CHOULO19

So our best player is still on 50k/wk while Benayoun was making 80?!! F*** football!

Didn't Mata just sign a 5 and a half year deal back in December? And why would he quit being the main man here so he would go be a squad player at best at Barcelona? Besides, Juan does not fit Barca's system in the slightest. It's why he's not a starter for the NT. There is very very little logic behind this rumor.

I'm sure I'll disagree with Barabara about this since we have totally different ideas about what a fullback should be, but for me Cesar was one of the men of the season for us under Benitez. First, the myth about his bad crossing. He is by no means the best crosser in the league, but he can certainly put in decent crosses. He made 4 assists from crosses this season (all in the PL) which is quite impressive considering our most likely player to score a header is Lampard! Crossing takes two parties, the one who's doing the crossing and the one receiving it. If absolutely no one in the team makes a run or any attempt to get at the end of crosses and give our fullbacks something to aim at, how do you expect his crosses to reach their destination. Our issue with crosses at Chelsea is with the receivers not 'senders'. Secondly, about his contribution to the attack. Yes, he cannot dribble and he's certainly not Danny Alves, but for me a RB does not have to be able to do that. If you go back to statistics of our matches, Azpi was consistently one of our most influential players in terms of touches on the ball. The reason for that is that Benitez compensated for the lack of movement and dropping back by our 3 AMs to receiver the ball by making triangles between Azpi, Iva/Cahill and Mikel to get the ball out of defense which was one of our biggest issues if not the biggest. Azpi excelled at this and was crucial to our offense and build-up play.

Can we get back on topic, please. There is absolutely no need for those pointless Mata vs Hazard 'discussions'.

So you think we can implement this while having our usual pivot of Mikel-Lampard/Ramires? Tbh, I've always wanted to see what a pivot of Mikel-Romeu would look like. I think it would take a lot of work on the training ground to be implemented as well as some stability both in the team and in the results to allow the manager to make such experiments.

I look forward to people moaning when Jose starts him for quite a lot of games next season.

This was posted in the Mourinho thread, but I thought the people in this thread need to give it a read as well. Jose talking about FFP to the official site: http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3212071/title/mourinho-one-direction

Since we gave him to Benfica to shave 2m off the Luiz deal, it is actually 20 times! Must be some kind of record; we should be proud..

They were actually, but good luck getting people to follow that rule..

Seriously, they should be sued for that tittle!

That's a very interesting point. Mikel definitely has what it takes to play with his back to goal, but if he is to played further up the pitch, can he, after laying the ball off to a fellow midfielder, then join the offense and attack the second/third ball and score on a regular basis? Unless you mean that he is still deployed in the pivot but only exchanges places with Oscar during the play? If it is the latter, I think there will be plenty of gaps if we lose possession because Mikel is usually the one who covers and protects the back 4 when we lose the ball. We may have to play him next to another defensive midfielder for that work. But again, very interesting proposal. Would love to see someone attempting to implement here or even at Barca with Busquetes.

That sounds very interesting Barbara. I must admit I'm a little jealous of you right now! Here majors are more 'rigid' and the whole university experience is very different much more similar to school, tbh. Even majors like psychology and philosophy are more abut memorizing than analyzing and thinking. PS: I meant your attitude of going for several degrees and your love of studying. I hope I can do the same and continue studying different majors once I finish my current engineering major.

I think Brasil is one of the very few countries in the world that this could actually happen and people would actually get the rights they are asking for. Here in third world countries any demand for freedom and rights would almost inevitable become a civil war while in countries like Britain, people are satisfied and would rather not risk the 'crumbs' they are thrown, as you rightly said. That is the 'brilliance' of capitalism.

I'd love to major in theology, or any other branch of philosophy for that matter, though theology and epistemology draw me the most. I wanted to major in philosophy when I finished high school but everyone said I should study something more 'practical'. I love your attitude, btw

Saw a pic Stingray posted in the pub, happened to watch an interview with Suarez, or pregnant?

Looooooooooooooong day. Had a 3 and half hour exam and now I swear my head is going to explode

That I did not see coming! Half the people I know say I'm rude and unapproachable while the other half say I'm too nice. Make up your mind, people! Even though I post here a lot, in person I am very quite. I sometimes go a whole day literally without saying a single word.

Hazard is nothing like Neymar. Eden is a much more effective player. Yes he likes his rabonas, but he never does tricks just for tricks sake. He does uses some excellent dribbling skills to directly influence the game. In fact at the start of the season, a lot of people were complaining that he should take defends on more often. Hazard has also showed this season that he can be extremely disciplined tactically. One of the main things I like about Hazard is that, unlike Ronaldo, for example, he can fit into the team system and play for the team, he does not need a system to be built around him. Neymar is none of those things atm.

True, I don't deny that, but I was never a fan of players who try to be too fancy. Often when people send me youtube links to some Neymar tricks, true they are usually very difficult tricks that must have took A LOT of training, but all I see is a pass that he should have played to make the attack more dangerous or an early cross that could have resulted in a good chance...etc Only one genius has ever managed to integrate his 'street-football' skills into professional football and that was Ronaldinho. I very much doubt someone will ever be able to repeat that feat anytime soon.

No I said, I'd rather have someone like Moses in my team. Neymar is obviously much better technically but his work-rate is terrible, he is physically weak, and I am yet to see him fit in any teams tactical system. He's certainly no where near worth the 57m that Barca paid, while Moses is completely worth the 10m we paid, imo. On the bright side, he can entertain kids at birthday parties with all those tricks

Again, I'm not discussing his performance which is of course expected to be great because he is by far the best player on the pitch, I'm talking about that pass in particular. It was a great pass. It's not a big deal, it's just a pass and I was just making a remark that it was a great pass just like I made a comment that Oscar's was a great pass as well. It would have passed a regular remark just like the one about Oscar if some people didn't get butt-hurt every time someone gave Mikel a deserved compliment. So, I'm sorry Mikel made a great pass if it is going to hurt you so much.

I disregarded the level if opponent because I was not judging his whole performance. I did not say he was brilliant against Tahiti. I said it was a brilliant pass. That pass took great vision to spot and excellent passing technique to execute just right. That has nothing to do with the opposition.

Haha. Native languages are overrated anyway!

I can't swim. Well I can, but I'm not sure you can call it swimming! Just like Blue Army, I express my self better in English. It's because I think in English in my head. GTFO!

What does that has to do with anything? It was a brilliant pass regardless of the opposition, just like Oscar's pass was a few days ago. Do try to cut down on all the hate, it's not good for you.