The only place to be

Great point....but I still want to take the piss. Suppose it's a win-win for us.

Maybe some insight here mate http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=104&fid=297&sty=2&act=1&mid=2110851716&page=1

So we can take the piss out of them.

Cuadrado is an odd example. He's had a strange career where he's played almost as much as a right-back/wing-back as he has as a winger. Even so, he scored most of his goals in a far more advanced position last season whereas Willian has spent his entire career as an attacking midfielder/winger (I believe). And the BBC said £30 million http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/23814060 whilst the Mail said £32 million.

Last night he knocked the ball on the outside of their defender and went past....how often does he do that? He so rarely actually puts the foot down that it actually surprised me. Think the last time he did that was Villa away in 2013 when his hammy went. I think we all just want to see him be more aggressive and go at players. Maybe the addition of Luis will give him more space and confidence to do that, because he's one of the most exciting players in football on his day.

Winning is the aim with Mourinho....although not losing is perhaps more accurate. That 433 we saw last night is built to stop teams, and Hazard and Willian are the only real concessions to attacking aspirations (along with Cesc's passing and Costa's striking ability, both of which will come second to their defensive duties). I think we'll see that more than we'd like up to December because we have a lot of big games and the important thing is to be in touching distance of the title come Christmas. From then on we face 'weaker' teams and that's when we'll play more attacking football in my opinion. Or maybe we'll actually look to beat teams by outplaying them a la Brenton....but unlikely.

Um....clutching at that a bit I think. Parrying shots is just part of modern football, the trick is to redirect it. I honestly don't think Courtois is much worse than many other keepers, but if it's an issue then it's something he can improve with age. Cech's dealing with crosses is becoming a real issue though. He's creating uncertainty in the defence and it's costing us points and matches which is weird considering his age and experience. The thing is I can only see it getting worse, as any mental issue/case of the yips does.

I think in the big games when we want to keep it tight, he'll play in that 433 that we saw yesterday in the second-half. We have a lot of big games in the first few months so he'll probably feature a lot but Schurrle NEEDS to be playing consistently from December onwards if we want to win the league in my opinion.

There is no implication of that. Willian is a very pretty player. He dribbles nicely, he passes nicely, but there's very little incisiveness to his play which is why I compared him to Mikel earlier. Muller is a devastating player. He finds chinks in defences and attacks them mercilessly. That doesn't mean he isn't a 'footballer'. My comparison of him to SWP was based on his transfer fee - he's another AM/winger that we've overpaid for and who we'd probably have to sell for quite a loss (I'm guessing to a Turkish team now, since Ukraine has gone to shit). His stats aren't just a problem over the last year, but over the course of his career. He's never scored that many goals so the chances of him doing so at 26 are low. As for his defensive contribution, it's good in the context of a wide midfielder. I also think he's deceptively slow over anything more than 5 yards. I don't think I've ever seen him outpace a player, but he does have quick feet and a fast running style which means he can usually beat the first man. But it's hard to separate the fee from the man.

I just try not to be a twat and succeed some of the time.

If you actually read the posts you'd notice most of the criticism is based either on his performances for us last season or even the type of output he has had over the course of his career and what type of player he actually is. But yeah, hysterical rant away. You'll get a couple of likes for it.

Was good. Liked the movement between him, Hazard, Schurrle, Costa and Fabregas which will hopefully get better. They interchanged positions and made runs beyond Costa (look at Schurrle and Fab for his goal) which confused the defence. That front five could be devastating for us.

Think it's more a case of people looking at performances and identifying problem areas. But if he is the scapegoat, why has he been chosen over someone like Matic or Hazard? People like to use the word scapegoat as if players are unfairly targetted. It was used for Kalou (who was sold) and Mikel (who has been replaced). Why is it never used for our top players?

Incredible. We spent £32 million on a Brazilian whose strongest asset is his workrate and who lacks creativity. We fucking signed Ramires AGAIN..... Except (and this is true)....Ramires has a better scoring record over his career.

He looked fairly solid, but we looked so static and lacking in creativity with him on. Maybe a formation for the matches away to the big teams but if he features against most teams, we're not going to win the league.

The first-half was everything we should be looking to do next season, the second-half was everything wrong with us last season. Impressed with the directness we played with in the first-half. Schurrle was making great runs beyond Costa (especially for his goal), Fabregas pinged the ball around superbly and Oscar was getting into dangerous positions. Second-half was slow, ponderous and reminiscent of so many matches from last season. Cech is also a concern. Looks dodgy at crosses, has the yips and Courtois needs to start.

His problem with crosses is a thing now and it's costing us goals.

Cech...set-pieces....oh shit. Sorry, but this is now a thing and Courtois has to play.

Spot on. The first half was direct, fast, bold. This half has been like how many games from last season??? Schurrle and Oscar off, Ramires and Willian on is the reason why.

Willian is to dribbling what Mikel is to passing. On the surface they look good, until you realise they aren't actually going anywhere.

That moment when you realise Fabregas is an actual, proper, world-class midfielder Oh fuck off taking corners Willian.

Jose, Please let the £30 million player who can actually deliver a set-piece take the corners. Cheers

It's not just that he scored, but he made that goal out of nothing and how many times have we looked at strikers and wanted one of them? Reminds me of Crespo in the runs he makes and the way he uses his (surprisingly big) body.

Maybe not Marin, but there's so many players from that German team I'd take. Just quality pros throughout the team. But we decided to spend £100 million on Brazilians.

Love listening to Andre Schurrle speak. Articulate, intelligent, committed and just a great player. We need more Germans in our side.