Sir Mikel OBE

What was Jose telling oscar?

That's a bad injury for eto'o.

Lampard has been terrible.

Salah looking like messi out here

Mikel saving our ass there

Ivanovic seems exposed over there. You clearly see willians high work rate on the other side, but there is gap on the right

Weather the storm....

We need to blood in a young defender. That one defender on the bench is embarrassing. No reason Schürrle, hazard, Mata, and KDB should all be taking up bench space.

The lampard role is his if we stick with the weekend formation.

Essien was left out of the squad for Van Ginkel.

The midfield is bossing. Thing of beauty really.

Decent start.

To be really fair though Ramires looked really good as a winger against Honduras with Brazil last week.

Bertrand might be done here. Jose does not seem to fancy him.

In his prime he was certainly the best African player for country his generation. The biggest shame was that he never got his world cup appearance.

I couldnt really see him playing this weekend anyway to be honest.

Would have loved to see him get some minutes today against Japan. Not like he really needed to be rested since I dont see him getting any minutes this weekend.

That sounds like talksport pundits Putting Terry on isnt going to score us goals consistently. Chile, and Germany, were on the back foot plenty of times. It was a lack of quality in the final third on display.

I think Pogba and Witsel are pretty comparable right now. I think Pogba has a much higher ceiling though. You look at Pogba and you see the hunger and passion it takes to become world class. Going to play with Pirlo has probably been the most amazing thing for him. He was good in Manchester, but he has really added so much to his game.

Honestly speaking he was poor with the rest of them. It was understandable though. It was the swan song for Abou-trika, and the playoff was pretty much over.

Only if he can play as a striker. Two home matches this international break and not a single goal. In fact, did the German keeper even have to make a save tonight?

Ghana officially reaches 3 world cups in a row.

That is so beautiful to me. That is the final step. When you can have footballers, coming from around the globe, who can look you in the face and say: "I've wanted to play here ever since I kicked a ball"......that is football.

Nationality aside I think most from around the world would go since these clubs were big when they were kids. Lets be honest, no kid in South America(Suriname aside), Continental Europe, or Africa were sitting around in 1996 thinking: "Chelsea? Fuck yeah I want in on that!" You were either in the area, or you had an immediate connection. You build the international brand. That is why Lukaku is a new type of player here. He grew up watching Drogba, and wanting to be like him at Chelsea. Likewise these 80's babies grew up watching the Barcelona,Madrid clubs. As a club we are on their level. The difference is when these 90's kids, who watched the Abramovich era growing up, become of age that mystique will stay with them.

We'd have to take that if its true. With that kind of money we could really get a good pivot player.