OneMoSalah

I think you forgot to mention that Lampard will always leave whoever hes next to in the pivot exposed as he did in pre-season which is the reason why he doesn't play.... Robbie changed that by started Ramires there and Mikels not been as exposed as much as Ramires has the engine to get back and tackle (like he did vs Juve at one point, such a brilliant work rate). Mike is our best holding player though, he gives the team balance, fills the gaps when Luiz/Cahill goes up and always shows for the ball marked or not. Still can't believe people are trying to say we need a player to replace Mikel, hes having the best season of his career so far wish people would look at that and stop saying we need to drop him for whoever bla bla bla. We have a team with 3 creative players (Mata, Hazard and Oscar) and quite frankly they have all looked shite in the last few games, blaming Mikel for not offering anything when the three have been terrible and the striker doesn't move is beyond absurd. Also Ramires and Lampard played in the pivot vs Nordsjaelland and looked averagef together, Lampard wants to be a box to box player still but thats what Ramires is better at being as he proved under AVB and so far in the pivot. We weren't convincing in that game, just lucky we eventually opened them up due to the three behind Torres and Luiz's screamer. We do lack penetration sometimes but with Hazard, Mata and Oscar we should be able to open teams up with their vision and with Ramires' drive and powerful runs he should be able to give defenders something to think about freeing space for others.

Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Henry..

Obviously Roman wants Pep to do it. He won 6 trophies in one season at Barca.. imo we need Mourinho again, Pep can't handle big egos.

Lmfao hes not Ryan Giggs, stealing his brothers wife....

So who thought this guy was signed for a back up? Miles better than Branna at RB.

Heres a major issue: We should get a coach who is experienced and can please Roman with trophies and philosophy. If Roman's not happy, then a manager won't last, simple as fucking that.

Inter should beat Parma as should Napoli beat Cagliari.

I don't think thats the problem, Roman wants a stellar name to produce good football and win trophies (Guardiola), Robbie was a mere option C or D. If it was Pep in the slump but he had us going towards the football Roman wanted, he'd get as much time as he wants.

As soon as Robbie accepted that full time contract, after 3 weeks of waiting for Roman to give him it, I had a hunch he wouldn't last the season. I'm sure plenty of yous on here had the same gut feeling.

Who do Inter play?

I honestly hope we are scouting Juan Fernando Quintero from Pescara... looks a very good player in the making. 19 year old, full Colombian international, being scouted by Napoli, Inter Milan, both Manchester clubs and Juve apparently. Big talent, playing in Marco Veratti's old role at Pescara in midfield as a deep lying playmaker. Not seen too much of him but read a lot, I'm going to watch a few Pescara games if I get a chance to see if the hypes justified.

Will win this. They don't have Dempsey to score fucking headers. Bebratov is a big problem though. If we defend as well as today we'll be fine. The attack needs to improve but I'm sure it will happen.

Lets be honest, going back to the stats Leif posted about Benitez's Liverpool teams, they were very good at keeping clean sheets and conceding a low amount of goals. Jose's Chelsea was brilliant at keeping clean sheets. Imo to improve offensively we needed to improve defensively, Rafa said he wasn't satisfied with the offensive side of our game, he will improve that eventually, give the man time, that performance is the result of three training sessions. Our defence looked so much better so imagine after 6-8 more training sessions and more games, that back 4 could be brilliant together especially with the wingers dropping back to help out too.

Here comes the wankfest...

Best position at CB. Said this numerous times before, hes showing it now.

Sign him already...

So yeah, we got a clean sheet, first since September 22nd. Major defensive improvement, great work rate from the wingers to get up and down and help the FBs. Better shape than under Robbie by far. If we'd have gotten a few more shots on target or even a goal everyone would be fucking raving about Rafa. Good signs, if we get a win at Fulham and another one against West Ham then half of the people against Rafa will easily be turned within 3 games. Can't believe how embarrassing the chants about Rafa were, give the bloke a chance. Makes some of the fans look like bellends, we sacked a manager last year and won 2 trophies... makes me wonder are our fans spoiled brats? We will win at least one trophy this year under Rafa for sure. Either the Club world cup or Capital one cup.

Calm down, were still in this despite playing shit. Thats the biggest plus we have right now.

All this Anti Rafa chanting is very embarrassing.

Good night motherfuckers. Hope its not pissing fucking rain tomorrow..

Anyone else have a funny feeling Rafa might move for Mascherano and Agger/Skrtel having previously worked with them? Mascherano and one of the two Liverpool CBs would be very very good additions imo. A striker is also a definite tbh. Also talk Rafa wants Paulinho but unsure whether its true or not.

We will play 4-2-3-1 just a bit differently. Rafa likes his teams to control the space in between the midfield and defense, staying compact then basically countering the opposition. Reckon we'll start with a 4-2-3-1 but when we defend it will be a 4-4-1-1 with two banks of four protecting and then a 4-2-3-1 when attacking with the fullbacks a bit further up. Don't expect 3 floating 10's, I honestly think Oscar could be in the pivot as a deep lying playmaker next to Rami or Mikel who will be our aggressive ball winner (suits Rami more due to the fact hes clearly more mobile than Mikel but it would be odd if Mikel didn't play been good for us this season). Then in the three from right to left Moses - Mata - Hazard with Torres up top. Could work, might not though, we'll see tomorrow.

Luiz as an individual has been terrible and has made mistakes but that doesn't mean hes a shit footballer as the Skipper said. Cahill has also made mistakes as has JT this year. Look at the starting 11 we've put out every week and how many times has the whole team defender well together as a unit. Not once. We haven't defended as well bar the Barca games since under Mourinho imo.

Isn't Mata not 5 ft 7 where as Hazards 5 ft 9 IIRC?

Why would I let a real Brazilian run the show when I'm known as the Scottish Adriano Haha na the Scottish Adriano surely is Kenny Miller, worst footballer I've ever seen upfront for Scotland... I'm more of a Scottish... erm... yeah don't know hahaha need to find a actual primary position for me rather than being shifted about... played basically everywhere for my local youth team and then in a local league played RM, LM, CM, ST,...