Magic Lamps

I like how the entire forum is in awe of fellaini. In Matic we have a DM who does not need to be pushed high up the field because his height outshines his defending. Under normal circumstances any of our cbs should be able to cope with him. On a different note, this clash will mark the start of a new era in EPL. Us and utd competing for the title with arsenal in third. So basically back to 2006-2011. Good they have no fergie anymore

Thought the same.will be fun. He builds his success on a strong friendship with his players. We will see if citys big headed shit cunts align with him. Can anyone see yaya run around like gundogan? Good coach and motivator but has to rebuild that squad before they win any titles. Somehow I doubt he will be given enough time.

I would like us to see some nice pressing high up the pitch. With Valencia playing right back they don't have the pace to exploit that and are bad under pressure themselves. their defence is shit and will succumb to width and pace. But when we allow them to have the ball all the time, they will pass us to death with their typical Van gaal 100% posession tactics. they are not Barcelona FFS. But if bus parking suffices for a draw, I will take that. Utd have to win this in order to have only the idea of a sniff at the title. So we have a nice opportunity to show why we will win it.

oh shit it's four. dear me they really turned into a force with blind and valencia playing full back. It's actually 8 midfielders. talk about balance.

Mata is still a good finisher. ManUtd play a really funny system, mata, young, valencia, fellaini, herrera, blind, rooney. No proper striker but 7 midfielders, 5 of them AMs/wingers. I pray we will able to penetrate the holes they leave behind.

complete most crucial win of the season so far? check do it without remy and costa? check fabregas and matic avoiding bookings? check fabregas with a really good performance again? check perfect day so far. Now a draw or a city win in the Manchester derby and all is fine. Yeah we did not play pretty but we played against the crowd, against the ref and still managed to come out of it the best possible way. there was a chance that we could falter under the presure but Jose made sure we didn't. celebrated exuberantly today, because at the business end of the season we mean business.

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah 3 points closer to the title.

the ref is an undecided joker. Clearly not up to the pressure.

credit where it is due, Cahill plays a superb game. tall, strong players like austin and zamora are his kind of opposition cos he is still a bit taller and stronger.

Ivanovic with those occasional brainfart moments

It's about the money not about the quality. Like most I have never seen anything from him but I can't imagine a player from Japan making a straight impact in the EPL. I guess it is more of a or move and a clever one given the Nikon market is still undiscovered for us. Would be a great one for vitesse.

Boro lost 2:0 against tactically superior league leaders. No shame about that. BAmford did not play particularly well. But Kalas was ok. This. We simply don't know if he is good enough for CFC. He only plays in the CS with average players around him and often in a position that is not his and still scores a decent amount of goals and more importantly plays constantly well. When Thomas Müller got called up from Bayern II to the first team, he did not do any better than Bamford does today. It is our scouts' job to judge whether the potential shown in the CS does suffice for Chelsea. I also think he will never make it here but that is not necessarily his fault. The club does not believe in integrating our own talents. We only believe in buying them cheap and selling them for good money. And that is entirely ok. I really like some of our academy graduates, Pat included. But one should not hang ones heart on them no matter how good.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/apr/06/football-transfer-rumours several sources have linked us to Jordan Henderson. He has been Liverpool's best CM for two years now and only one year left on his contract. So he would be a dead cheap cover for Fabregas boosting our home grown quota.

Just Rest matic in this one. Cesc is useless in big games anyway. So play him. This is gonna be combative, for qpha this is their cup final and matic always picks up yellows in those games. Also drop courtois two equalisers in 2 games are on him. When u have cech as second option u know what u have to do. Cech Azpi Gary jt Luis Rami zouma Cuad fab hazard Remy

Mignolet must be one of the top goalkeepers with the worst leap, sometimes he makes up for this with his amazing reflexes. To beat him you only need to shoot remotedly close to the post. We always have had a hard time beating liverpool because we do not shoot from distance.

I am rather looking forward to Gerrard giving one his beautiful assists to Diego Costa to seal the league like in 2010 to Drogba. Either that or an evergreen slip. NOt sure what is more of Gerrard classic. But actually winning at vs Palace seems to be a good prediction, given we keep decent form.

Which is exactly what Ribery said in that interview. Thanks for repeating. I repeat: It doesn't matter who, be it KDB or Hazard, Ribery or even BAyern see as the successor to Ribery. Neither will ever play there. He is. This season, Ribery has started to become ineffective. Has lost most of his pace and hence his ability to go past a defender. He still can get a goal or assist here and there but that is no match for the constant threat and force KDB has been in midfield for Wolfsburg. KDB dominates matches, Ribery can't do that anymore. In 3 days, Ribery will be 32 but his decline has long begun. Bayern won't make the mistake they did 10 years ago, holding on to proven but aging key players and as a consequence drifting down into mediocrity and Eurpean Irrelevance. They will replace Ribery with Griezman in 2016. Götze, Müller and Sinan Kurt will occupy Ribery's position next season mostly to phase him out.

Still there have been cases when fullbacks shut out wingers by tracking them wherever they went with the other defenders covering the space left behind. Having played Fullback myself. Some of the most underrated but crucial performances in recent football history have come from fullbacks some tracked the winger all over the pitch like Bosinga, played as left-back under hiddink to defend messi and did so with great effect and under RDM to almost nullify the threat of Ribery. Others held their positions and just defended what was in front of them for example Messi, Higuain, Agüero and di Maria all were shut out by Arne Friedrich in 2010 and Höwedes in 2014. It is sad those guys won't get remembered. they were at least as good defenders as the opponents they stuffed in their pockets were attackers. I always thought there was more to football than goals and fancy dribblings but common opinion seems to disagree - fuelled by those ridiculous individual awards. In general the fullback position might very well be the most underrated in importance. Their runs open the space for the star winger to attack, with all wingers cutting in, they are the people to provide width. Like you said the constant running up and down the flank makes it physically more demanding than most other positions. The feeling shutting down the opposition's best player is extremely rewarding though. Let them run past you, let them nutmeg you, just turn and trust in your pace, eyes on the ball and catch it before they can do something dangerous with it. That is what defending as a fullback is all about. Being a shadow. Actually pace is more important in defense than in attack here. Even though i liked attacking more than defending in general, as a fullback i excelled much more in defending. Having won the ball after some hard sprints it was a pain in the ass to turn, run down the flank again in order to find a pass or a cross. Which is probably why most fullbacks are much better defenders than attackers or the other way round. Which brings us to Luis. He is almost equally good at both, which is so rare and what makes him one of the best leftbacks in the world. I have only seen this completeness in Lahm before. Lahm himself wanted to use his versatility in midfield which almost cost us the world cup. He is so fucking crap in DM against decent opposition. Being about as tall as my left thigh and almost as heavy. my grandmother could ease him of the ball. going backwards. with her zimmer. But back to Luis. His completeness is rather underappreciated here. Mou probably insists on playign Iva and Azpi in most important games because their deficiencies and strengths complement each other better also regarding the very different ability ranges of Willian and Hazard on their respective sides. though if we had another, right-sided luis filipe, i am pretty sure i know who would play in the fullback positions. btw great attitude http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9784837/filipe-luis-happy-at-chelsea-and-plans-to-see-out-blues-contract

Both Danilo and Carvajal are average players. Azpi is better than the two. If only Mou would actually utilize him on his natural side. That being said we might need another fullback in the near future, iva and luis not getting any younger. Prolly will sell Wallace and Ake to fund Clyne or some average Brazilian.

LOL Ribery is a bitter cunt. KDB is lightyears ahead of him already. All what is left for Ribery is the way down and he knows that. But he is right about one thing, KDB will never play for Bayern, nor will Hazard.

IMO apart from a new CB and maybe an AM our first XI is settled already. But we have lacked depth this season, so Walcott could be a possibility. Natural RW with pace and decent technique, socres goals, perfect age, really decent squad player. most importantly he is homegrown. I just wonder if we don't have enough average wingers in the squad already:kakuta, piazon, Traore, atsu, cuadrado, willian etc. I will never understand why we loan and sell our own players to fund moves for players of the same position who are not any better but usually older and overpriced. Schürrle/Salah for Cuadrado, Mata/KDB for Salah/Willian etc. IMO the 4 AMs we got rid of Mata/Salah/KDB/Schürrle as well as the AMs we are going to lose Bertrand/Atsu/Piazon are all 7 better or more talented than Willian/Cuadrado/Walcott.

England had some great spells during the game. they are never utter average but also never have an entirely good game that was an obvious backpass buffon picked up

fabian delph's passing is absolutely atrocious. When running with the ball he is great but the rest of his game is shambles.

Chiellini is a strange centre back. amazing assist but could have given away 2 pens already. luckily for him the ref is felix birch who is afraid of making calls against the home side.

fabian delph being england's best player is testament to the quality of the side. On the other side, Italy's most impresive players are darmian and eder- never heard of either.