Jype

Basel down to ten men in the other match.

A good opportunity to train attacking set pieces today, 8 corners already in less than 30 minutes.

We could potentially face Drogba in the round of 16 if Galatasray go through.

I'm well aware that we can't be drawn against an English team, I was talking about the round of 16 in general. And despite not being all that great at the moment, teams like Milan and Zenit are still much harder opponents to anyone than some of the second placed teams there have been in previous years. And despite a mediocre United team raping them a couple of weeks ago Leverkusen are a team to be taken seriously, they've been consistently great for over a year now, especially this season in the Bundesliga. They are beatable, yes, but definitely not a pushover. In my opinion the CL has been a much tougher competition these past few years than it was before, might be because some quality teams are only now making their way back to the European elite as well as some new up-and-comers and none of these are still nowhere near top seeded teams in the group stages. It's hilarious to think that clubs like Benfica and Porto are always in Pot 1 for the draw but then there are teams like PSG, City, Dortmund, Juventus and Napoli most of whom are in Pots 3 or 4.

I still stand by my opinion that he should not even have been given a new contract last year. Back then I still somewhat understood the reasons on why he was awarded the new deal but no fucking way he deserves one now based on his performances this season.

A lot of quality teams in the knockout stages even as runners up. Man City, Leverkusen, Milan, Dortmund, Juventus and Zenit just to name a few, assuming all of them even qualify. Not many easy draws this time for the ones who top their groups, although the team who draw Olympiakos will be super lucky.

Match abandoned due to heavy snowfall.

Really? You want Bayern to be one of our potential opponents in the first knockout round?

Any news on whether he's fit to face Steaua?

You mean Andy Carroll who has only 27 PL goals in his career compared to Lukaku's 25, despite being four years older and having played double the amount of Premier League games than Lukaku has? Andy Carroll, whose best season goalscoring-wise was 13 league goals and hasn't done fuck all in the three years since that? The same Andy Carroll who is not even a regular at a mediocre West Ham side and only managed seven league goals there last season?

Had Hazard as my captain, definitely not a bad round for him but nowhere near Suarez who was my VC. Still top of the table in the TC league but only nine points ahead now. @JayC, remember when I said two months ago that it's only a matter of time till Hazard hits top form again and will soon be back in everyone's teams? After that he has scored 64 points in seven games, which is actually the third highest score behind Suarez and Aguero from that period of time, and also his price has gone up by half a mil.

Stoke and Crystal Palace coming up, anything less than six points will be an utter failure. Arsenal have a four point gap on us but they'll be facing Everton and Manchester City next, not to mention the tough visit to Napoli in between those two and they need to get at least a point from that game to ensure they finish top of their group so a weakened side is out of the question. Their squad depth is not as good as ours so either they will be knackered by the time we play them in a couple of weeks or they'll rotate a little and risk losing points. Either way it will be good for us, though I wouldn't mind them snatching a draw from their game against Man City because in the long run I see City as a more threatening rival than Arsenal.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. He's got what, 12 goals in four matches against that lot?

Hazard with 99% MOTM votes.

Where has this Hazard lad been all season?

FUCK OFF TORRES

Because for this season my local service provider got too greedy, they raised the prices even though the EPL coverage is nowhere near as good as it was last year. Al Jazeera is easily available outside the MENA-region too, just need to use a DNS service and their online service works just fine.

Probably not a coincidence. Cole has been a liability at the back for a couple of years now without offering much going forward either so he has needed support from others but now with a solid defender behind Hazard he has more freedom to do what he does best.

Yeah, they showed it on Al Jazeera. Where the fuck did that come from?

Hazard looking bright.

Because we need to attack and score. It's not as simple as Lampard = attack and Mikel = defend. With Mikel in the team, there is more stability in midfield. Ramires and also the attacking midfielders have much more freedom knowing they always have at least one player to cover for them if they lose the ball but with the Lampard - Ramires pivot there's a lot of confusion on who stays back which often means the players get too cautious with the ball, resulting in dire attacking play. And of course the other alternative is shocking defensive play if both Lampard and Ramires bomb forward and the opponent gets a quick counter-attack.

Wow. Time flies...

Jose's words certainly sound promising, now it's up to him to offer De Bruyne a good run to give the kid a chance to show he's got what it takes. There certainly are good opportunities this month for KdB to play, for example both of the Sunderland matches, Steaua, Crystal Palace and if he impresses in those games he might convince Mourinho to give him the role he deserves. He said similar things about Azpilicueta when he wasn't yet in his plans for the first team but look at him now, a definite starter for the last five or so games and hasn't put a foot wrong.

They should add Messi and Ronaldo to their shortlist while they're at it.

I'm a cheap bastard so I only chipped in £2 but I will donate some more next month should I still remember. Would be happy to set up a small donation to be charged automatically each month but I searched the PayPal site and it looks like a subscription system that is not possible, at least not without some costs for you guys so I suppose it's a no-go.