BlueLyon

Call me crazy but I still have some doubts that me might be our biggest weak link due to his mentality. He has been amazing so far in most games, assisting and playmaking games, but he can completely dissapear in some big games and that worries me most. To win things you need players who work equaly good against any side, small or big, possession team, pressing team or counter attacking team. And when its time to step up, you step up. Lamps, Ballack, Iniesta, Koke, Modric, Matic are such players. It doesnt matter who play against, they do their job. On other hand Cesc is absolutely unplayable in some games, but invisible in others. I dont want to criticise Cesc or anything, but if he wont gain winners mentality and perform consistently through whole season, I think we wont win titles. In big games, our midfield is weak and when we should set tempo, Cesc dissapears and we get overrun or rely on setpieces and counters. Thats one and only reason Im still sceptic about Cesc ever since he came here and until we play big teams (and he plays like he does in small games) and until we win some trophies, I dont think I will change that opinion. Probably you dont agree, but one thing is quality and other is to keep that quality on every level against any opponent. I generaly prefer 'old school' midfielders like Lamps or Ballack were. We are doing fine but I wait till we clash with Madrid or Bayern and see if Cesc can handle things like Modric or Schweini do against big teams. Only then we will be top side. But I fear Cesc will simply hide in such games. He will make one or two good passes, but there will be no sign of him dictating our play, throwing himself after every ball and not giving up. Cesc just isnt such player IMO and that could be problem for us. Chelsea under Mou was never team that dominated opponents or played realy attractive football, but we always had winners in team, players that would literaly die for win and do anyting they could. We overpowered opponents with speed, strength and efficiency, something we seriously lack in curent team against big sides. Lets hope I wrong.

I think he might come in two years on bosman if he wont extend contract. Could have Ballack effect here, add experience etc. But in two years, things will change and Oscar could develop in quite some player and Schweini wouldnt be even the better player of the two...

While its difficult, he might come here, I think its all between Bayern, us and City. Unless he is stupid to sit on real bench or play in small french league for psg. And as for Mou comments, even the most stupid manager would offer 25m for him if he had them. Even if we dont need him, Mou would be a fool not to at least try to get him for this cheap fee. That means Real, barca etc all will probably offer but I hope he is smart enough not to go there.

I have been largely impressed with Jetro Willems from Psv. Its the guy who played for holland in euro 2012 at age 18 and then got injured for last season and didnt play in wc. But he is back this season and he was amazing so far IMO. Racks assists all the time and kinda reminds me on Cole in certain aspects. Dont know what Mou plans for future with Azpi, now we are stacked in this position, but if Azpi eventualy gets moved to right, Willems will be seriously on my top list for next LB. Been watching the kid for two years now, he is progressing very well.

Laporte and Varane are very different. Similar age, but Varane has plenty of Cl experience and used to play for giant club, while Laporte is just a prospect. While Varane would be imediately trusted starter here, Laporte would come as one for future and would have to prove himself first.

Yeah but once he wont get away with it and it will be bad for us all. Hopefuly it wont happen but I think once in his 5+ years here it will happen eventualy.

No. I would take Khedira for free, Psg reject Cabaye or several other cms before this guy. He is inconsistent and no ending product whatsoever, we have too many players like that already.

I worry that one day when things wont go right for us, he will snap and punch or kick someone. Today, he was quite close to it, the way he screamed towards ref could be red too. And when someone will provoke him ala materazzi, no one will be quick enough to stop him do something stupid.

Well Mangala is probably biggest idiot in PL. Havent seen CB that would go on air ball with leg like he did and instead kungfu kick Etoo. He is also lucky bastard not to get red and that would be second straight red for him too. Fucker. But conveniently he had game of his life against us.

Yes because we are playing 4:3:3 and Mou will simply drop Oscar... If we ever do that, I would sign Pogba and play Pogba-Matic-Cesc but whatever it wont happen and we dont realy need either. Would invest in Reus and CB next summer who IMO we should target. That said, probably we will need backup for Cesc and Matic too should Mikel leave the club. But its out of my power to realy do anything here so I wont bother and let Mou bring players he thinks we need.

If we plan to get a backup, just get Cabaye. Always liked him at newcastle and for a backup he is more than good. Scored goals, quality from fks and hard worker. No need to splash 20m on Moutinho who IMO is good but simply never made the step forward that he should.

Why people even compare Matic and Mikel? Matic is our starter and Mikel is his backup. Quality is reflected by their roles. And Mikel is decent Matic backup, but obviously not as good. I ask you something; do you want Javi Maritinez to be Matic backup or what? Because that wont happen. Maybe a more dynamic DM could be bought and Mikel sold, but that new DM will have flaws too. Unless we will buy someone like Tiago Mendes, Motta or somebody who is before retirement. And still while they are more creative, they aint faster. Each DM who will be our backup will not be as good as Matic simple as that.

Though I realised one thing has to be said. Costa form=Chelsea form. He was dragging us in first months and we did fine. Small team, big team, home or away it didnt matter. Because he scored and we won. Now, he is off form and we dont score. The bad thing is that Oscar, Cesc, Willian and most importantly Hazard cant realy step up and score when we need to. Its partly fatigue, but I have questions if we have single player in team who can score crucial goals in few games when others wont be able to do it. There I point at Hazard, who will slowly need to take that role. City have Aguero and Toure (last year even Dzeko) who are scoring goals when THEY NEED THEM (at least in PL). Then they have Silva who is also quite consistent and crucial player. We have Costa who scores goals (but off form atm), then there are Drogba (who is 36) and Remy but they apart from finishing cant realy drag team forward. For his age, Didi is doing best he can, but he lacks that energy and you simply cant count on him scoring goals every game like Aguero. This is where Hazard needs to step up. Finishing is not his best, but he always makes double figures anyway and he needs to be more important in games where we need goals. Last season, he was more effective when we needed to score. This year with Costa arrival, he improved his dribbling and attacking play, but decreased in finishing. Oscar scores goals here and there, but Cesc is another one who I expected few more goals from. I know he wont be Lamps 2.0, but he is not even close to look like man who can score. I know he plays deep, but if he could have better finish, it would add another option to our attack. We dont have any player who can strike from distance regulary, Costa is average outside penalty area, Cesc, Hazard dont try and Willian, Schurrle were quite shit in most attempts. Matic has other key roles to work in midfield and I dont even expect him to be responsible for goals, while our AMs and Cesc should be. There, I feel Willian will have to be cut off. We need players who can score regulary, not just Costa. Hazard still has potential, but he isnt natural scorer. This is where a player ala Reus would be appreciated because Im tired of watching Willian waste every third ball, despite his hard work. We need goals, goals goals. Costa alone cant do it all by himself.

Hm, I may not be clear enough, but that comment was towards today game. Overall, he was quite team player, but not against Castle. --- About comments above, I have no words...he may not be Messi with the ball, but I always thought he has good control for a striker. Not exactly Drogba or Aguero, but still good. His goal against Everton for example...people need to calm down because Torres comparisons are embarassing. Two games without goal and people would replace him...He was shit today, has to be said, but he is our top striker and will get back on track sooner or later. Support our players please. And I could swear same people who were calling him best striker in the world few months ago are now calling him average. I would even go find older posts and compare them, but I wont waste time for such ''fans''.

He did well picking the team for today, but made mistakes for not rotating in previous weeks. As for missed chances goes, Willian is the kind of player I dont know why is so wanted here. He is fantastic runner and hard worker, but he is also a winger and he doesnt do his job. He fucks up attacks with his bad shots or wrong decisions. Yet he is appreciated for his hard work. But everyone forgets he is winger, and you have two kinds of wingers; a direct one who dribbles and scores goals and sets them up with good passes i.e. Sanchez or Di Maria. And then you have passive wingers who run run run wide and create width, make space and finish of with a good cross like Candreva. Willian is neither. He works his ass off but if we had efficient winger instead of him, we would have 5/10 more goals. And how come Mou say that we were team who wanted to win but got unlucky? Did Newcastle wanted to lose and still scored 2 goals or what? He should say its our fault. Nufc were bit lucky with goals, but we were not efficient because we were tired. As for sunderland game goes, it was completely Mou fault because we didnt play wide enough.

Pique is probably more mistake prone than any of our CBs including Cahill. He was good few years ago, but he is not that defender anymore. And hoping that he might become good again with Terry as partner is risk. Terry wont be here forever and even if he was, there is no guaranty that Pique would play any better. Theoreticaly, he is almost perfect. Age, experience, size. But he is a mental bomb and I feel he would cost us in big games. We need winners with good mentality. And he is slow as fuck, him and Terry would be slowest pair in europe. I would much rather try to get Godin or Chiellini if we will even target another CB anytime soon. Varane is impossible dream though. Maybe Laporte but he is quite inexperienced. Could work well if Terry stays for two more years and then gets replaced by Zouma.

He was too selfish and agressive. Needs to work it for the team and goals will come.

-------Cech-------- Azpi-Iva-Zouma-Luis ----Ake-Mikel------ Ramires-Salah-Schurrle -------Remy-------- Maybe Christansen, Solanke or Baker too. I hope Mou plays this team for sporting and Derby. I dont realy care if we lose as long as we test our alternatives and give younger players a chance. We are already first in CL and I dont care about Carling, so from my point we can lose both games if thats the price to test youngsters. But most probably Mou will want to keep his results clean and keep clean sheets and will maybe make change or two while playing reserved for both games...I hope Im wrong and he actualy does something to see how alternatives function and not just look at his results all the time... Its weird team I know, but I fucking demand that Mou rests as many starters as possible and plays as many subs as possible. Some need rest and others need chance to prove. That said, I am sure Mou will play Matic, at least one of Hazard/Oscar, Iva on Rb again, maybe even Cesc. Shit.

Had shocker today, but the rage here is unbelievable. I think Azpi-Iva-Terry-Luis should be tried, but as far as I know Mou, he will keep Cahill in starting 11 until we sign another Cb. And Cahill will sooner or later play good and this thread will jump on his bandwagon again...

I wonder if people actualy watch games or just randomly blame certain players i.e. Mikel, Oscar. I dont think Mikel is starting quality here, but he somehow always puts decent performance in important games and he did very well today. He didnt start over half year and he was still decent replacement for Matic. Cahill and Iva were reasons why we conceded, not Mikel. However I have my doubts about Mikel as holding DM. He is alot more like b2b player for me (if he was given more freedom), but for that role, he simply lacks speed. He is slow as fuck for african player in prime age. At his size, he obv cant be pacy ala Willian, but he simply lacks that energy that Toure, Pogba, Wanyama, Essien have/had. Thats why I dont particulary like Mikel. He is not mobile, not going into challenges with enough determination, but apart from that he is good player. Today he was quite brilliant in attack I must say. He had some lovely crosses, dribbles and runs. Apparently he made 3 dribbles, second best after Hazard of all 22 players. Not bad for someone who is apparently shit. His ball control in nice and he holds the ball well. Like I said, he is kinda better in attack than defence and I would love for sake of it to see him in more advanced role in some cup game. Reason why we lost game is because of Iva and Cahill, and because our attackers were fatigued and because Costa had realy shit game. Not Mikel. That said I dislike his passive defending, his slow reactions, but he is fine as backup Dm as long as others do their job too.

Sure I hope we play backups for both games, try Azpi Luis as fullbacks, Iva and Zouma as CBs (to see if they could get ahead of Cahill and to give Terry some rest). Also play Ake, Ramires, Mikel, Salah, Schurrle, Remy and Cech. Maybe even Baker to rest Oscar.

Well well stoke picking up form and will hit top just in time when we face them...

Imo Mourinho today is different than one from 2004. And we had different players back then. Old school who had more balls, more efficinecy and more energy. Now we have more flair but we cant use it we dont have proper rest. Inter or Real teams he managed played in less matches per season and he could play same team more with bit less rotation. I understand Mou wants solid back 4, but Cahill aint exactly Carvalho or Ramos while Iva aint Cole. Quality is different and you can replace Cahill or Iva and it wont be so different, but he couldnt replace Cole or Carvalho because they were different quality. I think if Luis was given longer run, it would benefit the team. But Mou is 'afraid' to try it. He doesnt like to admit mistakes and he will keep to his plan despite it might be wrong sometimes. Iva was good in start (like always) but now he doesnt score, doesnt assist, many goals come from his side (not because of his fault today,but where was he? He is out of position all the time). He keeps playing with ball, but oftenly wastes it. On other hand Azpi (who would be much better in attack on Rb if he was given freedom like Iva) isnt allowed to go forward. Then again, I think rotation was only thing that stopped us from winning against Sunderland and nufc because we were tired (look at Hazard or Cesc) and that is completely and only Mou fault.

Just rest Iva, Costa, Cahill,...anyway rotate, adjust tactics and eat some pride instead of pointing at opponents all the time... I think Mou has been in this game for long time, but forgot how to be adventurous and looks only about numbers, results etc. I have feeling he doesnt see some beautiful options he could use to function better, i.e. Luis or Remy in certain games. But thats just me, maybe despite all those world class players we have, we cant beat sunderland or nufc...they did their job, city did their job but we didnt. Simple as that. Now get back in training and improve.

No Cesc next week, Cahill is in bad form and Iva wannabe Ronaldo doesnt help us either...Mourinho better fix these problems. And why do we have Ramires, Salah, Remy, Zouma, Luis etc if Mou never rotates? In start, we rotated more and had good results. Now we didnt rotate since november. Well done Mou well done.