OneMoSalah

If we do sign someone to play in the #10 position in January or the summer, I hope we go for a player whos coming up to his best years because Oscar's inconsistency is frustrating the hell out of me this season. Hes always improved each season since coming here but the consistency is his main problem. Subbed the last two games in a row at 45 minutes says it all.

Good game against Watford and a good goal but they are a Championship side he will have tougher games.

Don't want to post in this thread much now hes gone (thank god for that) but apparently Atletico are putting him through a rigorous fitness programme to try and get him back that burst of pace. Didn't we try that? Didn't Milan? Are they high or what? Also the last 6 or 7 years Atletico have had a relatively great track record with signing strikers and also improving them, this will be interesting but the guy is done.

Should of signed him in 2012 from Vitesse or whatever year we were continuously linked to him.

Fuck sake at least look Harry Kane up before typing this. He has had a few loan spells away where he struggled, hes nothing in comparison to Boga because Boga has just played u21 football where as Kane played Championship and very likely League 1 as well as u21 football. This is nearly as bad as the guy on twitter who said Bamford was better than Kane and Kane was nothing special despite being the best English player form wise right now.

I'm not saying he isn't a brilliant player but when people started posting he was the best DM in the world over players like Alonso, Busquets, Martinez, who have been doing it consistently at a high level for years, I knew people were getting carried away. Its hard to disagree and say hes not been brilliant for us because he has been in, particularly in big games but he was awful vs Spurs, who despite having a few good players are very average. I'm not saying he is an awful player, no chance but he was poor and Cahill and Terry's performance was slammed despite Matic being continuously out of position and leaving both exposed. He is one of the best in that holding position yes but I remember various members saying he is the best in that position. Also Fabregas, who has normally been good in terms of positional sense in the other big games was shocking too as Jason said in another thread (or this one fuck knows), I'm not saying Matic should be dropped or sold or whatever the fuck or he isn't good enough but if anyone is gonna stick up for him and say he played well or relatively half decent is having nothing but a fucking laugh. Hence the point why I said when he's good he's good but when he's bad he's truly awful. Never said he was awful or not go enough or anything but yet again if you criticize someone who had a poor game despite having a good season so far, you're made to be some sort of dick who thinks they are shite or something.

That's an idiotic thing to say considering everyone was shit except for Eden. Hes hardly been given opportunities consistently. 20 minutes every month or so? What good is that to make an assessment.

Eeeh what have you seen Sanchez play?? He is an incredibly hard working player.

Hes a great midfield player but would one of the best DMs in the world get ripped apart by Christian Eriksen and Chadli? I said in another thread, he is vitally important to us but there are better DMs. His protection is vital to our system and it wasn't there. When hes good hes good but when Matic is bad hes truly awful.

Guy above hit the nail on the head. People have said that Matic is 'the best DM in the world' but the performance he gave today was fucking awful and that made Cahill and Terry vulnerable. The success we've had defensively has been built on the midfield giving the center backs protection and defending as a team. None of that today sadly.

Just shows how good Jose really thinks Zouma and Kalas are. In reality I agree slightly with his point, if JT gets injured Cahill and Zouma? We'd be fucked.

According to Scousers, Gerrard is the best English MF player of the last 15 years but the man doesn't even have a PL winners medal... we'd be stupid to sign him look at how Liverpool have struggled this year building their side around him considering most teams are now man marking him and also pressing Liverpool as well as a lack of runners upfront like Suarez. Hes shite.

I don't see why Lampard scoring a winner vs Sunderland is being mentioned in this thread when really that sort of abysmal performance should be the only talking point. Cahill or Brana or whoever isn't solely to blame considering the minutes they've played the last week or so, Jose has to take a huge bit of the criticism for a lack of rotation, how can players play at a very very high level if they are playing every 2 days for 90 minutes??? Harry Kane is quite a good player I must admit, really caused a lot of issues, wasn't sure if he could do it against the big boys but he did well today for them.

Regarding Romeu: Barca had first option if Chelsea ever wanted to sell. Its common in Spain and Italy along with Portugal but I remember reports AVB had inserted a first option if Hamburg ever wanted to sell us back Rajkovic or whatever his face was when we originally sold him after he couldn't get a work permit. I don't think we should sell Thorgan to be honest, give him another season on loan there if we can then re-evaluate but don't sell him too early.

He played more centrally against Stoke yes and against Fulham he kind of varied between the left and right sides depending on where Eden was.

I think his biggest issue here is Eden Hazard playing on the left as well, mainly because at Leverkusen and with Germany Schurrle played as a left winger more frequently and was much more effective there. Eden on the right is better than Schurrle on the right but Eden on the left is better than Schurrle on the left too. Against PSG last season when he came on for Eden on the left he just looked much more at home there than what he does on the right.

If Juventus buy Ramires and we could get him for a decent fee I'd take him. Big, strong, athletic player and can play deeper, as a 10 or on the wing.

He's a top top English talent, they aren't going to say he should be banned. Pappis Cisse just recieved a ban for elbowing Coleman where as a few years ago Wayne Rooney elbowed James McCarthy in the face when he was playing at Wigan intentionally and they didn't review it. I hope they do review the Sterling incident and he gets a similar ban to Cisse got if not worse. If the ban isn't the same or worse then it shows what the FA are all about. Also I don't care what people will say about this part of the post but its the same with the whole racism fiasco however many years ago with Suarez-Evra and JT-Ferdinand. If they have enough evidence to deem both players to have made racist remarks, ban them for the fucking same time and the same fine instead of giving one player a longer ban and bigger fine and one a shorter ban and less of a fine, just makes it seem like they are favoring the homegrown boys more over the foreign lads that come here (although I am still shocked they managed to convict JT of using racist remarks but yeah...).

This the same as the Lukaku on loan at Eveton and WBA thing, its one thing to be good at Southampton but a totally different thing to be good at Chelsea. At Southampton he isn't playing for anywhere near a demanding coach in comparison to Jose, where they aren't under so much pressure as we are due to being the favorites for the PL title, Capital One Cup and one of them for the Champions League. Don't get me wrong Berty is a decent enough LB for a club like Southampton and has softened the blow of losing Shaw but he's hardly exceptional. I'd rather chose a LB out of Azpilicueta and Filipe Luis than Azpilicueta and Bertrand. If we didn't lack English players and Filipe didn't struggle a bit recently, I bet Bertrand not being here wouldn't be a problem to the majority of people. Nobody cared why he wasn't in the team last year when Azpi and Cole were fit so why are people worried now we have 2 of the best LBs in Europe (although even Ashley was up there still last season and was exceptional in games vs Atletico and Liverpool in particular)? Baffles me in the same way people complain about Diego Costa 'not being good at combination play' when we had 3 and a half years of Torres... Also your point about Filipe, 'defensively he is levels below Azpi', how many fullbacks are better than Azpi defensively in the PL let alone Europe? Hardly any, he is the best defensive player I think we've had in a fullback position for years and years. Its like saying about Eden 'he is levels below Messi and Ronaldo' but everyone is... its a nonsense comparison because they are the best at what they do.

Did I just see someone call the best LB in Europe last season an excellent squad player??? Oh god. Anyway I'd have him here over every other LB in the Premier League or in most leagues in Europe still. I still remember people complaining when we spent 17m on whatever on him because he was 28 and that we didn't go and buy 32M Luke Shaw... who has maybe started a third of the games this season due to excessive injury problems.

Sorry but Salah isn't an explosive and pacey player then I have no idea what he is because he is one of the fastest players in our squad if not the PL.

Mo Salah? Left footed on the right. He could have been useful and coming inside would of gave Ivanovic much more room. Not the same level but to say we need a winger who comes in on his stronger foot to attack spaces is ridiculous considering we have one in Salah who in all honesty needs a chance.

Fuck, well we have to find a buyer or use him... great...

Doesn't matter considering Schurrle and Willian have done much more than a couple of good pre-season games and a game against Hull. You earn your place in the squad then the starting 11 here, sure getting into the 25 is an achievement in itself given how we had so many attacking players but getting into the starting 11? The shirt isn't given to you like at Wolfsburg or Werder Bremen or Belgium where you are a standout player in their squad playing poorly or not (no disrespect to those three teams but who did Bremen have better than him or Wolfsburg in that position? Belgium haven't very many better 10's either). Voted better than Muller in AMF position in the Bundesliga?! Really?!?! Muller is the best German footballer right now I'd say because he's so different to everyone else, not flashy but very good at the same time, he scores goals, sets them up and virtually can play any attacking position. If he goes to Man City he will be on the bench, Nasri, Navas, Silva, Milner to compete with for 2 wide MF roles as they usually play 4-4-2? No chance he goes into their 11 unless Silva/Nasri gets injured. also seen Wolfsburg would sell for around 20M euros, which is close to what they paid for him...... doubt that

Alan Shearer hit the nail on the head for me, something along the lines of 'would he go down like that if he were defending in his own box? no absolutely not' and I totally agree, Carroll's arm was out but he was already going down before he even got there. Its not a dive as in fooling the ref as there was contact but its just the way he decided to launch himself to the ground just before it because he knew it was coming. He's an absolute animal and I really think he could have kept on his feet and got to the ball even if he did receive a bit of contact.