OneMoSalah

I am not completely sold on Coentrao defensively but he is one hell of an attacking fullback. Can't think of many better at going forward than him, he is also brilliant at crossing. Him and Ronaldo's link up on the left for Portugal and Madrid is class at times. I think he'd suit Juventus or someone who plays with wing backs more though, same with Marcelo. He'd be a great buy for us if he could work on his defensive side, sure its not too shoddy but against Bayern, Dortmund and Barca especially he has looked very suspect.

That is true but you look at how easily Cole has been exploited this season and even last season. His lack of support for Hazard when we go up the pitch as well limits the space Hazard has to work in. He has 2 or 3 players on him usually, if Coles there as an option or making a run he can take one away giving Eden more room to go past someone in a one on one or one on two situation. His attacking play has suffered due to his lack of mobility and his defending is also suffering. Bertrand was very good in both phases of the game for me, offensively and defensively.

1. What are you expecting from Chelsea? Will you win the league? Winning the league is possible for us, unsure though because if we put out shit performances like against Newcastle then we will drop more points. I'd like to say we could win the league but City look the best team by a mile, they will beat the bigger teams like Arsenal and United too I feel especially since Pellegrini is very very tactically astute. I think we only did so well because our set up was perfect because Jose outdone him tactically and we got a gift from that clown Joe Hart. 2. What do you expect from WBA this season? I'd think Clarkey will be wanting a mid table finish, aiming for as high as possible but still last season was probably a one off. I think if Nico starts getting in among the goals and Sessegnon does too then you will definitely finish somewhere between 9th and 14th which is a respectable finish for you guys. Could yous go higher? Hmm depends if players like Nico Anelka, Shane Long, James Morrison, Sessegnon and Vydra (when hes fit) score a lot of goals 3. Jose Mourinho rejoined Chelsea in the summer. What have you made of his second stint so far at the Bridge? Average so far. Not played any scintillating football but we've ultimately played winning football, somewhat disgusting at times but it does the trick. He has got more out of certain players like JT, Oscar, Torres and Ivanovic too so hopefully he can keep getting more and more from them. As he said he feels his teams best in his second season, so if he doesn't win the league I won't blame him as he has that many players to find his prefered eleven. 4. His former assistant, Steve Clarke is currently at Albion. What did you make of his first season in management? First season was superb for Steve Clarke. Saying anything less than that would be not giving credit where credit was due. He set the bar ridiculously high, I don't think he'll get that again at WBA. He done extremely well with some of the players individually, especially Romelu Lukaku who he helped a whole lot, also the likes of James Morrison seemed to come up to another level last season. 5. You signed Izzy Brown from us in the summer. Have you seen him? How is his progression coming along? Not seem too much of him but I've heard hes very talented. Seen he's scored goals for our u21s and the England u19s (think thats his age group) but perhaps getting first team football under Steve Clarke would perhaps have been better. Still hes one for the future, not going to judge him much as hes got time on his side. 6. What did you make of your clubs summer recruitment? It was pretty good, not going to really complain except for the lack of a striker perhaps since Jose isn't keen on Ba and Torres as well as he'd done in the last few games still doesn't cut it 38 games a season. Willian was really a surprise, that money could have been invested on a central midfielder which we desperately need still but hey having 6 options in attacking midfield that are all very good, why the hell not? Also we recalled the likes of Tomas Kalas and Kevin de Bruyne back from loan spells after good progress was made and signed Marco van Ginkel for 11 million who looked good in pre-season and decent in some games he played before he picked up that ACL injury. Lukaku could have stayed but I think footballing wise, he still has learning to do so a loan was probably a good idea. Eto'o on a free was also decent business as he has a wealth of experience at many top clubs, know Jose well and does what our system requires of him; runs the channels, drops deep, makes good runs of the ball etc. Hes got the one goal so far but he is going to score more this season, anything over 10 or 15 goals and his signing is a good free transfer in my eyes. 7. What did you make of our summer recruitment? The additions of Anelka, Lugano, Sessegnon, Vydra, Anichebe, Amalfitano etc. It was a good window for yous after rumblings that nobody else was going to be coming in after Anelka and Lugano. Anelka has got to start scoring chances but hes a very experienced player with class and ability. Sessegnon is also a big coupe (with undoubted ability I am very surprised Sunderland let him go), as is Amalfitano who has looked great so far. Anichebe is a handful at times but doesn't do it often enough for me and Vydra is new to the PL but he was excellent in the championship and could surprise a lot of people. Lugano brings a whole lot of experience to quite a good defense already so in general another good window for you guys. 8. What are your best/worst memories of games against West Bromwich Albion? Worst memories, Gareth McAuley scoring that goal that got AVB sacked in March 2012. Also Di Matteo basically getting sacked after yous beat us 2-1. Best memories, we beat yous 6-0 after yous got promoted a few years ago, we played very well then under Carlo, Drogba scored a hattrick. 9. What side is JM likely to choose for Saturday's encounter? I can't exactly be sure about after the Newcastle game and with the Schalke game coming up I'm expecting a few different faces to start haha. I'll guess he'll go with Cech - Ivanovic Cahill Terry Bertrand - Mikel Ramires - Schurrle Willian Mata - Eto'o but only if he uses Oscar, Torres, Cole, Hazard and Lampard in midweek. 10. And finally, score predictions. I want to say 3-1 Chelsea but it could be 2-1 to you guys, depending on what Chelsea shows up. Especially after the last few times we've played yous, not done too well.

If Luiz is gonna be captain hes got to cut errors out of his game. What good is a captain if he doesn't set an example? It might be difficult because Luiz is his own worst enemy.

Torres is just talking about scoring vs City and laughing at Hart but then Willian is just like "Fernando mate I've seen your goal record here, calm down" or not but still

Hes been so poor this season. Is it any wonder though, teams have been looking to target him all the time, Newcastle targeted him in the air, he gave away a few needless fouls from their long balls like one on Sissoko. If the rumors are true that Jose tried to get Coentrao even though the negotiations came to nothing and that he enquired for a 'young English player' but was put off because of the price when it was well noted there was a big club who bid for Luke Shaw then maybe in the summer he might try and get a new LB in. Bertrand's performance in the league cup was more than enough to warrant him a start as was Mikel's performance but yet Cole and Lampard started against Newcastle... maybe Jose is just picking them on reputation... don't want to think about it like that but looking at some of their performances then maybe it is true... same with Hazard at times.. reading it back it seems ridiculous but at times this season you could say this could apply.

If Mourinho could do what Prandelli has done and put his arm around him and get someone to take him under their wing then he could be an amazing player. Balotelli has so so much talent. Absolutely destroyed Germany at the Euros. Milans best player by a mile and hes like 22. Things with Jose didn't work the first time around but they could again, remember Jose worked with Ibra who is very much the same.

Yes take Oscar away from the #10 role where he's best and play him as a CM where it doesn't utilize any of his major strengths like finding space in between the lines, roaming off the ball to make himself available to the double pivot and his other team mates. I hate this idea of converting him into a CM, whats the point, hes a 25m #10 who is going to be world class, why convert him?

You forgot to mention how bad Lampard and Ramires were mate, they gave the ball away a lot yesterday. Torres didn't look too hungry either, well nobody did but still. Eto'o and Willian made more an impact than anyone that started and they play maybe 25-30 minutes.

Bought the away top with Hazard 17 on it and the third kit with Willian 22 on it (obviously had to type that in myself though), cost like 30 odd quid but only 19.99 for the Hazard top... still 52.98 in total for two tops with two names is much much better than paying 100 for 2 tops with no names.

Bit harsh. Eto'o is basically the joint best African striker with Drogba of the last 15 years. In fact I know that some Africans even rate him higher than Drogba. Some people have said hes the best African born striker since Eusebio who played for Portugal but was born in Africa.

If anyone agrees with Hazard's inclusion in the nominees for Ballon D'or then I am sorry but you need to watch him play last season. Not trying to cause controversy or that but he wasn't very good on a consistent basis. He started with a flash, faded out, struggled in games, came off the bench in some games and played well but never rediscovered his form from the first 4 or 5 games. Players like Messi, Ronaldo, Bale, Iniesta and others played well for most of the season. Their nominations are right but Hazard's seems wrong to me. Last years award, yes he should have been up for it as he had basically been involved directly with 40 goals at Lille, scoring 20 and assisting 20 or whatever it was.

Unsure if Jose should start him tomorrow, against City he was average. Willian looked very very good against Arsenal as did Mata so I wouldn't be surprised if they both start or at least one of them..

Well my point is he was called, given some game time. Obviously Brazil lack a CF of a certain standard as Pato never developed into the player he was meant to be and others like Damiao and Fred are struggling with injury problems at times so Costa probably was thinking I might get selected here if I keep playing well... he didn't end up getting called for the Confed Cup after a successful season so I'd say that was probably in the back of his mind when he was deciding about playing for one of the two countries. Obviously hes said that Spain has given him everything as well so but Brazil are Brazil and you'd expect him to want to play for them, just he was never really called more than the two games he played whenever they were, when you could argue that he should have been... if he was then who knows? He'd probably have ended up being Brazil's main CF for the World Cup. It will be interesting when the world cup comes around, if he is picked for Spain and scores some goals and say Fred/Pato/Damiao/whoever don't score as much then Scolari will get some criticizm, in fact a lot I'd imagine.

I am saying that all the comments I've seen calling him a cunt for choosing Spain over Brazil is wrong. Sure they could have gotten him earlier but still, Brazil played him twice in 2011 then never used him again and they basically expected him to come back to them as if nothing had happened, even though he was arguably the best Brazilian striker last year. It may have double standards with Spain but still to criticize him because he's choosing Spain after Brazil never particularly showed much of an interest when he was scoring goals last year. Brazil only re-registered interest in him after the Spaniards did, its Scolari's fault for him playing for Spain I feel, not showing much of an interest in him despite him being one of the best players he could have called up in the CF position. Based on who else Scolari has picked I'd say not selecting him for the Confederations Cup was wrong, even though Fred did well enough and Brazil ultimately won but lets say Fred was terrible then there would be big question marks as of why Costa wasn't picked.

"Disgrace to drop him like that" and "recieved the worse treatment from Jose"? What about dropping your best player who has carried your team for 2 years and telling him he doesn't do enough? Calling him selfish also? You just seem annoyed because hes a Belgian international and he might not get games for Belgium since Jose isn't playing him over better players than him as opposed to his Chelsea career by the sounds of it. I'm not saying thats true but thats what it looks like. Jose is a better coach than anyone Kevin has had in his career, he will make him a better player, no doubt about it. Trust him, like he did with Mata at the start. Ultimately hes becoming better, contributing defensively as well as offensively. Will be the same with Kevin, also a bit of competition should be pushing the player to better themselves.

I've seen him play before for Belgium, Genk and Werder but I'm not judging his Chelsea career on what hes done for those teams. He played piss poor against United and Swindon imo and was quite average vs Arsenal. He has a lot of work to do.

If Spain included him in there Confederations cup squad there is a chance they would have to wait for international clearance like they are now. They wanted to use him in the last international break but FIFA hadn't cleared him to do so yet.

Buzzing that we've signed him up, looked a very good talent.

I'd say he probably is right now the least talented one but thats not a bad thing given that players like Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Schurrle and Willian are in the squad. I used to think De Bruyne was better than Schurrle but looking at the situation and how Schurrle has done he edges it for me. You go on about how we base him on the few minutes he's played for Chelsea, ultimately that is what we are judging the players on, how well they do for Chelsea.

Personally Willian and Schurrle have done much more than Hazard so far this season. Both should start until Eden ups his game. Or Mata could play on the right after a great game vs Arsenal. Schurrle - Oscar - Willian/Mata

What were you lot thinking, that after a good loan spell in Germany where he is basically given a free role he was going to waltz into the Chelsea team? Fucking hell. 'De Bruyne should go he's wasting his talent' if he is to go, where will he go? Barca/Madrid/Bayern won't sign him, going to any other club is a step down in his career. He was always going to be a back up this year. Please don't say I am aiming this at every Belgian member on this forum but it seems some of yous would rather see him play for Chelsea even though he isn't as good as his competition so he can be in good form and good shape for the national team. I won't name names and it certainly isn't a lot of you Belgian members saying it, just a few.

What I loved about Riccy was he wasn't particularly a really tall player or really strong but he was quick for a CB, excellent at reading the game and despite being physically smaller than most CBs in the PL at the time would throw himself into tackles. Was a brilliant player for us, hes still kicking ass in France too. Think he was better than JT tbh, both exceptional CBs though.

double post

Its hardly killing the momentum of our offensive play, you don't always attack in football, nobody attacks, attacks and attacks constantly for 90 minutes. You need to control the game at times, like defending with the ball, keeping it so the opposition don't get it, limiting the chances they have to score. Mikel is exceptional at helping the team do this. Safe passes aren't bad passes, they are no risk passes, help the team retain possession, means the opposition has to either press and leave spaces for us to expose or stay compact and we run the clock down if we are winning 1-0 or 2-0 for instance.