CHOULO19

Tbf, Reina was a superb keeper a couple of years ago..

Mata cost less than Schurrle. Don't tell me you think Andre is better? We also bought KDB for 7m and he is better as well. We sold Danny for 12m and he is the most similar player to Schurrle I could think of. Point is, we paid over the top for Andre. I stand with what I told you the other day on twitter: We will NOT sign a striker this window. We have three strikers for a system that only utilizes one of them, and even of loan Lukaku out, neither Ba nor Torres are going anywhere. You can't just keep needlessy throwing big money at your problems. That is the mentality we need to get rid of. In fact needlessly throwing big money is what created this problem when we bought Torres. We can't keep spending just for the sake of spending to get the shiniest name out there. Spending big does not mean solving problems, in fact if we look at our recent history, our "average" money signings have mostly worked much better than the big money signings.

People forget that one of the main reasons we moved to 4-2-3-1 was Mata's inability to to play on the wings in a 4-3-3. He simply doesn't have the pace for it.

We're still playing two games a week , but they're both in the league. The thing with the cup is that a lot of teams get knocked out early and have to either not play or play friendlies for half of the season. It also makes the season twice as long making a lot of people bored. We only have a cup once every 3 or 4 seasons.

That's why I did not mention the signings of Hazard and Mata and such because those signings were necessary. But spending big does not always mean getting better quality. I don't want to get into the Schurrle discussion here, but I think we can all agree that we could have someone similar to him in may be half the price. And spending 60m on one player is just ridiculous. That is what I mean with change of transfer policy, I'm not saying we should become Everton and never spend more than 10m, just that for every Mata there should be an Azpi.

Nop, just a quick league so people won't get bored after the incredible long season last time around.

Yes the board has done very well in the past couple of years in terms of sponsorship deals (though I can't see how you could credit Gourlay alone). But all that would count for very little if we don't change our transfer policies. We've seen glimpses of that change with signings like Moses, Romeu and Azpi, but this window has been alarming so far with the signing of Schurrle for 23m and our reported interest in paying 50m for Cavani.

Aren't we all... Bro you're welcome here anytime as long as you don't use hashtags #BansForWhoeverUsesHashtags

Hahah, I know dear, I was just joking. There is something about a female saying the word "penis" that men find 'interesting'

I"m not saying that he would, just that we would be in a better position if we did not lose money every year.

No I'm pretty sure about that part. We owe Roman no money but we owe a lot of it to the company.

It was just a map of the world with the average penis size of each country. Purely academic Got it! Less sex and more orgasm!

Hey, it's not my fault that they are just better than you

Well if it's penis size you want to know about, this will give you a better idea: http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=3073 PS: Notice Lebanon

Nice, that is some tour! Though I would not advice her to repeat it this year, the situation is completely fucked up, atm! Yeah not like Brazil who only had that almost best guy, Pele

I like Argentina more than Brazil HAHAHAH I literally LOLed when I saw this because I had the exact same thought before I read the caption!

Your mom went to Syria last year?! It's not exactly a popular tourist destination atm! In fact, you are probably more likely to encounter Syrians here in Lebanon right now than you are in Syria! (Just kidding, volt )

The thing is, practically, we as a club, owe Roman no money. All the money we spend are loans from an intermediate company he's set up. So he can leave and we as a club would still owe his company A LOT of money. That is at leats my understanding of the matter.

A Brazilian loving an Argentinian player? Now I've seen it all!

Just assume for the sake of discussion that Roman decides one day that he does not want to own a football club anymore, what business man wants to come buy a club that is constantly losing money unless, like Roman, he has love for the sport and has a couple of billions he does not need? I'm not saying that Roman is leaving tomorrow. But in fact, if the club does start to spend more wisely and actually start making money, or at least not losing, that will make it much more likely that Roman actually stays for a very long time because he would have absolutely no reason to sell a club that is making him money.

Yes at Inter was Cambiasso and Zanetti as first choice with Stankovic and Thiago Motta as second choice. Although what Jose implemented back then was a very 'customized' 4-2-3-1. It was a work of tactical genius. And I'm glad I could help

You can say he's a bad defender, question his decision making, call him undisciplined, but to actually say David Luiz is a terrible footballer...fucking hell! I've seen it all now To anyone doubting Luiz's footballing ability, just take a look at this:

This terminology mostly came from FIFA and FM and I must admit it gets annoying sometimes with all the new terms. You won't find unanimous agreement on the definition of these terms, but allow me to explain what I think they mean: A DM is the type of guy who sits in front of the back four and provides cover and eases the ball from defense to attack. Alonso is DM, and a great one at that (Although he is not a ball-winning DM and can easily be played next to another DM, but let's not get into more needless terminology!). Ramires on the other hand does not have the discipline or defensive ability or even passing technique to be a DM. He is a box-to-box midfielder, meaning he has the pace and stamina to keep making runs from his own box to the oppositions. Some would even call him an "Engine" (I know, more stupid terminology! ) which is basically someone who covers all pitch with his running like Vidal, or what De Rossi was a couple of years ago. Now the pivot, or originally the "Double Pivot" is not a type of player like DM or B2B, but rather a position in a formation. It is a term invented solely for the 4-2-3-1 formation which was made famous by Jose's treble winning Inter. The term refers to the two players in front of the defense. The meaning of pivot is axis or what the team revolves around and double obviously because there are two of them. Originally, it was meant that those two would have interchangeable roles in the team. When one joins the attack the other has to drop deep and cover. In practice, not a lot of teams managed to implement that, us included, and you ended up with one player always staying deep and the other always going forward making it much more static than intended (and making the job of the guy who stays deep much harder). You can choose to play whatever type of central midfielder that you want in the pivot to different effects. You can play two DMs and solidify your defense but that would give you less men in the attack and invite pressure on your back four. You can play two box-to-box players like we did when we played Rami and Lamps (to terrible results, unfortunately) but that would leave you exposed at the back since both pivot players will leave their position...etc. Ideally, what I think we are attempting to do here at Chelsea is find a pairing of DM, along side a DLP. A DLP, or Deep-Lying Playmaker (sometimes called Regista), is the type of central midfielder who likes to drop deep to receive the ball where he will have the time and space to pick up some long passes and have more control over the tempo of the game. This term was created to describe players like Pirlo and Xavi. But for DPL to work well in a double-pivot, I think that he should also be able to defend well when needed (for example, I don't think Pirlo would work well in a 4-2-3-1) which is why a lot of fans want the club to sign someone like Van Ginkel and Modric. That is also why I don't think Oscar should be moved to the pivot. Your analysis of this was absolutely spot on, imo. What Oscar does best for the team is his link-up play, passes and creativity in the final third. Moving him deeper would be robbing him of all that. I also don't think he has the physical or defensive ability to play in the pivot. He is decent enough when he's defending against other teams fullbacks, but can you imagine him getting stuck in with Yaya Toure for example in midfield?! The only reason people want Oscar to play in the pivot is because attacking players like him are rated highly and get all the hype, so they want to fit all of our attacking players like Oscar and Mata and Hazard and Schurrle..etc in one formation. Sometimes I think if one of our fans was our manager we'd have a goalkeeper and 10 strikers on the pitch! (kind of what Brasil have ) Unfortunately, very few people appreciate the players that do the basic things right like covering and simple passing that despite not looking too 'fancy' are crucial to the team nonetheless. I apologize that this came out too long, and I hope it helps. There is absolutely nothing wrong with your English or understanding of football, you just have a different perspective than the one we are used to. I hope you could teach us more stuff about the Brazilian perspective of the game like the "volante"

I'm not saying he will, just that he could. And even if he does want to sell, what do you think is more attractive to businessman wanting to make an investment: a club with half a billion pounds debt to the previous owner or a club with almost no debt?