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Sandro had the same injury mvg and Lucas pool had. Gotta wait 2 see whether his devel will resume or not. Prob why he hasn't been picked for Brazil since getting injured. He was before though.So the idea sandro is worl class or it is going to be isn't crazy at all.

Mourinho made a mistake today by not subbing off Torres. Yes Torres was MotM for me too, but I could see he was going to pick the second yellow any time and I recjon our coaches should've seen it too. I know it's tough to sub the best player on the pitch, but you do what's best for the team. As usual I'm unhappy with Mikel's performance, yes his passing was mostly good but his defensive work not so much. I don't understand, for example, why he always jogs back when he's behind the line of play; he should've been sprinting to get back and try to help as soon as possible. An additional man in the box could've prevented the passing and Spurs goal. Oscar crosses were bad because they were all low. He should've lifted the ball in most of them. Hazard had a very good first half in my view. Like the way he moved and his aggression. JT and Luiz were great. BTW, I voted Torres for MotM, but Ramires was a monster in the middle; his defensive work, movement and speed were just too good for Spurs. Mata had a great second half too, as expected. BTW2, I still wanted to have gotten Debele - great pivot player. Flashes of greatness in the second half... hopefully we can build on that.

Mourinho: 'We play Man City on Sunday before cup game v Arsenal on Tues, so our Under-21 side will probably have a great experience.'

so soon after the surgery and already looks like Bieber. Realistically over a year recovery time.

very cool, thanks for the link! Interesting discussion too and Neville is spot on about the cultural differences. In Brazil I can tell you, because I've seen, and heard it so many times, that if a player (any players from any position) is good enough he should move forward to help the team. It's just that simple. It's far more difficult to find players who have the creative quality to break defenses than the ones to defend well. Again, the transfer market corroborates that view as defenders are far less valuable. Unsurprisingly, the exception being more rounded players like David himself. What to do about it? Well, either Mourinho wants to create a system in which David can work or he must be sold while he's still highly valuated. I can see him becoming a dominant player at Barca because frankly he is already better than Puyol. And certainly better than Mascherano as a CB. I can many other team that could benefit from his style of play. Not sure Chelsea's Mourinho is one of them.

fair enough on Capoue, but one cannot ignore the transfer market and player valuations. It's one of the very few facts we here "work" (as in have fun) with.

The transfer market seems to strongly disagree with most of your opinions. The valuations of the players are based on a number of factors, including the stats you point to. The weight you put on such stats contrasts drastically with such valuations though. Sandro was starting for Brazil at one point, and once again, until Nigeria reaches Brazil level, that should be enough as a differential. Sandro was a strong Milan transfer target at some other point after a strong champions league performance against them. Sandro is a lot more aggressive than Mikel; picks cards and plays far more physically than Mikel does (Mikel never picks up cards for a DM). He has a wider passing range (same as Essien does), and had long-range shooting again like Essien (Mikel can't shoot from distance for his life). Sandro is only 24 and his development has been hindered by a long-term knee injury so we have to wait and see. No idea about Capoe since he's a new player and fairly young at that. Back to Mikel, if you are right and he is indeed as good as you claim he is in what you claim he is good at, then he is still a very limited player who can only be used in certain games and situations where we are pressured for possession. NEver more than a rotation player for me. Again we will see how well he can keep possession when we are under pressure. Was not impressed against United and City last season. * The ability to keep possession is only important when the opponent actually wants to take the football from you.

don't want to scare you, but my right back, once, kept on playing for a while, and then finally walked off the pitch, and we thought the same thing. Next morning we'd find out it was indeed cruciate. Realistically, that's a year-long recovery. Lucas from liverpool returned sooner but only now has been able to reach pre-injury level of performance.

a 4-day rest for Ramires is more than enough...

Mikel has to start against Spurs... That's where his useless back-passing awesome ball-possession skills can be of any use, assuming they actually apply some pressure on us. I for one want to see whether he can pull it off.

That was quoted ad nauseam at the time of AVB. AVB was hired to implement a different style of football, which he began by benching players who wouldn't work in his system; essentially the same thing Mourinho is doing now.

I was indeed a very insightful interview and at the same time disappointing. He's essentially saying that change will come very slow and we are prob going back to the boring (and old) counter-attacking football for the foreseeable future. Which is surprising because Roman was quoted saying he wanted a different style at some point.

I'm not that sure about Fellaini since it's early days and he did look better in the second half when he stepped up the pitch - though prob more about City slowing down than him. It's a major change for him and he will have to improve quickly when sitting deep because I agree he isn't good enough for a CAM position. However, I agree about Young. I look at him and always wonder how that guy can be both United and England International. He runs with his head down!!!! That's a major red flag in football...

There won't be any. Is it fair to start player X against City away from home and then start player Y against say a Crystal Palace and measure their performance equally? Especially when talking about a defensive player? One had no pressure, the other was being tested at all times against world class strikers.

Starting players like Luiz, Mata, or Willian in a match like this accomplishes nothing. If they all play great, what does that prove? The same way Everton game was much tougher than Fulham's, this one will be far less challenging esp for the defenders. If we are going to play the youngsters, at least some of them, this is the match to do it.

Toure was fantastic - absolute dominant performance. City is going to be difficult to beat with a spine as strong as they've got. Kompany, Toure,and Aguero with quality on the bench too.

I hear you but don't value short passing at all. A huge number of players are quite comfortable with short safe passes. Parker is one of them. Gareth Barry another. The really good DM/CMs are the ones who go beyond short easy passes: ex Toure and our own Essien back then (when he had functional legs). I really paid attention to Mikel today. Nothing, nothing impressive about his passing. No pressure at all. He actually did lose possession and started a counter attack in the first half when surrounded by two players; it seemed like he was going to keep it by turning and shielding the ball, but then he lost his footing and the football. Until the first 15 minutes he attempted two long balls which were passed directly back to a Fulham player. After those two he did not attempt another long ball for the remaining of the first half. Again, I hear what you say and how much you value these types of passes. I can see more value in such passes when we play a team like United away from home. So, if in such situations, under constant pressure, he is able to do the same, then and only then he will have my respect. For me he must reproduce what he did when Fulham were tired and beaten in the final minutes of the match. That type of stuff is what better CM/DMs do on a consistent basis. No he doesn't have to score all the time, but he must move like he did then - esp at home. No not all the way to into the opponent's box, but close enough so he can too open up some spaces for the other players.

because of the obvious difference in quality and price between the two squads - and how shitty Fulham are. Defense line dominant against this fulham side isn't a big achievement to me. And Bent is an English fantasy.

football as everything else has changed. Things are global now and Chelsea ambitions always include Europe. Just saying.

we watched a different game as usual... no pressure at all until the second half for me. Most useless passes known to men. Who gives a crap about side/back passes really... ?!

We will see about that along the season and for the national teams... Proper percentage defenders are good until they face their maker and then you lose. I'd pay more attention to what the transfer market says, the same way you do when you talk about Mikel.

Mikel had not made any runs, no shot on goal, no successful forward pass until the 80th minute of the match. I honestly can't think of any key play from him (even defense) until the end of the match. To be fair on Mikel, Ramires was just as poor. And not to say it was team thing, Oscar was good from the start till the end. Once again, nothing would please me more, if Mikel were able to do what he did in the final minutes of the match on a regular basis. I'd be the first one here praising him for that.

sure thing, but we did not play Southampton or Villa, nor did we play away from home. You know. it's extremely worrying to me that we had to start all our most defensive-minded players at once to play Fulham @ the bridge. Fulham are my pick for relegation,not only for their poor technical display, but especially for how tired they got in the second half. If I were a Fulham fan, I'd be asking what the hell they've been doing in the preseason. I do understand why Mourinho did what he did though - he said that himself during the pre-game interview (build some confidence). And he also said the result was a lot better than the performance in the post-game interview; he actually said we played better against Everton even though we lost there. I tend to agree.

we disagree on fundamentals here. For me you cannot have slow players AND at the same time play a high defensive line. You cannot also apply pressure on opponents, especially at home, without playing a high defensive line. I mean you can, but it usually does not work because there will be too much space between the lines.