lionsden

His positioning, descipline, decision making and passing was just awful. If I hear more cries for him to be played in DM again, I might pull my hair out, especially now that we have reinforcement in matic. mikel should have been started instead then bring matic on in the 2ns half after the 3rd goal.

The inclusion of Luiz in midfield is the only problem I have with the starting line up and perhaps the exclusion of Torres who has scored in the last 2 epl games and usually performs well in big games (not involving liverpool ofcourse).

That line in bold is music to Florentino Pérez's ears

You can't be further from the truth even if you tried, just last month the decision to bench him for dave was met by widespread criticism from fans (not neccessarily on talkchelsea) and the media in general who still think it's 2006. I can only imagine if it was berttrand that took his place instead. in regards to walcott, many still view him as that all pace and no brain player who pops up with goals now and then. I was referring to general opinion that's not exclusive to this site What some consider negative is what others like me see as being realistic, blunt, honest and unbiased and that's what makes life intersting. we can't all be " positive and lovey dovey" otherwise football discussions on chelsea forums in general would generally just go along the lines of poster 1- Ramires is the best midfielder in the epl, Hazard is Europe's MVP and we are playing the best football on the planet poster 2- yes that's correct poster 3- absolutely Poster4- ktbffh wash rinse and repeat or something to that effect

Ancelotti's sacking thanks to our managerial instability halted his development big time. He could have been a great regista. but it's all what ifs now and I will be shocked if he turns it around and eventually makes the grade.

Welcome to the bench young fella, hope you brought your blanket and head warmer with you because it's going to be one heck of bench warming.

I actually think he's been better than Cole with the limited appearances he's made over the past 2 seasons but people are blinded by ashley cole's glittering reputation and their lowly perception of bertrand as nothing more than a squad player Even the same Shaw that people are creaming themselves over is inferior defensively to Bertie and the only thing the youngster has over him is the silky touches and overall offensive game. Once people form a perception of you early on it's almost impossible to shake it. which is why till this day, people still view players like Walcott, sturridge et al as nothing more than average despite stellar and consistent performances from them over the past 18 months. but you are not allowed to go against the popular opinion around here, otherwise you are labelled a troll.

What are you talking about, they got fellianinho.

Vitesse coach is grinning like a Cheshire cat as we speak.

I worry more about the players and managers mentality which will determine how we approach this game. I have a feeling jose will show them too much respect regardless of who they field and it might backfire on us.

Hasn't he already done that with his performances for us over the past 3 seasons?

So an ageing midfielder (essien) and a centreback who has been disastrous whenever he's played at LB (Luiz) are better cover in that position than a natural and dependable LB in Bertrand? Why do people always feel the need to rationalise every questionable decision made by Jose or the board. will it hurt to,once in a while, admit that the decision makers aren't perfect and some decision simply doesn't make sense?

“I didn’t leave Chelsea because I have to go to the World Cup – it could be over after three games – but just because I lost my joy.” “My pre-season was good, my first game too, but I still don’t know why I lost my place after the game against Manchester United. I wish you all the very best kevin. hope he rediscovers his joy and passion for the game at wolfsburg because he's delightful to watch when on form.

So every time one of our players get injured, we send them out on loan? someone should have sent jose the memo regarding others who came back from injury as well like Luiz, torres et al

When any youth player break into the first team properly ala JT, I will start getting excited about these kids until then, i refuse to get my hopes up that one day one of them might end up making the grade. It has been said a billion times before but we are not a club that shows any form of commitment to youth integrating and no amount of empty and meaningless statement that lacks substance and actions to back it up by emenalo,Jose,Ron Gourlay et al will change that. I just hope those impressing on loan like Bamford, Piazon, Thorgan et al wise up quickly and make decisions based on reality rather than fantasy and hope, so they don't end up like Bertrand, joshy et al.

Why not just put him out of his misery and sell him permanently then. I have always believed that you sell players who aren't in the club or managers plan out of respect for the player rather than jerk them around. Kakuta is the perfect example of that in recent times (when it became increasingly clear that he was likely not going to make it here) and I'm afraid Bertrand is going that way under Mourinho as well because he simply doesn't rate him. what's going to change when he gets back? back to square one i.e warming the bench regularly? complete waste of everyone's time.

What's this stupid notion that this loan move is good because it will allow a player with over 150 professional caps and 28 of those for chelsea, to prove himself? what exactly is there to prove? that he's good enough to be a squad player for us? he hasn't already done that with his performances in the blue shirt? The bottomline is for whatever reason, Jose just never rated him which is a huge shame and no amount of loan moves will change that. no need to rationalise this. Perhaps we should have sent JT out on loan last season as well to "prove himself" since he was ostracized by the previous manager, rafa, the same thing Jose has done to ryan.

Does anyone else get the Matic similarities with fernando redondo

Is this the matic thread or obi mikel thread?. He hasn't even kicked a ball and it's already generating heated debate and tension.

This how I'm feeling right now

How did we manage to get him so cheap though. . . .I know benfica have financial issues but still, a bargain given the current market and benfica's history of selling players at premium price.

Moyes is fuming as we speak

Welcome back. Will no doubt prove to be an outstanding success.

That's unfair considering Robben was very injury prone. impact wise, I wouldn't put him above Robben just yet. People forget how explosive and direct he was with us. he consistently strucked fear into defenders. His selfishness and injury record were the only thing that held him back but he's overcome that since joining bayern.

You got it totally mixed up imo. ferdinand never had pace nor relied on it, his reading of the game and positioning were his main strength in his prime and was the terry in man utd system while vidic was their carvalho.