robsblubot

I can certainly buy that that's the reason, but why?! He hasn't been playing much lately. Had a much needed break... yes picked up a injury after a good first showing, but it's been a while and he shows no signs of improvement. He's also fairly young to be suffering so much with fitness.

Forget about his contribution in attack where's the fucking work rate?! Where's the non-stop chasing and pressing high?! Tackling hard... nothing! He's been this slow pedestrian for both Chelsea and Brazil lately - rightfully so sitting on the bench for both. What's going on?!

Just a quick note about the comments on hazards defending and criticism of Jose. The argument made in previous pages that we hardly concede from his side does not hold water imo: 1st this is football and far too dynamic for this kind of assessment 2nd hazard enjoys a free role - as Shirley said some time ago - which means the whole team shifts to accommodate hazard. Jose is trying to get the team working first and will slowly reintroduce hazard, which might be made easier if hazard gets his shit together.

The interesting point imo isn't whether Jose was right, but the fact he at least wasn't as wrong or crazy as the Internet claimed (tc included). Can you really blame Jose for his choices knowing he sees this kinda defending in training? His reasoning was sound: in 2-3 games ivanovic will get his shit together - and imo he has already - but baba may take a lil longer. Bear in mind this was against the terrible Aston villa at the bridge - imagine one of the tough away games Iva struggled with.

His style of play is not appreciated in Brazil - reckon it's a bit too inconsequential, esp from open play. Personally I thought Oscar wasn't far behind Willian against Chile with both players producing very little up front, but I'd say that Oscar must be hated in TC. JK Oscar was also poor against Venezuela.

If Jose is a 'manager' then he has some, if not all, responsibility concerning transfers. a. so he either let go of certain players who he deemed not a good fit for his system and picked the wrong replacements or b. he let them go without picking any replacements either way leaving us too thin Then we have Mikel: (my opinion of him matters not) either he is good enough, as Jose claims publicly, or he isn't, which explains his 600 odd minutes of PL time last season. If he isn't good enough to replace Matic, to keep him fresh, then why is he on the squad?! I actually totally buy the physical exhaustion - been saying that was visible from day one. They've started the season completely unfit with many players carrying extra weight. The idea that it stems not only from the celebrations but also from exhaustion makes sense indeed. Incidentally, don't really agree with the reasons from the article. Don't believe they are the main reasons - not even the defense one... always find it weird when people talk about defense and offense as if they were different teams like in Am. Football.

Just take it with a grain of salt. Venezuela are just so poor... it'd be like picking the starting XI based on the Maccabi match. Willian was the top performer, so not taking anything from him. Much better than Oscar who was once again mediocre. I'm just not convinced because he was very poor against Chile, and against top opposition (being nice to Chile here) is when I personally rate players.

Also true. But then again, club as well as supporters already knew who Mourinho really was before hiring him - so we can't really claim to have been surprised by how he acts. With that out of the way, I wish he'd just STFU, but I guess that'd be asking too much of him.

more than that... one or two guys performing at the highest level might lift the team bringing the others out of the slumber they are in right now.

Agreed, but I wasn't referring to that though - the role is the same: b2b Because of Fernandinho's mobility and work rate that you've just referred to, he rarely sits like Matic does. Role wise, Matic is a very different player than both Fernandos (my original point) while Toure is also a B2B unlike Matic, even though they are similar build wise. just different angles and POVs. It's debatable whether a team actually needs a Matic type of player these days. Like some say no top team has a mikel type of player these days. I still think Matic is versatile enough to be an important player when fit and in a working unit and is a lot better than both Fernandos especially Fernandinho - highly overrated player (myself included in the overrating initially).

Fabregas isn't a quack and neither is he a world beater. There is a reason Barcelona let him (and Pedro) go. The same reason both players failed to claim a spot in the starting XI. They are good players who have certain limitations. Fabregas lacks pace and power while Pedro lacks power and technique (not so much skill but technique). Fabregas sill manages to be a good player because of his superb technique, but he struggles in physical leagues and games - tight markers can stop him from shining ... when he's needed most. Although he does seem to be on the cold side, Fabregas might not have the tools to be more aggressive, especially pace - difficult to challenge for the ball when you are always late and you move about the pitch. I've never been a fan of either, but they are certainly not terrible players. The problem with the squad is the lack of options and the fact these good players might have been promised a starting XI spot, or very close to it, in order to lure them. At this moment we are not able to compete with the top spenders. There is only so much cleverness you can pull off, especially on a consistent basis. When they are wrong they just buy another one - we need to move ours flops. Not saying Fabregas is one btw, just that it all adds up to the grand picture.

fernandinho is a toure - just not as good

well that's why we need a a larger squad than we have now - so that the manager can make a couple of tweaks depending on opponent and venue. Right now we have a a starting XI and perhaps one additional AM and one aging CB - not good enough. Yes, the lack of options is Jose's own fault.

Agreed, however Matic would be a huge improvement over the fernandos

Agreed, but we drastically diverge in how useful mikel is. Along with Ashley Young, he is in the "how the hell does he get paid by a top club!?' category for me. Mikel has one thing over Ashley Young though: Mikel doesn't play often under Jose - least minutes of his career last season - which makes me particularly happy as I don't have to watch Mikel's complete ineptitude in handling the football. Let me make this very clear: Victor Wanyamma is twice the player Mikel is - he can play football and Mikel can't (pass forward, score goals, assist, etc). Romeo is a lot better than Mikel too. I mean I could go ahead and list 10 EPL CMs better than him, but I stuck with DMs above just for correctness sake.

well I for one were hoping RLC was going to play with a bit more freedom in midfield which means with Matic unsettled/injured means Mikel next to him. Ramires perhaps, if fit.

Finally watched the game and thought Oscar was decent. Certainly not good enough, but not as bad as I've been hearing. Yes, Willian had a better game, only because he was able to put some decent crosses in the box. He was also a bit inefficient in the final third, so what was said of Oscar applies to Willian as well. This Brazilian team is as bad as the one who crumbled to Germany. While people had fun dissing at D. Luiz brain-dead decision making, the stinker was really the midfield or the lack thereof - it always is. I've come to think that Luiz Gustavo is nowhere near good enough. Fernandinho is also not good enough as is Ramires. So, Brazil has no CM to speak of - nobody as good as Vidal for example. Too many players on the squad play in Brazil - a very different league in terms of pace and these players will always struggle in a more competitive game. They can't possibly field a goal keeper (and yet they did!) who play in second division in Brazil against the likes of Alexis and Vidal - they literally play at a different speed he's used to. There are so many things wrong with Brazil atm that it's difficult to think they will come back to top5 any time soon. Almost forgot: Daniel Alves was awful and Marcelo good with the ball at his feet but awful without it Marquinhos replaced injured D.Luiz while still 0x0 and had a pretty poor game IMO.

yeah because Mikel is such a fantastic player... Incidentally, last season, when we actually won the league, Mikel played the fewest number of minutes of his career at chelsea (about the same as his very first season). So much for Jose's love for him.

Clearly a defense line that will take us all the way back to CL glory... Our team is better than our current form, but I have be honest and say this it's not a top team regardless starters.

Nah I got your point before - was just pulling your leg.Btw, speak for yourself - English is my second language (Portuguese first), but I do understand the need to speak more formally in certain cases. Americans are very informal even at work, so I've learned to be that way too. Bak to forum etiquette, It's a difficult balance to strike though - you prob wouldn't want people to be too cautious on here.

'Full of it' ... really?! Sure you guys have bigger fish to fry?! Fair enough though - your rules. I honestly meant just a strong disagreement.

You answered your own question above. Every player is playing well below their norm - Ivas drop in form is smaller than other players but his form wasn't that great last season so it shows. However! Iva plays in a peripheral position which is by definition less important. It does not matter whether Iva gets targeted or not like someone said above - playing attacking fullbacks who are a defensive liability is hardly something new and teams cope just fine.

I wish he had replaced fabregas and ivanovic because I am confident that the results would have been the same or worse. Because the evidence says that one or two player tweaks doesn't make that much of a difference: like I said before Mikel played instead and alongside Matic and guess what the results were? Terry played and was left out without much of a difference really. We have our own preferences and dislikes, but if you don't see tha the problems go Beyond team selection, then imo you don't know why we are losing which partly explains the hate against Jose. Fans tend to believe in the quick short term fix: fix the confidence... Replace the manager... Sub this or that player... It's never that simple. We are in a deficit compared to almost all the other teams in the pl and cl. We are slower, weaker, and less sharp. That's what we have to fix first. Unfortunately it's s lot easier said than done.

Torrid game in their heavy loss to Arsenal United midfield was very slow and Mata adds to the problem. Mata is a difficult player to fit in team because he's too slow for the attacking positions and too weak and small for cm. not to mention pretty bad defensively. Of course playing Ashley young as LB of all places helped too.

Fair enough and yet another common routine, incidentally mostly from Belgium supporters, is to look for somewhat external factors to explain hazards poor form.Motivation and confidence are linked with fitness - hard to be confident if you lose every 50/50 ball...Hard NOT to gain confidence if you are stronger, faster, and win every dispute esp when you already possess the complementary technique like hazard does. Slumping after winning silverware is a very common tale - we are just taking it to a whole new level. Btw, "you are full of it" merely says that I completely disagree with what you just wrote no more no less. I am not representing the truth just my opinion.