robsblubot

They are not shit. They are all good and decent players who may or may not be good enough for us. There is also a. Question of style. I personally find interesting that we qualify a player with "does a job" while another, who is far more valuable and sought after, gets in the garbage bin.

Things I've learned on talk Chelsea: mikel and Cahill are great players while fabregas and Oscar are shit.

Mikel was absolutely fantastic today! I honestly don't know what was more impressing: his one-touch back passes or his elegant running in the dead zone. The highlight of the day however was his very good shot in front of the goal and completely unmarked. Just needed more luck.

yes. My point is that the coaching staff feel the same way and they are the ones informing Hiddink. Ppl tend to blame too much on the manager when much is shared withe the coaching staff. I think Iva will start for sure and would like to see less of Mikel and more of RLC, but Mikel is in the roster - beats me - so he needs minutes too.

Jose was gone and we still see mikel coming on ...

I was wrong. Considering what our current crop of players is made of reckon Adebayor will fit right in...

Do not care much for Mourinho as a manager and yet feel the sacking could've been avoided by the club somehow - getting the players to get their shit together, professionally for example. And believe this empowers the players way too much... every sacking does esp in these circumstances. Now, it doesn't matter anymore does it? Whether he manages United or not. I am really for that change promised some time ago, which was something Jose has always been incapable of proving. The prob is that the tampon manager is also certainly not able to provide, esp considering his late performances, so it is going to take a while.

He was energetic, strong, and decisive - did not look his age at all. Most importantly he displayed some really good footwork in a number of times - good technique too!

Agree on singling out players which is very difficult and prone to err. For ex, I am convinced that Oscar was another strong dissident as were many other squad players. The entire squad was not giving 100% for a number of reasons and Jose IMO was one of them. Which is a bit ironic since he built this small squad which makes losing players all the more damaging (no hungry replacements). Concerning the actual quote, disagree there because I feel it's irrelevant. Not doing what is instructed by the manager is exactly how players get managers sacked. I am not paying too much attention to the word used, but what it meant. I honestly thought the players looked happy, freer in the last match, which is far from surprising. make no mistakes though, this establishes a precedent which empowers players. It's a very difficult balance to strike and I feel the club has been historically favoring the players every time. BTW, I don't think Fabregas was a 'rat' - never thought much of him though.

Fair enough on the position concerning that he may have deserved the sack and that it may have been needed. However, I find any consideration about whether the players were against him extremely naive to be honest. We are not basing our idea that players wanted him gone on tabloid stories, but in the abundant evidence on the pitch as well as from Jose himself. Don't actually remember a manager saying that he had been "betrayed by his players." When I heard that I thought he was pretty much gone and if he still had some support from some of the players, that was sure lost after that remark. Once again, players don't have to go to the press, complain to a friend, or leak information. All they have to do is not give 100% in training and/or matches. I believe in continuity in football, and changing managers as often as we do makes no fucking sense to me. Now the tampon manager comes and who can he sign? Would it be his signing or the luminary Emenalo's? Then we buy a physical player who is not the style say Guardiola (or whoever the next manager may be) wants. Can't see any silverware coming our way any time soon.

So?! Mikel does that (jogs back) all the time... I won't take anything for granted and we've indeed played very weak opposition at home. Yet other players did not play as well as Oscar did against the same folks. Oscar has been so poor lately that I am actually hopeful he was fed up with Jose, because that means he is not as poor as he has been.

have to confess I absolute hate interim managements! I believe in continuity in football and in that sense, interim is just a waste of time.

Blasphemy! Players not giving 100% for a particular manager?!? It has never happened before... Only that it happens all the time! No, they don't have to punch the manager; nor do they have to publicly complain about the manager. They just don't give 100% in training and in games, or even more subtly, give 100% in games, but not in training. The supporters will see that the effort is there, but won't know why it isn't enough. They do it in subtle ways. Sometimes even subconsciously as they tire of the manager's rhetoric.

Players don't need a spine not to play or not to give 100%. Even more subtle: they may give 100% in matches but not in practice or during the breaks, so when it's time to actually give their 100%, they just can't. I think people are mixing things up a bit. Players may have their own agenda and backstab without need to have a strong character. BTW, Simeone would be Jose 2.0: same style just younger and more energy. Perhaps the right manager for this squad, but hardly the best long-term as we will be playing with a low block for the foreseeable future.

I think we have pages and pages explaining clearly why many of us think he's not very useful. Besides, your question applies to every player who gets criticized routinely - should we move over to Oscar's thread now? As a side note, even though you may not agree with the conclusions, there are interesting stats there: http://footballlive.ng/footballnews/9ja-news/wake-up-somebody-tell-mikel-obi-to-pick-his-boots-and-walk/ * Notice that the comparisons are about defending! My take from the stats: 1) people who don't like Matic much should really hate Mikel, because either Matic is amazing or Mikel is terrible. I think Matic IS a great player and Mikel is only decent/mediocre. 2) He's on decline at chelsea. You can go to squawka and play with the stats. hint: don't pick this season.

completely different type of fullbacks though - it's like saying you prefer oranges to apples. Alves is clueless in defense (yes Iva is better) and doesn't know what set pieces are. BTW, Alves is consistently awful for Brazil.

Mostly agree, but unfortunately I think we do have an identity - it's just not a very nice once nor is it compatible with the satature of the club. There was a funny bit on twitter, prob already posted here - goes something like this: Mourinho's seasons: Step 1: buy the bus Step 2: park the bus Step 3: throw the players under the bus I think #3 is actually the other way around, but players do tend to stop doing what Jose asks of them. Is it because he asks too much? Is it style? Work rate? The pattern is there.

Who?! Emenalo?! Our transfer policy is bad and had been bad before Jose. Wrong emphasis and it honestly feels we help certain agents to unload their players.

heh fair enough. Say for a club which has CL ambitions... which sadly and as implied above isn't chelsea. If I do go into my Mikel logic Remy also does not make sense. The fact people around here think he deserves to play (a lot do actually) is irrelevant. The fact that he does not play implies the manager and coaching staff think he's not good enough. in which case, why is he in the roster?

fair enough, but not really rocket science is it? How much did we pay for costa? $25m? $30? For a top striker?! Not a chance! Good luck getting Kane for anything less than 3 times as much - and he's hardly a top striker atm. Most times, market valuation does matter as it is indeed a competitive market with many scouts and agents crunching numbers. Now concerning technique, Kane is leagues ahead of Lukaku. Lukaku is obviously pacier and more powerful, so it's a matter of the type of player you want. I can certainly see technical sides like Bayern and Barca preferring a player like Kane though. Was never a fan of Costa, but I think he's currently unfit as are a number of the players - yes still not at their 100% fitness. That's how bad they were at the beginning of the season. I've said it before, but a number of them were carrying a few extra pounds and that's difficult to fix short term. I don't think they don't want to play for him - they just can't atm. The players, including Costa, are not as poor as they appear to be.

there have been better times to have a brazilian core... like any other time.

People were right in saying that he is probably our best striker right now. And yet, I still don't think he's good enough - actually not nearly good enough for us.

As a manager he holds responsibility in building this inadequate squad. The options or lack thereof is also his fault. I agree that he's not the sole responsible, but he's the manager.

Yes, he did create some changes, but he also botched several plays by putting a low cross or by mis-controlling the football and losing possession. He was interested and did a good job on the running part, but the end product just wasn't there for me. Then again many players played too simple and did not assert themselves as the superior players - which brings to question their much superior wages.