lionsden

The real reason why Jose isn't popular with some is because of his nasty/insufferable attitude and excessive baggage and controversial behaviors which many deem down right unnecessary, repetitive and unprofessional. Never mind his broken promises and stubbornness. he even managed to lambast the fans who spend their valuable time and hard earned money to watch their team. Carlo on the otherhand was/is a perfect gentleman who manages to achieve success throughout his career with minimal fuss and without the use of controversy as weapon/tool. If jose was more tolerable and trustworthy, those who appear to be harsh on him would cut him the same slacks that are afforded to other managers like Di matteo and carlo and endear to him. So it's more of a character and personality issue. That's just my take on the issue. I could be wrong though as I can't speak for everyone.

Yep that's the reason why i rate stones higher than varane genius. There wouldn't be a talkchelsea forum without patronizing, presumptuous posts like this. Personally, I find the "English talent" snub culture to be extremely boring and so 2007. Those who view all English talent as nothing more than product of the British media hype and bandwagon, ironically, are just as ignorant and bad as those on the other side of the spectrum that are considered biased.

Good for you.

I can't be the only one that notices how error prone he can be. The amount of times he gets caught out of position and has to rely on his pace to recover is staggering for such a highly rated defender. some even class him as a world class defender already which is a reflection of how bad the quality of defending and defenders has become. For my money, John stones and Marquinhos are better options.

France has replaced Spain,germany and belgium's status respectively as the country with the biggest talent pool in europe/world. It should be illegal the wealth talents/top class players at the french NT's disposal.

It's scary to think this could very well be RLC's fate next season. The broken promises is not only demoralizing to these youngsters but also further damages Jose's credibility. How can anyone ever believe any word that comes out of his mouth regarding youth development after this. Didn't Baker have zero appearances as well before being shipped out on loan. I don't think I will be able to stomach it if jose (inevitably) misuse and stagnate the development of RLC,Boga and Solanke.

First off it's the managers responsibility and duty to recognise and fix the inadequacies of his team and he's had two full seasons to do so that's after making empty and boastful promises of seeking to play more attacking football. He even said we have no other choice but to play attacking football due to the type and profile of players we have which contradicts your point and his actions so far.Now how did riijkard and guardiola barca manage to play highline and free flowing football with puyol (jt lite) as the main CB. Mertasacker and koscienly are no quicker or more suitable to playing highline than jt and cahill/zouma. Fernando hiero and riofor madrid and utd respectively werent exactly pacy either. The way I see it, your argument is just a load of excuses. our squad is sufficient enough to play better football than we have done thos season and if jose was a manager capable of playing such football, he would have found a way

No, what laura meant was the premier league is the worst it's ever been, quality wise and winning it is a case of being the best of a bad bunch which diminishes it's value somewhat. A point of view I tend to agree with.

It will take something drastic like an abramovich intervention, giving him a mandate to play the sort of football that is befitting a team of our status and resources. And even then, im honestly not sure jose is capable of it. Some People fail to realise that any idiot can play/coach disjointed,poorly rehearsed, lacklustre gungho football but only select few managers are actually capable of coaching well cordinated, precise,creative attacking football consistently and then have the conviction to stick to it and perfect it. Even if jose wins the champions league and is given a mandate to change his approach, im not so sure he's capable of going toe to toe with the big teams in the big games playing high quality attacking football And even if by surprise, he's able to deliver such football, the moment it goes wrong or appears to not be going according to plan his natural instinct will kick in and he will revert to his comfort zone anyway. Either way, the sort of football people are demanding isn't going to happen under jose.

It's possible for a player to have good technique in regards to certain aspect of football such as shooting,heading etc without having close control or been particularly good/great at dribbling. Even in his united days where he was more exciting, he has never been known to have close control and good dribbling (unless you consider balesqe running with the ball and thousand step overs which are often pointless) as part of dribbling which many don't.To use those two particular skillset as an attempt to highlight cr10's strenghts is about as accurate as claiming iniesta has excellent shooting technique and a clinical finisher.

Ronaldo and close control,dribbling used in the same sentence. You must be talking about the original ronaldo because cristiano is just a more athletic and prolific version of bale. Technically very average.

Izzy brown is without a doubt the most overrated youngster in our ranks. Players like Musonda,Colkett,jay da silva and Ola Aina are superior yet not remotely as highly rated as him.

I wasn't necessarily referring to tactics in terms of formation but how we actually set up i.e high pressing, persistent attack, good movements, high line, overlapping fullbacks etc. We have done it at times this season but not consistently enough and certainly never in big games where we are more interested in preventing goals than actually playing football. As for your last statement, I have to disagree. Manager's play the most significant role in how smooth and fluid a team's build up play is. If you have a manager that lacks the know how in that department and/or the unwillingness to play that way, the team training routine would future less of certain things that's not part of the managers philosophy and it ultimately shows on the pitch. Why was a man utd team that were very creative and scoring goals for fun under Ferguson turn into a rigid,clueless and offensively awkward team under Moyes with practically the same group and core of players? it's unrealistic to just expect players to figure out build up play by themselves without active and conscious tactical input and constant training.

Definitely. My reservation was centred around the fact that he wasn't getting tested near enough due to Atletico madrid's outstanding defence and I wasn't sure how he would cope in a team where the GK's are far more busy and called to be the hero on a constant basis like Thibo himself has already found out this season. That's the thing about me, I'm willing to admit I was wrong when a player proves me wrong and give credit where it's due.

He's improved his consistency, which was a big issue in the past (usually dissapears midway through the season after a great start to finish the season well). It seems he's ironed that issue out of his game and he's also more aggressive and direct. Despite the relative freedom he has, I still feel jose's tactical set up and mentality in certain games does hold him back alot . It's hard for an attacking player to be fully effective when the team spends majority of the game defending deep and without willing runners and overlapping fullbacks (luis enhances hazard's game but he rarely plays). Still he's been our most consistent performer this season alongside thibo and kudos to him. Thats why some of us get so frustrated with players that show no signs of improvement and progress and have been at the club for a while.

I just hope he's given the opportunity to break the EPL clean sheet record before leaving. He only needs 3 to match the record and 4 to beat it I believe. By far my favorite Chelsea player after Zola. He will be missed.

This was actually my reaction reading this

No but if a player's touch, passing and ability to retain posession under pressure is as consitently poor as oscar's then such a player can never be considered technical/skilled. And playing consistently for chelsea cant be used as an indication that the player is quality or anything special. See torres, cahill,mikel as just a few example of that. Also this is by far the worst generation of brazilian football, their talent productin has gone down considerably and no one can deny that oscar would not even make the bench of the teams of the past, so his inclusion is more a case of lack of genuine quality and options.

Edit. I misread your post.I actually kind of agree with you

Well let's hope so. I would hate a situation where he's groomed as a matic or mikel understudy due to havi ng similar physique

He's united bound imo. I would rather we go after a technical winger with end product anyway. A productive version of william, if you will.

If (and it's a big if knowing jose) he does break into the first team, i hope the manager doesn't turn him into another mikel because he's clearly a box to box midfielder and his game and skillsets reflects just that and not a defensive or holding midfielder.

I'm willing to bet he goes right back to the bench the next game. I haven't checked but it feels like he scores in virtually every game he's played significant minute in this season. significant minute meaning 30 minutes or more. Why he doesn't play more often I will never understand.

Another game where our goal keeper was MOTM. It's a very worry some trend and a reflection of our form since late December. we can't even defend properly anymore ffs.

I will admit his all round game was much better today. only if he could do it in the big games and on a more consistent basis