LukakutoStamford

4-2-3-1 doesn't work for Chelsea's personnel. There is no sufficent 2 pairing that can properly handle the duties. I think a 4-3-2-1 or a 4-5-1 would be a much better formation. Hell go to a 4-6-0 if it means Torres isn't on the pitch. I think the front needs to be fluid to allow for Hazard to play on the left, right or middle with overlap from Mata and Oscar and vice versa.

My response was quoted so I figured you were responding to me. No sweat.

Whoa! Hazard hasn't been at his best and to dish all blame on everyone and everything else is silly. I'm not disagreeing with you. I feel like Hazard has been struggling at times because Torres is shit and the system he's in is stifiling for his play style. I appreciate what Hazard can do I'm just suggesting that he isn't showing his ultimate form. Why? There could be reasons we don't know about. I'm not sure why you are so upset with me as I'm not blaming Hazard for anything ...

I thought he was atrocious against Corinthians. He got ball and it was obvious he would futz around with it and lose it. His positioning was weak and with his giant opportunity he showed no touch/thought and just blasted away right into the keeper. He's forcing Chelsea to play a 10 v 11 games most of the time as he's invisible. Please refrain from insane comments how he scored multiple goals against vastly inferior teams. That's not what he's paid for ...

Hazard needs to be better. It seems he's struggling with confidence, and I think he's deferring to much to the others and not seizing contol like he did for Lille. That being said to blame him for what's been transpiring at Chelsea is insane. Frankly the 4-2-3-1 is horrible especially when the one is Torres who has been virtually useless. I begining to wonder if stylistically Chelsea was a bad match for him. Don't get me wrong he's is capable of much much more and he needs to start playing like the 2x La Ligue 1 player of year. His finishing has been poor.

I dunno if I'd call him average. It's more like he's limited but he's very good at what he does. He's best suited for locking down an opponent's distributing midfielder.

Nah, he's been good for quite sometime now. Last 22 games with Belgium and Villa he has had 12 goals and 6 assists including 4 goals in 5 games for Belgium. For 2012 he had 47 appearances for Genk/Villa/Belgium and scored 27 goals in 46 games. for 2012-2013 In 14 PL games he has 5 goals and 3 assists In 3 World cup qualifiers he has 2 goals In two int'l friendlies he has 2 goals In the 3 league cup games for Villa he has 3 goals and 3 assists

Need two strikers, but Benetke of Villa should be one of them. He's got 10 goals and 5 assists in his last 19 games. Completely dominated Liverpool at Anfield today with 2 goals and a beautiful backheel assist. Dominated against ManU earlier this season with a goal and an assist

Buy Falaco and buy Benteke from Villa in January

Torres performance today was disgusting and shameful. The diving the crying, moaning, and embellishing is infuriating. It almost seems like he'd rather try to win a penalty rather than toughen up and play through fouls, or just give full effort. I counted at least six times where he flailed fell on the ground and gave sinister looks the referee and lineman's and then complained and moped about not getting called. Frankly, he should have been sent off for his diving today and he made me feel like I was watching Suarez play for Chelsea without the ability to score goals.

Think he'd be a good fit for Villa should they avoid relegation

Please when Spain was playing a 4-6-0 in l;ieu of playing him that should have been the handwriting on the wall why Roman sat on his hands during the summer transfer window is beyond me. Roman could have picked up Benteke for 7 mil

He does what he wants he does what he wants ... Hazard does what he wants ...

It's not Belgian tinted. Cech has been a world class keeper but if you judge their performances this year you must lean towards Courtois. Certainly Courtois still makes errors but his range is greater than Cech and frankly his movement for a 6'6/6'7 keeper is incredulous. Cech isn't at the same level as he once was and Courtois provides unfathomable range. Take a look at the Belgium V. Scotland match as jsut oen example for a ball that Courtois makes (23rd minute) that I don't believe Cech would make. I'm not the only person and it's just not Belgians who rate Courtois this highly. People have just made the assumption that because Cech has been world class and top GK or one of the top GK in the world he therefore must still be the best.

He's already better than Cech ....

I wonder if Di Matteo will stick with the 4-2-3-1 going forward. I think de Bruyne would be a great fit as one of the two but I can't comment on his defensive abilities, although I haven't heard negative comemnts about him tracking back. De Bruyne would be best suited to play behind Hazard-Oscar-Mata although he is certainly interchangeable. I think if you put him with a defensive minded engine in the two pairing they would be extremely dangerous.

Can't forget about Thibault Courtois. He's quickly becoming a world class keeper.

It's early for him but he's showing form that could make one of the best midfielders in the world in a couple of years.

It's been a lot more than 7 games for the Belgian NT and he's only had a handful of good games. I'm not giving up on him by any means and I'm very thankful that Belgium is strong enough right now that they don't have to depend on him to beat teams, but Belgium is going to need his best form soon.

Right now there's so much talent on the Belgian squad that and out of form Hazard won't play that much if at all. I just get the feeling that he's lacking confidence and needs to be more selfish but he's afraid to be looked at as a ball hog, but his quality is reliant on him being the primary attacking midfield component.

Look at the video where Bale dives against Villa. He also clipped himself in that video. It was a dive pure and simple.

Courtois will be the starting GK in a couple/few years

Laff he doesn't even know if there was contact.. that's pretty damning Maloney seems like the type of bloke who isn't going to stir the pot. Even if Maloney barely nicked Bale Maloney would know .... Sounds like a lot of window dressing to me.

Take heart Serbia was dangerous and really dominated play in the first half despite Belgium taking a 1-0 lead. Hit a post 4 mins in. Brano barely missed that cross. There was the volley that was bout 2 feet wide a great diving save from Courtois, another that was jsut missed from up close. It wasn't like Belgium dominated the game on the contrary I thought Serbia carried the play and they'd looked much more like the dangerous side. Belgium had some luck and was able to get the first goal. The second goal was simply from Serbia getting caught in a counter while pushing people forward as was the third.

It's not terribly difficult to trip your self. At worst that's should be a no call. Frankly I feel it was a dive and should warrant suspension of 2 games of Int'l play as well as 2 games of league/cup play. Funny that last night all the ESPNFC commentators said they wanted to get away from talking about diving (Suarez/Bale) and this is going to put them on again. 22 minute show of which 10+ minutes will be devoted yet again to diving instead of recapping WC qualifiers.