Belgiannutt

What are you talking about ? Noone is blaming Oscar.

Well that was my point. The rest is more of an Oscar vs Ramires debate. Both offer something entirely different. Ball retention and buildup play vs stamina and driving runs into space. I do think that whether it was Oscar or Ramires in our midfield on Saturday, we would have still gotten dominated by Everton. Oscar might have offered more build up play and ball retention but Everton would have still been all over us.

I merely stated that Ramires does offer us drive and penetration with his runs but only in certain games where the games gets stretched and space opens up. Nowhere in my post did i say Ramires was THE solution to all our drive and penetration problems just that he can offer that in the right circimstances. It was, Everton did well to get back quickly and we didn't do that great on the counterattack but there was space to exploit and Ramires did at times offers us drive and penetration with his runs.

Don't really understand what you find so funny about that ? It's true. Ramires does offer us drive and penetration. When games get stretched and space opens up Ramires is excellent pushing forward as he has loads of pace and likes to drive into space when it's there. The Everton game was that kind of game.

I think it's the official premier league site that doesn't credit the own goal as a Hazard assist. Think the majority of the people take their statistics from there and consider them to be the more "official" stats. I understand that but lets face it if Hazard doesn't come up with the right numbers, at the end of the season, people are gonna be complaining that he didn't have good enough season. Now it seems like it's the only thing that matters, numbers.

Our NT manager said today that Hazard is struggling with an old injury which is why he didn't call him up for the NT. Apparently, because of the injury, Hazard can barely walk after playing a game. Not sure how i feel about us playing Hazard when he's suffering from an injury. Also doesn't seem like it's so "minor" since he can barely walk after games. Hope he takes this time to rest up a bit. Still a long season to go.

Yeah I know what situation you mean. I think he hesitates (he actually pretends to go for it ) because Lukaku 's still in motion. A lot of the times Hazard beats players by causing them to stand still. By the time he's got Lukaku standing still Coleman's already covering the space in behind Lukaku. If you wanna see it again here's a video of it. Happens around 1:32 .

True but how many times is he actually allowed to get into 1 on 1 situations ? Every PL manager knows Hazard's lethal when it comes to 1 on 1 dribbles. (Lack of a supporting left back doesn't help this either.) Also how many times was he able to get on the ball in Everton's final third ? Not a lot. I do agree that Hazard at times can be a bit too passive though.

He can play there but his best position is centrally. On the 10 or on the 8. Oscar-ish is probably the best comparison. He's good at most things, great at some things but not worldclass at anything. At best i can see him be a squad player here but i don't think he has what it takes to be a starter here. Just my opinion ofcourse.

While our back four did get exposed by our midfield they still should be dealing with these situations a lot better then they have done.

He's actually gone. Now it's time to :

Well i guess we'll have to agree to disagree on that. imo Azpi at times will defend to narrow leaving a lot of space on the wing to exploit. I don't know whether that's a tactical guideline by Mourinho or just Azpi's natural reflex because he's a right footed player playing left back. When did i say Hazard shouldn't defend ? I merely stated that Azpi's tendency to defend too narrow makes it more difficult for Hazard. Not exactly the best example seeing as how Ribery has Alaba bombing forward, supporting him in attack and lessening the burden on ribery. Hazard has no one he's on his own on that left side. Again when have i ever said Hazard shouldn't defend ? Well to put it bluntly, because none of them are as good going forward as Hazard. Look all i'm saying is we should try and look to ease Hazard's defensive duties a little or at the very least offer him some support going forward (Filipe Luis) cause now it's a pretty shitty deal for Hazard. He has to track the right back all the way into our own 18 yard box and doesn't get any support when going forward. He simply can't keep doing that. He doesn't have that engine to keep going up and down the line. He's not that type of player.

True but don't you think that's extremely unfair towards Hazard ? We're basically telling him he's on his own in attack but berate him when he fails to track a run. Why don't we just play Filipe Luis and have both Luis and Ivanovic work in tandem with eachother. If we attack on the left Luis goes forward, Ivanovic stays back. If we attack on the right. Ivanovic goes forward, Luis stays back. It's time for Filipe Luis to come in. So you agree that Azpi defends to narrow at times ? Wouldn't that mean that you agree that Azpi defending to narrow would put more pressure, defensively, on Hazard and make our left side more vulnerable to overlapping runs from right backs, making our left side an avenue... Something which you were eager to acredit solely to Hazard ?

Talking in general yes Hazard isn't 100 % full proof when it comes to defending. It just doesn't come naturally to him. It has improved and will continue to improve but it's never going to be perfect. He's always going to make mistakes from time to time. At the end of the day he's still an attacker first, defender second. About the game today. Sorry but i really have no idea what you're talking about. Hazard did his defensive work, apart from the first goal. He might not always have been succesfull in stopping the cross or intercepting the ball but he was tracking back he was there helping out. Why is it that Azpi isn't put under the same scrutiny as Hazard ? Why does Hazard have to help Azpi on defense but Azpi doesn't have to help Hazard in attack ? Also i'd like to hear your opinion on what i said about Azpi in my first post. "He offers nothing going forward and at times defends to narrow" Do you agree with that or not ?

That's such bullshit. Apart from the first goal, Hazard did his defensive work all game long and helped out whenever Azpi needed it. Azpi offers nothing going forward and at times defends way to narrow. I like Azpi but as a right back not a left back.

Coleman was the one who tried to provocate Costa.(and got him the yellow card in the process) He was putting his elbow into Costa's back and constantly nudging him. Costa reaction was justified. Serves him right.

Why do some people want to spent 20 million + on a second choice striker ? You do realize whoever we sign will be sitting on the bench for the majority of the season right ? Remy is a good all around striker with a lot of pace. He's already used to playing in the PL so he doesn't need a lot of time to adapt. He's a proven goalscorer in the PL and he's cheap. Excellent signing if it happens.

It isn't, it's actually very smart from our end. If we sold him we'd have to pay off his remaining transfer fee ( i believe it's around £18 million) immediately, causing us to take a hit in our 2014-2015 ffp balance. With this being a loan we'd be able to spread his remaining transfer fee over those 2 years and pay £9 million this year and 9 £million next year.

Pretty sure we put in the "No takesy backsy's" clause

hmm disagree with that. I also disagree with what Pat Nevin said. We have got good sguad depth but i would say from our starting eleven there are 5 players that aren't so easily replaced if something were to happen to them. Terry, Matic, Fabregas, Hazard and Costa. I would say those 5 are irreplacable in terms of the quality they bring to the team.

Oh come on. "This guy gave what he could most of the times he played for us and even though he had really difficult times as a blue, he never gave up" No he didn't there were multiple games where it looked like he didn't give a rat's arse. Actually he did gave up. There was a period where he simply didn't care what we did whether we lost or won he didn't care. That's giving up. "the fact that his goals at Nou Camp and Amsterdam were absolutely immense for us" What ? His goal at Amsterdam yes but at Nou Camp ? His goal didn't change anything. We would have still gone through if he didn't score that goal and there was only about 2 minutes left to play. Immense my ass. "For me he will always be a special player" Special player ? Why ? What exactly makes him a special player ? "he never ashamed our shirt and our club" Euhm he's had a lot of embarrassing performances for us in a Chelsea shirt. Honestly how many ridiculous misses did he have for us. How many times did he take a shot on goal and it went out for a fucking throw in.

They used to do it in catholic schools here. My dad had it done to him. Everytime one of the nuns (teachers were nuns) caught him trying to write with his left hand they told him to put his left hand out and then they repeatedly hit his hand with a wooden ruler. My dads basically left handed and left footed but writes with his right hand.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2732164/EDEN-HAZARD-I-m-no-Lionel-Messi-Cristiano-Ronaldo-I-m-catching-up.html

People are really taking this "consistency" thing way too far.(basically what Styles said couple posts before) You can't expect Hazard to create danger when he doesn't have the ball or expect him to be brilliant every single time he gets on the ball.