Belgiannutt

While i agree with you, in general, that numbers aren't everything in Bale's case numbers are everything. Because he simply doesn't have much else to offer besides his goalscoring ability. He's a goalscorer. Goalscorers get judged by how many goals they score. He's got 12 in 28 games. Well RM fans are fickle no doubt about it. Problem is that Bale was bought for a 100 million euros and he simply isn't a 100 million player. Not even close to that amount. You said he did "alright" but "alright" isn't good enough for a RM player that cost a 100 million euros. RM aren't after stability. They just buy potential superstars for big money give them 1 maybe 2 years, if they're lucky, to prove themselves and if they don't match the expectations they sell them for half the price and buy the next potential superstar.

I actually understand RM fans about Bale. Bale was bought for 100 million euros and in his second season there his numbers are 12 goals 6 assists in 28 games. Solid numbers but you expect more from a 100 million player. Then there's also the problem that he's not creative nor flashy (flair, skillful). His entire game revolves around his goalscoring ability and so far he only has 12 goals.

I didn't say it was a fact. I said it would be pointless to debate it further because it's always going to come back to the same thing. I'm gonna say Oscar 's been poor, Pacquaio gonna say he was good. We could throw arguments at each other but neither one of us is gonna change their mind. Goals and assists don't equal good performance. For example the Newcastle game where he scored a goal and got an assist he was awful performance wise. Also his 3 goals and 2 assists this year have come in three games. Tottenham : assist that wasn't really an assist but a shot at goal and his performance was poor. Newcastle : goal and assist but poor performance, Swansea : 2 goals this was a good 90 minute performance. 3 games he scored or assisted in and 2 of those he was poor, performance wise. The other 7 games he wasn't good either. He was good in the first half against West Ham but he was again invisible in the second half.

His performances haven't been good. If you can't see that then any further debating with you is just pointless.

Problem is that he's only in top form for half of the season then his performances take a nosedive. He's young but he's not THAT young anymore.He's not 18 or 19, he's 23 and turns 24 in september. I expected more from Oscar this season. He's not a key player for me. Fabregas is a key player. Hazard is a key player. Matic is a key player. Terry is a key player. Key players for me are players that we can't really replace. When they don't play we lose something. Oscar isn't one of them for me. I don't really have a problem with players dropping in form like you say these things happen but this is Oscar's third consecutive season where he drops form in the second part of the season. That's my main problem with it. It's been a recurring thing. How long can we continue to start a player that everytime goes missing in the second part of the season ? It's true that benching him wouldn't be good for his development but the thing is i'm not looking after Oscar's best interest i'm looking at the teams best interest and that for me is looking for an improvement in the summer.

Slightly ? This is his 3rd season here and it's the 3rd time he's dropped form in the second part of the season. WNDS probably said it best. He's a player that doesn't really excel at anything. A jack of all trades but master of none so he needs to be in top form to contribute to the team. If he's not in top form he doesn't really have anything special to offer to the team. Now that wouldn't such a big problem if he were a consistent performer but he simply isn't. He usually goes off form in the second part of the season. Personally i'd keep Oscar but i'd be looking for an improvement. Pogba would be the dream signing. He's got everything you'd wish for in CM, he's a threat from long range, fast , physical, tall, high workrate and his technical ability is just ridiculous. Games against top teams : Pogba Matic in CM and Fabregas on the 10. Other games: Fabregas Matic in CM and Pogba on the 10. If Pogba costs too much i'd be looking for a more creative number 10. The way i see it Ramires Matic with Fabregas in front seems to be Mourinho's favorite line up against the top and sub top teams. So that leaves Oscar starting against the smaller and midtable teams. Teams that usually sit deep and where we need more creativity to break them down.

Well i do think he tries to curl it at times but his curling shot seems to lack power and he doesn't put enough curl on the ball to really get it past the defender and beat the goalkeeper. Like i said before i think he should work on his shot more. Could make a big difference goal wise.

Disgusting. Any chance it'll get even half the media exposure the paris train incident got ?

Think you need to watch it at a different angle. The goalkeeper and collins (don't know if got his name right ?) weren't in a position to cover the goal. There was 1 defender on the line and he shot it straight at him. Hazard should have finished after he takes his first touch. Willian should have scored. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYXTusrp66Q Watch at minute 8. It's a different angle behind the goal and you can see that the goalkeeper and collins aren't able to cover the goal. Bit annoyed with Hazard. Really wish he'd work on his shooting more and be more selfish and take the shot more often. Lost count of the amount of times he gets himself into a good position and doesn't take the shot. When he finally does take the shot he usually hits it against the defender. I think he's been amazing this season performance wise but his numbers read 14 goals & 8 assists in all competitions. While those are good numbers they could have been so much higher and they should be higher for a player of his quality. This last game against West Ham he could have had 3 goals ( header goal, chance where he cuts inside 7 metres away from goal and hits 1 of the defenders(7min 20 in the video), 1 on 1 at the end) and 3 assists (Ramires hit the post, Ramires header, Costa 1 on 1) yet he 's left with 1 goal from that game. It' s been a recurring thing this season, great performances but no goal or assist or just 1 goal or 1 assist while he could have had more. This season he could have easily broken past the 20 goals and 10 assists mark already. Really feel this should be the next step in his development, becoming more ruthless, more clinical.

Some Chelsea fans need to learn how to read properly. I said "He started the majority of those games because Ramires wasn't 100 % fit." The majority. I didn't say he started all of them because of Ramires not being fit. We don't play a 4-3-3 we almost always play a 4-2-3-1. Fabregas goes into the number 10 role. Ramires and Matic are the 2 players protecting the back four. Agree with Lionden, he was good in the first half today. Second half difficult with the game being so stretched.

Not to be pedantic but it's actually four big chances. Costa's 1 on 1, Ramires hitting the post, Ramires header and Willian open goal chance.

He started the majority of those games because Ramires wasn't 100 % fit. If you recall Ramires has been struggling with his fitness for the entire first part of the season. It took Ramires until the 27th january to be fully fit again. That day Mourinho stated "My Ramires is back". There's nothing ridiculous about it. If a big game comes up and Ramires, Fabregas and Matic are fit ( and aren't banned) Oscar simply doesn't get into the starting eleven.

Hazard Interview before the cup final. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/fa-league-cups/eden-hazard-exclusive-interview-all-is-rosy-in-the-garden-of-eden-10076588.html

Think it's best if we just agree to disagree. We've both said what we wanted to say but we simply aren't gonna see eye to eye on this.

Yeah we'll have to disagree on that. Just because Ivanovic is instructed to bomb forward doesn't mean it's acceptable for him to make basic defensive errors. Magically appear ? You're acting like he has to travel around the world to get back into position. It takes him like what 15 to 20 seconds to get back into position ? Like i said before, and Jason said it too, the majority of the mistakes Ivanovic makes are when he defends deep. Yes i did write that he bombs forward but he only bomb's forward when we have the ball, when we lose the ball it takes him about 15 to 20 seconds to get back at which point he's defending deep. Even if we try and press at times when we don't have the ball we usually drop deep and keep everyone but our striker behind the ball.

Don't get why you're bringing up proactive defending. Ivanovic isn't a proactive defender and the mistakes he makes don't come from proactive defending. Yes every player makes mistakes even the best but there's a limit. Ivanovic has made more mistakes then you expect an experienced defender to make. The majority of Ivanovic his mistakes happen when we're defending deep and you just said it yourself "Low defense line reduces the spaces behind them and makes judgement calls easier to make" So even with the space reduced and the judgment calls easier to make he's still making too many mistakes. "Iva will get beat again and he will make these mistakes again." Well that's kinda the problem... That's why people are criticizing him and why some people want Luis to start because he'll keep making them. Again, "the way we setup on the right" and "Ivanovic bombing forward" has nothing to do with his mistakes. The majority of his mistakes happen when he's defending deep. So you can't use his bombing forward or "the way we use him" as an excuse for his mistakes.

Yeah he injured himself against Aston Villa after he ran from the halfway line all the way to the byline. After the ball went out for a corner he grabbed his hamstring and game over for him. Yeah JT missed the game because of an ankle injury if i remember correctly. Well Torres his performances in the Europa league were quite good in general.

hamstring injury kept him out.

Well i do agree with you and DYC that there are goals that get scored where a defender can do everything right but the pass/cross and movement is so inch perfect that the defender simply can't intervene however the examples i gave of Ivanovic his mistakes don't fall under that category. He didn't do everything right and there's plenty he could have done to stop or at the very least made it more difficult for the player to score. Lampard's goal : He 's marking Lampard, ball gets switched to Milner, Ivanovic turns his back on Lampard and seems to completely forget about Lampard who makes a smart run into the back of Ivanovic, Milner passes to Lampard, goal. Okore's goal : He completely forgets about Okore and turns his back on him. When the cross comes in he has absolutely no idea where Okore is. Goal Chadli's goal : Again he seems to be completely oblivious of Chadli's run. He decides to double mark Kane leaving Chadli completely free and Chadli takes full advantage of that freedom. Goal I don't really get what defending as a team has to do with Ivanovic failing to mark players in his own 18 yard box.

Think you're misunderstanding the criticism Ivanovic gets. Noone is criticizing him for bombing forward and leaving space. It's clear that he's instructed to do that by Mourinho. People criticize him because he has a tendency to switch off in defensive situations. (Lampard's goal, Okore's goal, Chadli's goal) Kind of a no-no for defenders wouldn't you agree ? All these situations happened when Ivanovic was defending deep. I honestly don't understand why people get so defensive when someone criticizes Ivanovic. It's valid criticism. The mistakes he made aren't little mistakes. Failing to mark a player in his own 18 yard box. Deciding to double mark a player while his man was completely free. These are really big mistakes. Mistakes you don't expect such an experienced defender to make. Ivanovic has been excellent in attack but defensively he really hasn't been good this season.

I don't like a Ramires Fabregas central midfield. Ramires doesn't have the positional awareness to play as a holding midfielder and Fabregas is too slow to effectively protect our central defence. Ramires would constanly get dragged out of postion leaving Fabregas to fend for himself against quick and skillful players. Imo it would be a recipe for disaster. Whatever Mourinho decides to do it'll be dangerous.

I think it's gonna be this : Courtois Iva-Zouma-Terry-Luis Ramires-Azpi Willian-Fabregas-Hazard Costa We're gonna park the bus and hope Fabregas or Hazard come up with something.

My reaction : Only thing i would agree on with him is the first foul of Barnes only getting a yellow card but otherwise it's all bs tbh. First penalty phase : it's a handball whether it hits his thigh first or not is irrelevant as his arm is in an unnatural position and ball hits his arm. Same thing with the "he's not looking". So what. As if you can only intentionally block the ball when you're looking at the ball ? Second penalty phase : Honestly since when is it alright to push a player inside your own penalty box ? Mild or not, you're supposed to keep your hands off the other player. Penalty all day long. Barnes legbreaker : "Coming together at an unusual angle" "Aftermath of a pass". Are you fucking kidding me ? I've given plenty of passes on a football pitch, i've never ended up almost breaking someones leg in the aftermath of one. Also since when do the reactions of other players and supporters have anything to do with how a tackle should be judged. By that logic if a tackle is fair but the players and crowd react badly to it it should be a foul and a red card ? The reason why our players didn't react is because they didn't see the tackle. All our players were watching the ball not Matic and Barnes. Sorry about the rant. I know i'm kinda preaching to the choir here but this s*** pisses me off. It's one thing not to throw your own players under the bus, which i get but it's a whole other story when you try to justify their actions and act as if the referee didn't just royally f*** us over. It's disgraceful, shameless. I hope they get relegated.

Wtf Choulo, comparing US soldiers to ISIS and Nazis ? How about the fact that US soldiers follow the rules of engagement ? ISIS doesn't follow any rules. They kill people because of different etnics or religion. Same with Nazis. They basically killed or imprisoned anyone who didn't conform to the Nazi ideology or anyone who didn't fit the job description to be a Nazi. I mean seriously how can anyone in their right minds think US soldiers, Nazis and ISIS are the same.