robsblubot

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/02/jose-mourino-eden-hazard-chelsea-sacrifice-himself I understand your points, but my point remains: it's Jose's team. He did not like a flamboyant defender and sold him. He did not like an assist machine and sold him. Despite of what people on here say, Oscar remains his go to man. @Rom2013, agree to disagree because for me Ozil cannot defend to save his life. His languid pace prevents any serious defending from happening.

Ozil cannot defend. He will never be able to defend because he's not quick enough. He also has very low work rate; some would say he's a bit lazy on the pitch. Hazard is our Ozil (but quick and works harder) and Jose only allows one player to have somewhat of a free role on his squad and that role is taken by Hazard. There won't be another. Once again Ozil was available. As was Mata (for free too!). And yet Jose sticks with Oscar because he doesn't want a 10 (already has one); he wants a number 8 - take a hint from the number on his back.

Costa

easy guys... freshly arrived young players typically go through some physical preparation to increase this or that physical aspect (usually muscle mass), which in turn hinders their progress a bit short term. Now, I am not saying this is the case here as I don't have the info, but it is typical. The club won't say it though as this would be fodder for our opponents.

Very similar player to David Luiz in terms of characteristics. Just can't see Jose going for him, and not sure Hummels himself would be happy having to keep position as he also likes to move forward when in possession. Player for a different type of manager and team setup.

This Oscar some people around here want, the guy with lots of creativity, great touches, an assist machine... who cannot defend to save his life... well that was Juan Mata! Yet Oscar stayed and Mata is gone. So, it really comes down to jose's preferences as to how his squad should play and the characteristics of the players in the starting XI. Reckon that what people dislike about Oscar, that he is too defensive in the AM position, is exactly what Jose wants from him. Which brings me to my last point: perhaps Oscar cannot do ALL defensive work that Jose asks him to do AND produce as much when going forward; I mean something's gotta give and perhaps Oscar is indeed sacrificing himself for the team. Whatever it is, it seems to be working.

Oscar is far more similar to Fabregas than Willian. While Fabregas has better technique, Oscar is more rounded and better at defending. Pass completion is a useful stat for players whose jobs involve keeping possession of the football. That is hardly what Oscar is on the pitch to do. Granted, his pass-completion should never go into the teens, but having a high percentage of completion means very little without realizing the quality of those passes. Was the team setup for counters or possession? That’s another big variable in taking that controversial stat – all down to not knowing what Jose told them to do. He did misplaced most if not all his through balls in the first half. Kudos to United for blocking well, but also shame on Oscar for not mixing it up a bit. However, on the second half he did much better and I reckon Jose taking him off was a mistake. He also set up a goal by making the run and brilliantly waiting until the play unfolded so Didier could get into position – shocking miss by Didier though.

Opposition... Been warning people (or trying to) that the trashing of that outfit midweek was only natural due to the difference in quality. in football, your opposition has a say in what you can accomplish on the pitch. United had a good match and that caused us problems. I'm glad Falcao did not play otherwise the "problems" might have been goals. It was difficult for Fabregas and Oscar to pick up passes and keep possession as gaps were quickly closed and pressure was constant. This was even more evident against City as they are better than United atm. Still we had our chances and missed a couple of siters (Hazard and Drogba), so can't complain too much of our volume of play - it's not like United had 70% (cityesque) possession.

proof that you watched a different game... --- Had we faced united of old and this would have been a good result. This united however, will lose points to many teams as they have already. We did not play a great game and Courtois was incredible. I concur with others... if your keeper is MoTM you cannot claim dominance. Fellaini is really good in the air, so it was always going to be difficult for Cahill. Though RVP was all alone and that was the real mistake IMO. We lost control of the match as soon as Mikel came on and even by his (IMO low) standards he did not have that great a match giving the ball away when under pressure. Oscar wasn't great, but was obviously doing important things on the pitch with interceptions and making good runs like that one fantastic assist to Drogba.

The difference between Oscar from this and last season is Fabregas. Oscar is improving obviously as he young and learning the trait, but it is quite obvous that having Fabregas on the squad has made a huge difference for him. Fabregas (and Costa too) is opening up spaces that were not available for Oscar last season. This oculd be Oscar's season. The conditions are there for him to shine.

Completely agree. United have the raw quality to hurt us and we should not give them that opportunity. They've become much stronger with Blind in their starting XI - he's the type of player who brings stability to a side. I see us playing low block (city like) to try to control Falcao and specially Di Maria; these two must not be allowed behind our defense line as there is not freaking way our CBs can chase them. Don't expect free flowing going forward because it aint happening. Mata (if he plays) is not very pacey, but his creativity and smarts make him dangerous too. Persoanlly I don't think Rooney is very influential when far away from goal so, ignore him when dangling in midfield, but watch him when close to our goal (zone marking fine for him). Costa playing would be a huge plus as his aggression would keep their poor defense busy and worried - demanding attention (read cover) from the sides and middle. Remy just cna't do all that chasing Costa does. They are a team in transition and as such have ups and downs. Hopefully Sunday isn't going to be the day they "click." Characteristics wise, I don't think we are a good match for them. I mean, I dislike formations with 3 defenders because they either a) force the wingers/back to become fullbacks when attacked or; opponent stick players behind the winger/wingback. however, we just don't play that wide to exploit that. Out wingers actually move to the center making diagonal runs most of the time. Anyway... can't wait!

Agree to disagree then. I see a causality in the correlation (pricetag and position) and you don't. As long as Salah keeps on improving, he can become a pretty expensive player in the future. Don't particularly see the same (potential) in Ake, but time will tell.

Next time you go to a soccer field try an elastico dribble or say go in a full sprint in full control of the football always changing directions... If you can do them consistently enough, please present yourself at the bridge for evaluation... Sorry, this is not really debatable. Not only the market proves it, but it's common knowledge by anyone who plays the game. Defenders who can throw tackles and play with determination are a dime a dozen in the lower leagues. Technique however is hard to come by in the lower leagues.

I was the one who posted it. Spending more on defenders != spending more on defenders than attackers. And your causality is not right IMO: it's not that the stars happen to be the attackers; the stars are usually the attackers because they are attackers. I completely disagree with your point that defense is not easier: it's always much easier to destroy than to create. That was very deep and applies to the universe - entropy... anyways, more teams are realizing that defenders can ALSO create if they have quality to do so, especially for the teams who keep possession. That does not change the fact players like Gary Cahill, defensive especialists offer very little to a side other than blocking, intercepting, stopping others from playing. That's why they are cheaper. Same with holding mids who are the cheapest of the midfielders. So, if you pick David Luiz, it's fair to pick Bale (most expensive defender vs most expensive attacker): 50M vs 100M * and we know PSG overpaid for Luiz by a wide margin (prob around 50%) because of the new rich tag. One could argue Rm overpaid for Bale as well, but reckon not by the same margin.

For every David Luiz there are 5 Cavanis, and 5 Bales... your point? Even more obvious if you go by wages. Please compare apples to apples: take best (or more expensive) defender vs best attacker. End of contract situations will skew this obviously (e.g. Costa, Lewa). --- Speaking of the devil... funny (at least to me) thing that occurred to me last weekend: the Premiere can be a very peculiar league at times where David Luiz is not considered a defender while Richard Dunne is.

Fair enough. I still don't completely agree with it, but I can certainly see where you are coming from. I still see vastly different team posture when playing a weaker side - there are weak and very weak (can hurt us vs cannot hurt us) - and the very weak allow our (slow) defense to move up and participate in attack. I reckon we won't be seeing Terry moving into the opponents half (with just as much freedom) again this season. What you want to do can be very different from what you are allowed to do.

True and factually verifiable: the transfer market. Attacking players are far more valuable. (best defender vs best attacker, etc). The squad was too strong for this match; it was essentially our starting XI.

Agreed. Also, against weaker sides, he will let our very slow CBs move up a bit. Against guys who can punish us, he will keep our defense line very deep. That changes everything attacking wise. I quoted a very specific statement from your post and that's the one I disagree with. I got from your post, at least that specific sentence, that you think all it takes for us to win is will. So I ask you now, do you believe that our team is so superior to others that having the will essentially guarantees the win? Because I thought we were lucky against City - an opponent with just as much quality as we have (hence the low block as mentioned above). We have a couple of deficiencies that could be exploited by the opponent. We played against an extremely weak side today. Reckon Hazard wages would come close to covering their entire starting XI. I personally don't care for these type of games. Gotta win them and if by scoring a bunch of goals, good, but nothing more than your obligation considering the difference between the squads. Make no mistake we've got a VERY expensive squad! There is only one reason that may lead Real and Bayern to beat us and that is quality; quality our adversary today does not come close to having. English outfits would be far more physical and defend better, and deeper. Then we go into characteristics too. Speaking of determination and will, that's part of the package when Jose signs players. He always values the determination and work rate aspects of the game and demands that from his players. That's why Mata went and Oscar stayed. Jose is right and our squad will ALWAYS show determination which is part of overall quality. However, like you said, for a million reasons, things may not work out. Perhaps the opponent can stop Hazard like City did. Or they will keep the football for most of the game like Barca, PSG, and Bayern do (or try). It will take more than the opponent today for us to find out how good we really are. It will take time and to come out of this very weak CL group we got - not complaining btw just stating facts and option. OK let's just play Championship teams then! Great idea right!? We are going to win many times by 4-6 goals... Again, because we have excellent and very expensive players... However, for us to win the CL we actually have to beat the likes of Bayern, etc. If beating these nobodies by 6 is enough for you, then great. It is certainly not that important to me. Grinding a result next Sunday is - a match that will be just a bit more difficult than today's.

Can't really agree with that. So if we lose to Bayern or Real people will conclude it's lack of attitude, not the opponent's quality. Jose himself employs completely different strategies depending on the opponent's quality (and other factors). Let me put it this way: perhaps we looked for the goal the whole match because we knew the opponent had no quality to hurt us. Likewise, we did not look (at all) for the goal when playing City away from home. Someone, not me certainly, might suggest Jose erred in starting Remy and too strong a team to play a very weak opponent. Is goal average that important later on? Just wondering.

They do indeed weaken your argument, but certainly do not negate it. I've watched Remy play many times, so I tend to go with "I know what he can do already." He's no youngster, but yes, it's a new challenge for him and there is a possibility of small improvement still. I do have hope he raises to the challenge, but realistically I find that unlikely due to his age and price tag – considering the hundreds of scouts and professionals involved. I completely agree that Costa is worth more than 32m, but reckon we could’ve done better than Remy as a second striker. Especially considering how utterly useless Drogba is at 35 – I mean he was dreadful for Galatassaray last season and bad for Ivory Coast in the WC. I wouldn’t mind having Remy along a more powerful player like benteke for example. Or optionally, we could’ve gone up a notch by, say, spending 20m for a second striker, who would be more likely to provide proper cover for a top striker like Costa. BTW, we are far more fluid in attack this season than last regardless of striker. On the other hand, the defense looks more vulnerable too, which may become a problem later on this season and especially in the CL single-elimination stage.

I can't decide.... it's a huge dilema... Ben Haim vs Richard Dunne.

It's OK to agree to disagree. However, in the same post you ask me to remember what Remy did in the PL (for a far small outfit in completely different conditions) AND give him the benefit of the doubt.

There is no doubt Remy is more technical than Ba, but less imposing (physically). He's prob better than Torres too, esp because he's definitely pacier than both. My point, and reckon others, have been that a wide gulf separates Costa from Remy in terms of quality. Whenever Costa is out, we will be very close to last year in terms of quality up front. He will be OK in games like CP - even away - because of the overall quality of the squad (and Fabregas), but as soon as we begin facing stronger opposition in the CL, Remy won't cut it. We were very close from chasing the game on Saturday; a better striker than Campbell (perhaps Remy) would've put that ball in the back of the net (when he beat Cahill).

true. However, much more difficult to beat "the other" Pele record: 3 freaking World Cup wins...

Watched a bit of the game against Monaco - not only Luiz, but the entire PSG team wasn't as sharp. These tough CL matches do take a toll. It's just incredible people will put a blame on him when the football (awkwardly) bounced off his teammate, which then put the opponent attacker behind the defense line. Now, could he have done better by following the attacker and not assuming anything? Sure! Marquinhos could've done the same and he also didn't. Luiz lacks concentration, which is pretty well known, but people do go overboard in the blame game. PSG have had many clean sheets in the league - haven't lost a match. Conceded less than the others 6/9 (GA/MP). Once again, they've been struggling in the attacking department especially without Ibra, not in defense (even though Silva has yet to play this season). Cavani has been incredibly poor actually. Rnk Team MP W D L GF GA +/- Pts 1 Marseille 9 7 1 1 23 8 15 22 2 Bordeaux 9 5 2 2 15 9 6 17 3 PSG 9 3 6 0 15 6 9 15