Melanicus

I don't want to over-react, but Mata is certainly not having best time of his career this season.

I think he was quite confident on the ball today.

Embrassing. Will give my in-depth opinion tommorow.

Why is the kick-off so late today?

As far as I know, Courtois has contract with Chelsea until 2016, so I don't think we will sell him with two years on his contract. He wants it maybe, but is it better for him? I'm not sure. Rotating two world-class goalkeepers would frustrate the fuck out of them both and wouldn't do any good to either of them.

I could write quite a long post about Eto'o and Anzhi and Chelsea and money and Russians and oil, but I won't. I will just say it in few sentences. When you give a player such ammount of money Eto'o had in Russia, the player loses motivation. By the time you've read what I said, Eto'o would already earn 8,4 pounds in Anzhi. Now it's a completely different story. He wants to prove himself, he wants to add PL to his Spain and Italian trophies. He even took a paycut, so he could play for us. Money don't matter for him right now that much, he just wants to show the world he still got it. I just say, be careful and don't underestimate him. That's all from me.

Courtiois is the best young goalkeeper in the world, I have no doubts about that. The problem for him is, that Cech is also one of the best goalkeepers in the world. He's established Chelsea's number 1 option and probably the only player we expect to see week and week out in the starting line-up. Playing his 3rd season for Atletico, Courtois, and impressing every football fan who've seen him play, the question appears. Who should be Chelsea's number 1 in the next season? Cech's 2012-13 season was arguably his best in Chelsea shirt. He's also only 31 years old, which is great age for goalkeeper, because we know they reach their peak in early 30's. Some think injuries which he had throughout his career, may affect Cech's health, fitness and condition, but I don't think this is really the case here. Courtois, on the other hand, is getting better from season to season. In 2011 his save success rate was 65%, a year later 76% and in 2013 it stants at 80%, saving 8 out of 10 shots on target for Madrid so far. Last year he also kept 20 clean sheets, which is the highest number in the Europe's top 5 leagues. From 2011 to 2013 he kept 35 clean sheets, which is a lot more than Cech's 24. Thibaut also received less goals each season, from 41 to 29. He is definetly improving, but to keep this progress he needs to play football regulary. This is what Atletico can guarantee right now, there was some interest from the Barcelona too, and I believe, he would be first option for them, stealing Valdes' place from the starting eleven. Although Cech conceded 7 more goals than Courtois last season, he also saved a higher proportion of the shots he faced, 80%, being the best in the Premier League. He also had to save far more shots than Courtois, Cech had to save 122 shots and Courtois 86. There are no doubts Cech can still perform at the highest level. Just think about Supercup Final few weeks ago, when Cech saved 8 out of Bayern's 10 shots on target. Cech is also better passer of the ball than Courtois. Maybe it's because Atleticos' manager tells Courtois to kick the ball from the goal kick to use the arial ability of Atletico's striker, but nevertheless, Courtois will still have to improve his kicking before becoming Chelsea's number 1 option. He tends to punch ball less every season from 21 in 2011, to 14 in 2012 and he is yet to punch the ball this season. Over the same time Cech punched the ball 15 times in 2011, 28 times in 2012 and he already had his 2 punches this season. It would be unfair for Cech to sit on the bench in his current form and it would also be unfair for Courtois to warm the bench, when he should play week and week out and gain experience, which is vital for top goalkeeper. So, I think we should loan Courtois for few more seasons, until we see Cech is losing his form.

I'm interested though. Do you still feel the same?

This thread.

Drama queens everywhere...

Good luck in your life mate, hope to see you soon back!

Willian is by no way better #10 than Mata. He is also faster, or should I say he has better acceleration than Mata and better dribbler of the ball. He is certainly more suited as a wide attacking midfielder, but those quotes by Mourinho saying that he wants his left footed players to play on the right made me think that it will be Mata playing on the right side. But you never know really, Mourinho also said it was 'Rooney or bust' so we will see. By no means we can say that Willian isn't a good signing or that he won't help Chelsea in this season.

The problem with Willian is that he doesn't contribute a lot in the defence. Mata has also the same problem, but Mata has left leg. Why I say this? Because Mourinho clearly stated that he likes his wingers to have opposite foot to the side they are playing. So he wants left footed player on the right, we only have Mata who is left footed. Of course Willian is good with both feet, but I'm almost sure Mata will be the first choice on the right. And as I already said before, they will change positions non-stop during the match, so it really doesn't matter that much.

He can play anywhere behind the striker in 4-2-3-1 formation. In Shakhtar he mostly played on the left side. But I believe, in modern football there isn't such term as fixed position during the match, because during match players rotate and that's the best way to confuse opponent. Of course, when we see a squad we get a picture where someone will be mostly playing during the match, but as I said, players rotate. Willian is a poor finisher, but he really doesn't shoot that much. He isn't your classical winger that runs to the very end of the pitch and then crosses the ball into the box. I'd say he cuts in and then makes a key pass. He had most key passes in the Russian league last season and he assisted 3 of 4 Anzhi goals this seasons. His dribbling abillity is one of the best. I don't overreact, in terms of driblling he is on the same level as Hazard, if not better. In my opinion Jose, will play him in the middle, trying to transform Oscar to pivot player. RW/RAM: Mata, De Bruyne LW/LAM: Hazard, Schurrle CAM: Willian, (Oscar) Imagine Hazard, Willian & Mata all changing their positions behind the striker, causing a diarrhea in pants of the defenders. I undestand where you are coming from, but you really can't have too much qaulity. It's only better for our club to see that we have players on the bench that could play in other teams as the first choice. I also think we should buy CB/CDM, but as I said, if we buy quality player it can't do us wrong, even if it isn't our main priority.

Discussion turned into some kind of ego war, not cool.

I didn't read any post in this thread, but I believe that there are few members, who are questioning this transfer or are in doubts shall I say. First of all, I've been watching Shakhtar a lot, and Anzhi not so much, but still watched more than half of their matches. I will say shortly. This guy is game-changer. Some of you may laugh at me, but he is that kind of player, who can make a deadly through ball or make an opportunity from nothing. He's not the youngest player, but that's even better, because he will reach his peak soon. He played in Ukrainian and Russian league, nothing special. But if we look that he played under Lucescu (who is a genius tactician) and Hiddink who developed him even more, we can see that he is not just some random Brazilian playing in Russia. He didn't play for Brazil a lot, yes, because it's harder to scout players who play in a smaller league. Hulk for example, was known way before he joined Zenit, so scouts just kept watching him while playing in Russia. Fernandinho has the same story as Willian. Don't be surprised as they will be picked more and more often for national team. Mourinho will make him even better, by boosting his defending skills and improving his workrate. This guy will shine.

Come on mate, no need to insult.

In my opinion, two years ago there were more quality posts related football. You could sit here for few hours just reading all those analysis & disscussions. Some members have left due to private lifes, and that's fine. Members come and go, as everything in life. New members had joined, some more likeable, some less. I don't want to say that right now, the quality of the posts is bad or the members are lacking knowledge or quality comparing to the older ones. I want to say, that you have to take into the count the development of the internet and internet culture. It was only the question of time when people will start posting gifs. As few years ago posting pictures was the thing, few years later we could post youtube videos on here, right now it's the same thing with gifs. Who knows what will be in the future? In my opinion, the problem is The Pub. Not because I'm some bad policeman and try to be partybraker. As you remember some time ago there was this member 'cap'. He was funny guy and smart person. But I think his problem was that he wanted to become popular here more than anyone. Once I logged in to the forum and every post in every thread was last posted by him. He wanted to get his post count up, his rep up, get those MOTM's and so on. And I don't say that everyone, not even close, but few people who want to get their post up and become popular just write random shit in The Pub and are winning their popularity contest. There are still a lot of awesome members on here, with great quality posts, that give you another perspective. The only problem is you need to list through some pages to find those posts. And those members don't usually win awards. It's all about popularity contest. In all fairness, you will remember a member who posts more (because you see his profile pic more, his name more) than a memeber who posts less, but quality. You can't prove me the opposite, it's psychology thing. We find people who we speak a lot, more likeable and hence more sociable people become popular (otherwise nerds in school would be popular). But because everything is so nice in our life, those members who post less, but quality, usually don't care about popularity awards.

Frank Lampard still England's key player - Zinedine Zidane http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24015957

From his instagram profile. 'This how it will look from the back :-) #EFC'

Ah, those days when I used to be a moderator on this forum... Nostalgie!

Captain, leader, legend. :cfc:

Reported wages at the club: Petr Cech, £100,000 Mark Schwarzer, £20,000 Jamal Blackman, £5,000 Henrique Hilario, £12,000 John Terry, £175,000 David Luiz, £75,000 Branislav Ivanovic, £65,000 Gary Cahill, £80,000 Ashley Cole, £120,000 Ryan Bertrand, £40,000 Cesar Azpilicueta, £30,000 Frank Lampard, £125,000 Ramires, £55,000 Michael Essien, £70,000 John Obi Mikel, £75,000 Marco Van Ginkel, £35,000 Eden Hazard, £185,000 Willian, £85,000 Juan Mata, £67,000 Oscar, £40,000 Kevin de Bruyne, £30,000 Andre Schurrle, £78,000 Fernando Torres, £175,000 Samuel Eto'o, £135,000 Demba Ba, £80,000 Some other selected young & Loaned players' weekly wages: Thibault Courtois, £33,000 Victor Moses, £30,000 Romelu Lukaku, £40,000 Marko Marin, £35,000 Oriol Romeu, £33,000 Josh McEachran, £30,000 Wallace, £20,000 Christian Atsu, £12,000 Lucas Piazon, £15,000 Nathaniel Chalobah, £30,000 Tomas Kalas, £15,000 Gael Kakuta, £25,000 Patrick van Aanholt, £15,000 Kenneth Omeru, £10,000 Cristian Cuevas, £8,000 Nathan Ake, £20,000