The only place to be

He doesn't have to play cup games, just league games. The league is the most important thing this season. We could throw the weekend game, throw the Swansea game and it wouldn't matter because the league is all important. Play Mata last night, send him on holiday if you want and then come back for the Stoke game. I actually think Benitez sees the cup competitions as his best chance for success, to get his fat mug in a photo with a trophy. What's best for the club is a top four spot. If that's the case, we're fucked.

A couple of times in the first half he got away from his man and looked up to see Torres doing fuck all to lose his (35 year old, slow) marker. Bit harsh to blame this guy when he's got a teammate who just doesn't do what he's supposed to.

Rest him at the weekend then. Don't forget he was still on the bench and still used.

Mata is our best player. He's been the player who has dug us out of holes this season (Leeds away, Spurs Away, Norwich away) and he should play every league game. If we're talking about rotation, both Lampard and Luiz looked a little gassed last night so probably should've been rested. But Mata is too important to drop.

Because he rested our best player so he'd be ready for a FA Cup game against Southampton's reserves. That angle seems to show him marginally offside.

I don't know if he was tired or injured last night, but his performance doesn't seem to have led to much talk either in the media or on here about giving him a new contract. Didn't see much leadership or experience on show last night. Maybe he didn't 'transmit' the importance of this game to us fans, to the youngsters.

I don't think I've said he would.

Apart from Torres, that is massively fucking unfair. I think it's been mentioned before, but here goes..... Roman never wanted Robbie. Roman wants Pep. He sacked Robbie the first moment he could (which Robbie helped with by getting us knocked out of the CL). He appointed the best candidate available short-term. In Summer he makes a run at Pep. This season seems to have been about trimming off the big contracts/dead wood and getting young players for next year. I hope it works out.

I'll be honest and say that I suggested we should rest Mata at first, but then you look at his performances and stats and realise you simply can't. Even Hazard needed to start just to give him a chance to play against one of the weaker teams. I would've liked to have seen Oscar play in midfield and Luiz rested but as soon as you heard Mata was out you started to wonder about the result.

The amount of people talking shit about 9-0 wins and playing with 10 players was fucking pathetic. You can't ever underestimate your opponent and you certainly don't disrespect them.....and they are usually the first to criticise. But I think Benitez deserves a lot of the blame. Not starting our most important player is naive. Leaving it until the 75th minute to bring him on is absolutely fucking ridiculous.

Criticising our club's owner with that avatar? Does it need spelling out? Things could be much worse.

It looks like Rangers gates.

Hmm.....

Sorry, but if you're going to have a pop at the owner who has taken this club to highs it could probably never dream of just a decade ago, you need to change your avatar. Seriously. :lol2: Agree. We can't leave out Mata in league games. He's too important and the fact it took until the 70-something minute is a fucking joke. Rafa deserves the blame tonight. As for your assessment of our board, I think you're way off the mark. I think we have amassed some of the best talent who are just waiting for a guy to lead them to a sustained period of success. I think Hazard and Mata fit the team perfectly and that Oscar can take Lampard's position in the squad long-term.

Right now it feels like one of the worst games I've ever seen. Benitez just completely fucked up the team selection in an important match. Right now, we can't drop Mata. He's our best player and too important to everything we do. We looked completely lost without him and he's become the lynchpin for that side, above any other player. Secondly, Torres is done. Just a gutless, spiritless, cowardly performance. I've said it before but he is a cancer at the club and until he's gone then we're going to be held back. Demba Ba may well be an improvement simply because he's not Torres and we won't be playing with 10 men. I will say that Cahill and Ivanovic were good again. The goal really wasn't their fault from my point of view and we really haven't missed Terry's presence in his absence, which bodes well for our future. Azpi had another decent game, whilst Bertrand didn't do anything particularly wrong but also nothing particularly impressive. Marin should've been off. Everyone in the ground knew it except the ref (who was shit). He made some nice runs after that but I would'e preferred Hazard to start whilst Oscar had a decent enough game for someone who seems to have had his confidence hit a bit. But the midfield really didn't offer much. We had so much possession but Lampard and Luiz were just slowing the ball down at almost every opportunity. Luiz did well at times to hustle back in defence and I still like the stability he can add at the back, but I thought he needed a rest tonight. Lampard on the other hand.... I've presented a number of points trying to understand why we're letting him go. I might as well have saved it all and just let people watch this game tonight. Apart from his goal, all he seemed to do was take turns with other players in losing possession. I've been told his value is in his leadership and being able to tell the other players what being a Chelsea player is all about and explaining things like local rivalries. Okay. All in all, fucking shit but this is a young group of players and they need to feel the pain of losing (desperately looking for an upside). One of our problem areas could be partially solved within days and we know that the club has a plan (sort-of) long-term. This is shit, but it will get better eventually.

So they let him go and they became one? We replaced him on the wings with Moses and up front (hopefully) with Ba. As it was he wasn't contributing to the team and was on a rather pricey expiring contract. This is a great bit of business.

For all those saying that the club have fucked up and he's going to be a star, do you not think it's odd that he's now been let go by TWO Champions League teams and the only team willing to go for him was Liverpool? He has potential, he's always had potential, but the reality of him is something rather different.

Sometimes you don't know how you'll feel about someone leaving until you see them holding another team's shirt or signing a contract. Seeing those pictures, I feel absolutely nothing.

Perhaps, but it didn't seem to help much against Corinthians did it? Personally, I'm going to hold fire on assessing him until the end of the season. He's an interim manager and I've said before that whilst he's here he'll get my backing because I'd rather focus on us having a bright future rather than cling on to old slights, and for better or worse we need him to do a good job for us to have a bright future.

I try not to make predictions, but in this case I'm going to stick my neck out, put my cock on the block, be brave and say....... better than Torres.

The original target was Modric, and when we didn't get him we went after Oscar so I really do want to see what he can do in that position because he's going to struggle to force Mata out of the number 10 spot. He has the vision and he has a surprisingly high workrate and level of toughness so it's just a case of giving him games there alongside either Mikel or Luiz.

There's still a medical.

It's fair to say he's played 800 minutes (if that's correct - I haven't checked). However, in his last 4 games.... Fulham - 90 minutes Man United - Sub; 26 minutes QPR - 76 minutes West Brom - 84 minutes It seems as though he's becoming a more important player for them as the season goes along so one could reasonably expect him to start more games and get more minutes than he would here.

Shame there was no-one there to record them for posterity.

I'm going to make myself unpopular by saying that agents are necessary to protect kids from being exploited by the clubs. If you're a player then you want a guy fighting to get the best deal from you, from a company who wants to pay as little for your talents as possible. This just sounds as though they came to us, heard our offer and then tested the waters elsewhere but found out that the market was pretty soft for him. I still think the biggest threat will be Newcastle re-upping for him.