Belgiannutt

Damn forgot about that. Buy the young DM in the january window.

I really don't get some people. At the moment we're struggling distributing the ball from the back to our front 4 because we've got a box to box player and a defensive holding midfielder in our double pivot and no deep lying playmaker yet people are willing to spend 40 million on another box to box player. I mean seriously ?! Also why do we need to buy a DLP ? We've got a player (Oscar) who can be a worldclass DLP. He just needs experience on that position and a little bit of coaching. + we also have Debruyne on loan who could be a great DLP aswell. CB: January:nobody Summer: a young cb -> that cb from Norsjaelandt would be great. Then we have Cahill, Luiz, Ivanovic, Terry and our young cb. CM: January: Recall Essien.(to replace Mikel(african cup)) No one else. Summer: Recall Debruyne. Buy a young defensive holding midfielder who is comfortable on the ball. Essien will probably leave. Get rid of Romeu. I think Lampard's gonna leave. We'll have Mikel, Ramires, Oscar, Debruyne, young DHM. AM: January: nobody Summer: nobody. We'll have Mata, Hazard, Marin, Moses, Sturridge and Debruyne. CF: January: Buy a young CF. Summer: Offload Torres. Buy Cavani. We'll have Cavani, Young CF.

I can't see him fitting in here. Where would you put him ? The way we want to play requires our midfield to have a number 10, a deep lying playmaker and a defensive midfield holder. He can't play on the number 10 as we already have better players for it. He's not a DLP and he's not disciplined enough to play as a DMH. We tried to play him on the 6 with Belgium but he kept running out of position. He doesn't have the tactical awareness to be the DMH. He's a great box to box midfielder but we just don't need one.

I think that was in the beginning of the season that Eddie Newton said that ? I don't think it's that much different for Oscar. He'll have to keep doing what he's doing but just do it from a deeper position and also think a little bit more defensively. Also RDM should really start playing Oscar in the pivot. If Oscar is to learn how to play as a DLP he'll have to play there so he can gain experience. Sneijder might have been an option but he's to old, to high wages and doesn't contribute enough defensively to play as a DLP. Debruyne is capable of playing as a DLP but he would require a little bit more work.

Don't think we need to buy a deep lying playmaker. We've got Oscar who would be a perfect fit and we still have Debruyne.

Can i ask what Oscar has done to be regarded better then Hazard ? Apart from the 2 beauty he's scored he hasn't outshined Hazard. Hazard has more assists, dribbles more players and gives more keypasses. I kinda feel Hazard is being held to a higher standard then Oscar. I don't know if it's because of the 40 mill pricetag, the hype that surrounded him or the good start that's come back to bite him in the ass but people are expecting him to be decisive in (almost) every game and if he's not then people are dissapointed.

Most of them don't have the potential to play for a team like Chelsea. Only Praet and Thorgan have a shot. Dufour is playing for Porto but he's having a mixed time there sometimes he plays sometimes he doesn't. He's not that good he's not fast nor strong. He's not creative and his passing range is limited. His biggest strenght is his pitbull mentality. Chasing and pressing players. If you want more Belgian talents i suggest looking at the U16 Belgian team. Especially loved the goal at 1:31 (second video) Zakaria Bakkali, Andreas Pereira, Siebe Schrijvers, and of course Charly Musonda Junior have big potential.

Had to look up the word stoked. XD to be "stoked" is to be completely and intensely enthusiastic, exhilirated, or excited about something.

I would say he's a hybrid between Messi and Ronaldo. I agree with you that he needs to be more selfish and take more advantage of his skills. He's not as good a playmaker as Oscar or Mata but he has something that they don't. That ability to run at defenders with insane pace while having the ball glued to his feet. He just needs to use his dribbling skills more. I would like RDM to try Hazard as a false 9. He's got great link up play, he's also great at holding onto the ball when he's playing with his back towards the opponents goal and this would also give him the freedom to attack without having to constantly track back. I think with the right guidance Hazard could be a great false 9. Only his shooting ( don't get why he always tries to power kick it) and his movement inside the 16 yard box needs improving. With Torres not playing well and Sturridge not looking ready to lead the line, I think it would be worth a shot ?

I agree but isn't this kinda the case for our entire team?

I agree about the lack of an offensive system. Our players seem to have no instructions what so ever of where to run or what to do. Our offensive plan seems to be "give the ball to 1 off the 3 maestro's and pray to god they do something brilliant with it." About our defensive woefullness. 1 of the reasons is because we're not pressing the opponent. We can't play possesion based football and not press the opposition when we've lost the ball. We leave ourselves far to exposed that way. With the likes of Oscar, Hazard and Mata we can't camp in front of our goal and hope we can get away with it. There's a considerable gap between their capabilities when in possesion and when not. We need to try and get as much possesion as we can.We need to use our possesion as a defensive weapon. Also if we want to take a step further we need to play Oscar in the pivot. We need a deep lying playmaker. Without 1 we're far too easy to press and far too erratic in our distribution from the back. About Pep Guardiola, (to be clear i'm not saying he's going to snap his fingers and make us a great team just like that. If he comes here (and that's a big if) it will also be with failures and successes.) But 1 thing that plays to his advantage is the fact that he's seen how a possesion team is supposed to look like, up close. He knows what's required to make the system work. I get why people defend RDM but winning the CL and the FA cup, being an ex player, having a history of sacking managers. It all doesn't matter. What matters is whether or not he's capable of handling the transision from counter football to possesion football. To be frank i'm starting to have serious doubts about that. To be clear i'm not saying we should sack RDM i'm just saying that i find it worrying that there's seems to be so little planning in our attacks and i hope that that will be improving.

Ridiculous comments. Oscar had a poor game. He didn't create any chances, his passing was off and he spoiled his chance. RDM had every right taking him off. Hazard wasn't great but atleast he created chances and wasn't wastefull in possesion.

Got a general question: What do you think Hazard's future position should be ? False 9, number 10, winger? I kept thinking about it yesterday and i came to the conclusion that i don't think Hazard will reach his full potential as a player as long as he gets pushed out wide. I think he performs best when playing in a central position because it allows him to use his burst of pace and close ballcontrol more effectively. The position also leaves him with a lot of options making it more difficult for the opposition to know what he's going to do. I also think the amount of tracking back he needs to do as a winger is having a negative influence on his performance. I would love to know what people think about this discussion point.

I agree that Hazard isn't great at tracking back but saying he didn't help at all is just wrong. There were multiple times where Hazard made 40-50 yard sprints to track back Srna. He tried to do the best he could. Srna was playing more like a right winger then a rightback. Bertrand deserves some slack. He had a bad game but wasn't helped by Srna constantly bombing forward and shaktar playing some great possesion football. He's still young no reason to give up on him. 1 thing i would like to know is why RDM didn't intervene (tactically). I mean from the beginning it was clear that they were exploiting Srna's offensive skills. Personally i would have told Luiz to take over Bertrands man (the right winger) , have Bertrand take care off Srna and tell Hazard to stay higher up the pitch. Creating a 1 on 1 marking for our defenders. Before you say that that would have been too risky, think about it. This was already happening only now Hazard had to constantly chase Srna losing a lot energy, Bertrand constantly had to move over to Srna giving him space and time on the ball while Bertrand was repositioning himself. Also something i've noticed : We really don't deal well with crosses. Is it just me or is there always an unmarked player in the area between the penaltyspot and our 16 yard line ?

Why should i ?

Could you stop with your bitching about Cahill ? It's annoying.

Yeah it seems that way. Thanks for this summary. You made a small mistake though penalty against Newcastle away. should be home.

Neymar is an inverted winger not a striker. I'd prefer if money was spent on other positions that need strengthening: striker, centre midfield.

On a side note : an article just popped up where "Sport magazine" , a reliable belgian sports magazine, listed the wages off all the Belgian players active in PL. Hazard makes 135 000 euros.

Well you have a point but the thing is it's very common for people to like a player of the same nationality. It happens a lot and makes perfect sense. So James accusing Henrique of being biased because of his nationality can be true. Only Henrique or someone who knows Henrique personally can say for certain if it's true or not. Can we drop this argument? James apologised, you accepted it.The situation has been cleared up. I don't feel there 's any need to continue this discussion as it feels kinda pointless.

Mate i get what you mean but in all fairness if you read Henrique's post you'd see that he was being overprotective of Luiz and trying to shift the blame towards Cahill while it was very clear that Luiz was at fault not Cahill. James was questioning Henrique's motives for protecting Luiz and implying that he was biased because he was Brazilian. James didn't accuse all Brazilians of being biased. He accused Henrique of being biased and imho he was right.

True, but i don't think anyone claimed that he wasn't ?

Sucks that he lost the ball on the second goal but apart from that i thought he actually had a very good game. He was constantly taking on players and trying to make stuff happen.

http://watchhighlightsonline.blogspot.be/2012/10/video-juan-mata-second-goal-vs_20.html Hazard 's pass.

That third goal, what a pass.