Belgiannutt

Hmm don't think we'll see this one. If we're going to play with 2 strikers it's probably going to be the 3-5-2 we played last season at times. Courtois Azpi Terry Cahill Willian Matic Luis Cesc Hazard Costa Drogba

Because they can

They are better in terms of the quality talents they have. (and yes better facilities) Chelsea are a bigger club and has more pull when it comes to young talents. Take Musonda for example left Anderlecht for Chelsea. The level of our youth academy is better then that off anderlecht or any Belgian youth academy. Like i said before the reason why our output is lower is because the quality required to get into the first team here is a lot higher then that of Anderlecht. Players like Boga for example would get their shot in the first team for Anderlecht while here he would only be our 5th or 6th choice AM (he'll probably go out on loan though)

Oh come on that's not true at all. English youth academies are better then the Belgian and dutch youth academies. It's just more difficult as a youth player to breakthrough in the PL then it is in the Belgian or Dutch league. There's a clear difference in the quality required to get a starting spot. The problem english top clubs face is that the difference between their youth academies and their first team is too big.

Sorry mate but i'm not in to that.

He IS a legend and after this season he'll be a coach. Don't get what your problem is ?

Good point didn't even think of that.

What sponsorship deals are you talking about ?

No they won't. Let's do the math here. 15 % off £60 is £9. So for every jersey they sell they only get £9. He cost £63 million. 63 million divided by 9 is 7 million. So they would have to sell 7 million James Rodriguez jerseys to cover his transfer fee. Real Madrid's total jerseys sold last year was 1.4 million.

You think so ? I don't know he looked good in preseason and i rate him more then i do Romeu and Mikel. Also Mikel and Romeu are very similar players while Van Ginkel offers something different. I think it's gonna be between Romeu and Mikel. I first posted the second player leaving to be either Torres or Lukaku but wouldn't getting rid of Lukaku mess with our HG quota ? The fact that he counts as HG means that we need him right ? So that would just leave Torres.

2 players need to leave : 1) Romeu or Mikel 2) Torres

Ehh, didn't he complete the most dribbles in the PL ?

Oh come on, Hazard frequently tries to lay the ball off to someone and play the one-two. A lot of the times he either gets completely ignored or the backpass just isn't good enough.

Yeah true but i don't think it's a very smart decision to buy a player based only on his world cup performance. I mean what was it 5 games ? This is something that seems to happen every WC. For some reason when a player has a great WC or a poor one, everything that player has done seems to be completely ignored and the only thing remaining is his WC performance. Honestly it's hilarious how some people actually thing Rodriguez is better then Hazard or even as good as him. I feel bad for this James Rodriguez lad. He's gonna be at real with a massive amount of pressure on him to perform as he did in the WC. If he doesn't perform immediately he'll just be cast aside like Isco is now. It's just ridiculous.

That's because Mourinho's 3-5-2 is gung-ho. It's a winner takes all kinda tactic. We either score and take the momentum or concede and lose the game.

Don't really get why you think that. Why else would we have bought Filipe Luis ? If Mourinho was happy with the way it was don't you think he would have just kept Azpi and Ivanovic as his first choice fullbacks ? The fact that he bought Filipe Luis seems to be a clear indication (to me atleast) that he wants something different from that left back position then what he got from Azpi.

Think you're forgetting the fact that last season Ivanovic was constantly allowed to move forward and join the attack, even against the top teams. It makes sense that Filipe Luis would take over that role on the opposite side and Azpi then coming in on the right and taking a similar (defensive) role as he did on the left last season. We'll probably see Terry moving to the right CB position aswell so he can still get the extra protection from his closest fullback.

No lineup yet ?

Ah okay thanks.

Does anyone know when he's joining the preseason tour ?

lol at Costa tripping up the kid. With Costa and Hazard in our team there isn't a single ballboy in the league that would try wasting time. Fear us ballboys ! Fear us ! Muhahahahaha

The bigger and more reliable outlets yes they have a reputation to protect and will think twice before reposting something (not a lot of those around though) However the smaller and less reliable outlets ( alot more of those around) don't have a good repution to protect so they don't care. They only care about getting lots of people to click on their "news". They only care about having lots of people visit their website or buy their newspaper. It really isn't a good method to go by how many outlets are reporting the same news instead you should be more concerned about which outlets are reporting the news. 1 reliable outlet/ source is better than 5 unreliable ones.

That's not true. A lot of outlets just take news from other outlets. More links and sources doesn't make it more reliable or better.

True. I think he even said that to Chelsea tv ? That he was considering moving away from the intended approach and wanted to move to a more pragmatic approach as he feared we otherwise wouldn't make CL football. Think it was after we conceded 3 goals against Sunderland but not sure. If we get Costa and Luis i disagree. Last season we were struggling on a couple of positions due to a lack of quality. Striker, midfield, left back but with the transfers of Matic, Fabregas (Costa and Luis) we've solved that. The players you mentioned are young and a bit inexperienced but saying they aren't winners is extremely harsh. They lack experience at the highest level yes but there is only one way you gain experience. You don't need 11 leaders in the team. 2 or 3 will do. You just need to make sure they're all focused on reaching the same goal. No Hazard hasn't carried this team for the entire season but there have definitely been periods and moments last season where he did carry this team. Yes he needs to do it more and be more consistent this season. No one is arguing that but part of the mediocrity? Come on now. I really think you mean experience instead off "winning mentality". Yes it's pretty clear, especially with our choice at left back (Luis), that Mourinho is looking to add more experience to the team instead of young potential. Honestly i agree with your main point that we need(ed) more experience in the team but why do you always have to be so negative about our current players. A lot of the players you mentioned so negatively are gonna be part of that new core that is going to have to drive this team to succes for the next decade.

Well i think there are 2 aspect of a free role to consider. 1 is the fact you're not forced to stick to one position and can roam between positions. 2 is that you can focus on attacking and not worry about having to track a defender. Oscar enjoys the most benefit from the first one as he can roam and like you said "be everywhere" on the pitch. This is something that Neymar struggles with. Neymar on the other hand has the most benefit from the second aspect as he's doesn't have to track the right back and can focus soley on attacking. This is something where Oscar doesn't really benefit from as his defensive contributions are one of his main strenghts. It's really comes down to what you want to use and "boost". Oscar's positional awareness or Neymar's attacking potent. Now you're probably thinking that the free role hasn't boosted Neymar's attacking potent and that it has actually lessened it but i think the real culprit is the position Neymar is forced to play in. I mean why is Neymar playing centrally as a number 10 ? He's not a 10. He's an inside forward that likes to cut inside. Let him do what he's best at. A free role doesn't mean you have to play as a 10. Look at C Ronaldo. He gets a free role but positionally still plays as a left inside forward. I would play with Neymar on the left with a free role but ask him to primarily stay on the left. Oscar on the 10 and then just have Oscar mark the right back when defending deep. I still feel Scolari is right to give the free role to Neymar but he just needs to switch Oscar and Neymar and limit Neymar's movement a bit. imho offcourse.