CHOULO19

We'll struggle just like we did against Villa. We can't handle teams that lump the ball forward. If we don't win then are our title hopes are already in trouble.

After the pen was scored, Iva wound the WBA players up by fighting for the ball and pushing a couple in the process.

That's not even close to being true. In fact, this is the first time I've mentioned Mikel today. You seem to have a selective memory.

I'm not even the one who brought Mikel into the discussion. I was just answering the point he raised about Mikel

The thing with playing Lampard is that when the opposing team have a good patch in the match, which is inevitable in every match, they will completely run over our midfield and dominate us until the momentum changes again. Today, when WBA went forward and gain momentum for the first time in the match, they kept us in our own half for over 10 mins until they scored and that's because we had no one who can keep the ball under pressure and play the simple pass forward to release the pressure. Why I also like Mikel in games these is that because he sits back wins most of the cleared balls in midfield and has excellent pass completion, he allows us to keep the opposition in a smaller portion of the field than they would like and forces them to play even deeper. There really are no more excuses for why Jose keeps playing Frank.

It's not about qualities in attack at all. What Jose wants is a midfield that interchanges roles and positions. He wants Oscar to drop deep to receive the ball and thus create space for Rami and Lampard to make forward runs into. Mikel's game, on the other hand, is about positional discipline and protecting the back four first and foremost. Jose doesn't think that that works with his system, I personally disagree. On any account, I think it has been very clear that having Mikel's positional discipline is A LOT better than than having Frank making ineffective runs and being out of position on defense.

Unfortunately, he's got it wrong again. Azpi at LB against WBA at home?! And why does he have to wait for us to concede to make the change? That goal had been coming for over 10 minutes. It was so obvious that they were going to score, make a change and stop it! Why start Lampard if you're going to sub him off in every match after he has done practically nothing?! As for the tactics, he's trying to enlist a certain system, but unfortunately reality does not agree with his theory. We just CANNOT play this system against teams that will park the bus with the Iva and Azpi (on the left) as our fullbacks! Jose likes inverted wingers, we all know, but with a LB who is afraid of his left foot and and a RB who gave more balls to the other team than to his teammates, it is incredibly easy to defend against us. And WBA weren't that good. They weren't as bad as Newcastle, but they weren't good. heir defensive organization would have easily been had we had any sort of width. I won't criticize his comments because I know that he was only saying that to stop the media from writing about WBA being cheated tomorrow (which they were). I hope that he is not serious about "good performance" thing and he's only saying that because he doesn't want to slag off the players two games in a row. The problem with that is that everyone mistakes their judgement on whether or not a criticism is "Fair" for facts. After all, if someone is making a a criticism, then surely he must think that it is fair.

They would, but that's a different story. Some of the saves he made were just incredible. In the second half of extra time, he was single handedly preserving our lead for 15 minutes from shot after shot after shot.

His performance against Bayern is by far the best performance by GK this season. He's also made unbelievable saves at crucial times in almost all of our games this season (The one just before first goa today, against Draxler in midweek at 1-0, against Silva with his legs vs City, 2 one-on-one saves at 1-0 against Schalke in Germany....etc).

Thought he was the best of the bunch today, or at least the least bad of the bunch! Worked very hard as usual, and his movement and passing were mostly very good. That pass over the top to Hazard....

Made an odd mistake. But he makes match changing saves in almost every game. He's still the best keeper in the world.

I want to remember the Frank Lampard of 2004-10, but I'm afraid that it will be tarnished with the Frank Lampard of 2011-13/14. I was watching the highlights of the 7-0 over Stoke in 2010, and I had almost forgotten how good he was! Jose really needs to do him, and the team, a favor and stop playing him in the pivot.

Or because he's not really that good anymore. He's 4th choice at CM as he should.

Just to be clear guys: He is a CB. He played a role last season because we were thin at CM and Benitez liked him. He's been playing at CB since then and will continue to play there. Oh, and he is certainly not solution to all our problems. He's just 18.

So many mistakes in one game, and that while WBA hardly attacked us for 20-30 mins of the game!

It's not a mystery. His movement on and off the ball, especially his diagonal runs, are a lot less predictable than everyone else and force the defense to leave their positions which creates space. This was best visible against Schalke.

For someone who is "selected for his aerial dominance" he sure does lose his man a lot in set pieces. That's the second game in a row in the league where he lost his man which caused us to concede a game-changing goal. Won't even mention his "technique" on the ball, if you can even call it that.

Pretty much expected lineup. Didn't see Azpi at LB coming, though!

You know I'm insecure!

Man, I'm so broke, I'm thinking of starting a government!

Low blow!

That's a very good observation, professor..

Must be hard since you're in a foreign country. What does your husband do, btw, if you don't mind me asking?

Nope. Don't think I'll do the feed now

With a chance of civil war! I actually like that kind of weather, tbh.