Jase

Maybe I'm just being bad here but we shouldn't even find ourselves in the position that we were in heading into the Valencia match in the first place.

The point is he tried to claim credit. For what? He nearly left us on the verge of exit after the 3-1 defeat to Napoli, all thanks to his silly kamikaze attacking approach.

He's still being deluded as ever.

All hail the genius that is Justin_3d.

He might see it as a challenge for himself and also a big possibility to win trophies.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/andre-villas-boas-says-he-should-1139671 THAT last line...WTF?!!

Seriously, how can one not love Mourinho?

Can understand why he wants to go back to Barcelona but think I would be disappointed IF and/or WHEN it does happen.

IF anyone is interested, AVB will be having his first Spurs's press conference today. EDIT: That will start about 1pm-ish, UK time.

As CHOULO19 has said, it's more to do with AVB's style of play with the 4-3-3 rather than the formation itself. Regarding that 4-3-3, I was thinking more along the possibility of having Marin and Hazard playing as the wingers considering that Mata won't be available for us for awhile. Only problem is Torres. Not the type of physical and imposing striker that can hold up the ball and bring others into play.

Maybe only the striker. The rest fits the bill IMO.

Going 4-4-2 means you would also probably have to rely a lot on your wingers and not letting your midfield getting overrun like in the case of United.

It will be interesting if we were to switch to a back 3 and play the 3-4-3 or 3-5-2.

Lets not place too much expectation on him first. He's only 21 y/o after all.

Erm, what?!

Really hope they change it. Will provide much more competition for the title rather having just Madrid and Barca challenging for the title every season. And this...

IF that is the case, then can't the CAM comes into the attacking third if the winger is having the ball and looking to cross it in? Adding to that, depending on which side of the winger is having the ball and attacking, the opposite FB can always look join in somewhere at the far post perhaps without the need to worry about leaving his position exposed given that we play with a double pivot.

http://www.eplindex.com/16315/david-silva-vs-juan-mata-opta-stats-11-12.html A very good stat comparison between Mata and Silva.

IF that was from Twitter, then it's probably BS. Have seen loads of people fabricating quotes like that to take a dig on other clubs. Quite pathetic really.

Just look what that prick and bastard Ferdinand tweeted. This was yesterday... And this today... :doh:

True. Can only see Hazard doing that though they don't necessarily have to go just wide to drag players out of position. Even making the diagonal or horizontal ones is useful in creating space space for others to run into or exploit.

Have not really seen too much of him but heard that he is terrible defensively.

Nothing much on today's Blues News Headline as RDM is working out on some tactical formations behind closed doors and they did not show any of it. They also spoke to Cahill about his return from injury and about the injury.

True but if the players offer lots of off the ball movements to drag opposition players out of position, then it can work. Ancelotti used it to great effect in his time here especially in the first season.

Get your point but Mata is not the best defensively and playing him out wide would just leave Cole/Bertrand exposed, which happened a lot of under AVB where Cole was often caught 2-on-1. Adding to that, playing Mata out wide would possibly make him see less of the ball and more crucially, he doesn't have the pace and skill to beat his full back to offer us width in the wide areas as he will definitely come inside more often than not. Mata may not be in his scintillating best when being played as a CAM under RDM due to tiredness(as you pointed out) most likely, but at least it allowed him to get into the game more, see more of the ball and orchestrate attacks and chances for us from there.