The only place to be

Does anyone actually have him in their team for next season? Assuming we stick with the 4231, is there anyone here who isn't saying we need to buy someone to play in his position? Personally, if we're playing Man United then I'm picking this new guy (for argument's sake, Modric) next to a holding midfielder. Lamps is on the bench in this game. If we're playing some random 4th seed in the Champions League, then I'd pick Lamps to start. Now the problem in this scenario is whether that gets him in the England squad for Brazil.

Who says Ronaldo is arrogant in his personal life? There have been plenty of stories in the press about his work ethic and the fact that he's relatively normal as far as footballers go. With Malouda, he had chances to leave and it was made perfectly clear that he wasn't in our plans but he decided against moving on to play football and instead chose to waste a year collecting his wages. Now you may say that's not something most people would turn down but footballers are judged differently. He doesn't have many years left to do something most people would give their left nuts to have the ability to do, yet he's happy to throw it away and then have the temerity to moan about it. The club have done nothing wrong.

What a pathetic attitude to take before a cup game. Anyone can win on the day and we've shown we can give United a damn good game already this season. Isn't this the point of football? To see the best players go up against one another?

It's not that he didn't accept a paycut, but that he didn't leave when he had offers on the table. He was happy just to sit on his arse for a year and take the money which football supporters will never like. Throw in the fact that he's been largely shit for the last few years and you're going to become a very unpopular person at this club.

Mowbray and Boro are the perfect opposition for us. They play nice football (which is why it's a good place for Josh) and that means they're less likely to park the bus or simply kick the shit out of our players. I reckon we'll beat them 3-0 or 3-1.

Hopefully not another one of these (if we get through). The abuse Becks got before his goal was merciless.

If it's on ESPN then I'm looking forward to Burley explaining this (9:47 in)

Rooney.

Like I said previously, I've got a feeling you could diminish any manager's tactical nous if you wanted.

We could fill this thread with just left-backs from the mid-90s. Barness, Barnard and Myers (better as a centre-back) were all varying degrees of average. Amazing when we had Dorigo, Boyd and Le Saux before then.

Just a typical Chelsea FA Cup game against weaker opposition. We had our moments in the first-half and they had their's but once we got the breakthrough (no surprise it was Mata) it was easy going. Didn't think the Luiz thing was that bad at first but on reflection he catches him plum on the chin. Now it wasn't nice, but it looked to me like he was just trying to bodycheck him rather than knock him out. It was nasty either way and I like our players to have that about them sometimes but he's got to pick his moments a bit better.

And to think some people thought this loan move was 'baffling'. Starting a game and getting 80 minutes is great for his development and apparently he's done enough to get another chance soon. By my count that's EIGHT promising youngsters out on great loans, which is remarkable work by the board.

Hot dog eating contests? Why don't you just go back to RAWK?

Bit harsh to suggest Chelsea supporters don't have patience given the support they've shown Torres for well over 18 months. With Josh people just want to see progression because he has so much potential, but he's not been showing that grit and determination that you need at this level. He may well need another three years out on loan and I don't think Ferguson could've engineered a better loan for him that the one he's on but Josh's problem will be whether there will be a spot at the club for him in a few year's time. Players like Chalobah and De Bruyne continue to impress and may well compete for the position Josh wants, plus we'll be looking at signing someone in the summer. He's always had the most phenomenal technique but you've got to have the physical tools to use them in the Premier League. He needs to develop his 'man strength' and fast.

I see your Gareth Hall and raise you an Andy Dow - that was the period when we seemed to buy a new left-back every year until we got Soxxy. Then there were a few randoms like Laurent Charvet and Jes Hogh who were just place-fillers.

His use of Etoo at Inter was both novel and mightily effective and his tactics against Barcelona were spot on. It's easy to say 'well Robbie did it', but look at Wenger and Ferguson who were both outplayed by that Barca team. I think by the logic you're using you could diminish any coach's tactical achievements. It happens in every sport. Look at basketball where Phil Jackson has won 11 titles and has received plenty of acclaim for his tactical nous, but there's always people prepared to say 'well he had Jordan' or 'he had Shaq' or 'he had Kobe and Shaq' or 'he had Kobe'.

I'm not saying he's a genius or not, but how many teams struggled to cope with that 433 in his first couple of seasons at the Bridge? In fact how many clubs are now using that formation or variations on it? I'm not going to say he invented it but that tactic was one of the things that won us the titles. Plus there was that beautiful moment before the Barca 2nd leg when he announced the teams in the press conference. That's a tactic of sorts and one could argue it was pretty effective in getting in the Barca players heads.

It's been an amazing thing to watch this player disintegrate, but it's revealed a few things. He was essentially all pace and nothing much else. His positional sense is absolutely appalling. How many times have players put the ball across the six yard box only for Torres to be on the penalty spot (at best)? And yet he'll still try and do things that assume he still has that amazing pace, like knock a ball past a player and run onto it despite it only working about three times in two years. It's the most remarkable thing to have witnessed firsthand - to see a person completely unable to do what they used to, unwilling to adapt and simply fall apart. If you look at someone like Shearer who was robbed of that explosive acceleration by injuries, he was able to change the way he played and still be one of the top strikers around whereas Torres has been shown up to be a one-dimensional, weak-minded coward.

Didn't Van Basten train with our squad for a couple of weeks in the mid-90s. Would've been a few years after he retired. That reminded me that George Weah played for us for a while - might start a new thread with 'players you're surprised you forgot played for us'. Have to throw Paul Parker in there too. That was a random one.

Bigger and stronger? Barely. Mata is deceptively quick too and would be fine in a Mourinho team, although I suspect we're going to have a decision regarding Oscar and Mata in the years to come. He also had Sneijder at Inter albeit in a slightly different role and brought on Modric against United as well.

That's a fair point. I'm hoping Arsenal will feel the effects of their games, whilst Spurs really need to take this competition seriously. If you look at the Europa League it's generally won by teams on the way up as a stepping stone, e.g. Atletico, Porto, Shaktar, Zenit etc. For us it's not something we need in all honesty. The benefits of winning it are outweighed by the short-term cost to the players in terms of fitness and (the much overlooked) preparation time. As for rmpr, I'll let bygones be bygones. I think he's probably just had a bit too much fizzy pop this morning.

So finally we act in a responsible manner, buying a young player to replace a key player and at the first flash of skirt from an expensive foreign striker, we drop our trousers and bend over? Sometimes this club fucks me right off.

If you actually look at the form guide, Spurs are slightly better than us in the last 6 whilst Arsenal are 1 point worse than us. Contrary to what some might believe, I'm not totally against this trophy. It's a bit of a joke but it'd be nice to win under normal circumstances. However in the situation we're in at the moment and with the problems we've shown over the last few months I'd focus everything on the league. It's what's best for this club long-term in my opinion.

In the sense you're using them, they're broadly synonymous although as I pointed out completely meaningless coming from a 'fan' like you.

If Arsenal and Tottenham drop points..... Do you think it's a sensible policy to plan for our future on these grounds? To be quite honest, I'm surprised that this is such a 'controversial' point of view. Most supporters I know see the Europa League as a joke and just want this season over with us securing our Champions League spot for next season.