robsblubot

Not been playing well, but two goals have been gifted: one by inaction and the other by a poor tackle.

Well what were they doing then? Bc they had no player behind them and in such a case the low block just creates space... Defense line cup for me

Lol that wasn't oscars fault - he was the only one trying there and he was in a bad position (behind the player) and careful not to foul. The defense line did not step up quickly enough ... Gotta close him down as they had no one behind them

Perfect! Not the fixture to be adventurous... Get the best starting xi out as jose did.

true, but I'd rather have him playing in the PL because then he'll be forced to develop other areas of his game - cannot rely on pace that much.

no, I agree... stranger things have happened before though.

on the other hand, if Simeone (the younger Argentinean Jose) cannot motivate Torres, then no one else can.

Don't have to go that far... that would be pretty strange where I come from - south of brazil. Remember further south is colder, both people and weather (Southern Hemisphere). Plus more German and Italian people down there too. Brazil is a large country and regions differ in a number of ways.

Great tacke indeed. Terry made one just like that a little earlier, but that (tackles like that) isn't the reason terry is the better player. Terry is a far more complete footballer. Good performance by cahill though.

Don't think people are saying cahill has been so bad. Don't know of anyone who wouldn't want Cahill In the squad to be honest. Chelsea in general does not have 'bad' players, though for me, Mikel comes real close... Oscar is 23 and I am sure Chelsea expect him to improve, because as much as I like the kid, he is NOT good enough just yet. Then you go into characteristics, and Oscar is actually better defensively than Reus right now, but I digress. Cahill is 29 and if we can improve on him, why not? Wanna go English? Don't see many great English defenders since JT, so that's going to be tough. I personally like Phil Jones, but also very raw product who makes mistakes, but he's fairly young. I'd rather go big on Ross right now - guy with that much ball control in pace is as much of a sure thing as it gets.

It was a strange one... I thought we did brilliantly, but I did not quite understand what WHU were trying to do. They were also playing with a high tempo, which was very strange as a visiting team. Thought that helped us tremendously, so not sure whether it was strategy or perhaps their players just can't slow down; they might have to always play somewhat direct (like say Newcastle always does). Thought Oscar was fairly poor and thought Willian looked far more lively. Matic did very well again. This time though, Costa was just unplayable and that goal was out of nothing... Terry is on fire, but can't really judge the defense line because I don't think WH got there with enough players to cause problems - they were completely dominated despite the modest scoreline. NBC showing on TV was pretty pitiful: they showed all games with the top teams playing at home against huge underdogs. Arsenal did try to throw away a couple of points, but QPR were just bad enough as usual. Wanted to have watched Eventon match (could've online) as that PK against them was really (I mean really!) soft.

Is there something Cahill does that Terry is incapable of doing? How about the other way around: is there anything that Terry does that Cahill just can't do? Terry has been playing very well indeed, but he ain't getting any younger.

Fair enough on the original point you made - my misunderstanding. My point is that there is no Costa run or Fabregas goal had we not been ahead, and Stoke chasing. They opened up a bit which allowed us to counter them. Again thanks to John Terry brilliant kick-off header. Disagree on Stoke. They are very poor this season as the standings show. Toughest match of late was Newcastle and we lost that one. I just want to be cautious here as I still think City has better subs for when their key players are unavailable. We've been lucky so far (yes healthy squad), but we will be playing very often from now on.

Fair enough. Well, this is the Mikel thread and your post seemed a bit self-serving. We dominated the second ball with all the help of pretty much all attackers sometimes seen next to Matic and Mikel battling in the midfield. We did NOT dominate the game though. We created next to nothing up front, and the whole strategy was helped by the brilliance of John terry (and Stoke's poor defending). I am almost curious to know how that lineup would fare when chasing a result. Stoke is a poor side and we did nothing more than our obligation. I'd say we controlled the game, but did not dominate it. And Courtois saved our asses in that deflected shot.

I thought we were talking about football, you know, sport where 11 play (or say 10 play and one watches:)), but apparently we have moved on to tennis doubles? I'm a pretty decent (just like Mikel!) tennis player having played it since very young... game on! Mikel is surrounded by fantastically expensive world class players (Matic included) while Zonzi is one of the few players they've got who can actually pass the ball in tight spaces. No, he's not great, but neither is Mikel. Stoke is 13th for a reason.

Likewise, same folks who said Mikel was not culpable for the loss against Newcastle are now saying Mikel played a pivotal role in the win yesterday....

The article is interesting, but very poor in the way it simplifies things; in the way it makes the difference between the squads less gigantic. It kinda puts all the blame in their CMs which would be unfair. You remove Matic from our side and we'd still have a number of players who can defend better than Stoke's (not to mention play better). Even our striker is mobile and aggressive, while Crouch is old and slow. William isn't very creative, but very good defensively as well as keeping possession. Hazard was all over the pitch and even not having a brilliant game was a thorn both with and without the football. Fabregas won several tackles as well. Not even going to talk about our back line which is a lot better than Stoke's. Mikel is limited technically, but pretty strong too. That's one of the reason I think we miss the opportunity to develop youngsters: you can test players precisely when you have a consistent squad like we do. Yes, Matic is a superior player because he is complete. He is fairly quick too, which allows him to position himself perfectly as well as chase down opponents throwing fantastic tackles on occasion. However, our superiority as a team against a much smaller side isn't down to a single player, obviously.

I'd like to mention Courtois. Didn't do much aside from the crosses... but then... that long shot that got deflected and was going into the back of the net for sure... absolutely incredible. He made it look easy, but to me it was fantastic goalkeeping. Matic was MoTM, but had that gone in and it would've been 1x1 and Stoke would've parked the bus making it a lot more difficult.

Yes, that's called developing youngsters... Come on...our third striker is 27yo, so yes, the youngsters will never play.

That's exactly my problem with him: he's mediocre. Now if mediocrity is what you look for in a chelsea's rotation? player, then I have to disagree. Let me put it this way. Every other player in our starting XI would have been Stoke's key player (or at least very close to key in Cahill's case), except Mikel. What Mikel did today, nothing special really, N'Zonzi could've done it the same or better (with more energy). You can disagree with what I just wrote, and that's fine, but don't ask me to be big, to be nice, which sounds weird to be honest. I'm not a judge, and this is my pastime. We are talking about millionaires who don't give a crap about any of us; getting a hash critique from a random poster is included in their fat paycheck.

Don't disagree with the second part - already said that myself though not the whole month as other players were not available. Need more time on the first one as only now he will be in contention with the other midfielders. Again, I've seen enough of Mikel to know what he can and cannot do. Our opinions won't change on this.

Dislike (of his game) -> sure as I watch him today I think he is our worst player on the pitch by a fair margin. Terrible on the ball even though he's the one midfielder who's not being tight marked. Over-criticism? Obsession?? -> your opinion

now that's a tackle by Matic! fantastic stuff!

Funny because this is one of the arguments people who defend Jose make - when he does not employ youngsters - that youngsters are lower than the fringe players in the so called pecking order.

Of course, that must be the only possible explanation. -- Now I believe in what he said; disagreeing or not wasn' the point as I dislike Mikel as a footballer. I find extremely naive to believe anything Jose says to the press, so I tend to pay attention to what he does, not what he says. Mikel starting today makes me believe Jose really thinks what he said... there is another explanation, but we will only find out in a month or so. He also said, that "he and Fabregas knew very well what his true position is back then" which in the contest at the time, was CM. So, things change, and his positions to the press are, let's say, inconsistent. Having a player like Mikel on the squad means youngsters will never play. I really can't agree with that.