lionsden

Ramires has been shocking

Willian has been fantastic

Didierrrrrrrrrrrr

It will be a joke if jose doesn't make changes at half time. Taking off drogba will be a start and maybe introducing luis at LB

BTW where was ivanovic in the build up to the goal. he left his position completely vacant again.

I said it in the pre match thread that Leicester are far better than their league standing suggest and the way they create chances, if we concede to them, it will be tough for us to find 2 or more goals needed to win here. my fears is coming true so far.

The worst part is there's no striker to come on for Didier. Why isn't Solanke or even Izzy for that matter on the bench?

Well that has been coming

Im dead serious when i say this. we are better off with thibo or jamal blackman upfront than drogba at this point. He's that awful

Upon reflection, I will admit that I have been too harsh on Jose and I have taken the criticism too far at times after all he's on course to deliver our first title in 5 years. And He's transformed us from perenial top 4 challengers to genuine title contenders from the get go. At the end of the day, in a result oriented sport, the end always justifies the means and success is what managers are ultimately judged on. I certainly wouldn't swap AVB's philosophical mumbo jumbo for this. hopefully we continue to evolve and progress in all facet.

That's not how this works. Jose and chelsea were title favourites before the season even started while Soton on the otherhand defied the odds and have been rubbing shoulders with teams of considerably better squad and bigger budget throughout the season. The latter is a much bigger and impressive achievement from a non biased standpoint. Either way I think you can't go wrong with either Koeman or Jose winning the award but to dismiss the dutchman as a legitimate contender for the award is just plain wrong.

Manager of the year has to be Koeman. he's exceeded all expectation and even defied logic. Most people had them down as relegation candidates before the start of the season after losing the nucleus of their team. He's turned them into a contender for top 5 finish, in his first season no less.

Who said or insinuated such?

yes you do. Every big teams are expected to crush and bully majority of the smaller/inferior teams around. It's your performance and approach in the big games and big tournaments that reputations are built on. You can't only play exciting football against canon fodders and expect people to give you the credit when that's the bare minimum that's expected of you. Actually going toe to toe with a team closer to you in terms of talent and ability is the true mark of great and exciting teams. Was Pep's Barcelona team's reputation built on their performance against teams like Hercules,Almeria and co or was it built on their demolition of Mouirinho's Madrid and Fergie's united et al while playing excellent football to boot? Answer that question truthfully.

The 5,000 word thesis or should I say interview that he recently gave on the matter for starters. Someone who doesn't give a damn would never try that hard to defend his approach to the point of trying to reinvent the definition of the beautiful game.

Every big club plays with exactly the same objective but the process in which this objective is achieved is what makes a team boring or exciting and I'm sure everyone understands this but just playing dumb for the sake of defending jose.

What the **** are you even talking about? The bone of contention here is that Jose bores the life out of neutrals, opposition fans and the non blue tinted Chelsea fans with the brand of football he plays in the big games since the topic was brought up after yet another drab, negative approach/performance in a big game. The big games are usually what neutral fans watch and base their opinion on. Every time the opposition fans and neutrals watch us against a big/half decent teams, it just so happens that we spend 85 minutes of the game defending and not much else. . .like just over a week ago when they witness the champions elect playing at home against Man utd and ended up with only 30 odd percent possession. I wonder why other big teams haven't earned such reputation. maybe, just maybe there's an element of truth to it. nevermind that we have actually been crap for 4 months now. If Jose is worried about the criticism, he should use the big games which is the biggest advertisement of any club there is to play a more balanced and exciting brand of football.

You all are right. the football we have played in the big games and from jan till now is the very definition of the beautiful game. exhilarating, mouth watering football on display. happy?

Jose reinventing the beautiful game, one bus parking at a time. :D

This guy right now is the best player in our youth/reserve team. He isn't just another trickster, he actually has substance to his game and at the current rate of his development, only sky is the limit. I just hope his frail stature doesn't count against him and even if it does, im sure he will have a very dexent career wherever he ends up. Hope that's at Chelsea ofcourse.

Apart from his creative passing (when he's on form) what other apsect of his game actually stands out? He can be very sloppy in possession especially under pressure, he can't shield the ball at all (All that time he spent with the masters of the art of ball shielding Xavi and Iniesta counted for nothing), He can't dribble, He's very lightweight literally and in terms of his game play, His first overall passing can be inconsistent (I agree with styles here). It's fair to say he's one of the most limited high profile players around.

Why is he getting defensive now. I thought he doesn't care about criticism. I don't know what he expects people/media to call the brand of football he plays in virtually every big game. exhilarating?,captivating?, exciting?. Since he apparently lives and dies by his philosophy, he should own up to it and not try to put a spin on it, it's boring football and that's fine as long as he's able to acknowledge that. You don't see other managers who deploy similar strategy cry about it when confronted instead they own up to it "It's far from pretty and exciting but it's an effective strategy" . That should have been Jose's response.

For those that have actually seen Leicester play this season, they are surprisingly one of the most creative teams in the league, even against the big sides, they do create an awful lot of chances but have little to no end product. If they get efficient and put away their chances against us (I'm confident they will have a couple against us) we might be in trouble giving our striker predicament and how the goals have dried up for us.

I checked his youtube page and it's nothing but a bunch of 2 to 3 minute averagely put together videos. When one is so used to Heilrj and scoutnation's detailed and well edited videos, it's difficult to find other videos impressive.

We are actually playing well and not parking the bus. Im shocked