TorontoChelsea

He'd be great deep in a 4-3-3, in a 4-2-3-1, I don't see it. He likes to press a lot defensively. Great as an attacker when you have teammates behind you if the opposing player gets by you. As a defensive midfielder, you need to play angles and cover lanes more than pressing and going for the tackle. Same goes for trying to dribble past players which Oscar likes to do. As an attacker, it's fine (sometimes). As a central midfielder, if you give up the ball, you're badly caught out on the counter and you should be looking to play the ball anyway instead of trying to dribble. He's versatile enough to play multiple positions, but I don't see him as a natural box to box midfielder who could become a great #10 if he improves his offensive game.

Maybe but if he has a bad year, it could be less. It's not like he's going to suddenly become a 25M pound player or anything.

That's not the point. Why not just sell him? I can't see a scenario where he's going to ever be a regular at Chelsea now. What's the point of loaning him year to year?

Don't understand loaning him. We have a ridiculous number of attacking midfielders and none of them are even 26. It's not like next season, he's suddenly going to come back and be a starter at Chelsea.

Sounds good in theory, but in practice, this never happens. Players step up and then get the bulk of playing time. (For example, 60 starts available, never get divided 20, 20, 20, they get divided 40, 18, 2). It's not like we have a lack of depth elsewhere either where these players can get shifted so I don't see the need for keeping Mata and De Bruyne both and Mata has been our best player for two seasons.

It'd be a bigger shame if he stays and doesn't get to play. He's our #3 choice on the right and the #3 choice in the centre. How many games will he get into?

This is where statistics are very useful. Luiz's long passes were only amazing when they hit. he was 5/15 on long balls which is terrible. You say he "blocked and tackled". He had 0 blocks and 1 tackle. He did clear the ball well and overall, he wasn't bad, he he certainly had a worse game than Cahill and and was hardly the force some are trying to make him out to be. It's one game and he's been hurt so I don't think it matters at all, but I don't understand why anyone would think he had some kind of great game or anything.

Still not enough. Luiz had a 57% passing rate which is just atrocious and had 4 fouls to 1 tackle and no interceptions. People will remember the passes he connected on, but still way too many turnovers of possession by trying to hit the perfect pass..Still, it was his first game under Jose and it's nice to have him back as he makes our team better. If anyone can get Luiz to simplify his game, it's Mourinho.

Meh, game doesn't really matter but it would be nice to have won. A few points 1) We lost to the best team in the world (albeit missing some key players) in penalties when we were down to 10 men for much of the game. No shame at all. 2) Stop the sofa managing. Your lineup and your changes wouldn't have been better. 3) Hazard, Cole, and Schurrle were the best players for me and Cech made some enormous plays and Cahill had a ridiculous 12 clearances and 7 blocked shots. 4) Oscar was a beast defensively but was awful going forward. Not just taking about the missed shot, that happens, but his vision was terrible, not seeing men in space and making runs a few times and his passing was too cute and really poor. Still early, but I keep looking for improvement in his offensive game which we'll need. 5) Lukaku missed a penalty. He'll be fine. If this has any long term effects on him (which it won't), he would never have had the mental toughness to be a player anyway. 6) Schurrle and Cole were only players above 80% passing. 7) Speaking of Schurrle, his work-rate is going to keep him playing a lot. Still don't see where De Bruyne fits in on this team. 8) Only mistake IMO was playing too many regulars. Player rotation is important IMO and this game would have been perfect to do it.

Worst possible outcome. Extra time and no win. Tired starters who played lots of minutes.

We got a tie in Old Trafford. Yes, I did like that.

I do get the point. The point is that Mourinho goes with the lineup he thinks can win. Maybe he doesn't like Lukaku's link-up play. Maybe (almost certainly) he doesn't like De Bruyne or Mata's defense. Maybe he doesn't think Van Ginkel is an elite player like some people on here do. The problem is that you think "Player X should start over player Y" and Mourinho doesn't. Given the overwhelming gap knowledge and experience he has over you, I am going to go with his team. This is an exhibition game and we've played 3 real games so far this season and people are going crazy. Calm the fuck down.

Mourinho-Has won 7 league titles, 2 Champions League titles, 1 Europa League, and 6 domestic cups. Has access to advanced statistics and unlimited video scouting. Watches players in training. Trains players. Decides who fits into his system. Is a trained manager with 16 years experience in top leagues and has advanced understanding of football tactics. You-Play fifa13 and football manager.

Don't like the lineup because it's too much like our starting XI and I'd want to rest players for games that matter more. Mata needs to play his way into shape, so why not use a game like this to do that? Lampard-Ramires is clearly our#1 central midfield pairing, but we have THREE backups there who have yet to start and Lampard-Ramires can't start every game!

I wouldn't get too caught up on the 22 figure but if anyone were to go out, it should be midfielders going. We just have too many players there.Of course, If Mourinho is OK with using Schurrle as #3 (emergency only) striker, we don't need 3 other strikers either. For example, if you look at last year's Real Madrid side, they had 14 outfield players make at least 15 starts in the league. Of those, 5 were primarily defenders, 3 central midfielders, 4 were attacking midfielders, and 2 were strikers both of whom played a lot as attacking midfielders as well. Madrid also had 4 more players make in the 10-15 start range. 3 defenders and a 1 attacking midfielder. Some of this breakdown is due to where Madrid had strengths and weaknesses obviously, but it's a good guide to how many players will get regular time. Right now (excluding Ba and Moses who are actually still with us), we have Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Luiz, and Cole who I think will all play fairly regularly at the back. We have Ramires and Lampard as starters in central midfield but we also have Van Ginkel, Essien, and Mikel there. We have Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Schurrle, and De Bruyne for attacking midfield and Eto'o, Torres, and Lukaku for striker. Because Ramires can cover at attacking midfield and Schurrle can cover as striker, we are about 3 midfielders/strikers too many right now. If it were me, I'd keep the central midfield as is an leave Essien as the man out. (Van Ginkel developed for future, Mikel only really defensive midfielder), I'd loan out De Bruyne and Lukaku both of whom have very bright futures but are now buried on the depth chart. Ideally, we'd be able to move Torres, even on loan and then Lukaku would get playing time but I don't see that happening. As for De Bruyne, he's almost certainly the #3 choice on the right behind Mata and Willian and in the centre behind Oscar and Mata. If he's not going to play, it'd be better for him to go somewhere on a very different kind of loan than Bremen, maybe a Premier League side where has to work more on his defensive game.

Easy group but it doesn't matter. Winning the group is not the goal, this team should be pushing for quarter-finals minimum which means that no matter what, we're going to have to beat top teams.

I am anyone and I say he isn't. Drogba was the third fastest player in the Premier League towards the END of his career. Lukaku is quick, but I don't see him as nearly as fast as Drogba. And BTW, you can't just say "anyone would agree with me" because many many people wouldn't.

No. Drogba was almost certainly faster. http://www.caughtoffside.com/2009/08/23/top-ten-fastest-premier-league-players/

Not too worried. I don't care much about pot 2 because 2 good teams go through anyway. The one thing would be to avoid Dortmund as the C team because that could cause real problems. Anyway, as an A seed, no excuses not to go through no matter what.

Gabi has 7 fouls but ref still hasn't cautioned him.

I think he's fallen down about 8 times.

Interesting article. A little early to draw too many conclusions but worth a read. http://www.whoscored.com/Blog/ithfs4cnpuyu-wrqp-z60g/Show/Player-Focus-How-Jose-Mourinho-Is-Utilising-Ramires-At-Chelsea

Cortouis has one official save and it was an easy one off a very weak Fabergas header. He hasn't saved a shot off of Messi. There was one where Messi was almost in alone but his shot was blocked by a sliding defender.

Where the defender blocked the shot ? It was dangerous but it was a very easy save thanks to some great defending.

Brilliant? He hasn't made a single save really and certainly hasn't had to do anything even remotely difficult. He's a great keeper, but Valdes has made the only great save of this game.