Strike

No ban after 2nd week of April

For all we know, Luiz maybe smiling at Sian Massey

That's no argument to support his leadership. As a captain, he'll have to speak to the ref constantly. Not gonna work if he keeps blowing his lid off. However frustrating it gets

I'm sorry. How can you condone laying into the referee? I mean, it's the captain's job to speak to the ref on behalf of the team and it won't do us any favours if Luiz is badmouthing the ref Passion-wise, he's a proper captaincy candidate and I'll admit, I felt a tinge of happiness seeing him go after Webb like that but I wouldn't want to see a club captain doing that

Not based on today. No way. I wouldn't want to see our captain laying into the referee like he did to Webb. It's easy to say passion, commitment and other things but that was a really stupid yellow card to take. Webb may have favoured United consistently but Luiz needs to be calmed down a bit

Massive goal.

surely not?

i FUCKIN LOVE LUIZ FOR STICKING THAT TO WEBB'S FACE

Come On Luiz. Just bury it!

Torres as the impact sub. Really sheds light on our depth

That left side with Cole at LB and Lampard at LCM is getting hounded everytime United attack

I've come to accept that Chelsea won't score today. Just keep it 0-0 please

Biased Refereeing and then Biased Commentary. Commentator :"Luiz went down too easily I think" (Replay shows Giggs tugging shirt) Commentator: "There is a tug of the shirt. But that's not a freekick"

I would take a draw here. Spurs game more important

Chelsea bench has no game-changers at all: Turnbull, Ferreira, Cahill, Terry, Ake, Benayoun, Torres

Team to face Man Utd: Cech; Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, David Luiz, Cole; Ramires, Lampard ©; Oscar, Mata, Moses; Ba. Lampard as Captain and no Hazard. Clearly Spurs game has been (rightly) given greater importance

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Happy Birthday Yossi, said no Chelsea fan ever

Not really convinced about Mikel but that's another issue anyway. Already deviated a little by talking about Modric in the Xabi Alonso thread

Bayern is an ideal example. Ribery and Muller are much better at tracking back than Hazard and Oscar. But yes, that is the model Chelsea should be going for. Relentless in attack but also regaining defensive shape quickly. Also, look at the Bayern midfield - Kroos/Schweinsteiger/Martinez are hard-workers unlike Modric. With the current midfielders we have, we do need protection in the pivot imo.

I love the idea of a pace-demon. It works in the league, especially vs big teams who push up to control the game. Midfielders can slip in through balls - similar to how Walcott usually scores

. His tackling is poor. No strength to speak of. His defensive game is limited to basic closing down. With Mata basically playing as a forward, the pivot needs to be more defensive. I agree with the later half of your point. Playmaking-wise he's a good player. He offers dribbling from deep as well but he wouldn't be my first choice

I get the point but Chelsea are defensively reliant on the pivot and Modric has little or nothing appreciable on his defensive game. The problem is Mata in all this and it's ironic that he's our best player. Mata at CAM does almost no tracking back and so, the midfield pivot has extra defensive duties.