OneMoSalah

They didn't have a great start the last time we played them either if I remember correctly. The thing is it doesn't matter how badly they were last week or the week before that, its first night of the Champions League and they will have their critics and they will want to ram their critics opinions down their throats. Perhaps Everton and Swansea are playing better right now but a full strength Schalke team performing better than they are right now would comfortably dispatch any of those two sides. No contest. We can't take anything for granted, especially after the first half of that Swansea match and even defending against Everton. If players like Sigurdsson, Mirallas, Naismith etc can exploit spaces and make an impact on the game then imagine much more quality players like Boateng, Farfan, Draxler, Meyer etc? I'd say a full strength team and we beat them in 50-60 minutes then we can sub players in and out, but using the squad 4 games in and resting key players like Matic, Costa, Hazard and whoever else people have suggested (not you but I've seen lots of posts with a similar point about rotation) would also send out the wrong message in my eyes, it would show we are more concerned about the City game (although players who are on our bench do have points to prove). We can't send that message out to a team that's say won every game at the start of the season, never mind a team that's struggled recently and have a point to prove to their own critics. Our squad is very good yes but I don't want to see us rotate every game before we play a big team, especially when we play a big team before like Schalke, because cmon they aren't exactly minnows nobodies heard of. 4 days is a lot of time to recover, although it doesn't seem like it. When the games start coming every 2 or 3 days maybe depending on scheduling and cup competitions then the squad is useful.

You have to remember the problems they gave us last year (with a lot of injuries in their squad) with a similar team bar Courtois, Matic, Cesc and Costa. They are better than anything we've faced so far this season. I would hope Jose doesn't go daft and swap 3 or 4 players. Maybe Costa could do with a rest but how do you justify resting a player with 7 goals in 4 games for a game that is 4 days after this one?

Was it just me or did anyone else think that Carvalho was a better CB than John Terry?

In my opinion its not about how good you do for the U21s, its about how good you do for the first team if you get a chance. Josh and Gael Kakuta looked brilliant players at U21 level but where are they now?

Still doesn't matter what you think is Chelsea's priority, would you drop someone who has got 7 goal in 4 games? Or someone who has 6 assists in 4 games? If we had say injuries then yeah use the squad but we are 4 games into the season. Hardly like we've overused players already is it?

Anyone thinking we should go and change 4 or 5 players just because we play Man City 4 days after is just daft and naive because sure City are good but its hardly like Schalke are a poor team that didn't cause us problems last season with very much a similar team other than Courtois, Fabregas and Costa. This team has only been together for 4 competitive games, why rotate it? Especially with the form players like Costa, Fabregas and others are in? Costa is a striker and the more games he plays the more chances hes going to get to keep up this exceptional run of goals. Makes absolutely no sense to 4 or 5 change players. Sure take some of them off like Fabregas, Hazard and Costa after maybe 60 or 70 minutes if we are comfortable but not out of the team from the start, that would send Schalke the sort of message that shows we aren't too worried about the game and more concerned about the City match. Hopefully get a very strong performance, a very good good result and send out a statement to everyone else in the competition.

Hummels and possibly Chillieni is the only center backs on that list better than Kompany. Benatia and Godin are good players but they aren't better than Kompany, no offence but saying that is laughable in my eyes. Miranda is a good player but again hes hardly spectacular. He's like Cahill, hes got a better partner next to him in Godin as Cahill has in Terry. Kompany again isn't the best center back on the planet in my eyes but hes better than most of those guys. Guys like Ramos, Pepe, Thiago Silva, I would say are much better central defenders than he is. The fact that City were all at sea defensively last year was greatly his fault. Their was a lack of communication between Kompany and Demichellis for ages and when Pellegrini had to pick other center backs ahead of Kompany when he was injured the defensive unit looked more in sync with each other. Lets be honest, doesn't matter which center backs play against Costa they are going to get a rough game. He does everything, hes a very industrious player so I can't see Kompany or Demichellis having it very easy.

What a start, what a player. Lukaku 1 goal 4 games, Costa 7 goals 4 games. One cost 28M one cost 32M. Money well spent and well recuperated.

To be honest I'd rather see him playing shite for City than shite for us. Would he play ahead of Cesc, Ramires, Mikel or Matic? No.

Why is there even a thread for Ronaldo in the first place. We have no chance of signing him AT ALL. He hates Mourinho. Imagine suggesting trying to sign him after Mourinho internally criticized him at Madrid telling him he still needed to improve and that he didn't know best. Might as well hope Barca dont win the league again and try sign Messi or Iniesta or something. Ridiculous.

What so you'd tell players like Ashley Cole, Cesc Fabregas, Frank Lampard etc the same? No way. Even the likes of Luis Figo, Luis Enrique, Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez done the same. Its ridiculous to criticize someone for that. BVB can't complain they put a release clause, they activated it. Everyone should of stopped complaining at Gotze and blamed the BVB board for allowing such a clause.

Hopefully get them on board as an additional sponsor but to have them replace samsung on the shirt, would look odd. Put it this way, United got away with spending 160M this year because of their revenue and money generated from various sponsors they have. More sponsors the better, FFP has a loop hole.

I watched the game, I seen him get subbed off. But that doesn't mean hes picked up exactly the same injury or an injury of that severity. Just clutching at straws. Calling him injury prone after 2 similar injuries as well in say a years time would also be stupid, he could have not fully recovered from the injury in the first place. Sometimes teams rush players back, would be terrible for him if it was the same injury but you could question if he was fully fit in the first place? Hardly would consider him injury prone if its the same injury anyway.

Are you actually joking? He hurt his ankle and was subbed, does anyone even know the extent of the injury yet? There's every chance it wont become a long term problem. To call him injury prone after 2 similar injuries in a season would be clutching at straws given hes played regularly for the last 4 or 5 years...

Just waiting for some idiot to say we shouldn't look at Reus because hes injury prone.........

And play him where? Ramires so far has started one game this season - against Everton, which is a big game in my eyes. We will rarely use 4-3-3 apart from in the bigger games, is it really worth buying Pogba to play 4-3-3 in the big games when its blatantly obvious that Fabregas will play next to Matic with Oscar or Willian as number 10 in most games? Pogba would be a luxury signing, we've got an established team and set up, predominately playing 4-2-3-1 in the smaller games and looking at how we set up against Everton, 4-3-3 in bigger games.

Don't need him. Really don't get why we would need him unless we sold Ramires.

How can you compare a 6 to a 10? They don't have the same roles. Busquets is a holder who provides stability and balance, breaks up play and always offers himself to his team so they can play out from the back and retain possession etc. Oscar is a 10 who is shouldered with being a creative player in terms of making goals and assists and key passes. He also does the other work but hes not played as a 10 to be a defensive player is he? They are nothing alike. Sure they always make themselves available to their team mates but other than that they aren't similar in any way or have the same role in a team. Anyway back to the contract situations. I believe players like Ramires, Cahill, Courtois and Hazard's renewals should be prioritized over Oscars right now.

Perhaps yeah but you look at how much it cost could to say replace Salah with say Sterling or Lallana. An extra 10 or 15M on top of what we paid for Salah. Fuck knows how much Sterling could go for as well, he could go for anything beyond 50M

What do you really think any of those 3 would start week in week out for Chelsea Jason? Cmon man.... The point was there aren't very many English players who are at the same level as players like Courtois, Fabregas, Hazard and Costa who are gonna be the backbone of this team for the next 5-7 years.

Yes maybe we do not have a lot of English players but honestly when you look at the value for money that United, Liverpool and Arsenal have got for splashing out for players like Shaw, Lallana, Welbeck, Chambers and Oxlade-Chamberlain a few years back is it any wonder? I would rather get value on players who were foreign as opposed to English if it meant we got better deals. The better a team you have the more chance of winning the title, simple as that. Some of the arguments for having an English core is ridiculous sometimes, we are an English club bla bla bla, yes I know that but honestly who out of the England squad tonight would get in the current Chelsea XI other than Cahill and perhaps Sterling and Baines? Hart ahead of Courtois? No. Stones and Baines ahead of Ivanovic and Azpilicueta? No. Well, Baines maybe? Even though Filipe Luis can't get in the team? Jones ahead of Terry? No. Chamberlain and Sterling ahead of Willian and Hazard? No. Sterling maybe would instead of Willian perhaps. Henderson and Wilshere ahead of Cesc and Matic? No. Rooney and Sturridge ahead of Costa? No. If there were genuine English players better than what we have then I would be all for signing English players but the point is there aren't. Even the average English players get sold for a fucking shitload of money too, 35M for someone like Andy Carroll? We got a very good striker for 32M in Diego Costa. The value for money ain't there and until it changes I wouldn't be surprised if clubs like ourselves and Man City keep looking towards more foreign players than English players. There is a reason England haven't won a world cup since 1966 and why teams like Liverpool and Arsenal, who have a lot of average English players in their starting XI, wont win the PL any time soon. I would rather we promoted youngsters from the academy than bought English players like Lallana or Henderson or whoever else for ridiculous prices if we were to have a more English core. We have had 3 of the very best English players of the last 10-15 years in our team last season in Lamps, Cole and Terry and we still have Terry, but who that is English right now is as good as any of those 3? There is nobody at that sort of standard, which was a high quality.

Don't see the hype really. Hes good on the ball, when he played instead of Jagielka for Everton you could see he has more composure, more mobility and better distribution than him but he really isn't that great. I am actually surprised he started tonight for England, hes really not that good. If Roy Hodgson wasn't an idiot he'd of had Nathaniel Clyne in about the squad, he is the only English RB I would think we should look at, really surprised that he wasn't called up when players like Delph, Colback and Rose were.

You can see why hes in the squad. Matic really had a mixed game as did Ramires and they struggled at times to give the back 4 protection. Mikel came on when he did, made us a bit more solid and it ended up being a very good substitution.

I was actually disappointed that he left Celtic after everything they had done for him, he was going to deported, along with his family back to Somalia but Tommy Burns spoke to a panel on his behalf and managed to convince them that he could stay because he was a special talent. Also when he signed for Celtic they paid for a big apartment for his family to stay in and that, they did a lot of things for him really, they also appointed him with an agent at first but he later changed his agent to whoever this guy is now and then started to become more arrogant and didn't seem to have the same sort of loyalty he had shown before...

Should have gone SPL or League 1 this season then maybe Championship next year... idiot with an even bigger money grabbing idiot agent.