francozola

I think we should get rid of the "unreliable sources" rule. That being said, could we maybe reduce the number of urls that are posted whenever someone is 'linked' to us? We really don't need to post a link to every single article that pops up regarding player X. If its interesting and has potential to lead to some form of discussion, then by all means, but most of the time no one even replies (not even the poster of the link has anything to add) and they're kind of meaningless.

Mostly what I wanted to say has already been posted so some quick points - what a fabulous result this is. Not the best performance but away ties in Europe are always like this and to come out with a win and more importantly, an away goal is brilliant - great job by Robbie. Very good team. Glad he left lampard, Drogba and Essien out. - Meireles did alright. Just mentioning this because no one has talked about him. He did his job decently. A couple of mistakes but overall a good peformance. I can't stand the way he gets slagged off here sometimes. The hypocrisy is unbelievable, especially when lampard hasn't been doing better at all. Forgot he was actually subbed on until he fucked up a chance in the 85th or so minute. Don't want to go on the bandwagon about this Meireles vs lampard issue, but I simply can't stand some people's hypocrisy when talking about it. - Luiz, Ramires superb. Torres good energy. Kalou good work ethic. Overall a great result

Overall it's been a good half

Probably because he played for porto

This strange starting XI has actually made me more optimistic! Didn't think Di Matteo would drop Lampard, Essien and Drogba. Really fair play to him. Essiens been awful these last few weeks. Drogba pathetic against Spurs while Torres has at least seemed enthusiastic. Meireles isn't as bad as he is made out to be. With Mikel alongside him he'll be more comfortable (I hope)

Thought RDM would suck up to the old guard for the rest of the season but I'm glad to see he's taking some chances with putting lampard, Essien and Drogba on the bench.

Energy - Ramires and Meireles - chosen over lampard and Essien. Essien shouldn't be starting at all anyway. He's completely finished and put in back to back abysmal performances. Like that Torres is playing over Drogba. Like that Paulo chosen over Bosingwa. Kalou over Sturridge I don't really agree with

You'd rather see Bosingwa?

Meireles probably chosen since he can actually run. Similar midfield to Napoli away. But with mikel as the DM instead of Meireles it'll be more solid

Like this team! With the exception of Kalou lol.glad Drogba is on the bench. That awful performance on Saturday didn't deserve a start

I think they'll agree to it. But let's beat benfica first..........

It's our clueless board who make it hard. All the players he has listed are very much available in the market for similar prices - they've either got clauses in their contracts or are at smaller clubs who would accept decent offers

Welcome! :)

Yeah definitely. That applies to..... pretty much every single youth player we've had in the last 10 years

Agree, I'd start with Torres too. Anyway I'm just glad to be playing a quarter-final CL game, so am not really nervous for the game. Lets see if I still feel this way 24 hours from now lol

Di Santo I kinda agree - he's pretty poor at Wigan. But Sinclair would be a million times better than Kalou and Malouda. He puts in 100% every game, and if we'd actually given him a proper chance we'd see that he is good enough to be a squad player. Now, instead of that we're stuck with those 2 muppets on 60-80K a week doing fuck all, shooting from 40 yards or falling over the ball

:doh:

well every club has dumbass fans who don't know what they're talking about Where did you get that from??

um what? People are just pointing out some minor flaws in his game. Why is that wrong? Everyone recognizes that he's our best player. And he's definitely not short of support, so I don't know what you're talking about tbh.

Dont want to go overboard because he's still our best player by a country mile, but he needs to improve his fitness. Now we can see why he was constantly substituted at the 70th min mark, even when we were losing/drawing. AVB got so much hate for that but it's obvious now it wasn't some tactical decision, mata simply can't play 90mins twice a week. He struggles with 90mins once a week sometimes. That's not his fault, la liga is not as physical and intense as the prem. Im sure he'll work on it in the summer. If he doesn't burn out from the Olympics and Euros, that is.

I agree. Badboy can you please stop saying such things.

Sorry for the overreaction after the match. I really should stay away from the forums, I tend to go crazy sometimes lol. It was only a few mistakes but those mistakes were very costly. His set up yesterday was awful. But my point was that I don't see how he is that much better than AVB. Basically what he has done is he has sucked up to the old guard, told them they will play in most games. That got him through the Napoli game. The good results he's had so far and will have for the rest of the season will not be down to him, but rather his "communication skills" off the pitch to the old guard. I'm not hating on the man for no reason. I love Robbie. But it's really pathetic when the same people who criticized AVB so much for his mistakes are suddenly showing reverence to RDM as if he is the mastermind of some amazing turnaround. Yeah the Napoli result was wonderful but he had nothing much to do with that at all.

Di Matteo has made some awful decisions in these last two games Sorry, but it was laughable to see people suddenly claiming what an amazing manager he is after the 4 back to back wins and he should get the job permanently, etc.I didn't want to comment because it would seem rude and I would be accused of being a pessimist, etc but it's so obvious that he's nowhere near ready for this job. And even worse when it's by the same people who said AVB was out of his depth Please don't claim that I'm saying this just because of two bad results. I've thought this from the start. And I'm not some crazy AVB supporter who will defend everything he did during his time here. Anyway the players were shite but most of them shouldn't even be in this team/starting 11 so the blame goes entirely to roman and the board for being brainless fucks

Um what is the use of this point???

Not sure if this was posted but I don't remember seeing it here. I re-discovered it in my 'favourites' list on twitter :lol: