GIBBO3000

Bear in mind that it helped that we were shit in the 80s.
When Jose took over we were despised because of the money and no-one would let us forget it, so he showed us how to wear it like a badge of honour. Fuck em all, as the song goes.
The thing I keep coming back to after all this is, 'who are we?'. Maybe not the day for big existential questions but Jose could've built something long-lasting here. We'll never know though and for me a big part of that is the lack of backing he got in the summer.

to all the genuises on here, please enlighten us poor souls as to what changed so drastically that jose got fired NOW.
league title - gone
top 4 - gone
2 weeks to january transfer window. who better to have the perfect insights to exactly what changes had to be made than JOSE FUCKING MOURINHO.
there were better oppurtunities to sack him. times where the PL was not out of reach and definitely the top 4 was not out of reach.
tell me exactly, how the board of a billion dollar company sacks a manager 2 weeks before the transfer window, with no hope of acheiving any thing much at this point even with the sacking. and that too 1 day before a game.
so after all the shit, today all teh board members got up and suddenly had a change of heart and thought of sacking jose after just 2 months of giving a written statement of the club being behind jose. give a good enough reason for the sacking at this point of time, because honestly of all the times we could have sacked, this has got to be the worst.
it gives the new manager no time at all to really understand the squad so that he can ask for players. it gives the new manager with no time to do anything with the squad since this is going to be the busiest period with games coming thick and fast, so even the training would be lesser.
it has the smack of player power all over it. and anyone who cant see it is just naive.

again my questions remain the same.
jose just made a massive statement regarding the players.
what exactly do we get out of this sacking? will we make the top 4? will we win the PL? i would still say that winning the CL was more probable with jose than with anyone else on this world with the current squad.
2 weeks before the transfer window starts. how does his sacking make any sense NOW.
most of us had made peace with the fact that he would stay this season no matter what. and i was fine with it. give him a transfer window to right his wrongs.

Is he a LW or CAM nowadays? Certainly not a centre forward. Actually this is what Torres used to do all the time - hiding and shying away from the box.

He's a fantastic squad player, a Park Ji Sung if you like. But he shouldn't be starting for us.. i'm still a big fan because he gives his all, pressing, tackling, good feet and never stops running but honestly he's like a fish out of water when he gets into the box, cant score or pass... really getting frustrating. Against West Ham how many times was Costa through on goal and he completey messed up the pass? its really not good enough.

Napoli, Spurs have proved that one world class player is better than 5 average ones. They sold Cavani and bale and bought several prospects yet unproven and they both had average, some would say bad seasons.
Thats the thing, I would prefer us signing world class player (or high quality one) every year instead of going after 5 decent ones every summer (at least in most cases).
One Hazard is better than 5 Salahs or Schurrles...we should sign top striker and top midifelder, not Firmino or Halkanoglu or Mandzo or whoever we been linked with...for bench, we can use youth players or those on loan...for starters, we need quality though.
Youth players would benefit too. Why we signed Van ginkel of we have Baker, RLC and others who look promising enough...Baker could be easily 3rd choice CM next season with regular games in carling cup and maybe FA...and sure with suspensions, injuries etc...he would get some time in PL too. If wont work, just loan him in january. One most important thing: Mou must have trust in him and see him as future...or elsewhere its pointless.
I dont want us to sign anymore young prospects or squad-depth signings as we already have several such players on loan and in academy. If we are about to sign anyone it should be quality players as we need to add some quality and experience to the side.

Id rather give OUR youngsters a chance

Long as ake and kalas get minutes I don't care.

They simply outplayed us, nothing to be ashamed of. Good luck to the. We'll come back stronger!

don't get the 4-3-3 talk. stick to 4-2-3-1 similar to yesterday



Cech

Ivan Cahill Terry Azpi

Luiz Matic

Schurrle Oscar Hazard

Eto'o

I hate it when Moruinho says he doesn't want Mata to leave. he's been saying that for a while now. he also said he doesn't want KDB and Essien to leave. I'm starting to doubt what he's on this year, because it's no brainer some players have been treated like crap this year. those 3 didn't get a fair chance to compete for their places. Lukaku was going on the same road as Mata and KDB if he stayed.
I still can't believe Jose never tried Oscar in CM, what do Ramires and Lampard offer that Oscar doesn't? he passes better than both and he tackles just as much Ramires does. like someone said a couple of pages ago, it's called compensation. you play a creative player and use his full offensive ability and you lose a bit of the tracking back/pressing enigma that Jose has in mind.
Mata was injured in pre season, and I'm starting to feel that destroyed his career here.

called up by scolari

For the sake of the balance of the team, it should be Willian and Schurrle fighting for one spot while Mata, Oscar, Hazard and KDB fight for the other two.

If i wasn't religious i'd say "some people talk like shit". He had a great game for me. He very effectively contributed to three goals(ramires first goal, the own goal, and the intelligent pass to willian for his assist for lampards goal), in addition he had three good shots on target and worked had linking up play where he could. If he had scored it would have been excellent but i am convinced he is definitely what we needed, Experience and class, the goals will come.

We made a mistake. Daniel should have stayed. Torres should have been shown the door.

We made a mistake. Daniel should have stayed. Torres should have been shown the door.

We made a mistake. Daniel should have stayed. Torres should have been shown the door.

We made a mistake. Daniel should have stayed. Torres should have been shown the door.

Hazard will become even better when a) he has a striker better than Torres to play with and
b ) the midfielders are able to supply him the ball consistently in dangerous areas
At the moment when Torres plays we have no focal point so he can't look forward or play one-twos because Torres always loses the ball.
Our current group of midfielders only play obvious balls. When Hazard roams and finds space in dangerous areas he very rarely receives the right ball at the right time because our midfielders are either incapable of playing the pass or just don't see it. We need better ball-playing central midfielders who can pass to our forward players when they find these spaces. Hazard only gets the ball when he drops very deep or stands on the touchline. When he finds little gaps in-between the lines the ball rarely comes to him. Look at some of the Spanish teams that people always rave about; when players find space in-between the lines they receive the ball almost immediately because their midfielders are actively looking to find them in those positions.

We need to buy another striker. Ba alone is not enough. Shoulda kept Sturridge and rotated him with Ba. There is no way Torres deserves even a single more game for Chelsea.

Next season, how about a little 4-4-2 action with Ba and Lukaku... Now that would be a powerful front line...

So apparently, we are going to offload Lampard, Cole and Sturidge...all homegrown players. If this is true, I hope they have backup for this. I doubt we will see McEchran, Van Anholt, or Feruz, Bamford or someone else from our youth in the first team next season. I wish him luck if he really leaves, and I am sure he will shine in Liverpool...

This imaginary attitude that Sturridge has isn't what has prevented him from the CF spot this season. It's his injuries.Also, how many times has Danny come out to say he wants to play CF? Don't act like its every interview - it's usually the press asking him the same question, not him screaming every week that he wants to play upfront. Plus to say that all Sturridge has done is "hog the ball and do nothing" is a bit over the top and mainstream, I'm sure you know better than that Ryan, you have pretty good football knowledge.
He's started twice this season only and has only come on for the last 10 minutes in most games. It's hard to judge someone fairly on that basis. It'll be a good move for him in my opinion, just a shame it couldn't work out here if true.

Yes he is. He's only been pushed on because Moyes needed his presence further forward.
Again, I think he would be a massive upgrade over Mikel. Part of the reason we have Ramires alongside Mikel is to cover up for a lot of his failings. With someone like Fellaini in there, we could conceivably drop someone like Oscar back into that playmaker role and not be exposed quite so much.

I'd start Sturridge against United, he's fresher and hungrier than Fernando. Torres has looked poorer since his return from Spain, he's no longer chasing balls or hurrying defenders. He needs rest but I doubt Di Mateo would take that risk but he should at least take Torres off a lot earlier if he is flopping.