Superblue

I'm getting notifications every time somebody comments in the hazard thread, just says 'joe blogs has replied to Eden Hazard'. Is this my punishment for being critical of him in the Atletico match?! :/

Agreed, and Jose needs to take some criticism and responsibility too. I think losing away to stoke and Newcastle earlier in the season pushed Jose into taking a much more conservative approach and building from the back which on the large has served us well this season. With a couple of additions, namely a striker and somebody deeper in midfield who can play we will hopefully play more expressive L, front foot football next season with a much more confident defence after this season's performances. This will hopefully get more out of hazard and willian.My comments haven't been to knock hazard because he has worked hard on.his defensive game, it's knocking the people on here who cannot accept any bad word or criticism for him. Just as ridiculous are the people who say stupid things like sell him!

I agree that he shouldn't have to track all the way back but based on the away games at Atletico and Liverpool, I think that would have been his role, especially after taking the lead. Whilst the full backs tucked in effectively to give 4 centre backs and no space in the middle, forcing the opposition out wide where our wingers drop back to become the full backs. It's not great and not his strength but it's the semi final of the champions league for fucks sake. So if that was his role, I'm just saying he should have executed that as Jose has requested and he's not above doing that for the team, like some people seem to be insinuating with their comments on here. The way some people have been talking on here hazard is being put on a pedestal bigger than the club which is so wrong.

If you read anything I wrote I said he must accept partial responsibility and therefore some criticism for the goals. I haven't said it's fully his fault and no one else is to blame.My whole point is that just because he's our best player doesn't make him immune from criticism which some people on here seem to think.

zolayes, Jonny Wilkinson changing that idea was a massive impact on helping England go on and win the world cup. I don't follow baseball but I'm a big NFL fan and similarly here, there is a culture shift currently happening from wrapping a quarterback in cotton wool to now putting them in the firing line by letting some of the 'new breed' run the ball and take tackles; the likes of Cam Newton, RG3, Kaepernick. And none more so than Russell Wilson considering the Seahawks are current superbowl champions and his dual threat has certainly helped massively on their offense. I've even seen a few times Russell Wilson run in front of Marshawn Lynch and block for him! These two examples only show that unless you are one of the best at what you do in your generation or even the history of the sport, every person has a responsibility in all phases of the game they are playing for there team. That includes attackers doing what is required of them defensively (pressing, tracking back, tucking in, etc) and even keepers and defenders doing what is required of them offensively (releasing the ball quickly for a counter attack for example). My comment wasn't actually meant to slag off Hazard as he is only partially responsible and not entirely at fault, merely to make a point that he shouldn't be immune from criticism just because he's our best player. He's been asked to do a job on that pitch and he or any of our other players are not above doing that job.

In my opinion I don't see the same desire and selfishness to his game that I see in Ronaldo and Messi. That attitude to do what it takes to be the best at what you do. On and off the pitch Hazard's character stands out as incredibly laid back and it's simply a game that he enjoys to play. There's nothing wrong with that. Like him I've got a wife and kids which over the last few years has made me much more calm over following Chelsea and that it's not everything in life (although still very important having supported for over 20 years although of course because my comment isn't agreed with, I'm automatically a 'so-called supporter'). Ronaldo certainly has always had that mentality about him, even in his early days at United. I'm just not sure if Hazard will ever have that mind-set, just my opinion. I actually haven't slagged off Hazard for the goals, I've simply said he is partially responsible and people should accept that and not make him immune from criticism just because he's our best attacking player. I agree his defensive work and tracking back has massively improved this season and long may it continue. To be successful we need to continue defending as a team and a unit, and he's a part of that. Others are responsible for last night too (Jose included) but people trying to deflect any criticism from him altogether are treading a dangerous path by insinuating that he's above doing any defensive work, which he certainly isn't.

Whilst not all the blame can be put on Hazard's doorstep, he has to accept partial responsibility. Just because he's an offensive, attacking player and it's 'not his game' is not a justifiable excuse in my opinion. There are two players in the world that can be excused do any defensive work and that's Messi and Ronaldo. And before people start the 'Hazard has the potential to be as good' comments, he's a fantastic player but he won't ever get to that level. Some of the top players in the world below these two such as Bale, Suarez and Ribery all put in a serious shift defensively for their teams. To make a mistake now and again is acceptable, every player will. But some people seemingly making him immune from criticism is ridiculous.

Tonight summed up our season, just too inconsistent. We've been superb at times and abysmal at others. In my opinion it's a culmination of a lack of stability. 4 managers in the last 3 seasons has had a big effect, especially when all have a different way of playing and at the same time we've significantly added to the squad with younger players. The failure to adequately replace Drogba has crippled us too. Jose has known this all along and I believe if he is committed to at the very least see out his contract he'll rebuild this club to challenge again for another decade. We'll be a far stronger animal next season and this experience will hold us in good stead.

I can not only see quite a few players being shipped out in the summer, but I also have a feeling that there may be a surprise exit this summer with Jose letting someone unexpected to leave, especially if it helps us bringing in a certain player. I'm thinking possibly Oscar to help us get Cavani, or Ramires to help us try and get Pogba maybe??

I'm actually surprised how much most people are against buying someone like Welbeck. I have a lot of mates who support United and they all insist Welbeck should be a starter. I've also noticed when I've watched United that they are a much better side with Welbeck in the side. He certainly shouldn't be considered as a first choice central striker but he is certainly a more than capable striker to have in the squad, and the likelihood is that we may be looking for more than one striker this summer. He's homegrown which is a massive bonus when we could lose some of our current homegrown players this summer (Terry, Lampard, Cole, Bertrand) and therefore we must ensure our quota is ok. Although not a natural finisher, he does provide huge work rate, serious pace and an unpredictability. His game is also really suited to a counter attacking system, making him a very good option for us either against the big teams or when we are winning in games to stretch teams. If we were to buy Diego Costa and Welbeck this summer, I would be happy with that. If we were interested the biggest problem would be buying from United, after we took £37m from them for Mata.

I bet he'll get a new contract in the summer to put this all to bed. He's far from the only person to use the media to get themselves a better deal.

Why will we have to but the likes of City, PSG or Monaco won't?! Or United can reportedly spend over £100m in the summer having spent £70m this season?! Selling off the deadwood in our squad, and also possibly likes of lukaku and Luiz will raise significant funds and drastically slash our wage bill. Complete load of bollocks!

People need to be patient. Mourinho looks as fed up as some of us feel now, we are so toothless in attack it's laughable and whilst Mourinho has inherited some talent in the squad, he's also inherited some serious deadwood too. This is a work in progress and I wouldn't want any one else here except Jose to complete it. Selling Mata shows the power he's got at the club, more than any other recent managers and that's a good thing because he will be given more licence to buy who and what he wants. Our defence is the most solid it's been since he left (in particular Cahill and Azpi have improved massively this season), Matic is just the dominating midfielder we've been needing, and Hazard has pushed on this season. A quality striker in the summer and a few more tweaks and we'll be making a much more competitive challenge for the title and Europe next season.

It's night's like this we all realise just how important Eto'o is for us to the end of this season - just as important as the likes of Cech and Hazard. The only credible striker we have at the club!

I can see Jose shaking it up quite a bit in the summer. I understand the situation with FFP but with regards to transfer fees they are amortised over the length of a contract, whilst selling a player the full value can be realised up front. Having raised about £55m selling Mata and De Bruyne and likely to raise at least another £30-40m selling some of the deadwood in the squad (maybe more if the likes of David Luiz, Lukaku and Courtois are sold), there's no reason why we couldn't easily go out and spend £100m on three or four world class players to improve the team. The biggest impact from FFP is wages but some of the players who could well move on this summer are amongst the highest earners (Torres, Lampard, Cole, Eto'o) and therefore this will clear significant wage space for new signings too. We aren't that far away, the fact we have managed to challenge this long this season without an excellent first choice striker says it all about the quality of the rest of the team. Also the policy of buying younger players over the last 3-4 years is now putting us in good stead because even those struggling to make an impact on the team, such as De Bruyne, are still valuable to sell on. IMO we'll clear the decks up front for sure. The only exception may be if Eto'o signs another year as he would be a very solid backup to a world class striker, particularly as he seems to have settled well in the second half of the season. However Ba and Torres are almost sure to go, and it seems Lukaku will go too. I would try to use Lukaku as a bargaining chip to buying someone. Reports in some papers today speculate we will let Everton keep Lukaku in some sort of deal involving Ross Barkley - I wouldn't complain at this. The reality is though that we need one world class striker and probably at least one other good striker - it might well be worth looking at bumping up our home grown quota with a second choice, someone like Rodriguez at Southampton perhaps? We also either need another midfielder, particularly if Lampard and Mikel leave as is looking likely. However, I would be quite happy for Jose to use Luiz predominantly as a central midfielder, alongside Matic, Ramires and Van Ginkel. Also if we were to get someone like Barkley he gives you an additional option to pack the midfield and play with three. If this happens we would need to look at buying instead a new centre back to replace Luiz and look to compete with Zouma for the long term replacement of Terry. A left back is also likely although I am less inclined to spend big money now on Shaw, when IMO Azpilicueta is just about the best LB in the league this season. I understand having a natural LB amongst the ranks but they have to be better than Azpi for it to be justified. Otherwise we might as well bring Bertrand back to play backup to Azpi.

Hazard hasn't even been nominated for player of the month, I was expecting him to be nailed on winner! Nominees are toure, suarez, Adam Johnson and cazorla. Laughable!

And our current crop of strikers are overall poor and can't score for sure. His contribution to general play is minimal but there have been a lot of games over the last couple of seasons where we've effectively been playing with 10 players. When he would have the players we have playing behind him all he would need to do is stick the ball in the back of the net which he can obviously do well. His goals aren't lucky tap ins, there a result of great off the ball movement and anticipation. For somewhere around £12m I think he upgrades our current attack and would complement another striker in the summer to give us some much improved firepower moving forward.

Unfortunately his exit has been almost an afterthought in light of the last couple of days involving Mata's departure. A superb player, great servant for the club and true warrior coming back from the injuries he suffered...not to mention the goals he scored against Arsenal and Barcelona! Unfortunately the second knee injury killed his career and when he should have been in his prime at around 28 years old, it was as good as over for him. One of the biggest 'what if's?' for this football club is how good would Essien have been without the injuries. I hope he has a swansong in Italy where the tempo is slower and helps Milan re-establish themselves as a domestic force. Thanks Bison.

We don't rely on Mata otherwise he would be playing and we wouldn't have sold him. Unless you're talking about last season? In that case we did rely on Mata because we built the team around him. He was given a free role basically to be our creative hub and when Benitez was in charge, he even played higher up the pitch effectively as a shadow striker to Torres. His stats last season were phenomenal. However his first season was nowhere near as good as this. Hazard statistically had a better first season than Mata. This will partly be down to his first season in England but it is also important to consider in his first season he played predominantly on the wing. I think his first season was also a little overrated by us as Chelsea fans because we were pathetic that season finishing sixth and he can't help but stand out alongside the likes of Malouda and Kalou! Even winning the Champions League, with the exception of the corner for Drogba's goal in the final, he made almost no impact whatsoever during our run. Mata is a superb player - the closest thing we've had to Zola. However Jose is making the right decision for the club. To be consistently successful I don't think we can have a team built around to accommodate Mata within it. In fact, there are very few teams at the very top of European football who have their team built around a classic 'no 10' playmaker anymore, such as Kaka, Deco and Zidane. Most of the top teams nowadays look to use pace, particularly out wide. If you want to get the most out of Mata (i.e. his stats from last season) he must play centrally behind the striker and the team built around him to play to his strengths. If so, what happens to Rooney? If you're planning to play Mata out wide, you lose a lot of his output immediately, lose width, lose defensive support for that side of the pitch, and basically will have paid £37m to play a central playmaker out on the fucking wing. If that is Moyes' plan he might as well have brought Salah!

It's naturally going to happen. To be honest I'll be more pissed off if he doesn't make a respectful comment and send off about his time at Chelsea and thank the fans for their support.

See one of my posts a few pages back. In a way I can agree in that I think Mata is a better playmaker than Hazard, but Hazard is a much better fit in the Premier League with his pace, running power and dynamism. I'm not sure it's a coincidence that we are much better this season and challenging at the top without the team built to play to Mata's strengths. I also believe that Hazard had a better first season than Mata's first stats wise. If United had the choice to buy either Hazard or Mata for £37m they would buy Hazard every single time because he is the better fit both for their side and the Premier League. Mata is a superb player but the team must be built around him to play to his strengths and the team must be solid behind him (which at the moment you're not). When all fit you're best three players are RVP, Rooney and Mata and to accommodate all of them in the starting line up someone will be played out of position or Moyes will have to change formation meaning playing more of a poor crop of midfielders you have at the club. Also take into account that Mata even when he's had opportunities this season (and Jose had given him them) has been largely poor and not contributed much. I'm not saying he's suddenly a bad player but you are buying him for top money at a time when his stock is probably at it's lowest. I think over time he will do very well for United if the team plays to his strengths but that won't necessarily mean the team will be successful.

If this is true, there is no way Jose would have been able to sell Mata in the summer off the back of his performances last season and his player of the year. The fans wouldn't have been happy and whenever we lost the blame would be attached to Mata having been sold. Jose needed to first shape the team into a system and style and phase out Mata's influence. Now it is proven we can win without him and he is struggling to get in the team, it no longer seems a stupid and irrational decision to sell him. I think Chelsea would have accepted lower from abroad but United matched what we were asking.

For how much I love Mata and wish it had worked out different, we simply have to trust Jose. He built a team and identity for the club that lasted after he left and even had a significant influence through to our Champions League win. With that in mind I trust Jose to build another team capable of success over the next decade, and hopefully he himself will see that team all the way through. What is for certain is that Jose has a much greater influence on transfer activity than previous managers. Chelsea wouldn't have entertained the thought of selling Mata before Jose, which highlights his influence and at least that will hopefully bring a consistency and long term view for the club.

I will really miss him, he is a fantastic player but having time to think about it Jose could be spot on with this. In the last 15 years or so, the frenetic pace of the Premier League has seen the most successful teams play with pace, power and directness. (I think of United who have always used wingers, Arsenal with Overmars and then Henry, us with Robben and Duff and now City) Teams that have played a more possession based style have not really enjoyed success. Arsenal are the best example of this in the last decade and we have been very similar over the last couple of seasons. When it comes off, the football looks superb, but it's perhaps no coincidence we've also been very inconsistent in recent seasons and struggled to challenge. I think Jose understands the style required for success in the Premier League and as a result is building a new, younger team to suit. Mata doesn't fit this (nor De Bruyne) compared to the likes of Willian and Hazard. It will actually be interesting to see how United fit Mata into their team. To get the output we have from him, he must be the central figure in the team. So with that in mind when he, RVP and Rooney are all fit, how does Moyes utilise them. Mata's acquisition for United may actually cause more questions than answers. I think if the same situation arose at Inter Milan, Jose would have incorporated Mata and built the team around him, similar to Sneijder. In a league where the pace is much slower and more tactical for unlocking a defence.

Pretty happy with this signing. As many have already said, this isn't a direct replacement for Mata. Mourinho had already decided Mata didn't fit into the system and style of play and has therefore let him leave and instead brought in someone who will fit the system. Can't comment on much more than his performances against us over the last 2 seasons, but from those games he looks a talent. His pace is obviously a huge asset, but he looked good on the ball and scored some good goals against us. The signing shows Mourinho wants pace in abundance within his attacking midfielders, which will allow him to play a high pressing game, and when winning the ball up the pitch, we have players with the pace to counter attack and punish teams before they have the opportunity to react. It's therefore not surprising he's let Mata and De Bruyne leave with neither particularly quick. The other positive is his age. Many questioned how Mourinho would work with younger players as he has always been successful with a more experienced side. However with the exception of Eto'o who was a stop-gap for this season, the rest of his purchases have been younger players which continues to signal a much more long term view and planning from the club.