CHOULO19

One of our best players against Porto. He made so many excellent runs that were not picked up by our midfield. Him moving to the left wing was for most of the game our main source chances. He really is an excellent player when he's up for it and actually looking to play football and not pick up fights with his shadow.

'Amazing' is log stretch. He's been solid, made no mistakes, and made the saves you expect a top a keeper to make. It annoys me slightly though when keepers refuse to have players on the posts for corners. The second Porto goal would have been easily avoidable (plus the one that hit the post).

Nothing spells Chelsea crisis more than a TC fight I've missed those! And my name even got (untypically in a positive manner) thrown into that one!

But the effort was definitely there. I think it's hard to control play against Porto who press VERY high and with numbers. We were lacking movement and runs especially on the wings so Cesc's mobility, even if slow, was a plus in my eyes and if our attacking midfielders had been as mobile we probably would have gotten a different result.

LMAO at Americans whining about traffic and how people drive! You really haven't seen anything. In terms of traffic, Cairo is probably the worst in the world as Rapha said above. You should also try driving in Lebanon where you can get a driving license without even taking a test. A journo once got a driving license for a blind person to highlight how dangerous corrupt the system is. Still didn't change anything

Without looking at the stats I can be 100% sure that he covered the most distance yesterday from our team or at the very least was in the top 3.

The performance was not great but decent despite what you read on here. Had we gotten that blatant penalty or scored from that clear chance right at the end or even if Costa's shot had gone in off the crossbar this whole thread would be different. We played better than we did against Newcastle but made some pretty silly individual mistakes and conceded (almost twice) from yet another corner. I think we deserved a draw but didn't make the best of our chances. But we're still clearly lacking mobility and off the ball runs and we often looked nervous/lacking confidence on it, especially in the case of Willian and Pedro.

Not Chelsea quality, though

Like I already said, not because they have been better than Iva (or Cesc or Costa) but simply because we have reliable experienced replacements for them in the team while we lack that depth for Iva's position/role.

He is but that's not enough. He needs to have the physical and technical attributes to play the position and he simply does not. Cech was a leader but I wouldn't play him as a striker...

I completely agree. And I was against both deals from the start. Our board and Jose have royally fucked up in addressing this issue in the transfer market and hold complete responsibility for the disastrous situation, but right now the window is closed and we only have the players on our rooster. It's the same selections that won us the league comfortable last season. The issue is clearly well beyond that and cannot be laid entirely on Jose and certainly not simplified to team selections of the RB position.

I understand the sentiment. I want Iva out of the team as well. I've been saying that for THREE full years now. But I also understand that practically we can't do that at the moment in any important match. As much as I love JT who is my all-time favorite Chelsea player, he would be A LOT worse than Iva at RB as he'd be beaten for pace every single time.

Sorry but the selections of the manager should be proof to the contrary. Willian? Willian has been consistently better than or at least on par with Hazard since April. You're also comparing an experienced highly rated player with a LB from the German league with no experience in Europe.

No offense, but I think you're blinded by hope.

Still Iva is the regular starter and Baba has done nothing to displace him yet. It's not about IVa, it's about Baba. He has however had a couple of chances against weaker teams and hasn't convinced. Ideally you'd wait for him to settle in a bit more and hopefully do better against weaker teams before he is given a chance against a decent team. Maybe. But that's for Roman and the board to act upon. But concerning team selection TONIGHT I think his choices are justified.

An aging CB playing at RB. He's barely good enough with very obvious flaws. But he's experienced and a leader. Till now, I'd choose him over Baba because I think he's more likely to put in a good performance. I haven't seen anything from Baba yet to suggest he can put in a performance like Iva did vs Arsenal for example.

Some guy we picked up from the Bundesliga who has done absolutely nothing yet to merit a start. Current form? Last 3 matches Ivanovic has played like he has been for the past 3 seasons. Do I think Ivanovic in any form should be our right back? No but Jose disagrees and we've bought no one who can replace him in our XI. He is NOT our biggest problem at the moment in the sense that we've had this issue for years now so it is not the source of our current sufferings.

FFS Shut up about Ivanovic already. He isn't dropped like Hazard and Matic because we have no decent replacement for him. Same applies for Costa as far as I'm concerned. It's a decent and well balanced XI. I think we'll play well and get a positive result tonight.

It's good experience for the lads. Though I must say it's hard to see this youth team achieving what the last one did with all of RLC, Solanke, Ake, Musonda, Boga...etc. gone.

Was he? I was still at work and was just seeing the notifications on my phone.

If you're looking for good luck omens for this match.....this is NOT one: U19s blew a 3-0 lead against Porto U19 and drew 3-3. Worse Palmer was sent off after the comeback was complete.

I'd wait to hear the actual interview before I believe any of that.

Yes, I've noticed as I've been pointing it out for the past 3 f***ing years! He does not deserve all the stick he is getting because it has exceeded rationality and has reached scapegoating for mistakes he did not even commit. Also it shields other players who have performed terrible from much deserved criticism because apparently everything Iva's fault.

I wrote this about Patrick a couple of years ago and it's still kind of true: Obviously his chances of making it here are low. They always have been. But I wouldn't write him off just yet. This is practically the first footballing challenge that Patrick is failing at. Would be interesting to see how he reacts to it.

Happy birthday @Jim