Magic Lamps

Is it only me or was anyone else reminded of this one Fab-Costa is our new title guaranteeing combination. HOpe they can do it as long and as successful as their predecessors.

Schalke might suit him very well. They got decent funds, talented youth players, some ok players with international reputation like Hunter and Prince but also a lot of deadwood. RDM did a good job of making the best of the player material he got. It will be interesting to see what he is capable of building his own team. If there is one guy who knows a thing or two about annoying Bayern then it is Robbie.

When Schürrle plays, there will be chances for us, that's for sure. He definitely creates more than Oscar or Willian, but his finishing is not up to it yet. The way he squandered those in the last few games was Torres style. But IMO that is not too grave a problem so far. I am sure he will recover, the team will work on its decision making in front of goal and recover and in the next few weeks the goals will come. As for Schürrle he is not yet up there. He will not be a regular starter soon, but that is not problem either. He is still only 23 and with his attitude he will gradually mature into a world class one that's for sure. He might very well be the best german winger since Bernd Schneider. In Germany we always had a problem with wingers. That is because in our talent development we focus on technical attributes and neglect physical ones. WE got a lot of fast guys here in Germany, but they don't teach you how to run the lines and get a good cross. All this boring tiki take BS is the way to go. You develop some skill they make you a no.10 or a second striker when you are less talented they say like "all you can do is run" and make you a fullback. Fullbacks as well as wingers are not really appreciated in Germany. Luckily our midfielders have somehow compensated that failure. That is why Schürrle has my respect for making it in Germany as a winger.

the good thing about this season is, even though we have already conceded first far too often, we have been able to come back and turn the game around. Last being a goal down would at least have meant that we would lose 2 points. Costa is the player who can win us those games on his own. HIs share of scrappy goals from near offside positions, pouncing on a deflection or exploiting a defensive error is what wins you those ugly matches vs resolute but limited teams. absolutely love this lineup vs those kind of teams it is perfectly balanced and expresses our ambition to score. When Schürrle, Costa and Hazard have their scoring boots on this should be no problem.

good draw. We can field a lot more youth players this time.

Let's not fool ourselves. It is never about "love" in professional football. He is a legend because he scored an unbelievable amount of goals, had an incredible number of great performances and won us a load titles not because he loved or pretended to love the club some much. He might very well have developed some affinity to the club, which he displayed e.g. by his friendly and honest communication with the fans and staying here despite offers from BArca, Real and INter. Yes he milked it and got a big contract by flirting with those clubs but that contract was no more than he deserved. But in the end his carreer and also his personal benefits were more important to him and that is totally fine. When you have been at a company for 10+ years and now your contract ends and you get a better offer from a rival company, you'd probably take it too. The ones outraging about Lampard joining another club have probably been deluded by some imaginations of love. Love is seldom found in football. You, he is not the first club legend to join a rival club after they got no extension. He is a goal machine and a winner, which is why he is a legend and he has continued to be so and we seen that from the other side now. He has never been disloyal to us. Infact he has been loyal to us as long as he was our player. 13 years is a long time in modern football. He will return to the club, because he is a legend and will be loyal again. IN truth to most players football clubs are companies, employers. People very seldom love their employer, even if they have performed well for them for over 10 years.

sry wrong thread. thx for the link

Oscar is a rather poor header of the ball. Lampard used to score a fair share from headers.

This is why Schürrle was the player with most shots wide in his last two bundesliga seasons.

Our defending has been under suspicion since the beginning of the season. We might need some more versatile, more modern defenders when we try to play more posession football with a high line. Ironically Cahill, who was bought by high-line-fan AVB does not look any more modern than JT

can we please once just once keep a clean shit. I somehow knew that big man would score after I saw that Azpi marked him. bit of a mismatch

look at zouma, how happy he is. LUcky goal but not that bad a finish, toe-poling it into the roof of the net while stretching.

no disrispect to Azpilicueta but Luis is on a different level technically.

Don't give a fuck about the darn COC. The thing is when you not win it you can as well quit in the first round. Other than last year this time our bench is not that strong, so we should give the youngsters a chance. I pretty much agree with the lineups posted on the s1 but its so much wirting those Cech Azpi Cahill Zouma Ake Mikel Baker salah Oscar Schürrle Remy I hope Luis, Christensen, boga, get some minutes, too. Hopefully, Mou does not insist on playing Drogba again. Remy is our no 2 striker.

We don't criticize Mourinho for having a cautious approach when we have 5 points on City and play at their ground. IMO our defensive tactics were excellent. The defensive runs of our players were damn efficient. For the major part of the game we made them work extremely hard for a few corners. But after we got our lead, we should have played to our strengths. without Willian and RAmires we were defensively more vulnerable and should have pressed City. Their patchwork defense wihtout fullbacks, agüero and yaya running out of steam. WE could have also tried to undo them on the break and committing bodies to City's vulnerable flanks. Though Mourinho subbed on Drogba who he cringeworthly still clinges to, instead of Remy, who would have offered the pace required to kill the game off. But we let City dominate us with schürrle marking Silva.So the equalizer was always gonna happen. Even after that we did not even try to score again. When we got the ball we simply passed it in our own half, even in the 94th minute when there was no chance City would have another chance, we refused to attack. This is what I don't understand.

the fine difference being, Steve G actually has cost his team titles playing for it. Lamps played against us has not cost us anything so far. We will still win the league even though with 2 points less now. HOnestly, the way we played after the 1-0 we invited City to score. That Lampard did it makes it all the more frustrating, but if he hadn't it is highly probable somone else did it.

This game was symptomatically why FAbregas will never be even close to being a legend like Lampard. H had e a big game up for grabs, against 10 men and a patch work defense, it was his job do complete the decisive passes. Yet a 36 y.o. Lampard made more impact in 10 mins than Fabregas in 90. FAb is 27 and should be at his peak now, at 27 Lampard was the single best player in the world. Cesc is still a great player, but not that player who can carry our team in the most important games. He is the king of flat track bullies and hence will be instrumental to winning the leauge. But we should get a perspective. It is our job to improve as a team to win those games, not expect it will be because of new and better personel.

A 36 year old Lampard is still better than Mikel and Drogba simply does not belong here anymore. If we are so nostalgic we play Drogba against any common sense but we do not have Lamps a one year extension? We are at fault, to defend that badly and letting a 10 man tired City dominate us. We could and should have easily seen the game out, just like we did vs schalke. We will be without a title at the end of the season if we can't up our performance to close matches down.

Best coach in the world....we have been brainwashed. He is brilliant for sure, but he does mistakes more often than he used to. HIs inclusion of Drogba cost us 2 points vs Schalke and it very well might have cost us again.

Best coach in the world....we have been brainwashed. He is brilliant for sure, but he does mistakes more often than he used to. HIs inclusion of Drogba cost us 2 points vs Schalke and it very well might have cost us again.

this game was a disgrace for CFC. Against 10 men we are too afraid to go for a winner, which could have ended temporarily ended City's challenge for the title.

this is so pathetic. why not try a cross with a freekick from that position? we are playing vs ten men and look like we are 10. we should have won this easily against 10 men.

If we hadn't let Lampard go, we would have won this. simple as.

this is why we should have kept frank instead of getting Drogba back

wtf does drogba on the pitch?