Stats

Really frustrating me, Oscar is. I just think the truth is that he is starting to get found out. If you put him in average team you would see how poor he actually is. I genuinely feel that he is made to look good at times because of the quality around him. When I watch him, he just does not inspire me with any belief. He lacks pace to effectively beat his man. I remember last season when he burned past that Schalke player and passed for Torres to score and that was very impressive but bar that he can't take on his man like Hazard and Willian can because he does not have enough pace. His dribbling is not of real quality. His long shots are not of real quality. Decent. What does he actually stand out in. The only thing I see him do for us is do those nice little flicks with Hazard and co and do neat link up play which should be standard for any no.10 at the club. He really is lucky to find himself given the amount of opportunities he has been given this season because his performances have been well below par. I hope Mourinho signs a quality CM in the summer so we cna go 4-3-3 and there is no place for Oscar or just buy a better no.10 than Oscar because we can do much better than him. Even thouhg Willian gets a lot of stick and supporters of Oscar will say his stats are more impressive than Willian's which is true, it is so obvious to see when watching us play who contributes more in the game and who is the passenger.

Oscar off and deservedly so. He was ridiculously poor. Finally Mourinho sees sense. Please just leave him out for a while now. He is such a glaring weak link in our attack.

Oscar, again just does not convince me. Few nice flicks and so on but what does he actually contribute going forward? I seriously don't understand what it is about him that Mourinho feels he has to play him.

Juts no. We are the home team against a team we will be seeing much more of the ball. No need to have 2 DM in there.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11675/9774394/harry-kane-eden-hazard-or-david-de-gea-gary-neville-thierry-henry-and-felloe-sky-sports-pundits-pick-their-player-of-the-year

Hazard tracks abck excellently. He just does not seem to get the defensive recignition that others like Sanchez and Willian gets. I was having a debate with an Arsenal fan about who is the better player between Sanchez and Hazard and who should get the PFA player of the season. He said to me that Sanchez works harder. I disagreed and said that is what the media leads you to believe. I was not denying Sanchez works hard but because it is picked up on more people will ignore the fact that Hazard has done a lot of defensive duties. What made my argument more pleasing is when I came across this analysis: "while his work rate is underrated; he has won possession in the attacking third more times (28) than anyone else". That says it all. He constantly does his defensive work and helps. Mourinho has really trained him in that department.

As much as I like Willian, Sterling has got more end product. He is on 10 goals for this season and has provided 8 assists. Last season he got 10 goals and only burst onto the scene in November. What was clear last season is that he flourished in a team with similar/better players than he is. He worked excellently with Suarez sometimes. This season has been a bit different. Sturridge has been injured regularly and Coutinho has been the standout star. If Sterling played here I have no doubt in his ability to create and score. He has proven what he is capable of. However I am surprised everyone is talking about him coming in for Willian. Sterling was best last season in the no.10 role and would do well for us interchanging with Hazard and co. That being said I doubt Mourinho will pursue this deal for this upcoming summer anyway. If he does, I will give the thumbs up.

Why does he have the wrong attitude? Because he wants to wait till the end of the season and evaluate his options? He is already a key player of that team and is arguably one of the best players there along with Coutinho and Sturridge. If he signs this new contract his role in that team will increase and he wants to see how ambitious the team are. He wants to win trophies. Say if Liverpool don't get into the top 4, they are most likely to miss out on key players. They missed out on Sanchez to Arsenal even though they were willing to pay up to the same wages if not more for him yet they were in the UCL. Can you imagine without the UCL, the big players they will miss out to us, City and United? All these things will weigh up in his mind and I also think he wants to see where his role in the team lies. He is not happy playing WB. He sees himself best in the advanced positions. That is why he simply has said he wants to wait till the end of the season to analyse everything which is totally understandable. He did not. He basically confirmed what BR has said and admitted he turned down the £100,000 p/w contract and I think a lot of the interview was a message to the Liverpool fans who probably view him as a mercenary. Majority of people have built up an image of him, mainly through the media which has been frustrating for Sterling as he has not once spoken on why yet people are building a negative opinion on him. As the reporter Natalie Pirks said: "I've interviewed Raheem Sterling before and he comes across as quiet and considered, certainly shy around the television cameras. This time it was much the same, but I could sense palpable frustration at everything that has been said and written about him recently. More upsetting for him was the way some Liverpool fans now perceive him as a mercenary. He saw this interview as a chance to put the record straight".

Fair enough however with Ivanovic there are games where he has looked vulnerable but there are more games than not where he is a complete rock. I have seen a lot of times, where players attempt to go past him but because of his power, he literally just shrugs them off. Seen that a few times. You look at every single RB in the prem and all of them have had their flaws bar Clyne really. Ivanovic is one of the best RB around. As I said and you pointed out, sometimes he has been caught out positionally wise for instance against Hull but there are a lot of games where he is a total beast defensively and offensively. I think there is a huge reason why when Luis comes in at LB, Azpi never plays there because Ivanovic is more times reliable than not for Mourinho. If you aksed me has he been a key player for us this season? I would look at it and say he has done a very good job however acknowledging like every other player bar Hazard he has had his moments where he has been exploited and looked shaky.

"Now undisputedly the best right-back in England according to the WhoScored.com ratings, Ivanovic has dispelled any thoughts of Pablo Zabaleta holding this crown this season, with sound defensive performances sprinkled with dangerous forays forward. Dribbled past only 13 times all season while making some 69 tackles, the Serb has also helped out with four goals and four assists in the league alone". http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11661/9783553/premier-league-team-of-the-season-according-to-whoscoredcom-stats He has his flaws but was going past the last few pages and the criticism is a bit OTT. There are many non-Chelsea fans who view Ivanovic as the best RB in the league. We obviously watch him more and it is expected that we scrutinize his performances more but he has been solid every season for us. He can be exposed like in the Hull game but look at how many games he has been excellent. Sanchez did not get a sniff up against him this season. 6 goals for the season is impressive and a few assists as well and he is generally a very solid defender. There is a reason why Jose keeps playing him. Could be rotated a bit to help him with fatigue but he is the best RB at the club.

Only? That is an impressive amount and ignore his assists. 6 is not bad btw either but he tops the most created chances and that is more telling. For example when Hazard played in Fabregas on Sunday against Hull, Fabregas just missed the target when he perhaps should have scored. If he scores, Hazard has another assist to his name but the point is assists should not be taken into account as you are banking on someone to score. There have been several times where Hazard has created something out of nothing and other members of the team are not on the same page. But like I said the most telling aspect is that he has the most created chances in the league.

Courtois Ivanovic Cahill Terry Azpi Mikel Matic Willian Fabregas Hazard Costa

It probably was always planned. He played 83 minutes in their game on Thursday against Bahrain which is nearly the whole game so it would have been agreed before the match started I assume for him to play 45. That being said he probably could have scored a hattrick for Colombia and would most likely be on the bench anyway against Stoke. Would like to see Mourinho give him a start though.

There will be aspects of his game that he needs to improve such as technical side however he has the physical abilites and finishing to score wherever he plays tbh. He never has seemed to be someone motivated by fame. He just gets a bit too big for his boots sometimes and thinks he is better than he actually is. I don't criticize him for it. He just sets himself a high barrier. But there is no chance he comes back here with Mourinho in charge. When he reaches 25/26 who knows where he will be. I am sure he will a have a bagful of goals to his name though. I am a big fan of him. He has scored a lot of goals for Everton this season but by his standards I think he has been quite average. A lot of those goals coming in the EL. He is only 21 though and that is what we have to remember. Got loads of time to improve.

Exactly and Remy is 2nd/ joint second striker with Drogba. Bamford will be behind Costa and Remy which means he would most certainly accumulate less minutes. We play with 1 striker up front. Costa is fit, he will play majority if not all of our league games. Cup games, Remy possibly. Anyway I don't see Bamford being here next season without playing PL football with another club.

And how many minutes has Remy played? If Bamford has those minutes that is just a season wasted. Bamford has time and is not in the same league as Remy right now, which will make it even harder for him. And it is not as if Remy earned them starts. He only started because Costa was either injured/suspened. Yeah and Costa and Remy are ahead of Bamford. At his age, Bamford needs to be playing. I got my hopes up of Lukaku being our second striker after his successful loans and yes he ran his mouth off a little but even after his first loan at WBA, we loaned him out again when he scored 17 league goals. No chance Bamford will stay imo.

That is not going to happen. This is Chelsea/Mourinho you are talking about. How many games as Remy started being 2nd choice striker? Bamford will be wasted here if we keep him next season. Remy is a quality striker and only starts if Costa is injured or in the cup games. Bamford is a very good striker but can you imagine him being up against Costa and Remy. Where are the minutes going to come from? He will end up being like Ake where he trains with the first team. Gets a few bench appearances then when he realises he is not getting much action he then will leave out on loan.

Ake is slim but he is quite lean and handles the phsyical part of the game quite well. It is hard to say how he will adapt to the professional mens game in that aspect however he did not look out of place in our friendlies in the summer and I don't think that is actually a weakness. He obviously is not as strong as RLC but he has the tools to play there.

He is such a talented player. Has excellent reading of the game, excellent technique and strength. It is not even about him regressing. It is more the fact that we just do not give the young players a chance. Hope he makes an impression at Reading and hopefully next seaosn will have a long season loan whre he plays regularly. His brother goes to the same university as me btw. We offerred him a 5 year contract last season so we obviously see something in him and I hope he shows what he can do because his versatility and abilities on and off the ball is exceptional.

If Costa does miss the Stoke match like Mourinho hinted i have no problems in seeing Remy up front. The guy is a natural goalscorer. Had he been given more minutes and starts he would have much more goals to his name. It is no exaggeration to describe him as a quality striker because he is one.

First half was poor, second half he improved a lot. Was very solid imo. They could not get past him.

Important win. The stats of the match show how vulnerable we look right now defensively. They had dozens of chances but fuck it just wanted that vital win. Over the summer I am sure Mourinho will address the vulnerabilities within the team. Hazard was fantastic once again. Brilliant goal. Hopefully that is another performance to add to his credential for player of the year. Great position. We now have Stoke next at home. Feeling good. 3 attempts on target. 3 goals. Hull were unlucky but sometimes that is just title fighting spirit. Also massive credit to Courtois who made a mistake and recovered excellently!

My problem with bringing on Oscar is that he does not convince me how he can change the game. No real standout quality. Would rather of seen Cuadrado come on.

You are talking about an experienced player who has lit up the Serie A here. Not no rookie. This is a quality player. He just needs to show what he can do.

Giving him 15 minutes to play and impress is difficult. We spent a lot of money on him so if he was given chances in the team like Oscar has been given then we may see something. Dropping him in and out of the team, of course it will be difficult for him. He started against Everton. Nothing spectacular but decent. Started against Burnley. Poor like the rest of our attackers bar Hazard. I would like to see Jose start him. We paid £30m for him to be benched by a CM. Talk about ruining confidence...