal after they had already got ozil. that would have strengthened them. so as a last resort and seing no point of having 4 strikers for 1 striker role, we loaned him. atleast thats my take on it.

the best thing about jose is that he doesnot mince words. when asked what he expects of mata and how mata can win his trust back, the answer was swift, straight and to the point. if he so direct with the public, just think exactly how he would talk to the players. everything would be straight from the heart. and each player would be knowing exactly what is expected of him and what he would get. i feel mata will give his 100%, fight for his place, slug it out and come out of it an even better player.

how good was he yesterday. just watched the motd and he was fucking awesome... that diagonal ball to mirallas at the start of the 2nd half - orgasmic. hold up play-brilliant. link up play-seemed good. and still people say "he is not ready" what the fuck have we done?

the best thing about jose is that he doesnot mince words. when asked what he expects of mata and how mata can win his trust back, the answer was swift, straight and to the point. if he so direct with the public, just think exactly how he would talk to the players. everything would be strainght from the heart. and each player would be knowing exactly what is expected of him and what he would get.