lionsden

Can Jose fucking take freekick duties off Luiz ffs. that was a great chance to score there from such a tight game . wasted

Now I know why I haven't missed Ashley Cole at all

If ramires finishes the game without being sent off, that would be considered a good game by his standard this season.

Exactly. You will never see Italians get defensive whenever Arigo Sacchi and Capello are labelled conservative managers. Even Atletico madrid fans are the first to use that tag to describe simeone. Managers have their own different and unique philosophy and I have already accepted Jose for who he is.

And let the church say Amen. absolutely spot on there. He's a manifestation of how dire and uncreative our team has been and a reflection of the manager's mindset and philosophy. No manager that values creativity, vision, presence of mind,finesse and technical qualities would consider oscar his playmaker, nevermind a premier one.

I have already braced myself for yet another poor quality offensive display from the team. a 0-0 draw or 1-0 defeat wouldn't be the worst result.

Playing for a draw has been proven to be a very risky strategy. what happens if AM draw the first score anyway. That automatically destroys our tactic and we are left stranded

But we have the 2nd best squad in England and one of the best in the world according to some. . . .

right on cue Stan Collymore ‏@StanCollymore 30m Mourinho. Don't kid yourself, Jose was gutted the first time not yo get it and say glum faced in Madrid... #talkSPORT http://yap.pr/yapp/13981639723070217?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yapp_cp … Sport Witness @Sport_Witness Follow Italian journalist Ginaluca Di Marzio says Manchester United have been in touch with Jose Mourinho and he's thinking about it.

Barca have also won more games against midtable and bottom feeders and have created and scored significantly more goals than us. perhaps world class players and a sound philosophy still hold some weight. The biggest difference is, most times when top teams like barca drop points, it usually means that the opposition team have been extremely lucky and I'm not referring to "referee decision" either. I'm talking about desperate defending, holding on for dare life stuff, excellent goalkeeping performance, ball hitting the woodwork and poor finishing. The only time this season that i can remember us applying an opponent under anything resembling relentless pressure was against westham and we still didn't create enough clear cut chances. Most times when we drop points against these teams, the opposition players rarely need a shower after the game from the relative comfort and minimal effort required.

Shaw is not that good come one now. He's certainly not worth £30m in my estimation. That's what you pay for world class fullbacks and not some teenage prospect. (he has PL experience, I know but he's still a prospect)

But this season was suppose to be about rebuilding. when is it the right time then. Next season: when the expectations to actually win trophies becomes greater and the rebuilding excuse can no longer hold weight?. this was the perfect season to blend in youth imo. When next season arrives and the pressure to win and challenge for trophies mounts, jose will inevitably ditch youth for experience like 95% of managers at top clubs do and it just becomes more and more difficult to achieve this objective with each passing season.

There has to be cheaper alternatives surely. £30m is quite a lot of money.

Europa league, CWC,deeper runs in the carling and fa cup last season might have something to do with it afterall we played more competitive matches than any other team in Europe last season.

I disagree even if we exclude french and italians. firstly your best goalkeeper taffarel is vastly inferior to goalkeepers like Peter schmeichel, Van Der sar and Cech. centre backs: Stam, ronald koeman,, Mathias sammer, Fernando Hierro,Puyol,JT, just to name a few central midfield goes: lothar matthaus, rijkaard,Roy keane, Pirlo, Davids would get into the 90s and 00s squad/team Attacking midfield: Michael Laudrup,Dejan Savicevic, Nedved, Seedorf, Gerrard could get into that team. Laudrup definitely would but not sure about the others. as far as strikers and fullbacks: you can have those two positions. hard to disagree.

It becomes easier to grade when there are list of target in place then we can assess how well those targets have been reached and if at all they have been achieved. For me in terms of league and champions league result: a definite success, League and champions league performance wise: inconclusive, we have improved defensively but regressed offensively. Youth development and promotion: It's been a monumental failure. Transfer dealings: while we have added a quality midfielder in Matic and an exciting player in Salah, we have yet again failed to address our most pressing need i,e a striker and it could be argued that Schurrle and to an extent, willian were unnecessary buys. we have also sold our most creative player and shipped, arguably our best striker, out on loan. It's slightly better than last season but still failure for me. Overall it's a success if you are in the camp that rates result as the only important target and a failure if other things are taken into consideration.

No one has said that tbh although if a tempting offer comes in, I will defo take it. The argument has been whether Oscar has the qualities of a playmaker and more so if he's good enough to be a starter in AM for a team with big ambitions and aspirations. My dispute is Oscar shouldn't be the number one playmaker for us, long term as he doesn't have the prerequisite and fundamental skills (you are free to disagree with that ofcourse) And I don't think I'm alone when I say I had rather see Hazard or William as the chief AM/playmaker than oscar.

Let me play along. so even if I haven't seen Oscar at Internacional (your own assumption btw since you know nothing about me). Are you then saying that the 110 appearances he's made for Chelsea since joining is not enough to assess his technical ability/qualities on? How many games would you say is the fair quantity by which a player's technical ability should be assessed and judged by?10,000? 20 billion? or should it be measured by years.

And are these video suppose to prove that Oscar is technically gifted or that he's on the same level as isco? try harder next time and btw my assessment is based on what I have actually seen from both players rather than youtube scouting so you can slow down on the insult "oscar".

What I expect to see next season are A shift in philosophy from a counter attacking team to a creative passing team that's capable of breaking down opponents defensive resistance.we have been so pathetic on that front this season that most times, the teams that have employed such tactics haven't even had to work too hard for the result they have had against us. To change this a couple of thing must/should happen. playing attacking fullbacks and encouraging them to join the attack to provide extra width more often whether that means ivanovic drops back to his natural position as a centre back which allows azpilicueta to flourish offensively and get a new left back to replace Cole and azpi or alternatively buy an offensive right back and keep azpi on the left but with tactical instructions that gives the fullbacks license to bomb forward. Buy a deep lying playmaker to partner Matic. promote RLC and have him and van Ginkel as back ups. part of our problems this season has been the lack of creativity and cutting edge from deep and we saw the marked improvement the signing of matic made in that regard. less brainless, headless chickens and more quality, technically gifted and intelligent midfielders please. And the last piece of the puzzle is a striker that's versatile enough to not only act as a focal point in attack but also possess the movement and technical ability to open up tight defences and create chances and link up play brilliantly with the midfield. All of this becomes pointless without a total commitment which I have always said starts from the training ground. practice makes perfection. The other thing I had like to see is some commitment to developing and promoting youngsters (on loan or from the academy) into the first team. sterling and pogba are perfect examples of the reward a little faith in youth can yield. There's no reason why some players on loan/academy cannot be used as squad players instead of relying on crap and/or ageing players that have past their prime and splashing the cash on players that do not necessarily improve us as a team. And last but not the least clearing out of the deadwoods.

None of the current crop bar Thiago Silva, would get into the team of the past. In the 90's and 2000s Brazil could boast of players like Ronaldo, Romario, Rivaldo, cafu, Carlos, Ronaldinho, Dunga, Prime kaka. (That's 5 WPOTY winners right there) from that to this overrated lot.

So you are saying Carlo is superior to jose? Di maria has always been a technically gifted footballer and has been rated as one of Europe's best wingers since he joined madrid. The criticism of him was based on his dodgy decision making in the final third at times an issue he has ironed out this season. I'm saying Oscar's biggest problem is his lack of technical ability. His passing, first touch, vision and dribbling are below average and can be downright awful when off form. decision making issues can be fixed (like di maria, Walcott et al) same cannot be said of lack of talent/technical ability. you either have it or you don't. It's nature not nurture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dZ5PoQfxAg

And as predicted you avoid the actual argument and instead resort to insult since you have no sound counter argument. true mark of an intellectual midget.

Mo farah would fit in like a glove. don't know why Jose hasn't considered him. £30m should convince him to join.

Difference is isco is an actually talented playmaker who excels at his primary duty and has unquestionably superior technical ability to Oscar whose main contribution involves running around the pitch like an headless chicken. Those that want isco value genuine quality and productivity in the final third over tactical astuteness.