Sheva.

Midfield is indeed where he can have the most chances to play. He will need to improve defensively, but the Lampard role is there for the taking.

I've seen a lot of Barca fans talk about this, so no thanks.

2 tackles and running all over the pitch more important than the chances he created

So? Mata doesn't have to be our star player, but we sign too many inexperienced kids that he automatically is.

Mata did well, was everywhere and got another assist. And a couple tackles which is important to some lol. The 2 strikers worked wonderfully well, really good response to a ridiculous So'ton goal.

No excuses tomorrow please, Mr Mourinho. Leave whoever is tired on the bench and play whatever our best available team is. Tough game, but if we want to remain around the top of the league, these are games we should be finding a way to win - no matter how.

Funny thing to say when you pick the team

Ozil not playing well they said, drops another 2 assists. As much as any Chelsea AM got in the league this entire season

Fucking hell. 7 point lead, despite having only 1 good striker and playing a weird system with 4 CM's and a CAM. Very impressive stuff, but also very worrying.

OTT reaction to say the least. Rafa didn't personally insult you he said something stupid about Chelsea flags, but something not uncommon for other rival fans. He got more than enough shit for it during his time here, to even compare him to Mourinho is ridiculous. Everyone knows Mourinho is one of the best managers in the world and not only that, they both worked/working in completely different situations. Mourinho doesn't get booed every time at home like its an away game, neither does he have to rely on Marin and fucking Benayoun when he wants to change the team.

Probably. I think we have too many good players to have a defined best team; we have players that are suitable for different kinds of opposition, but Mourinho is having none of that atm.

Belgian players sure come with a lot of drama.

Off topic, but that quote is epic

Decent points, until this. We weren't already in the last season, we needed a draw at least, and we got dominated all game. Fortunately, Schalke fucked up. Also i agree the league is more important, but Mourinho played 9 of his usual starters against Basel. If it really wasn't that important then surely more changes would have been made.

He's not even here and already got Mourinho angry, well done. His agent should start preparing where he'll play next season..

Not many will disagree with that. But his weaknesses aren't so massive that he can't play 1 minute against Basel or West ham. Or comes on as a sub against teams like West brom etc etc.

Agree. I thought that's how Mourinho would share game time between Oscar and Mata, with the former playing games where we adopt a counter attacking system, and Mata playing against teams who come to SB and don't leave their half. But i guess he had other plans...

It favoured the team against a bad side like West Ham. Tbf it was a good call that game, they dominated our 4-2-3-1 last season and their long ball tactics et al were all well contained. But otherwise we still need that 3rd attacking midfielder, we can't be parking the bus all over the place against average teams. We stand a better chance of scoring with 4 attacking players on the pitch, not with 2 + Oscar fucking around out wide like against Basel.

If we can't get the top strikers, then he's a good option. I'm sure some people will say things about he's only playing in the Portuguese league; it was the same when we were linked to Falcao @ Porto, but if a player has the quality and the necessary support* then the league doesn't matter. Martinez is a really good finisher in the air or on the ground from what i have seen. And with Porto losing 2 of their most creative players from last season (Moutinho and James) he still has 10 goals in 15. * we don't have this atm like Pizy said on the previous page. Our strikers can't get a simple good pass 9 out of 10 games from our so called creative midfielders. Torres (2) Eto'o (2) and Ba (1) have the same or better assist stats than most of them

Tbf the point about the 4-3-3 and Lampard is fair. He's the only one that the system really favours, since he can have the freedom to go forward and attack as much as he likes.

Same points after 12 PL games as Di Matteo, and the same 4 points off the top. He's not going to be fired like the untrusted Italian obviously, but it's been a ridiculously lukewarm start for him. He already has his best team and plays them every game, yet they deliver inconsistent results and performances. I'm sure it's frustrating for him too, coming from a team that had the likes of Alonso, Ozil and Ronaldo, but i guess he doesn't help himself by expecting the same players to perform 3 times a week.

My word, 90 minutes of ridiculousness. Bad tackling, horrible touches, fouling for no reason. Another player that needs a rest, but not likely to get one from Mourinho. He is our best CM, but i'm sure we could have played one or two games with Essien or Luiz in midfield, instead of trying to burn him to the ground. I really do wonder what's the point of all the depth we have when we only use it in the CC. 10/11 players start every game

It's not Lampard's fault Mourinho can't understand a 35 year old should not be playing every game. Lampard still has things to offer, but he will continue to be inconsistent if he's playing 3 times a week at his age.

He has been our most threatening AM this season, if not for some bad finishing he could be top scorer with the chances he got from being in excellent positions. Weird how he can't get into the team atm, thought Mourinho loved him lol.

We had 130m of AM talent in our 18, no excuse for getting outshone by whatever Basel got. Last year in the exact same fixture we played with Hazard and Moses and ripped them, it was criminal we only scored once before that Luiz goal. I had no problem with Oscar playing, but we paid for not having another quick player from the start. There was no outlet whenever Willian had the ball, and no one else in attack with Oscar playing badly. Every decent thing we did in the game came when Willian and Hazard were out there. But by then we had no playmaker, Mourinho could have solved this by bringing on KDB or Mata earlier, but he stuck with his negative mindset and tried to settle for the point. Mata might have made a difference or not, but regardless he is too good to not even come on in a game we can't create anything. Anyone should agree with that.