OneMoSalah

hahaha we all dream of a team of John Obi Mikels... ok doesn't quite work but I took inspiration from a Rangers chant (we all dream of a team of Davie Weirs') despite the fact Rangers are shitebags as are Celtic as are Hibs and as are most Scottish teams. P.S Your avatar what the fuck is it with you and fucking cats........

I'm pretty sure Feruz won't count as home grown even though he's Scottish. The rule is bullshit, apparently Scots aren't counted as home grown for some reason. Not 110% sure might need to check but I'm certain I read it somewhere.

Just play 11 Lampards and we will win.

I think the 8-0 game vs Villa under Rafa, 4-2 win vs Spurs under Robbie and 3-1 loss at United under AVB have perhaps been the best we've played since 2011. Thats how bad and inconsistent we've really been at times in terms of performances. I'll take winning football over attractive football but you'd think with 150-200m worth of attacking players and Jose Mourinho we'd be winning games easily playing attractively or not. Sure Jose prefers defensive stability over going gun ho but with Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Ramires, Schurrle, de Bruyne, Eto'o, Torres and Ba you'd think we'd be able to score a lot of goals in games and win them no? Pivots a problem too but I'd prefer we sorted the performances of some of our players first.

Mikel, de Bruyne, whoever I don't necessarily care because I'd prefer to see someone else play there as Lampard is in really bad form right now and doesn't suit that position.

Bertrand is another good shout and for an attacking sense I agree that he should be playing at LB as he can support Hazard/Schurrle but so can Azpi, just against Schalke and West Brom I noticed that he was always tucking in at times so we were defending very narrow, probably tactical instructions more than anything though. He can get forward at times to, just he comes onto his right foot as he prefers it but I agree that Bertrand should get a chance at LB too.

We lacked his off the ball runs against West Brom. Hazard is a better dribbler but he still doesn't look to make penetrable runs in between the full back and center back like Schurrle does. I like how a lot of German players who play on the wings look to get into these positions, running between the full back and center back to try and get into scoring positions. Perhaps you don't think its much but its something that only Schurrle seems to do regularly in our team. Even if he doesn't get the ball if he makes the run he takes an opposition player with him or opens up space.

He can have as much as he wants, can't put a price on winning the CL. Even though thinking that Robbie was making £130k per week is crazy, I doubt Mourinho is even on something significantly more than that.

Does anyone think Azpi looks a bit bigger or bulkier in comparison to last year? Anyway, he's been excellent at LB and long may he continue there until Cole gets the finger out. Like Mata he seems to be using his weaker foot much more often too, see he has tried to improved himself a lot by the looks of it physically and technically. Hopefully he'll get a turn at RB at some point too, he's been excellent in the 2 games at LB though.

Surprised Phil Driver hasn't asked the BBC can he vote for Lampard yet.

Hes hardly wasting his career away, hes a young lad who still needs to work hard, adapt to a new system, a different philosophy, a new mentality and wait his chance. This isn't Belgium and no disrespect to the Belgian national team here but they don't have a better wide right sided player than Kevin de Bruyne. He will always be picked for Belgium, hes got to hit that next level to be a regular at Chelsea. Leaving Chelsea on a permanent basis just because hes not getting games despite not being the best here would show one thing I think, that he isn't up for fighting for a place in the team even though he has openly said he is willing to. Jose wouldn't have kept him if he felt he wasn't useful, there will be injuries and suspensions where he will end up featuring. He hasn't fully adapted to the Prem I think, hes looked off the pace ever in all games he has played against English opposition except for maybe 20 minutes against Hull but they weren't in the game at all. Sure its hard to build up momentum when you're playing once every while but still, this is a massive club with massive resources, take your chance when you get it and you'll be in the team. Hasn't happened for him yet. Bit premature to say he should be sold because he can't get ahead of Mata, Oscar, Schurrle, Hazard, Willian... hes done very little in his career but he still has plenty of time.

He was absolutely dreadful against West Brom, he gave the ball away SO MANY TIMES. Probably the worst game I've ever seen Lampard play for Chelsea. Hes been a passenger for us for ages now, it was hard enough for us to play with 11 men against Schalke but when we are struggling with 10 men and a passenger vs West Brom then well what does that tell you? If Lamps had the energy, distribution, positional and tactical knowledge that a certain player we have (whos name I won't mention because everyone seems to fucking go mental everytime is name is mentioned) then sure I wouldn't mind him playing every week but still he is 35 years old which naturally means he is lacking the fitness levels of someone who is 23-30 year old, he doesn't have those certain skills and it is costing us dearly in games. Also when your game was based on getting into goal scoring positions from midfield and you have to readjust to a holding player with much more discipline at such an older age then its easy to say that readapting can be difficult.

3-0 win, Schurrle Eto'o and Ramires with the goals.

Hazard needs to get his finger out of his arse. He cannot afford not to play well at this club given the attacking midfielders we have. Its nothing to do with Mourinho's style or formation or more defensive work as EVERYONE is having to do defensive work. Blaming Jose's tactics or the pivot or Jose wanting players to defend is wrong. Hazard has been exceptional in one game; the Bayern game, no more than that.

Lampard started and if he is so superior to Mikel how come he gave the ball away a lot and his distribution was always more or less sideways or backwards no matter what? You make Lampard out to be some sort of 'world class' player when he is quite limited in the role he plays. He has never truly excelled at passing a football in the way Mikel has or retaining possession under pressure like Mikel has or filling gaps like Mikel has. His game was based on playing a box to box role and scoring goals. Its harder to play between two banks of 4, but still a lack of movement from the offensive players can also cause a problem when you're playing against this sort of set up. Honestly its either your opinion or nobodies when your 110% in the wrong 9 out of 10 ten times. It wasn't neccessairly Lampards fault for the Newcastle game but him being sloppy in possession at times along with Rami and their set up and lack of movement at times was a major thorn in our sides.

Perhaps I shouldn't have done that and should have just blocked him but seriously he is reminding me of that Madrid guy when he first came on here.

What? He is starting to annoy fuck out of me, if you don't have his opinion you are automatically wrong, despite what you've done Choulo backing up what you've said with videos and quotes from Jose's press conferences after the game. Not just in this thread but its nearly every fucking thread.

you are such a cunt you know that?

Goal has two mistakes in it. Firstly Cahill isn't aware of Aguero's positioning even though he should be. Secondly Cech made an arse of attempting to save it. Still if Cahill manages to catch him offside there is no goal or if Cech saves it there is no goal. Both mistakes are equally as bad I feel because if one of them doesn't make the mistake then its not a goal. Simple as that.

Half the team will be dropped after that shambolic second half performance against Newcastle, not just Luiz. I hope Lampard and Cole are also dropped, along with Luiz and Hazard.

Best CB in the Premier League right now based on his performances in the first 9 or 10 games.

Distin mate, its called good center forward play. Its called getting your body in between the ball and marker to draw fouls/hold it up/bring others into the game. Drogba was exceptional at that.

I think he could be benched for a few games and we could use him with 30 minutes to go or something when more spaces are likely to appear. He hasn't been anywhere near as good as I expected him to have come along under Robbie, Rafa and Jose. Schurrle's industrious and direct performances are improving and they are interesting, they could be vital to breaking teams down. Schurrle is perhaps not as good a player but unlike Hazard he doesn't stop to think about passing it back to the pivot or Cole, he just runs and runs and runs and runs even if he doesn't beat his man he keeps trying to. It seems instinctive, like what I'd expect it to be from Hazard but he doesn't seem to try and take his man on every or most opportunity that arises. Maybe some bench time would do him good, to be honest he doesn't actually look like he's in the greatest physical shape. He looks a bit tubby or he does in comparison to last year but maybe hes put a bit of body mass on to try improve his physical strength.

He can still do much more though. He is by far one of the most talented players in the world but when he's facing two or three players at a time then he can't create as much, as many players who have a similar playing style based on explosive speed and close control can't as their game is better when they are in 1 v 1 positions when there is space to exploit if they beat their man. Newcastle stopped him from being directly 1v1 with the fullback and restricted the space he could move into, when this sort of thing happens you want your supporting fullback or even a midfield runner to make a run to try and distract one of his markers to open up a pocket of space for a pass or a dribble or a shot or whatever. I was watching the Arsenal-Liverpool game and I seen a great example of this for Ramsey's goal, Ozil has the ball with two markers and Lucas Leiva was marking the space Ramsey got into, Rosicky made a clever run coming towards Ozil to ask for the ball and Lucas followed him, that opened up space and Ramsey exploited it to get the shot off after Ozil played it to him in that space. It can be the same out wide, if Cole makes a run off the ball into space he can take away a marker opening up space for a midfield runner to be found by Eden or space he can dribble into. I suppose though if teams are playing with 2 or 3 players marking one then players can also exploit that, didn't happen against Newcastle, nobody took a gamble to get into the spaces left occupied.

Say in 10 games, 7 or 8 games you'll get Luiz playing very well and 2 or 3 games you'll get him playing ok but with the odd fuck up. Hes not a liability as much, hes just unpredictable and can lack concentration. He has genuine world class ability.He can be one of the best ball playing center backs in the world. He has certain leadership qualities but being a leader you have to set an example, if he is going to do what he did vs Cardiff or something similar a few times every season then really is he a perfect candidate for captain? I don't know. His decision making has to improve, if he sorts that out along with some positioning issues he can have then he will become one of the most talented defenders Chelsea will have ever had. Its one thing doing it for Brazil but its another doing it for Chelsea. Also Cahill for captain, that's just laughable. Good back up, solid at times, typical English CB, passion and determination makes up for lack of genuine ability. I wouldn't let him be captain, hes English yes but that doesn't mean he deserves to be the next captain.