The only place to be

Becoming inconsistent. At his best he's unplayable and in matches like last night he's just....there. Worked hard defensively so you can never say he goes missing but I miss that little burst of excitement he brings when he's really up for a game. I will say that bog of a pitch really didn't help. Ultimately it became easier just to knock balls over the top rather than try and play too much football.

The Man City example isn't typical. They're probably the only team better than us in the league and yes they dominated possession....then against Newcastle we had 59% of possession. Against West Brom we had 60%. Against West Ham we had 72%. Because we did that against Man City....right. It's not possible that we're looking to play different types of football against different oppositions is it? Because the stats seem to suggest that. We even play different formations at times. Ramires is great at getting the ball in open space and knocking it a few yards ahead to run onto.....and that's it. Occasionally he'll do a bit of skill (obligatory Barcelona goal reference) but eventually that's not going to be enough. Mourinho didn't need a whippet in Madrid because he had Khedira, Modric and Alonso and hopefully at some point we'll move on from Ramires too....unless we just keep him around for games where we do nothing but counter-attack, like we did last night.

Mikel didn't lose the ball once....he lets other players do that. What he does is he shields the ball, moves towards his goal and compresses the space between the opposition players who are pressing him and the player he's passing to. If you watch the match there's a moment where he does that to Azpi, so Azpi has to clear it. And no I don't like Mikel but I have no problem with a player like him being introduced to slow things down and ease the pressure off of us. I'd just prefer it was someone better. Before he came on they had 4 chances, after 3 chances. Before he came on they completed 85% of their passes, after 86%. After he comes on, we actually play more in our third of the pitch. Very little changes with his introduction.

Actually he made three times as many passes as Ramires in the last 15 minutes. I'm not saying that you didn't watch the match but it's simply incorrect to suggest he didn't run for the last 15. He was retaining possession and did no more or less than Ramires did defensively.

Lack of quality up front, lack of quality in midfield in European games and teams sitting deeper against us. It's still only 8 months into Mourinho's second term here so the players are still adapting.

Based on what? He was far more effective than Ramires last night both in possession of the ball and defensively. He still has a role to play with us alongside someone like Matic, but not every match.

I disagree with that entirely. Why did he buy Matic if he didn't want us to be able to control the play? Why did he rely on players like Alonso at Madrid? It isn't about letting the team attack you so you can hit them, but maximising the chances that you get when they do open up.

Just looking on squawkas stats and the percentages go from 73% to 81% after Mikel's introduction. That's marginal and I'll say again that you have to look beyond the stats and at the actual match itself. Yes we may have completed more passes but Mikel tends to put players into poor positions with his passes. I cited an example with Azpi and it's always the same with him. Rather than relieve pressure by opening up the play and looking upfield, he tends to move the play backwards towards his own goal which allows oppositions to press on us. Keep the ball for how many phases though? Does Mikel advance the play and turn Galatasaray or does his slow play actually allow them to advance upfield and apply pressure to us so that they can regain possession in advanced areas?

Put us under pressure a couple of times when he got possession. Rather than looking to advance the play, he moves it backwards and allows the Galatasaray players to press us so that we give up possession. His possession stats are thoroughly misleading and here's why. At one point he received the ball and had two players move towards him. Rather than shipping the ball on, he shielded the ball for a couple of seconds whilst moving towards Azpi at left-back. He then passes Azpi the ball but the players who were on Mikel are already near the ball so Azpi has to hoof it. End result - completed pass for Mikel (yay for the stat!), missed pass for Azpi and Galatasaray regain possession. And it's not a freak occurrence. He passes the ball to players who aren't in good positions a lot. But at least he's leaving in the summer.

69% pass completion for him last night. Ivanovic and Schurrle had lower, but compared to Lampard (89%) he was shocking. Technically he's inconsistent at best and been dining off that goal against Barca for the last two years. I just don't know if you can afford to play him in a team with our aspirations if you want to keep the ball, rather than chasing it. Because he can chase a ball like no other, but once he gets it then you don't really know what you're going to get.

Not trying to read too much into this, but why isn't David Luiz included? He's an instantly recognisable character because of the hair, he has a good social media presence, he's South American and he was a big part of the Adidas promotion in pre-season. It's surprising to me that he hasn't been chosen, and might hint at his future with the club. Or maybe not. Either way it's a nice reminder of just how big this club is becoming. That we've been chosen as the English representatives is great from a business standpoint but also a timely reminder of our stature in the game. Plus it's fucking cool.

Really? Terry threw the ball right into the middle of the pitch. You're having a laugh if you don't think that's interfering with play. And the play stops, Cech stops, and that's why your guy scores.

Terry should have stayed with his man but why is Cech getting into this habit of coming off his line, and then stopping in no mans land? He's done it a few times and it's cost us goals. Maybe the pressure of Courtois arriving has got to him, but he's no longer the imperious presence he used to be.

It wasn't a mistake. There were two balls in the field of play. Maybe that's something you do in your shitty Turkish league to ratchet up the excitement but in proper leagues we stick to one ball at a time.

Not really. 1-1 away from home in a Champions League game is a decent result. Sometimes it's hard for players to get up for matches against the smaller teams.

Because there's no midfield there to control it. Everyone's going to have to remember that word we thought we'd consigned to the dustbin when we signed Matic - PIVOT. No, they're not a disgrace. Unbunch your panties and relax. They're conservative (which is perfectly fine over two legs) but he put out an attacking team today who simply lacked sharpness. We still don't have a good striker. That's going to be a problem until the summer.

I mean.....come on....really?

Who won much less than this team. Yay we beat United 5-0....who won the title? Yay we beat Galatasaray 5-0....and then Barca thumped us 5-1. That was also the Chelsea of Chris Sutton and Jes Hogh.

Give it a fucking rest. We could've gone with Mikel in the middle but we didn't. We could've gone with 3 in the midfield and killed it but we played an attacking team. I'm sorry you weren't entertained but these away games are about getting a result so you're still in the tie come the second leg. The fact is we have the advantage going back to the Bridge and I'm sure we'll play a much more attacking game there. And I could give a fuck if some journalists are going to give us a bad write-up tomorrow because the same cunts were going on about how great Arsenal were a couple of weeks ago and look how that turned out.

69% Passing accuracy.

It's about results. It's why we list the goals at the end of the match and not the judges' scorecards.

Is it me or is he looking a bit iffy on crosses. Seems to come and then stop - did it away to Stoke, away to West Brom and then tonight. Start clattering the people in the way, get a fist on it or just don't come out.

Should've killed the tie dead, but an away goal coming back to the Bridge is a nice result. Plenty there for people to moan about if they want but you play the percentages over two legs and we've most definitely got the advantage over this team. How Melo didn't get booked I don't know and the goal we conceded was disappointing and reminiscent of the goal at Stoke. Overall a nice trip to Hell but we should beat them comfortably on that nice pitch at the Bridge.

Fuck Off Mikel.

I don't think it is glory you hunt, I just think you are a massive ____.