CHOULO19

Match Preview Here by @Barbara.

Can you two drop it please? I think it goes without saying, but this "discussion" is beyond pointless.

Hazard has more acceleration than raw pace. But I get what you're saying

Great work, Barbara. Very refreshing from the boring crap that @ has been writing for the past couple of weeks!

He had a great game yesterday, especially in the second half. Thanks for the reply. I follow the Serie A very closely and I agree with most of what you said (though I wouldn't say Fredy is one of the best in the league in his position). But the issue is that people here expect him to play as a central midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Practically a defensive midfielder. He has never played that role (maybe a few times under Strama when he was switching between 3 and 4 at the back every other game). I don't think he can fit that position. Like you said, he is more physical than technical and in this position, the player can't make bad passes or try to dribble and lose the ball because the defense will be in trouble. Anyway, I'm glad he wants to stay at Inter because Chelsea are better off looking for other options in the market.

What? There was a cape and you seriously expect me not to wear it and take pictures in while pretending to be a super hero? And you seriously expect me not to wear my sister's jacket and mom's hat while doing so?

While we're sharing pics, here are the last two of me on my phone. Just don't ask what was going on!

Kompany had a rather inconsistent season last year and was part of City's defensive issues. The general consensus was that Luiz was the better of the two last season especially in the second half.

Being capable of making great passes on occasions does not make a player a good passer especially when he very often misplaces regular passes. Passing is about consistency, especially if he is going to play in the pivot. He is a pretty good crosser, though.

Not unless they get minus 1 points and minus 4 GD from the game

Yeah, I said he's rather technically weak not tactically. And I still stand by it. The Inter fan didn't say any differently. He said that his best attributes are the physical ones, he said nothing about his technical ability. He said he had powerful shots (which I said as well) but he shoots too much sometimes from 50 yards and doesn't hit the target (which I think I said as well). He said that sometimes his passing is way off and he tries to dribble too much and loses possession. All I did was translate those three things into " his technical ability on the ball is rather weak". Below average player was probably an exaggeration and I didn't think I'd said it because it's really not my opinion of the guy. But he's nothing more than average and that is also the view of most Inter fans. The main difference between my posts and his is that I was trying to highlight how he doesn't fit what we want for the pivot while he was just describing him in general.

Much better second half so far. Doing very well both defensively and offensively and has been a part of why Valencia have managed to reverse the momentum in this game. 2-2 now and Valencia looking much more likely to get the third. EDIT: Valencia really need a new keeper. It ends 3-2 for Real.

And that is exactly what the Inter fan said: He plays as an attacking midfielder not a CM and what his brings to the team is his physical attributes. I still believe he is not Chelsea quality and I bet if you ask I bet if you ask the Inter fan if Guarin can be a player for a team who wants to win the PL and compete in Europe he'll say the exact same.

Lost Ronaldo for the second goal. Should have been offside but he needs to do better with his marking.

Alright, quote one of my posts where I said either of those things. The only thing I said differently was about his passing which I still think is below average if Jose wants to play him in the pivot.

That's very true. But last season, you wouldn't find anyone here who would have traded Luiz who was one of our best players for Kompany who had a sub-par season. In fact, many fans, yourself included IIRC, wanted David as our next captain last season.

Very nervy start against Real. Gave the ball away cheaply on a number of occasions. Doing better in the past 10 mins. It's 1-1 after 35 minutes.

Thanks for that, friend So......I make the exact same points and get slated, he makes the points and gets a whole bunch of likes? I'm just glad that someone proved that what I was saying is what Inter fans think.

Too bad that practically and logically that nostalgia accounts for very very little in the modern game. And Drogba and Cech are as much legends as Terry and Frank and we would not have won half of our trophies in the past 10 years without them.

Milner and Barry? They're not by any stretch of imagination the core of the team. They were basically the city equivalent of our Kalou and Meireles! No offense, but it's very hard to agree with that "only English players rally everyone when the going gets tough" is very hard to agree with if you're not English. In fact, if we're talking about mentality, then the German players are probably the best in Europe in that aspect because they are trained in the academies for exactly that. The English academies are still a long way behind, imo. The reason that JT is that he is by far the best defender England has produced in a long time and one that the NT have not been able to replace (which again highlights the lack of top English talents atm) and Frank is playing we don't have any top players in his position. Add to that the fact that they complete the homegrown quota that we need to fill.

Well the issue with signing players from the EPL is that all the best players are naturally at the top clubs which makes them rivals for us and thus it would be much harder to buy from them. And if all the teams in the EPL just bought players from the EPL then it would not have most of it's stars because obviously most of the best players in the league come from outside of England. Imagine if we had not bought the likes of Cech, Drogba, Carvalho, Ballack, Hazard..etc because they were from outside the EPL and instead just bought the likes of Wright-Phillips, Sidwell, Torres, and Cahill! We'd still be looking for our first trophy. Terry and Lampard era? They were both with us pre-Abramovic and the team did not become a top European club until the Russian came and bought a whole lot of top foreign players.Two players don't make a core and if I had to name this era after one person then it would definitely be Jose Mourinho because he built this team. I completely agree that we should ideally have an English core because this is an English team after all. But if there are no available English players who are good enough to be the core of a top European team, should we just settle to being an average team and just wait for the English academies to hopefully produce top English players if we want to compete in Europe or even in the EPL? Like I said, I agree in principle. But there aren't exactly an excess of English players that are good enough to be the base of a top European team like the Spaniards at Madrid and Barca and the Germans at Bayern. The team must get the players that makes it better regardless of their nationalities.

Hahaha I used to never get it wrong! The internet is contagious!

I honestly don't get your point. Are you suggesting we should sign players from the 1980s? In the world we live in atm a league made of only English players would be average at best, as would a team made of English players. Very odd suggesting that we can only be successful with English core. What do you call the past 10 years then? No the league attracts some of the best talents in the world because ever since it became the EPL it has had the best coverage in the world and the best wages for players. If this were the 1980s then I'd agree with you that we should sign English players, but right now in 2013, the number of English players that are good enough to be in a team that wants to be among the best 5 in Europe is very limited.

Hey, those Turkish guys want some banter and their getting what they want