CHOULO19

Remember when MVG tried to play through a torn ACL?

Or...."Jose says Chelsea will take it easy in this match so let's try not to get any injuries and waste energy since our season is practically over." Let's face it, all WBA probably care about is not getting a thrashing.

Jose seems to hold Ruben higher than anyone else in the youth team so I would not be surprised to see him start, but I do think that Brown, and especially Ake deserve some minutes in this match since Jose has already said that he will play the best team in the last match against Sunderland.

Injuries completely killed his career. Sadly, he's now a significantly worse player than he was three years ago. I think the contract was only signed so he does not leave for free. Don't even think Jose remembers him!

NO. They can fuck off. Excellent defender as he showed in the Carling Cup this season where he was having better performances than some of our first team defenders!

No way we'll play both Ake and RLC in midfield. If they are to start together then Ake would no doubt be at LB. Although, I don't expect RLC to start again, maybe get some minutes off the bench.

And then they moan about lack of youth integration!

He means safe from relegation, not safe as in an easy side to beat..

Playing all season at youth level which is not even comparable to EPL intensity. As I said it was obviously planned regardless of performance or fatigue signs. No need to risk an injury to him. Protecting him was the right thing to do.

FFS, this was his first ever senior team start, you can't expect him to play full 90 mins, especially in his position. The intensity is completely different than youth level. You'll even notice that he was taken off at exactly the 60 min mark. Obviously pre-planned regardless of performance.

Solid game. He was always going to play it safe on his first start. Thought he did very well in terms of pressing and interceptions at the start of the second half. I honestly think you're putting too much weight on the performance of one player. We've managed plenty of brilliant plays this season that did not involve Cesc.

More Ruben or give someone else, like Ake, a chance?

Got to be JT for MOTM. Apart from the goal he was absolutely brilliant. Made some vital interceptions as well as a couple of world class tackles. Willian had a great match as well, but started rather slow in the first half.

Vacation mode but still managed to out play them for most of the match. Good solid match from Ruben, no loss at home (to Liverpool as well!). Gave a few squad players some needed playing time. Happy days. Oh, and Costa sitting with the fans!

The good thing about matches like these is that you can actually laugh about Cahill pushing Mikel away from Gerrard

That has nothing to do with the quality of the backup because it happened for every single position. Jose WANTED to play the best team in every single game even when there were options he's showed he can trust like Zouma, Luis, Ramires and even Cech. According to Jose himself, defensive midfield "is the only position where we have duplicates" because he sees Matic and Mikel as very similar. You won't see rotation unless Jose decides so. Like we're linked to Pogba? Attacking midfielder is whole different story. He may play centrally but the central attacking midfielder in our system cannot play the deeper role. We saw that with Cesc this season. The roles and duties are just too dissimilar. We definitely need an attacking midfielder but I think we will much more likely go for someone who plays on the right (as well as a back up for Eden) because both Oscar and Willian can play centrally. Oh, and Zouma can fulfill a job as defensive midfielder in certain scenarios but he is not one. He is a CB. He does not have the technical ability nor the positional awareness to play there for prolonged periods if needed.

You want players better than Mikel and Ramires to sit on the bench?! Unless we've become Real Madrid, that is going to be incredibly hard to do. Cesc has played much worse in advanced areas than deep, especially in bigger matches. Also, the issue of him playing deeper in those matches seems to have been solved by Rami on the right wing and Oscar/Willian in front. I think that has worked very well. Zouma doesn't play in midfield unless everyone else is out or we need someone to win headers and first balls in front of the back four when the opponents are playing with two strikers. You can't have 22 world class players in your team in case someone gets a long term injury. You get top starting players and solid squad players who are okay with reduced playing time but can fill in adequately when needed. And I completely disagree with pinning our whole style and performance on Cesc's form. I think that's a ridiculous simplification. There were various factors, the biggest of which was probably manger choice, which for me proved to be right in the end. So, we barely 3.14% need a new central midfielder! Anyway, back to RLC, signing a FIFTH central midfielder drops him back to SEVENTH choice (considering Zouma). So we might as well sell him already.

Central midfielder? Unless someone leaves, of course we won't buy a central midfielder. We just spent upwards of 50m the two transfer windows before last on central midfield and it's a position where we have top class starters and quality squad players. Why in the world would we spend more money there?!

Crap! I would NOT be popular in Sunderland!

Wait, HE wanted to join Bayern but they rejected him?! How do you reckon that happened? Did he do some sort of trials for them or did he ring Pep up and tell him "Listen mate, I want to play for Bayern next season and I'm not taking no for an answer!"

I REALLY doubt that Jose makes such calls. He doesn't know nearly enough about the youth players to make such decisions. We have a whole department (headed by Eddie Newton IIRC) for loans, and then there is of course the U21 manager, sporting director...etc.

There is literally no time frame in which that would be funny!

Yes. I don't think he was going to be with us next season, regardless as was exactly the same with Chalobah.

LOL That was quick...

I keep forgetting that. He looks like he's well in his thirties!