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He will be back against Tottenham

Realisation of getting a bit too intimate with his own sister is hitting him hard now. Not surprised.

He missed the Stoke match for tactical reasons and was a sub. Same for today.

I hope Luis starts this game. There are some players who we need playing out there but when you only have 1 days rest it really should be a bonus that you have arguably the best LB in Europe waiting to play. It will be quite an insult to Luis if he does not play this game.

Believe me. There are some people here who think Cahill is really bad and it totally baffles me because I think he is a quality all round defender. You just have to see the comments on this thread to see how much people do not rate him. Mikel is no Matic but do I think he is a valuable player for the squad? I do. Regarding Barkley, he is one of my favourite players in the PL. If i had to pick any English player in my team it would be him. Fantastic player and as he showed against QPR he can do a very good job in the CM position even though he is considered a no.10.

You know what I remember, when I pointed out to the ones labelling him average that he done a very good job in every game he played. I cannot recall one game where he was a liability for us. People were trying to judge his loan at Villa as evidence he was not good enough to play here and as I was saying when you are playing for a team like Villa whose style is so dull of course he will not be able to showcase his talents but at a free flowing team like Southampton we are seeing the best of him. But you know what if he was here he would have been used like Luis and played back up to Azpi and he would not have been happy so I am happy he has gone and playing regular football at a very good team and proving he is a quality LB. His defensive awareness is quality as well, not just his attacking. Ideally the best scenario for me would to see him be our future no.1 LB but I know what will never happen unfortunately.

A couple weeks ago I would have had this as an away banker for us. They seem to have got over their dry patch and put together some impressive displays again and find themselves in 4th position. It is a shame to say this as he came through our academy, won the UCL and is doing very well at Southampton but it is a massivel blessing he is out for this game. They are lucky Clyne did not pick up a yellow yesterday or both of them would have been unavailable for this match. Targett is said to be their next version of Luke Shaw so that will be interesting. Should be a very good game and hopefully a win for us :blue scalf:

Well if Cahill was playing as bad as people suggested he would have been dropped. Yes, Varane is better than Cahill. Same way Reus is a better no.10 than Oscar. We don't have Varane, we don't have Reus. If Mourinho thought Cahill was that bad he would have bought Mangalae in the summer. Funny how people solely give credit to Terry for all our defensive players. Yes, Terry has been the best CB in the league this season but you don't keep the amount of CS we have done without an excellent partnership between your two CB.

And so does Mourinho and that is why he keeps his placce in the team. Mourinho will criticize players if he needs to. He done it with Oscar. Cahill has remained a firm starter in the team and I am sure our manager who watches him every game would say Cahill is a very important player for us.

How I see it with Willian and Oscar is how I would compare it with Silva and Mata tbh. Mata will probably score more goals and make assists over a season but Silva does more on the pitch and is a better player. Oscar has better stats than Willian but for me Willian is just a better player. He offers more than Oscar imo and when the team is not playing well I feel confident in Willian bringing about a chance out of nothing. Yes, he needs to improve his play in the final third but for me is the better player. I am a few here who think Willian is a very valuable player for us regardless of his scoring rates. Oh yeah and Mourinho too

Funny how the majority of people on here mock him as some shit defender yet on the SS commentary they were complimenting him about how good of a defender he has become here

I think it is because Jose wanted Hazard to get a goal. He was the best player on the pitch and a goal would have been just deserts. I wanted him to stay on the pitch for that reason.

Racking up the clean sheets now. Very impressive

Be careful Jason. Choulo will take offence and strip you off your role

Such a shame that Costa did not convert that beautiful pass from Fabregas in the first half. That should be another assist to his name.

Even if you are not fond of a player you should be big enough to give credit when it is deserved. He was not on Matic level tonight but he was good and did his job well. But you are saying "he is our worst player on the pitch by a fair margin". Jesus Christ! Some people. He was very solid. The whole team put in a good performance but Willian for instance did not have a better game than Mikel.

He makes the game look so easy. The way he just burts through and in other words says: "I'm coming through. Move". He is a master at anticipating and intercepting balls. He can play with the ball very well too. I hope by the end of the seasom, assuming his form does not falter in a downward spiral, he is in the team of the season because has has been immense this season. Best DM in Europe for me. What a performance

What game were you watching? He drew so many fouls and most importantly provided the key assist for Fabregas goal.

Cahill was always going to start regardless. That is why Mourinho rested him against Derby because he said he had played a lot of football and he knows he would be relying on him in the following games in the league.

Maybe it is the fact that he only 23 and does not want to be one of them players who leave at such a young age and gets attratced by the lure and money of moving to a big club and then destroys his career. Instead he has stayed at Lyon, played regular football and has improved. When the time is right he will most certainly be out on his way to a big team in Europe. He is only 23. Maybe it was the right thing to stay where he is. It is not the best league in the world but it is a good level for him to be playing at. If you were saying this if he was at the age of 28 or so I would understand however he is only 23 and has got years ahead of him. There are too many young players who think the grass is greener on the other side and it backfires for some.

5 goals in one week that is for Traore. 1 last week against Groningen, 2 in mid week against Ajax and 2 today against Heracles

Attacking wise I reckon Kolarov is the best FB in the league. It his defensive abilities that are questioned. Going forward he creates many chances. Excellent in dead ball situations as well.

It was good to see Christensen play the whole game but Mourinho would have played Azpi there had he not been suspended. Then Ivanovic was also suspened too. It is not as if Mourinho played him because he felt he deserved the start. He could have started Terry at CB and played Zouma at RB but did not so credit there for trusting Christensen but my point remains the same. I don't really think Christensen earned his place in the starting 11 on merit. It was more of a case that our first and second choice RB were suspended.

From being 8 points ahead a few weeks ago to being 1 point potentially on Monday, I would not be happy with a point. It is a hard game but one I expect us to win and will be annoyed with anything less. Especially when you consider that there next three fixtures are Palace (H), WBA (A) and Burnley (H).

I would be all for playing this side if we had this ethos from the beginning of the competition so at least the chemistry is there. For example first round against Bolton, I would have liked to see the likes of Baker, Boga, etc to play but they never even managed an appearance in the opening round or the following game against Shrewsbury. Bolton we were at home to and that is the ideal time to trust some of our brightest academy products however this never happened. Then we played a team inferior to both Derby and Bolton and although we made hard work of it, none of our brightest academy players bar Ake and Christensen played. Again, I felt this would have been an ideal game to play maybe Boga or Baker however this never happened and I have to respect that we have a big squad so the ones who were struggling to get starts like Schurrle and Salah needed minutes as well but now we got past that stage and considering RLC has only played 8 minutes for us so far and Boga has not played a competitive fixture for us, I just think it was not the right time to do it. I do agree with you that Boga could have easily done a job better than Schurrle but I would have rather seen him him make his debut previously. QF stage and thinking the likes of Schurrle have not got much minutes, you would think he had to play. But I agree about the questioning of when will our youngsters be given a chance. I knew as soon as we saw RLC only play 8 minutes against Sporting Lisbon that there would be no youngsters in the team against Derby. Or put it this way, when you fail to see the likes of Baker, Boga, RLC get any minutes against Bolton or Shrewsbury it was a myth that they would play any part against Derby in the QF.