Joker10

Not ready for what? being called upon in a very unlikely scenario? Lets look at Real Madrid the club with the most riches in their squad. Who would they turn to if Benz get injured, and Higuain plays a lot who would be their third choice striker? i will answer that question they would turn to a perceived unready player Morata.

Piazon??

not sure if serious?

He has said in numerous interviews that he won't go on loan this season, Chelsea have a plan in place for him.

If he is sold there is not going to be any replacement me think. We have Romeu, Meireles, Lampard, and Mikel for two positions, all that it change is Romeu moving up in the pecking order.

Thought Meireles performance was somewhere between average and ok, clearly not understanding the praise he is getting. I don't think his performance was any better then Lampard's first two games.

I would also suggest Bilbao, a good place to take in the culture and visit some fine museums. Both cities are very beautiful, but i liked San Sebastian more because of the sun, beach, and the women's :eyebrows: . Oh and the cuisine in Basque is simply one of the best, especially the Pinchos. Before the mod come down on us......back on topic. I haven't seen much of Azpilicueta tbh, but i have seen other use the argument that he must not be good since Arbeloa and Montoya is ahead of him for Spain. Lets just say them playing for Real Madrid and Barcelona has a lot to do with that and it is quite common for players to be shunned because not playing for a big club. I see his fortune changing if he establishes himself at Chelsea.

The name is Basque and it is very similar to the common names of Basque country, and i have been there plenty of times because of relatives. I actually know someone there with the the last name Asteinza, so not that off. Not sure if you know the history of Spain but Basques are very similar to Catalans, they very much distinguish themselves from Spain and most don't consider themselves Spanish. Btw a good spot to visit in Basque country is San Sebastian, lovely city. I would also very much welcome other Basques like Llorente and Javi Martinez.

agreed, I thought he was our second best player in the game. Well he usually plays well when he is involved in the team build ups and spread the ball around like today, problem arises when he pushes forward and try to be in the end of attacks like what he has been doing for most of preseason. meh Sometimes i think he is more interested in scoring goals, then doing what is best for the team.

Never believed in Romeu having a future in Barca midfield, don't think he has the intelligence to play there. Barca fans who follow the B team, believe that Jonathan Dos Santos has much more of a brighter future and from what i have seen of both players i agree. Anyway kinda silly for Barca to replace keita with Song, or in fact even needed replacing when Sergi Roberto and JDS could have done the same job. Keita was a player for them who got more minutes than he deserved. I don't think anything changes for Romeu going forward, if he has a future at Barca then undoubtedly it will be at CB.

I was hoping for something realistic, but i will take a shot at your list. Yaya Tour- definitely but he needs to play alongside a holding midfielder. B2B Tiote- injury prone, kinda brainless, and limited technically. De Rossi- He can do the job. Busquets- I rate him as the best DM in the world at Barca. M'villa- haven't seen him in the last year or so, cant comment personally. Song- One of Arsenal biggest problem over the years has been thinking he is a DM, he needs to play alongside a holding midfielder by himself he is a major defense liability. Vidal- another B2B midfielder, i guess he would suffice along side another B2B. Javi Martinez- first name that i thought of and i one who would add so much to the squad either play alongside Mikel or Lampard. Cambiasso- not sure if serious, few years back i would say yes. Javi Garcia- If you are going pick a dm from the Portuguese league, then there is not a better Dm in that league then Fernando reges, imo he is one of the most underrated Dm in the world. calmness on the ball, technical ability, work rate, aggressiveness he has it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCzK_vZE5cg Parker- Romeu- so many myths has been said about him, i quite i don't see it. For example he has been described by here as disciplined with good positional sense. Both are false, but it is something you usually stereotype with a Spanish/barca midfielder. So by reading your list and BL, so in short people here main problem with Mikel is that he is a holding midfielder. Because your list and BL contains more B2B midfielders then holding midfielders.

To Mikel critics, i would like to see a lists of DMs that you guys prefer over Mikel.

I guarantee Oscar would not come to Chelsea if he knew he wouldn't start, he wouldn't risk losing his spot with national team and risk the possibility of missing to play for the home nation at the world cup.

If the situation stays the same, am i wrong to think he will be picked ahead of Paulo next week? Or is it more likely RDM picks Paulo in the absence of Branislav?

Sturridge would be much better in a striker partnership then Cavani.

Nope You are going to regret this statement by the end of the season, actually more likely by mid September. Cazorla is a fantastic player he will have a Mata and Silva like impact.

Parking the bus would make guys like Mata, Marin, Hazard, and Torres ineffective as possibly they could look. Good luck defending with those players too. I would just play Ramires and Malouda on the wings, Essien, Mikel, and Lampard in midfield if that is the case. Parking the bus looks good when u win, but when you lose it looks much worse.

No, if there was someone who didn't want Neymar at Barcelona then that man was certainly Pep. Rosell is the one who is strongly pursuing Neymar. If i am not mistaken i believe Rosell is some sort of owner in Brasilia Nike.

The perception of Mikel has changed by some Chelsea fans. For most of his career the man has been scapegoated, called shit, and grouped with scrubs like Bosingwa and Kalou. Now after some fine performances and being a vital member in our CL run, he has finally gained some praise among some Chelsea fans. So basically Mikel is dividing opinions among Chelsea supporters. And some are having a hard time with the fact for once Mikel is being praised.

Damn i wish i could have the last two hours back.

So you are suggesting RVP, Benzema, etc struggled because the Euros were very competitive for them?

Sturridge poaching ability is very underrated, he just has a knack for being in the right place for goals. One of the hardest thing to teach a striker.

Pacquiao is right about Csec he was failing this season, but did have a good start to the season. I personally think Cesc signing was the biggest mistake Barca did this past season, Pep compromised his wining formula and successful 4-3-3 formation in order to accommodate for Cesc. He changed his formation to 3-4-3 in order to appease Cesc, it resulted poorly obviously ending the season without any major trophy.

It was not occasional we played 4-1-4-1 for the most part, i actually saw Hazard receive the ball deep from midfield as much as Lampard. If it was 4-2-3-1 Lampard positioning was absolutely dreadful because he did not play anything close to resembling a double pivot. We actually may see a lot of 4-1-4-1 this season, beside the Milan game, there were many occasions in the US tour where our formation resembled a 4-1-4-1.

The formation was definitely 4-1-4-1 rather then 4-2-3-1, either that or Lampard was out of position for the majority of the game. I tend to think Lampard played very high up the pitch and always looked to move into attacking position because of RDM instruction.