Jase

That was somewhat odd. Unusual to see Jose so calm, subdued and restrained. Anyway, the English journalists are pathetic. Only asked questions about Mourinho, Mourinho and more Mourinho. At least the foreign ones asked better questions and questions related to transfers and the squad. He said wants to meet the players, work with them & give chance to prove themselves. Those selling rumours can stop, for now. Would have been much helpful had Mourinho quashed those selling rumours directly and emphatically. Oh well. The paranoia continues...

7 actually.

There is a reason why he went from being Bayern's No.1 ST that scored 41 goals in 52 appearances in 11/12 season to being a second choice ST behind Mandzukic last season.

And what's wrong with looking at the worst case scenario? It's about making sure that we are covered in every area of the team as much as possible with enough depth so that if something goes wrong, we have players that can come in and do the job. Regarding Lukaku, think most people right now are getting a little ahead of themselves IMO. Not denying that he has done very well at West Brom and got massive talent, ability and potential but people are acting like as if he's the real deal and a world class player already. He's by no means a finished article just yet and is still relatively inexperience at the highest level at this point. With that in mind, we do need someone that is decent as the 3rd choice who can come in and perform if like in this worst scenario, our first choice is out injured and we are left with Lukaku. Using a youth ST at this moment as the 3rd choice is just suicidal if things go wrong with the striker department. Yes, we need that 3rd striker. We need as much squad depth as possible, one that is filled with quantity and quality. Ba probably won't play a lot but not as few minutes as you are making it out to be. With injuries/suspensions/rotation, someone like Ba will get his fair bit of game time and moreover, having 3 proper STs also give us room to maneuver and tweak around to play 2 STs upfront or even 3 if the situation calls for it. Barring his time at Madrid where he has a wide player scoring 50 goals a season, Mourinho has always keep at least 3 STs in his disposal, with Porto, us and Inter. It allows him to be flexible and change things when Plan A or B is not working for instance. Going into the season with just 2 proper STs and 1 makeshift, like you pointed out with playing Hazard or Schurrle above, is a no-no. No more filling square pegs in round holes after what happened in the 1st half of last season where we practically flogged Torres to death and played him in every game because of an injury to Sturridge. It wouldn't be a waste keeping Ba, for another season at least, with the wages that he's on because it's definitely way way lower than Torres especially when he provides us depth, experience and goals. All certainly much better than what Torres can give us. And no, Ba warrants the non-HG spot for the reasons mentioned and don't see any problem with that remaining the same especially when Lukaku doesn't take up one of those spots and we just released Ferreira and Benayoun. We should be thankful really that neither of them got injured during those 5 months. Otherwise, we would have been screwed! And of course they rotated well. Ba can't play in the Europa League while Torres can. It was mostly an easy decision to make by just alternating for matches like what Benitez did.

Yes it matters. I agree that we can only reduce inexperience by gaining experience through game time but at the level we're playing and major trophies that we are trying to win, we need a reliable goalkeeper that can come in and do a solid job if/when needed. Not saying Blackman can't come in and do that but because of his inexeprience, he can be a bit more prone to making mistakes in goal that could cost us points and the game. If he starts making 1-2 mistakes, then the entire defence or the team even could get nervous when defending because they do not trust him and when with a team like ours that tend to make some silly errors at the back, you would want a reliable and solid GK. Have no problem with Blackman being the 3rd choice keeper but certainly not the 2nd. Need an experience one. Well, that has basically been a problem with us loaning players really. Both Walker and Delac may have done well (or not) at their respective loaned clubs but it's hard to gauge their quality as to whether they are ready to play for us at the highest level. Walker has been loaned to clubs in League 1 and 2 while Delac has spent time on loan in Portugal, Croatia etc without any success.

Perhaps so. But continue to pay him 175k p/w wages every week is just a waste when he's not doing the job on the pitch that we come to expect of him. Slightly disagree there. Torres was already on a decline when we bought him. His reputation, just like now, is what made people still rate him back then. As for the Ba-Torres debate, will not get into again but all I'll say is had Ba scored those chances he has been getting, this wouldn't even be a debate right nowas there will only be one winner and it's definitely not someone from the Iberian peninsula...

Average? Ballack had way more impact than Torres has in his 2 1/2 years. Right now, the only supposed good thing that Torres is giving us is he's selling t-shirts yet (ultimately!) not producing it on the pitch consistently and we're suffering because of it!

Agree with the notion there especially when Mourinho is a manager that adapts to the players he got and not the other way around. He's not a manager that has a set default formation and uses it permanently wherever he goes, like in Benitez's case who is so incredibly rigid with his 4-2-3-1. I believe that we'll continue using the 4-2-3-1 formation not just because it allows Mata to play in his best position as CAM, but also the fact that we have quite a number of No.10s that we can use as CAM if and when needed. It will be somewhat of a waste if we don't maximize that. Moreover, while some of our players only seem to work best in certain formations, while others in another different formation, it also gives Mourinho the flexibility to adapt and change formation if/when needed for games or during them, which has been something key in his managerial career - he's always got that squad of players capable, flexible and adaptable enough to play in different formations (except maybe at Madrid). Also, some of the players we have got now may not exactly work best in certain formations but I just don't quite believe totally that they can't improve and perform better in formations that is supposedly alien to them. Someone like Mourinho will look to get the best out of them in different formations. 4-2-3-1 will be the main formation for us still with the 4-3-3, 4-4-2 and other possible systems kept in Jose's armory which he will use from time to time in the season.

Covering your arse for the mistake made, as always.

So, that is where we are at now...buy (rubbish) players like Torres just to sell shirts?

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It will probably be against Spurs. Jose vs AVB straight away in the 1st game...

No thanks. He's not ready yet. If we are gonna have him as No.2 (and another inexperience GK as No.3) now, we should have probably just kept Turnbull/Hilario. Replacing dodgyness with inexperience makes not much as a difference. Still not reliable and trustworthy.

Meaning he still wants his name to be changed...

Here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIY1xgzT5Fo&feature=youtu.be&a

The Premier League fixtures for next season will be out soon, in just over a week's time. http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/fans/faqs/when-does-2013-14-season-start.html So, who do you wants us to face first? Home or away? What are the game are you looking forward most to in the 2013/14 season? Etc... Discuss.

€25m for Lewandowski and €63m for Cavani........

Regarding the 'Mourinho wants to sell Mata' Marca story...

Oh joy. If we get Cavani in and sell Ba because of it, we then would have a player earning 175k p/w wages warming the bench every week... Gotta applaud that idiotic decision made by the board to pay the flop blondie that much wages for a week!

Yeah. According to Mediaset (people quoting them on Twitter), Jose will announce the signing of Cavani in his presser on Monday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/10108338/Jose-Mourinho-to-target-Xabi-Alonso-as-he-starts-to-rebuild-the-Chelsea-attack.html Telegraph linking us with Alonso again, claims Mourinho wants him.

If we want to play the Christmas tree formation, then we should bring back this fella... He's like the only manager who actually plays the 4-3-2-1 formation. While this formation has its weaknesses (every formation does) like the ones pointed above, it's worth remembering that we did have some success with it under Ancelotti.

If we are to challenge on all fronts and win the big trophies, we need a strong squad depth. Don't see what's the problem with keeping Moses TBH especially with the depth issue has caused us problems for the past 2-3 seasons. He might be the 6th choice overall if you list all the players playing just behind the STs but that's not exactly the case if you break them down into their best positions - Hazard/Schurrle, Mata/Oscar, Moses/KDB(maybe). Moses can still come in and do a good job against the lesser teams and furthermore, he's a HG player which means he doesn't take up any of the foreign squad place AND he's not on big wages either. As said, we need a strong squad depth and players used in proper position, no more filling squad pegs in round holes like last season!

No thanks. Moses is a decent squad player to have. Our squad depth is already thin enough as it is and it would be needless to weaken it further. And moreover, Moses is like the only player right now who is actually suited to play at the RW. De Bruyne is probably another one but that's about it. Would hate to see us filling squad pegs in round holes again next season.