CHOULO19

That's what I call him as well

Going to start reading it now...should be done around February.

Almost scored from 50 meters out yesterday from that FK! But I think he was actually crossing

It works well in Basketball where the court is closed and the stadium is rarely packed, but in football, it's just lame and takes away from the atmosphere of the crowd.

Jose played what he thinks is his best team yesterday because he knew we just HAD to win and we only have Swindon in midweek so there is no need to rest players. And that goes for the pivot as well. Jose said in his long post-match Sky interview that we want to play possession football, and for that purpose, Mikel-Ramires is the obvious best pairing.

I haven't heard any news about him since preseason. I don't even know if he had that shoulder surgery or not. So I have no idea.

Wait, we weren't defending deep vs Bayern?! I must have been watching a different European Super cup! EDIT: Never mind, misread you post. Apologies

If he starts against Swindon he'll bag a brace, at least.

Madrid had a thin squad and he could cover at several positions. Here we have a player to cover for every position and Essien is unfortunately not better than any of the cover players, atm.

Screw Torres, stick Mikel up top And about Sky, that's the Mourinho effect for you Jose already confirmed that Azpi, Luiz and Bertrand will start, so either one or none of those two will start. I don't think Omeruo is even in Jose's plans.

Had totally forgotten about him! He'll partnering Luiz on Tuesday, so he has his work cut-out for him.

Jose says he wants to play him on the wing, so it's still early to judge how much his involvement with the team will be. But if he can't adapt like Jose wants then it would be best for him and the club to part ways. Brilliant! I am convinced that you are a journalist, Term

On fire today! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DjBtGID37g

I'm not disagreeing. He certainly deserves a run of games to prove his worth when Torres got 2 and a half years worth of chances (although, Sturridge, Ba and Lukaku didn't get any). But just the sight of that "service" excuse brought back bad memories. Don't worry though, I'll tell my therapist about them

I actually think he was better in the first. especially the first and last 10 mins where he was winning everything in midfield. He and Oscar were also the only two players trying to make something happen when everyone else, especially our wingers were mostly static. You should really watch the goal at the very least. Oh, and do try to stop trying to get on my nerves on purpose, it's very obvious and you're bad at it. I actually find it rather funny, tbh That goal was nothing special. Nine times out of ten the Fulham defense does the right thing and clears it. But the tenth time you score (not literally of course, but you know what I mean). But in order for that to happen you need to try ten times, and for you to be able to do that, you must have the possession for most of the game to try again and again. That's how you break tight defenses down, by keeping the ball and trying over and over again. It takes one second to lose the ball by attempting a pass that will probably won't reach it's destination, but it takes at least thirty or a minute to win it back. Playing the guaranteed pass may not be "fancy" but it will help you much more to win the match, especially when it's not your job to play the defense-splitting pass. Look at Ramires today for example, in the first half he misplaced a lot more passes thank Mikel and two-three of the lead to very dangerous counter attacks. That's why you never want your pivot to misplace passes especially if you are playing with such a high block and have massive gaps at the back. And just for the myth about only playing backward passes, he completed 89 passes (84 + 5 long passes) today at 92% accuracy. 58 of them where forward passes and 31 where either backwards or square. (Squawka.com)

Oh great, we're back to the "no service" debate. OMG, the social cycle theory was right, history does repeat itself!!

Let me ask you a question, why do you think we won today? Obviously the first goal was the most important one, but how do you think we scored?

The goal aside, because it was a knock down from a set-piece and had little to do with the overall performance, I thought he was excellent again today. Our most involved player with 99 touches of the ball, he absolutely bosses it and was winning everything in midfield. Again our best passer with the most passes at the highest accuracy (goes without saying, but shouldn't be taken for granted) he was the major reason why we had so much possession and were able to pile the pressure on Fulham until we score. Definitely one of our best players on the pitch, second only to the brilliant Oscar. Keep it up John.

He kept him in the pivot when defending the lead against both Hull and Villa. But I guess the future will tell.

I like how Jose turned to 4-3-3 when he subbed him in. I think he's starting to realize that he can't play in the pivot against any team with a decent midfield.

Azpi, Bertrand, KDB, MVG and Schwarzer :D

Another brilliant performance. Still early days, but he's well on his way to being our most influential player.

Actually Mikel had the most touches in the match with 99. But I agree with your point, and it has been an issues since last season, but it has gotten a little better with Oscar dropping often.

Was a joke, mate. I voted for the clear MOTM: Oscar.