Dion

I thought Ivanovic's red card was debatable because it didn't look such a clear chance of scoring. But WHOA, it wasn't even a foul. Imho it was a dive. So actually it should have been 11 blues vs. 10 reds. The ref. robbed us so hard it's unbelievable.

Agreed. As much as I love A. Cole, I have to say he had a bad start today. Just watch the game again and look how much space he's given Valencia at the beginning of the first half. Not only in the second goal. He got better in the game later, though.

Actually, Oscar did some defensive work today. I recall him getting back the ball and tackling here and there.

Best player in the league imho too.

Ref totally ruined the game. I mean, it was a great game even when we were behind. Now it's just shameful.

No offside either.. this is getting good.

What a shame this ref.

FUCK YEAH, OSCAR TO RAMIRES!

WOW, just WOW! I could watch that all day long.

I don't know, I'd rather have him as a winger. But you never know, it could work that way too.

I can see those players together if you drop Oscar to play as a deep-lying playmaker. Neymar Mata Hazard Mikel Oscar However, the only scenario I see us signing Neymar is Barcelona refusing to buy him. Otherwise, that's the place he'll go.

I couldn't have said it better. Brazilian referees really piss me off. Brazilian coaches are the only thing that can overcome brazilian referees in that regard, they're AWFULLY bad. No kidding, I think I would be a better coach than many I've seen in top brazilian teams.

You didn't say, but some ppl could imply that it was getting close to 90's level. Henrique just clarified that out - despite improving, still far from its best times.

I see where you are coming from, but the truth is - he's not dominating the league (Ze Roberto). And despite being in the first place of the league, Fluminense isn't displaying a good football as of lately. So that's not such a feat as it may sound. I would put Ze Roberto maybe #9th or #10th best midfielder of the league. Good, but certainly not dominating. Paulinho is what people like to call in Brazil a modern dm, he doens't lack the defensive skills his position requires but he is technical and talented enough to be a threat when he comes from deep surprising the opposing defenders. And he's still 24. So he may develop more before reaching his peak. Glad to hear you don't think it's weak. But I disagree about being top5, I don't think it's quite there yet. I'd say top10 to be fair, somewhere like 7th or 8th.

But following some people's logic he should have sucked hard at Porto, taking into account he didn't manage anything extraodinary at River Plate, playing in a much weaker league. What I'm trying to say is - looking solely on that aspect is misleading. There are players who even change from water to wine just by taking the switch between two strong leagues. Saying brazilian league is weak because a 38 year old made his way to MOTM is a stupid argument. On topic: I think Paulinho is a great player, but we should go after a player to replace Torres. And Corinthians won't let Paulinho leave easily, especially not before the world club cup.

That kind of example adds nothing. Ronaldinho was a starter for Milan not too long ago and he sucked last year at Flamengo. Seedorf was an important Milan player aswell, and, although he's doing fine in Botafogo, he's not ripping any team apart. He's probably not even the best midfielder in brazilian league. In fact, Botafogo holds the 11th position. There are examples of players that were nothing short of extraodinary playing in weaker leagues that surplisingly turned out to be awesome players in other (even stronger) leagues. You could even fit Radamel Falcao there. He wasn't that good playing in the weak argentinian league not too long ago.

I think Milan and Inter are still slightly better than the top brazilian teams, even though they're looking bad nowadays. However, the difference isn't as big as it once was.

Paulinho is one of the best dm playing in brazilian league right now. He's one of the best Corinthians (the team we'll be facing at fifa club world cup) players, if not the best. Romulo is a great player aswell. And he's younger than Paulinho.

What about something like: Neymar(Hazard) Mata Hazard (Neymar) Mikel Oscar Neymar and Hazard would have to help man marking, no doubt.

They will, when Chelsea and Mata start to kick some spanish ass in UCL.

Hahaha. They play that funny music everytime Brazil scores. I actually like it. There's another famous one here which plays whenever a brazilian F1 driver wins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goutQ-7ujGQ). Another great game for Oscar. It was only Iraq though.

I support Sao Paolo in Brazil and that is true. Or at least that's what Sao Paolo said back then. It was similar to what Santos did with Neymar. And yes, you can only sign if you're 16 but you must be emancipated (I have no clue if that's the word you use in english, to summarize, you must be able to practice civil acts by yourself as if you were 18/21 [it varies from country to country, I believe]) aswell. And that was one of the arguments Oscar used to try to void his contract with the team and sign with Internacional. He said Sao Paulo "forced" him to get emancipated. But that is another story.

Found this, Oscar vs. Nordsjaelland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSVHR0XrLw8 Some really good passes in that game.

Statistics are always nice to see. Even though they help, you can't just take the numbers alone. Even if you take into account the data provided almost excludes influence from the defensive system, you have saves and saves. You can't just have a look and say X better than Y because 10 saves vs. 8 saves, for instance. It doesn't show how hard was each save, nor the circunstances of the goals conceded. That being said, really impressed with Cech numbers. Awesome season so far.

I used to think like that aswell. But Hart has improved a lot in the last seasons. For the time being, I'd stick with Cech. He's more experienced, proven and world class. But Hart has been pure class in the last games I've seen, he's done several WONDERFUL saves, it can't be denied. He's quite young too. If he can keep himself close to that level for a couple more seasons he'll definitely be one of the best goalkeepers in the world. A place where Cech already belongs.