Thor

We must get him. My username will finally have some relevance with Chelsea!

You'll enjoy a ban coming in and abusing posters like that... So have fun continuing posting like this. And no, Mata is not better than Hazard. I don't know about Oscar since I haven't seen him play, but Hazard is most definitely a better player than Mata.

I've been away from Chelsea news and forums deliberately since we got Hazard, since I wanted to come back surprised and intrigued by the moves we've made during the offseason, but my friend ruined that by filling me in with talks around the league... So, anyone want to fill me in on what's happened so far? And this Oscar kid, I'm not going to pretend to know a thing about him; how good is the kid for those who have seen a bit of him?

No. I can't say his name properly, and I'm not willing to learn. Hulk rolls off easier on the tongue.

I would too had we not signed Hazard. But Hazard and Hulk is better than Gotze and Hulk, or Hazard and Gotze which is just redundant.

If we get Gotze, it's going to be him, Hazard and Mata, along with Torres up front. Not exactly any physical presence in that front 4. I think Gotze will pan out to be the better player between him and Hulk, but we just got Hazard who is better than him anyway. You can't just make a team full of play-makers, you need someone dynamic like Hulk and like what Ramires did for us this season. I think it would be awfully redundant to have Hazard, Mata and Gotze up front. Similar players, with Hazard being slightly better than the other two.

You'd rather have a worse manager than a better one? Interesting...

I've had the chance to watch 15 odd Lille games off my mates hard drive who is a huge fan, and the kid is most definitely better. He controls the game, and has such a huge presence throughout the course. I think a lot of people will be hugely surprised when they watch him. It's as if he is everywhere. I disagree about Mata defensively. He showed in the Barca match he was more than capable, actually being one of our better ones. I just don't think he had the energy to be doing both with our lack of attacking prowess last season. This season it shouldn't be a problem and he can focus more on both. It's just my opinion, but I'd rather have our better and quicker player in the middle who can break it open.

Hazard is better than Mata, and you want him in the middle of the ground being the main creative role. In my opinion Mata did better on the wings. He seemed to get pushed off the ball in the middle of the ground, where as on the wings he had more room to move. Particularly against Manchester City. He was a non factor in both games almost with the amount of times he got pushed off the ball playing the 10 role behind the striker.

We all know how Barcelona play. We played the perfect tactics against them. Yet they were still far superior to us, and if you want to be fair, should have had 3 or 4 goals in the first game had they finished their regular chances. It's called luck when a player of Fabregas' caliber misses a tap in. Same for Pedro, and Messi a 1-on-1 with the keeper.

Yeah... Because during Pep's tenor he was a real loser... SMH. People act as if this one loss was the defining moment in his career. Take a look at what he accomplished in such a short time. He sure was losing beautifully a lot... oh wait, not really.

Give Ramires another shot in the double pivot and have Lampard sit on the bench. Have him play a Giggs type role. If it doesn't work out in the middle of the ground for Rambo, then we can stick him out wide in the winger position and rotate him and Hulk/Eden/Mata. We need to get younger in my opinion, so Frank will just need to accept the veteran role, that is more likely to be coming off the bench.

Why exactly did he need to change his gameplan against us? He was getting quality looks in the first game, and completely outplayed us. I don't think you understand just how historic our run was getting passed them. Since the possession stat had started to be counted, we were the first team to win with such a low percentage of the ball. What was it? 27%? We had 1 shot on target in the first game, and we scored. They hit the post 2 times, missed 2 easy tap ins, Messi missed a one on one. Same thing with the second game. You had Messi missing a penalty, etc, etc. Why did he need to change his gameplan? Like I said, he was getting great looks, and with the quality he had on his team, he figured they'd eventually put away one of those plum chances they had. Some of you are blinded for your love of Robbie and hate for Pep, that it decreases some of your ability to think rationally. It's like people saying that Bertrand was a great tactical choice when it came to the Bayern game... Well I watched it, and no it wasn't. Just because we won the game, all was forgotten, and people pointed to it as brilliance, and a sign of trust between player and manager. Fact was, it was Bertrand's first stinker in the senior team.

250mil for Messi? What is he thinking?! He's not worth a cent more than 245mil.

That guy still plays? I thought he gave up his dream of football.

Who is in their front 4? Seriously? Does anyone even play for them outside of Van Persie? Isn't he leaving anyway? lol...

I believe it was Jose who said 'judge him once he's left the club' about Drogba when he was getting criticism for being an expensive signing that wasn't doing so well at the time. I think we should do the same with this kid, and I guarantee a lot of you who haven't watched him at all outside of youtube will be pleasantly surprised. This kid is scary good.

I honestly like Mata on the left better. So: ---------Torres--------- Mata - Hazard - Hulk I thought he was much more effective in his left role. He was very inconsistent when he switched to his central role later in the the season.

Clearly you're not working hard enough.

Thanks, but having watched copious amounts of Lille games just recently on the computer due to my French friend having all of this seasons games on his computer, I can comfortably say, yes, he is worth 32m, and yes, he is 8m better than Mata. Get ready for a fun to watch season with this player. This guy absolutely dominates the game with his presence.

If anything this board has overrated Marin as if he is some walk in to the starting XI. He's hardly that with his current form. He can be great, but so can a lot of other players at this level. More than likely it is the case of 'what you see is what you get', so don't expect him to play like Mata in his first season here. Anywho, can someone tell me who exactly we have gotten rid of? I've been keeping up with transfers in terms of incoming, outgoing not so much apart from Drogba, Kalou and Bosi. Are Malouda, Paulo, etc coming back? Who exactly has left?

Some of you are ridiculous. Pep unproven? No. Winning as much as he has and creating a team that well versed and trained is an achievement. As far as RDM beating him in terms of tactics. Get off it. They created chance after chance, after chance. We were lucky to win, and we played the way we had to. It was an amazing win, but that's exactly what made it an amazing win. The fact we were pinned back the whole time and somehow managed to pull it off. If we played another 100 games with them, they'd more than likely win 99 of them going in with the same tactics. Who do I want? The better manager, and that is clearly Pep. Some of you are acting as if RDM is getting a raw deal out of it, hardly. His face is out in the footballing world now. A lot of teams will be wanting to get a hold of him as coach. Both we, and RDM get what we wanted and deserve.

That is incorrect. There are no players faster than Ramires in the league. Kyle Walker is about equal, Sturridge too, and maybe Lennon.

Ignore that. It's not even particularly close as to who is the better player now/has more potential/etc. Hazard impacts the game on so many more levels, and is so good at creating whether it be from the wings or the middle. His stats speak for themselves, and you'll be even more impressed when you finally get a chance to watch him. I don't want to hype people up into a false sense of excitement, but the kid is insanely good.

I've become a fan of your negative and pessimistic posts as they generally seem to bring the opposite along. Whatever it is you're doing in your ritual along with these negative predictions, keep it up, since it's bringing us great luck.