Jype

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.

Quite surprised no one has Ba in their preferred starting lineups. Was great yesterday and in my opinion did more to deserve a start here than Torres did. Ba Hazard - Mata - Schürrle Mikel - Ramires Azpi - Terry - Cahill - Ivanovic Cech

Great result from a hard match. Team responded magnificently in the second half and Mourinho bringing on Ba to play up front together with Torres worked wonders. Sunderland, Stoke and Crystal Palace coming up next. If we win all three we'll most likely be on top by the time we face Arsenal because at least some of our rivals are guaranteed to lose points when they play each other. Arsenal have Hull, Everton and Manchester City as their next three league fixtures and Hull showed today against Liverpool that they won't just bend over and accept defeat when a big team comes to visit. My thoughts exactly.

Have you even seen what Joachim Löw has been saying about Schürrle recently?

It's the Southampton fans making all the noise...

The overreaction is strong with this one.

Ramires is hardly playing as a winger. It's more like Essien, Ramires and Lampard in midfield with Hazard and Mata behind Torres. Good decision in my opinion because their midfield has completely overrun ours and something needs to change. Could use some more width though but with Mata playing that's not really possible if Jose wants to have any chance of winning the midfield battle. Maybe Schürrle or Willian for Mata in the second half?

Decent. Was hoping for Schürrle instead of Oscar who has looked tired lately but other than that I'm mostly happy with the lineup. Maybe I would've benched Iva and Ramires too after their performances against Basel but I trust Jose to have made absolutely certain that slacking off like that isn't acceptable and hopefully they'll bounce back now.

Thumbs up for Agent Victor. :blue scalf:

most of them jump anticipating a normal kick. He probably knew that. Seen numerous free kicks like that scored against United, they only have themselves to blame if they're found out but still keep doing the same mistakes.

Well, he's not that far behind and is a few years younger too. And who cares if Falcao is slightly better? It's not like the level of a player really matters that much when both can easily be described as world class and I would say getting Lewandowski on a free transfer will be a hundred times better deal to whoever gets him (Bayern) than buying Falcao from Monaco for £50m.

The philjones never gets old.

After two really bad rounds I've now got a decent start to this one. Three players (Lukaku, Ramsey, Coleman) have featured so far and I will have 34 points once the bonuses are added. Got some deadwood in the starting lineup though, so aside from Aguero, Suarez and maybe Hazard I'm not a expecting lots of points tomorrow.

Yup, no doubt Willian is a great player and on his own maybe even worth the money spent on him, but is he really that much better than De Bruyne to warrant the £30m fee as well as making way for him by selling a quality player we already had for way below his value?

You serious? Using Kevin De Bruyne as an example of 'wasted money' is fucking ridiculous. He had a wonderful loan spell last season at Werder Bremen and in the last transfer window he could have been sold to the Champions League finalists for over twice the amount of money the club bought him for back in 2012 but instead Jose decided to give him a chance in the first team. In hindsight he should have been loaned out again or even sold if the plan was to buy yet another expensive AM and make KdB sit in the stands all the time but if anything, spending £30m on an unnecessary player like Willian when we already had De Bruyne is something that can be classified as wasted money. Not only did he cost the club £30m, his arrival also made sure De Bruyne's market value is currently nowhere near the heights it was last summer and if we sold the Belgian now after six months of doing absolutely fuck all on the football pitch we'd be lucky to get €10m, which for a player of his quality is a bargain to whoever buys him. And what about Courtois, is he another one of Emenalo's pointless U20 signings? Cost the club a mere £8m and is undoubtedly one of the best goalkeepers in the world already and either a future number one keeper at Chelsea or perhaps the world's second most expensive goalkeeper ever if he's sold. You win some, you lose some and hitting the jackpot from time to time like with Courtois has the potential to make this system profitable and even the ones who don't make it can still be sold for decent transfer fees to lesser clubs.

What I'm hoping to see: Torres Hazard - Mata - Schürrle Essien - Mikel Cole - Terry - Cahill - Azpilicueta Cech Ramires, Lampard and Ivanovic deserve to be dropped after their performance against Basel and Oscar could use a rest. Cahill should be among the dropped too but it's not like we have any other options at the moment with Luiz injured so I guess he'll have to keep playing unless Mourinho is ready to make a point by giving a chance to either Kalas or Ake. Schürrle was very impressive back in October but hasn't played much since due to minor injuries so now could be a good chance to play him again.

As usual, people are making this a way bigger deal than it really is. I see Mourinho's comments as nothing more than a friendly reminder to Lukaku that he should think twice about what he says to the media. In the past, even before Jose's arrival and the Everton loan, Lukaku has occasionally been a bit immature and naive with the way he has spoken to the media, making a lot of fans and maybe even some people in the club's boardroom question his attitude so now Mourinho has given him a clear message that he needs to cut the bullshit and grow up if he wants to return to Chelsea one day. If Lukaku is a top professional like I've always considered him to be he will not get butthurt over Mourinho's comments and instead tries to learn something from this. If it works and Lukaku learns his lesson, Mourinho has done the right thing here but if it doesn't and Lukaku starts to resent Mourinho so easily then he really is still an immature kid who maybe isn't ready to lead the line for us after all, which is something Mourinho will be happy to know when making his plans for next season.

Yup, at the very least we should be looking to make a decent profit on him in a few years if he continues his rapid development but for one reason or another never makes it at Chelsea. Two Hazards tearing teams up together for club and country would be something though...

At least you made more sense than Alex.