manpe

Rafa Benitez, sit down!

If this is true then I wonder why City are doing this - signing a past-it player for mega wages. No way they could have known he'd be so good for them before they signed him, so why offer such numbers? Just to stick it in our faces? FFP is a joke.

Everybody will care if he lifts the trophy and we end up close seconds. This scenario would go down in history and stories would be told about it. To prevent that, all we have to do is beat them to it. COME ON CHELS!! :blue scalf:

If this is true then I have no words. Absolutely shocked. I have always held a player's personality in the highest regard, that was the main reason why I loved him so much, I thought he was one of the rare good guys. But revelations like this, how much I want to believe aren't true, are bringing my estimation of him down near to zero. Remember the ancient story from 2001, when him and Terry(?) allegedly mocked Americans after 9/11 in a bar. They both denied it, but now I think it may have very well happened, except JT grew up. On the other hand, why were JT and Lamps such good friends, if Frank really was an arrogant cunt? You aren't friends with such a person unless you are the same, or was Lampsy pretending even to his teammates? I don't know, I hope to fuck JT isn't like that. Liquidator, can you shed some light on that?

Tbh it would have been a soft handball. He didn't deliberately touch it and the ball was already in a neutral space. Now manchester united - they were denied a stonewall deliberate handball in the box. We have only ourselves to blame if we rely on soft pens to bail us out.

Leave past in the past, we are living in the present. If he wins the title he'll be happy Chelsea didn't win it. If Chelsea win the title he'll be disappointed City didn't win it. This is just plain wrong no matter how you look at it.

Don't jump the gun, Lampard said similar things.

Criticism, sure. What about abuse? Did it apply only to Lampard before there was consensus on his betrayal? Now that pretty much everybody is on the same page over his actions, the thread was opened again for brutal crucifiction (which in truth he deserves, but not to the extent of some of the extremeties we see). It is anyway a separate topic altogether, Cahill hasn't betrayed us, he's just going through a rough patch and people instantly turn their backs on him with some of the most shameful comments I've seen.

In case you misunderstood, the tags weren't meant to imply that the staff's intellect had declined, it was only to bring to your attention the issue I was talking about. But okay, let's all bash the sheffield turd... this nickname is already growing on me. Why doesn't Mikel have a cool nickname like that? Surely he deserves. How about "Jos Shit"?

I was tagging them to get their attention. If Alex went against his own rules, then good on him, nothing I can do about it, but I didn't tag only him so hopefully there are still sober minds left in the staff.

Yes he did, like thousands of other players have done. It was evidently frustration and he deserves whatever punishment he gets, but does he deserve borderline abuse from his own fans? If you want him to lose any kind of confidence and support to get over this slump, then be my guest, send him death threats if you want. But if you want him to get back in shape for the sake of the team, then this is not the way to go. Like it or not but we're most likely stuck with him at least until the end of the season and spouting all these obsceneties at our player won't contribute anything meaningful to the forum or anywhere else. Whatever happened to the "strict" rule about abusing our ex- and present players? Does it go out the window when we lose and everybody is angry? Look at the Lampard thread, it was opened with the warning that if things get out of hand, it will get locked again, but it hasn't stopped people from going all "fat judas cunt" all over again. The intellect has dropped radically here over the past few years. , Jason, Jim, Steve

The only thing worse from Cahill's performances are comments like this. Disgraceful. This place is NOT the place to be after we lose or something unfortunate happen - the term "supporters" can be replaced with "haters" (though I dislike this word, it fits perfectly here).

I would consider this move only to piss off liverpool fans.

Nothing better than a tight backside.

Is it bad that I laughed over that video?

Sp1nx - I didn't even notice that. You have a memorable nickname, which you can engrain into TC history by posting a lot (comparable example: Sh0n3x). Not a random letter and number combination who noone will remember or take seriously. Spinxy! Your name from now on is Spinxy, Spinxy.

HELLO. IS CANADA COLD?

At first we were all like "oh it's just 6 months of training and bench warming, it will be over quicker than it started"... but as time passes, the worse it gets. So disappointed in the fella who I used to perceive as a hero and one of THE legends.

True, that's also what I think. I think that people often overcomplicate things what Jose says. I find that most of the times he just speaks his mind, especially when he's freshly frustrated.

Decent performance overall. On another day we would have won easily with exactly the same team and display. It was evident it just was not going our way when Fabregas and Costa slipped in crucial moments that could have easily led to goals. Just one of those days I'm afraid. Big up to the team for trying till the end.

Great performance. Matic was an absolute monster and Azpilicueta was a defensive rock. Glad this game didn't turn out like last year, when we had like 30 shots but no goals. The difference was Costa... assist and a goal from position from which we wouldn't even have had a shot on goal last season.

Am I the only one who thinks JT was a ROCK? Without him I feel we would have leaked chances in left and right, but he was always there to sweep up and organize. Voted him motm for giving our attackers the assurance of going forward and search for goals despite rather lacklustre offensive performance overall. Luis seemed rather nervous and unsure in defense, Cahill the same, Ivanovic has always been inconsistent in that regard. Love the man to bits, should find a way of reversing his odometer so he could keep being our rock for years to come.

Events, pre-match announcer, removed?

what would you say to the players to motivate them? Or stimulate them? I would say if playing for the title is not enough motivation for you and you need extra pampering, then the exit is that way. However I don't think that would be necessary, as I see nobody not giving their all. will you drop anyone for Luis? No. Bran and Dave is working, they are regular starters until they give reason not to be. However I would play Luis more in certain games, and who knows, with increased fitness, confidence and adaptation he could dethrone one of them eventually. when everyone is fit again, including Ramires, would you give him a starting spot? No, where? By dropping Fabregas, Matic? No. By dropping Willian and playing him at RW? No. When Mourinho first signed, everybody and their mother was afraid that Ramires would be one of his untouchables. Now that's proven not to be the case, I'm seeing increased calls to play him. Yes, he could and maybe should play more, but not as a starter anymore, those days are gone. how to replace Cesc for the Hull game? Ramires. which players would you give more minutes? (e.g Remy, Schurrle, Salah) Luis, Schürrle, Remy, Ramires, Cech. try another formation in away games (4-3-3) Away or home, the formation and strategy in general should depend on the opposition, what you want to achieve and players available. Formation alone is probably the most insignifcant part of tactics - it's how you make the players play and understand their roles in whatever formation. Actually in modern football with creative free roles, the concept of formation as such is losing its relevance more and more, as players from each position are expected to contribute in every part of play more, thus often breaking the structured boundaries of the formations you see on paper. What I want to change in certain games is our use of width. That's the main thing. We have a fantastic weapon in Luis on the left to provide width and crosses, use him. And also playing with two strikers up front a bit more. We have that in our arsenal, our midfield is extremely hard-working and adaptable to manage with one less man against bussy sides. I suspect playing with two strikers would catch a lot of teams unguarded, so we'd have the element of surprise on our side, because all the teams now prepare to play against one central striker, using two would mess their plans up. do you want to see other players in the starting line up instead of others? No not really. Our starting line-up has earned their places and it's paying dividends.

Some of you are expecting too radical changes, you will be disappointed. The only ones certain to play are Luis, Cech and Schürrle. All the rest are open, depending on Mourinho's mood we could use more benchies or stick to same old faces.