TorontoChelsea

He doesn't really deserve it. He's been excellent, but not the best player. He has 10 goals and 13 assists for a team fighting for a Champions League spot. Van Persie has 19 goals and 13 assists for the club that's actually going to win the league. Suarez has 22 goals and 9 assists. He also hasn't dominated the top teams any more than Van Persie, Suarez, or Bale. All have scored against some big teams but have worse scoring records against them then they do against smaller sides. Mata's overall numbers (in all competitions) are fantastic but a lot of that is because he plays in games that other top players don't. For example, Mata has played in 10 Cup games including 9 starts. Van Persie has 0 starts and 4 subs in those games. Bale had 3 starts. Suarez had 2 starts and 1 sub. The difference in statistics is largely Mata's games against poor opposition. Mata has 8 goals and 9 assists against teams that are not really Premier League calibre. Van Persie has 3 goals, 0 assists against the same sorts of clubs.(Which enforces the idea of how horribly Mata's playing time has been managed this season. Mata has not started in 7 Premier League games, but has started against Nordsjalland twice, Leeds, Brentford, Wolves, Monterrey, and three of our four Europa League games. In those Premier League games where Mata didn't start, we lost to QPR and West Brom by one goal and drew with Fulham and Swansea. It seems very likely that had Mata started, we'd have been able to get more points from at least a game or two.).

I have no time for fascists and those who sentimentalize brutal dictators. Yes, Hitler built highways and Mussolini made the trains run on time so we'll just ignore the other stuff, right? Mussolini didn't betray his principles. Fascism is just inherently a terrible system. You can't give a Nazi salute and pretend it's some benign symbol of comradeship. It's a baffling appointment by Sunderland. Yes, your political views are your own but if you are a public figure and you hold what most people consider reprehensible political views, it's going to be a big deal. I hope Sunderland go down and we help them on their way on Sunday.

No top team has 2-3 youngsters in their starting XI. (If by unproven you mean having little experience at the top level). It's rare to even have one and when they do have one, it's almost always someone they scouted and bought. You look at players who have say, under 25 games of good European league experience.. ManU, Man City, Spurs, and Arsenal have a combined 0 players in the regular starting XI. Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern also have 0. If you go to less than 50 games experience at a top level, you have a few like Nestasic and Caulker. If you talk about players that play regularly but aren't starting XI you get Verane, Tello, Shaquiri, and others. but again, it's a small number of players. If you can involve one young, inexperienced player in the regular rotation every year, you're doing well. I you're trying to get 2-3 unproven youngsters in your starting XI, you're not a contender, you're a mid-table team. There's too much money in football now, to compete with youngsters. You're going to beat teams buying world-class players and full internationals by bringing in players who looked good in the Championship or impressed in the youth team? It's not easy to adapt to Premier League football. You look at someone like Oscar who was playing at a fairly high level in Brazil and for their national team, and he's had a very tough year and he's miles ahead of Chalobah right now. I like Chalobah's future, but what's the point in trying to force it? Let him develop at his own pace and if/when he's ready to step in and play a big part. Chelsea have a number of young players who are ready to contribute. De Bruyne and Lukaku should be on the squad next year and Courtois is ready when needed. Our youth policy is to buy the best young players and it's generally working. There's no need to force things. (In fact, I think Tom Cleverly another former Watford loanee is a good example of how to do things. He was Watford's player of the year in 2009-2010, ManU then loaned him to Wigan in the Premier League the next season where he played 25 games. Last year, he came back to ManU and played in 15 matches and this year, he's forced himself into a regular and important role).

I don't think "is he ready" is the right question because you can't prove that anybody is not ready. Can you prove that Leif isn't good enough for Chelsea? He is good enough to play sparingly for Chelsea. Lots of players are. The real question is, is it a good move for him to be at Chelsea next season, and the answer is almost certainly no. It's not good for him and it's not good for the club. He needs to develop and he won't do that at Chelsea. Also, people are making a massive mistake if they think that looking very good in the Championship equates to success in the Premier League. It's a massive massive step up. What European league would be the equal of the Championship? The Championship has no teams in UEFA's top 450. Would you say that somebody who has done very well in the Latvian or Slovenian first division is ready to play regularly for Chelsea? Of course not. You'd want them to prove their worth at a higher level. How many players have come from the Championship and made immediate impacts with top clubs? I actually can't think of any of the top of my head. Chelsea need to win, we need to improve, we need to challenge for trophies. That's the purpose of the club. People are way too obsessed with making sure our young players get a shot. It doesn't really matter because we're going to get a new manager and some new signings next season. Chelsea are going to spend tens of millions of pounds like every year. That's what top teams in England do to stay competitive. I'd say the odds of him playing a big role at Chelsea next season are under 100/1. The most likely scenario is a loan to a lower-table Premier League side and probably for more than one year. (And Pogba is a very different case. Italian teams have almost no money so they have to give young players chances. Seria A clubs spent a net 12M pounds. Premier League clubs spent 364M.)

Speculation on speculation at this point. I can't really imagine any manager saying "no, I don't want to bring in a young, talented player" so I think KDB will very likely be at Chelsea next season. Even if he were to go on loan, Dortmund wouldn't be the best place for him anyway, as he wouldn't be an automatic starter and certainly wouldn't be the fulcrum of the attack like he is now. Most likely scenario, he comes back to Chelsea and fights with Oscar and Moses for the third attacking midfield spot.

No...Manuel was hilarious not some troll.

Always nice to knock ManU out of a tournament. Two moments of absolute brilliance by Ba and Cech got us through.

Wow...what a save.

Ba!!!

Also, for any hockey fans, David De Gea's style reminds me of Dominik Hasek.

Pretty dull first half. Not many chances. I think that's the way ManU wants it-to keep it close and be able to bring on their vastly better bench options later. They're shape has generally been very good so far and have been hard to break down and then they play quick triangles up the pitch from the sidelines to the middle of the park. Our passing has been really sloppy (Ramires in particular) and Oscar must have given the ball away five times in that half. Nani has been horrible for them and he's a whining little diver to boot. Game could still go any way. We need to find Mata some space. I might even think about switching Oscar and Ramires on the pitch because although Ramires isn't a good crosser, but his speed at least opens up things for the other attackers.

Wow Nani is having an awful game so far. His touch is leaden.

A plan so cunning, you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel?

Surprisingly weak lineup from ManU. No Rooney, Van Persie or Kagawa?

I understand what you're saying and it's a valid point, but I don't fully agree. We have had more success than Arsenal, because we've spent about half a billion pounds more than them. In fact, our success has been down entirely to our willingness to spend more money than anyone else. That's not new. Higher spending teams have always dominated football. When people talk about winning formulas, that's really it. Spend more than anyone, and you will consistently be near the top of your league no matter what. At some point, however, you can't be spending 5 times more than your opponents every year and I think having stability is one way to maximize the results your players can get. New managers means a new system, new players being bought, and time to adjust. I personally don't think managers matter all that much so stability could theoretically be kept in place with a strong team vision and buys that were in keeping with that vision. Our problem has not just been a steady stream of managers, it's been a steady stream of styles and different sorts of players, and impulse buys and we're left with a team that doesn't really fit together.

They were poor but they weren't near appalling. The same is true of any team. If you pressure the midfield, the attacking midfield needs to drop deeper to get the ball.The gap between the central midfielders and the attacking midfielders was too large. Marin, Oscar, and Moses just stood around waiting to receive passes. In the middle of the pitch, Chelsea had Lampard and Mikel and later Ramires. Southampton had 3-4 players in that space all the time. Only Lambert and Rodriguez played in attacking positions and Clyne and Shaw played wide. Schneiderlen, Davis, Cork, and Puncheon (and later Ward-Prowse) all crowded the middle of the park. What Chelsea needed to do is to attack through different positions because Southampton had just clogged up the centre of the pitch and only had their fullbacks wide, but Chelsea was not able to take advantage of this. Their fullbacks played very well and our attackers (and fullbacks) didn't. Other teams have taken this pressing our midfield as their defensive tactic because we simply don't have another way to score. We lack width, good spacing, and discipline so when our midfield is pressed, they pass it backwards or sideways.

It's obvious that Rafa's goals are different than Chelsea's. I used to think there was no point in sacking him, but appointing a manager just to play for the Premier League might make sense. Mata and Hazard need to be rotated like everyone else, but I'm sick of sitting our only two dangerous attacking players in the same game. The entire team was poor. Lampard and Mikel will get a lot of the blame because that's just where people have decided to lay it this year and while they were poor, but our front 4 was even worse than they were. No movement at all, lost possession easily, kept letting defenders catch up to them, and were beaten to almost every ball. Ivanovic and Terry were very at fault for the first goal, but aside from that actually played pretty well. Our fullbacks were also poor. I've though Moses was looking like a future rotation player for Chelsea so far this year, but I'm not even sure he'll rise to that. He's been our worst fairly regular player by a fair margin this season. Maybe he needs to play regularly to improve, that's not unusual, but it's been a very poor first season with Chelsea.

Terry!

Fuck off

Don't get the hysterics but also don't get the point. I don't even care about pre-season but at least you can see some new faces. I don't think I'd go to this even if I lived in St. Louis.

Di Maria, Ozil, Ronaldo, and Benzema/Higuain. That said, doing that in Spain is very different than in England, Real Madrid and Barcelona are so dominant in terms of money and talent that you can play any style and succeed. I think the style he played with at Chelsea, and Inter is the one he prefers. If we want to build around players like Mata, Hazard, Oscar, and De Bruyne, I have a hard time seeing Mourinho as a fit.

You forgot the fact that Rupert coincidentally joined this board a week after Rafa was hired and has posted nothing but a stream of "Rafa is amazing"and slagging off our supporters crap and nothing else. I don't care when fans of other clubs come to our board. If they are respectful, I enjoy their insight and input but this sort of childish garbage is getting tiresome. You can disagree about many things, but the single-minded spamming of the same stupid thing is annoying. It was the same with Bitee (was that his name?) and his hatred of Oscar.It's ridiculous and I really think it's time to ban this guy for any number of reasons (antagonizing supporters, spamming, not being respectful of the board rules, etc...).

It's true, but Villa started over him. Torres had 0 goals, 0 assists and didn't start either the final or semi-final. He was a bit player for them. My point is simply that Spain have been able to have success without Torres.

He played well in 2008, but that's 5 years ago. His presence didn't matter at all for Spain in the last two tournaments.

They won the Euro and the World Cup with Torres not being a key player.