CHOULO19

He said something like the rumors are saying that Benintez is leaving Chelsea, Carlo leaving PSG and Mancini leaving Man City and that the rumors are saying that he is replacing one of them.. I found this 'interesting':

But Marin has better goal/assist per minute ratio!

You obviously missed my point: Teams often have a better win percentage without their key men because, injuries aside, you only rest your key players in games against 'weaker' opposition.

Opposition Views Here

Rayan Ammar was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions ahead of our vital league clash with United. Here is what he had to say: -Firstly, how long have you been a united fan? Since like 2008 but wasn't so into football back then. -You’ve had an excellent campaign in the PL. Why do you think it has been easier than previous seasons? You see everyone learns from their mistakes and I think SAF has learned from the mistakes he's done in the past seasons. -What, do you think, has put you head and shoulders above other PL sides this season? Mainly it's the tactics and lineups, but shall we not forget that most of the teams are having troubles with their owners/managers/staff whereas at United everything's alright imo. -Who has been your player of the season? Why? Player of the season in United? If yes it's Carrick and it's because of his tremendous midfield performance and ability to give lethal passes into the opposing team's box. If not, it's Gareth Bale because he's had a great season and he's always been the one to rescue Tottenham when they needed it as from goals and assists. -This will actually be our fifth meeting this season. What did you make of those matches? Do you expect a similar match to the one in the league? I think our weakness has become when we're winning from the beginning of the match, we start losing it at 60min+. I expect a different match than the one last time in the league simply because United were fighting for the 1st place back then. -With the tittle won, do you think that the united players will lose a bit of motivation for this match? Since they've won the title and they won't be breaking any records anymore, their only motivation is mental and winning over Chelsea would give the players some joy but they sure won't be playing eagerly unlike Chelsea who are fighting to finish in top4. -Chelsea have had a hectic schedule and are still in the hunt for the EL. Do you think that will give you an edge on Sunday? I think Chelsea would rest some key players for more important fixtures coming like FA cup and EL Final and Tottenham's match. -If you could have one Chelsea player at United, who would it be and why? It would definitely be Hazard because he's skilled and has a bright future. -What lineup and formation would Sir Alex likely use? I think the lineup would be: DDG, Rio, Evans, Jones, Evra. Carrick, Valencia, Young and Welbeck. Up front RVP and Chicha. -Finally, please predict the final result. 2-2

What can I say? I'm a pioneer! You can aim personal insults at Mikel all you want, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't give a fuck, so I'd save my breathe if I were you..

Yes it does. He was one of the best strikers in the world when he scored the vast majority of those goals. Lack of effort? He's usually in the top 5 players in terms of distance covered. Lack of passion? How exactly do you measure that? From what I see he's usually the first player in the ref's face whenever something happens, especially when JT is not on the field. But of course Mikel is just a "weak human being" I don't understand why some of our fans insist on hating Mikel; anyway, luckily our managers don't. I've discussed this with many users on here and neither side is likely to change their mind, so I'm sorry but I won't reply anymore because I have studying to do..

Yes because 158 goals in in 266 career games is just plain shit!

Again, none of those are key players for their team except Gomez who is a very good player. And you ignored the part about Mikel being undoubtedly one of our best players in both doubles.

Again, Bosingwa was never a key player for us nor was he ever one of our best players. In fact, Iva was our main RB when we won those trophies.

And yet we've won the double in 09-10, and the cup double last season with him, not only as first choice DM, but one of our key players. I can give you stats about the myth of him only playing side-way passes, but of course stats don't matter, if you say he only plays side-ways then he only plays side-ways And your entire argument about Mikel being bad defensively is based on the Southampton game, which I said he was bad in. What about the hundreds of times he was very disciplined and good defensively? You can't criticize Mikel's positioning based on one game and then say we should play Luiz who has NEVER played a good game in midfield where he was disciplined. Kalou, unlike Mikel, was never a key player for us. He was a squad player, and very good one at that. In fact, if we had had a few squad players like him this season, we would have been in much better position now. I very much would, actually. I suggested it once in the "Future Chelsea Captain" thread..

Well I completely disagree and it seems that our managers for the past 4-5 seasons agree with me because, like it or not, Mikel has been an integral part of the Chelsea team and was vital to all of our success in that period and will likely be for a few more seasons to come as well.

You have to be kidding. Those players don't even come close! I won't derail this thread with a comparison with each of those players, so here, just read this instead: http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/13977-john-mikel-obi-the-keystone/ WARNING: That link is NOT safe if you have stats-o-phobia!

I honestly still think Modric is the best fit. Would also love to see KDB given a chance to make that position his; he certainly has the ability to play there, imo. See Josh playing there is a dream, but atm it's just unrealistic. I think we'll just have to wait to see what the new manager decides on this matter.

Of course Mikel is no where near Makalele, who is? Carrcik aside, name one better DM in the league (and do NOT say Toure, he is not a DM).

I hate Leeds!

Very funny how some people where calling Gomez rubbish but want to Higuian. Decent player and a good finisher but lacks consistency a bit. I actually rate him higher than Benzema, but his price will be too high, and I don't even think we will sign a striker in the summer, tbh.

He's also a Chelsea fan, so the story could be what he wants to happen rather than what actually will.

Need Hull to drop points against Cardiff. Watford deserve to get a promotion!

But you can't really compare Alonso to Maka who was probably the best DM of his generation. Anyway, like I said above, Alonso is not the long-term solution we should be looking for and you just know that if we sign him we won't get anyone else for that position. I've heard a lot about Verratti, bu from what I've seen, he's the Pepe of midfield! Needs to sort out his attitude if he wants to make it.

Excellent shout. He really deserves a mention.

Again, disagree about Luiz. He should be nowhere near midfield for the reasons I stated in that post (I do hope you read it). He's too sloppy, too aggressive and too adventurous to play at DM. Anyway, I don't want to discuss Luiz here as this is not his thread. If you want a discussion about Luiz in midfield, read the post who's link I put above and we can discuss him there As for Mikel, he had a few very good games after the AFCON (the replay against united comes to mind) but then he had a few bad ones last month especially that game in the EL but the City game was not one of the those bad games. He was very good in that game, and you can't judge the whole performance of player based on a single incident, especially a DM. He was back to himself against Liverpool and had an excellent game but then picked up that knock which saw him miss the last two games. So hopefully against united he continues with the good form he showed against Liverpool. As for the goal you mentioned, I can't understand how people put the blame on Mikel. He did the right thing in showing Toure down the outside and not putting in a challenge because he would have given away an easy penalty. Yes, he was slow to react (which has always been his biggest weakness) afterwards to chase Toure and block the shot, but Azpi who let in the easy cross to Toure in the first place, and Cahill who should have double on him and closed down the shot but instead stood looking at Toure from 3 meters away from him, share the blame. You can't single out Mikel.

Oh, please stop the Messi and Ronalo comparisons. They're silly to say the least. I'm very excited of how Eden has progressed this season. He had all the individual skills at the start of the season but he has been integrated very well into the team. He has fit in the system very very well. I expect much bigger things from him next season.

That sounds so much more likely. I just can't imagine anyone else paying his wages. No idea how we're going to get rid of him.

My fear is that that will prevent us from signing a long-term solution for that position. Don't get me wrong, 10m for Xabi to come and be a squad player would be amazing, but we've had a lot of problems with this particular position, and have had several stop-gap solutions a la Meireles, and I think it is time we get some one who can solve this problem for a few season to come and that definitely isn't Alonso.