lionsden

Are you saying parking the bus isn't a system

£50m defender :D :D :D :D

For one he's more consistent, Arguably atletico's most important player for the past two seasons and I don't need to remind you of that team's achievement. Has better numbers all round and most people will agree Koke is also more talented and complete. As a matter of fact no one outside of blue tinted Chelsea fans even considers Oscar anywhere remotely on the same level as Koke. This is like comparing Willian (no disrespect to him) to Isco.

Is this the oscar thread or the comic relief?

Zouma, a defender in Midfield, when we have natural midfielders like matic, mikel and ramires available for selection. I can see Jose's overly cautious and unnecessarily negative approach and mindset is starting to rub off on some of our fans. It's contagious. I was just trying to digest the Zouma to play upfront as a target man upfront when there are other less drastic measures nonsense and now this. While we are at it, let's bench Hazard and play Luis on the left wing to counter the threat of their attackers.

People moaning about people moaning about Jose and the team. Oh the irony.

I know right. We built everything around him and laid it on a plate for him on a platter of gold starting with a mobile and world class striker like Torres making the runs and feeding of his services, The highly dynamic and creative midfield of Mikel,Ramires and Lampard dominating everything and feeding him expertly in those pocket of space and defensive juggernauts like hazard and Torres tracking back to cover for his defensive deficiency and attacking fullbacks like Cole and Ivanovic/Azpi making overlapping runs at will and feeding off Mata's diagonal balls and delivering those sexy, pin point accurate balls into the box. The team was built around him indeed

Would anyone still have oscar over him?

Ideally it should be our opponents who are worried about us and devising strategies to shut us down but sadly that's not the case thanks to Mourinho's overly cautious and pragmatic approach. He's so one dimensional in big games that it's unreal. And people were criticizing wenger when he said Jose's too afraid of losing, He was absolutely spot on.

I will say this. There's a pattern to the youth players Jose has kept around the first team. RLC,Brown and Solanke all have similar profile i,e physically superior and english. the cynical side of me thinks this may count against the likes of Boga,Musonda et al. He hasn't made it a secret either that Bringing through English players from the academy is his mission and priority. Add physical egde to it and it gives those guys an advantage over their youth team mates. I know I'm being harsh on RLC and Solanke who are both exceptionally gifted but we will see if he gives any of the other non English and short statured guys a genuine chance.

Some Man utd fans too thought Ferguson, arguably the greatest manager of all time, made the right decision by playing Raphael, a right back in midfield in a game where Utd had major injury crisis in midfield and a certain youth midfielder named Paul Pogba was on the bench. A game that Pogba still reference as the final nail in the coffin that prompted him to leave the club. So even the best managers do get it wrong sometimes. I'm not even arguing whether Izzy should have featured or not since I don't really rate him but just speaking in general terms regarding Jose's mentality towards youth. His approach will likely either stagnate most of our best youngsters or force them out of the club eventually which we will likely later regret.

I agree with this except the Colkett part. There's not a single aspect of his game that is lacking from a technical standpoint. He's every bit as talented as those guys with the exception of maybe Musonda and Boga.

Emenalo said the aim is to ensure every single player in the academy and reserve are potentially good enough to break into the first team as the days of recruiting youngsters just to fill the squad was over and you have to say it certainly looks that way so far. there are atleast 8 youngsters who are good enough to break into the first team. Boga,Musonda,Colkett,Jay da silva,RLC,Solanke, Ola aina and Izzy. And that's ignoring more senior youth players like Baker,Ake et al.

My answer to the header "If lionell messi was 18 at Chelsea, would Jose have risked him" is a resounding NO and that's where the debate should end based on the evidence, there's nothing to suggest otherwise. If we had striker shortage, He would probably consider playing a physically imposing and experienced defender upfront than that "extremely lightweight midget kid from Argentina". Great article btw.

This further proves that some people will defend the indefensible when it comes to Jose. There's no way that shocking statement can be justified. Do some posters realise that they don't have to defend Mourinho all the time. sometimes it's ok to just sit back and accept a dumb statement for what it really is and not try to rationalize it.

Colkett impresses me every time I watch him play. His vision, passing range and intelligence is off the charts. why he's so underrated, I will never know.

"and Modric hasn't played much footie this season thanks to injuries" I acknowledged him in that post

Koke or Veratti would do. The latter, as much as I can't stand him, would be my first choice as he's more suited to our needs as he's by far the best DLP in the game now that the old guards Xavi,pirlo et al are literally on their way out and Modric hasn't played much footie this season thanks to injuries. nevermind how extremely scarce this sort of players are.

wow how can anyone defend this?

Drogba is an absolute legend and one of my favourite Chelsea players ever but it makes absolutely no sense to renew his contract and if the club does give him an extension, it will be based strictly on sentimental values.

Absolutely spot on. There's a reason why Cryuff led netherland team of the 74-78 and the Brazil team of 82 are regarded in such high esteem despite their lack of success at the ultimate price, the world cup, yet other teams that actually achieved success but in a highly pragmatic and uninspiring fashion are never celebrated or glorified. The sort of football we have been playing will be considered unacceptable at other top clubs like Barcelona, real madrid and Bayern. I remember inviting my mate to come watch our match against city at the pub to which he replied "I'm working and i'm not about to miss work for shitty, defensive football" He texted me during the match to find out how we were playing and my response was "same ole same ole". It's ok to play poorly in a few matches (every team has bad days) but we have been consistently bad since late December and that is never acceptable no matter how people try to paint it. something clearly isn't working and it's the manager's job to fix it. We shouldn't be relying on luck and the goalkeeper to win matches as consistently as we have been.

Source? That's an outrageous thing to say even for someone like Jose. I don't even rate Izzy nor I'm that bothered about him not featuring but to say a defender by trade and skillset is more suited to playing the striker role than nan actual forward is shocking. Like blue colored sky said why didn't he bring an actual striker from the reserve/youth team instead if a striker was what he needed.

Apparently you have to otherwise you are a hater and not a "superfan". Jose is flawless even his **** doesn't stink.

Maybe if he had better squad management policy, the squad players wouldn't be so demoralised and unmotivated to start with.

He should definitely hang his boot and work behind the scenes at the club from next season. Bamford is good enough and ready to take the spot he currrently occupies.