lionsden

Ivanovic starts after his disastrous performance last week and virtually no change to the team that faced arsenal in the Comm shield. The midfield of ramires and Matic looks unbalanced and will likely be dominated again. If oscar id match fit, he should be starting. atleast it looks like an attacking team let's see how the team sets up come kick off.

predictable response. There's this thing called balance and going all out defensive against any half decent team we face isn't necessarily playing to our strength and the best or only way to get a result. Any team working with our budget and transfer spending over the last 10 years which is close to £1billion has the responsibility to entertain just as much as win as much as possible. This we are the underdogs against any half decent teams domestically and in europe mentality is one of the few things holding us back. How are players like hazard,Fabregas,Willian Oscar et al suppose to play to their full potential in big games when they are handicapped both tactically and mentally (The mentality thats been instilled into them i.e you are not good enough to go toe to toe with the almighty Arsenal, Liverpool, mancity, psg etc so park that damn bus all night long) And evidently that same mentality has rubbed off on some of our fans. A club of our status and ability shouldn't have to park the bus in order to get a result in virtually every big game.

First off i disagree that majority of jose's controversy are contrived and done with the team and club's best interest at heart. that's just bollocks AFAIC. Now if the argument is that his temper and controversial tendencies results in "unintended consequences" of easing pressure off the team, it might be more believable. which leads to the question, is it worth tarnishing the image of the club and his own legacy all in the name of taking attention and pressure away from the team. To me it's definitely not worth it. There's more to football than just winning. things like integrity, good reputation, professionalism amongst other things are important as well. Imo an overwhelming majority of the controversy Jose has created in his career is out of his nature/character and not some masterplan that is done intentionally but since that has been the narrative for a long time, jose takes full advantage of it because he knows he can be himself/act in a totally unprofessional manner and still get praised for it by some who are gullible enough to fall for it. Not every manager can be humble, respectful,matured, unassuming, a good sport, possess a thick skin and just generally pleasant. Some people are just who they are, so let's stop making excuses.

Even if any of this was true, it speaks more about the character of the ex than Evra's. I can't respect any man that feels it's ok to expose an ex/woman. That's feminine trait and petty as feck.

This same ole recycled argument of Jose "mind game" "taking attention away from the team" that is used as an excuse whenever he messes up/loses his temper is getting old. Basically when other managers mess up, they are unprofessional (insert your won word/term here) but when jose does it, he's a genius who did it deliberately to distract the media. If given the choice I will rather have the media attention on our result and performance rather than this clusterfuck of a drama which does absolutely nothing to help the club's image. And also how are the players suppose to concentrate/focus amidst the tension and drama?

Hazard is a better dribbler and more creative, reus is a superior finisher, Reus also has better vision and passing (Yes Hazard is more creative but his creativity comes from his ability to run with the ball and distabilise defences rather than raw/pure vision and passing range) Hazard is pacier and stronger. Reus is better at set pieces and can strike the ball as well as any player and also more tactically superior (defending/tracking back etc) To me hazard's skillset is rarer and he's more difficult to stop when on form whereas Reus's influence on a game is easier to quantify. in the end both are fantastic players it will just come down to who is more consistent and can stay fit the longest in the end and hazard has great injury record on his side

The solution, don't give people/media a reason to hate you and keep your dirty laundry out of the public eye. I'm yet to see a Jose team that was loved and respected. He always increases the hatred rivals and even neutral fans have for every club he's managed since leaving Porto. in His first spell, it was all about the extremely boring but efficient Chelsea and his childish and petty feud with rival clubs and managers most notably barca, riijkard, messi et al. When he went to inter, he became public enemy number one in serie A with his constant moaning and press conference shenanigans and cries of conspiracy, same at Madrid and his second spell here. Also there's the way he tried to turn Madrid into a thuggish team and pretty much made the el classicos unwatchable, encouraging hatred and bitter rivalry amongst his won players and their Barca counterpart and the whole Tito incident and so on. Its intellectually lazy to just conclude people hate Jose and his team simply because of his success/jealousy when other accomplished managers garnered more respect. We were no where as hated during ancelottis spell here as a matter of fact, our popularity amongst rival fans and the media went up despite winning the double and pep's barca, heynekes Bayern et al were loved and respected despite their dominance/success. We have Jose to thank for the increased hatred as his tactics aren't the only negativity he brings to a club.

You are talking like our team is full of "top class players". Have ypi checked our squad lately. The notion that only the bet of the beet can play for Chelsea is a myth and absolutely bollocks. I don't Know where that notion came from when, for years. We have had players literally stealing a living. Average and serviceable players make squad players at every top clubs. No team has a sqaud full of hazards and messis.

We have been playing like one since january

I'm 100 percent convinced that every single poster defending Jose and trying to make light of the situation are doing so out of bias. From a neutral perspective, I'm willing to bet my mortgage on the fact that the tune will be different if José wasn't involved in the incident and it was Rafa or manager of some random/rival club. No rational and non bias human being will view Jose's behaviour as anything but negative, aggressive and completely out of odrder and be held as the culprit in this situation. This sets a very dangerous precedent from now on and backs Jose and the club into a very awkward corner. I.e "all physios will be required permission from Jose (the medical expert himself before doing their job or get demoted"

We were that bad against united in April and not much has changed tactically and personnel wise

It's absolutely astonishing the length some people will go to defend the indefensible. Some of you lot should work parliament as spin doctors. You can make Hitler look like nelson mandela

And this is just the first game of the season. At least let the season mature a bit before resorting to his usual antics.

You must be mistaking Ancelotti for someone else. Carlo has never won a major trophy in his career let alone at Chelsea

I reckon we will break the record against united and achieve less than 28% possession here. It will be ugly.

And that's precisely why I miss ancelotti. yes success is arguably the most important factor in football but at what cost?.

So people should show support and side with a party in a dispute based on hierarchy? That's just stupid. The only moral thing to do is to side with and support whoever is the victim (no exceptions).

Just because some people get away with murder doesn't make it any less of a serious crime/offense (and yes some people do indeed get away with murder in real life) Brownie points to the first smart ass that says "wow you are equating this to murder"

What's wrong with acknowledging people that support and appreciate her work and professionalism since the manager doesn't? Spin it all you want, Jose is the culprit here launching a childish and unnecessary attack on someone for doing their job. Jose has no medical background, how would he no what hazard's condition was at the time. This leads to only two conclusions, It's either jose doesn't give a damn about Hazard's health and would rather him continue playing on with a "potential" injury or He believes hazard wasn't really hurt and just feigning an in jury. Either way, it reflects badly on Jose.

If we do indeed punish/demote her for doing her job, we deserve every single ounce of bad publicity this will attract.

I really miss Ancelotti. No drama, no controversy/childishness and model of an ultimate professional.

Somehow eva is the guilty party in all of this. unbelievable.

I think you are overestimating Jose's power/influence. roman isn't going to fire one of the best doctors in the game over Jose's pettiness. She's not even in the wrong here, jose is.

So what's the alternative to dishing out warranted criticism that some like to call "moaning". Bury ones head in the sand and pretend like everything is rosy?. This forum never cease to amaze me. All the issues that posters are "moaning" about are all legitimate ones and what;s the point of a forum anyway if its not to discuss every football related issues and i don't think that can be achieved without "moaning" as not everyone is capable of turning a blind eye to real issues that hasn't been addressed in the team and controversial topics in general. For example criticising the medical staffs for doing their job warrants criticism Failure to improve the teams performance/form since January where we have played turgid football coupled with shambolic defending with no clear sense of direction and organisation is course for concern. Ultimately people are just frustrated due to the lack of investment to address some of the issues in the team (this is mostly directed at the board not jose) and a lack of improvement in our form since the second half of last season.

I can't see past a City win here, maybe a draw if we are extremely lucky and our goal keeper wins MOTM again (which was a common theme from January to May of last season) Even If we park the bus, we won't win here because we haven't actually been efficient and hard to beat in the games where we parked the bus last season which defeats the very purpose of such tactics. We have looked shambolic defensively, giving away too many chances to our opponents despite sitting very deep. even if we do manage to score, can anyone bet on us maintaining the lead for full 90 minutes? With our form since the second half of last season and the way we have been defending coupled with the lack of creativity and movement , It is not logical to predict a Chelsea win or draw here. I don't get those that are confident we will get a result in this game either. I mean what signs have you seen thus far to suggest the result will favor us. Fabregas is always shambolic in this type of games and hasn't started the season well, hazard hasn't been in good form either and looks unfit (that's a huge chunk of our creativity gone) Then there's ivanovic and the team's overall defending.