The only place to be

Firstly, I don't think the West Ham game proved anything. We created 39 chances against them and had clear opportunities to score. It would be like suggesting there was something inherently wrong with Bayern's system in the 2012 CL Final. More importantly Mourinho has managed to develop a system that has taken us to the top of the table in his first seven months in charge, when we haven't managed to create a decent system in the past three years. That to me is good progress at this stage, and I expect us to develop alterations to this system as we move on. To be honest that type of comment you quoted will only find agreement amongst those with an agenda about Mourinho, that he's one-dimensional but that requires them to ignore games like Norwich away where he mixed up the tactics and won the game.

I do wonder if you are genuinely trolling us in this thread. He actually did have a good game and I complimented him for it, but I said he needed to do it consistently and he simply hasn't. Tactically you would expect Everton to either try and retain possession (in which case we need to put constant pressure on them) or it'll be another game where we create plenty of chances without any breakthrough. In neither case would I choose Mikel to start. For me it's Matic and one other (preferably Lamps).

A game we lost. Personally I can't see why he would play, beyond resting players for Galatasaray. In fact I can't complete this sentence - John Obi Mikel should start against Everton because....

Ramires and Mikel have played hundreds of games for us. The criticisms against them are based on things they have done dozens and dozens of times. Salah is new to the club, new to the team, new to the manager and new to this country. He hasn't even started a game yet so quite how anyone can judge him is beyond me. He's a young player, bought for the future and he needs the support of the fans.

It says something when you can get a rise out of people by suggesting Mikel might play. Personally I think he'll be lucky to be on the bench against Everton unless we rest players for the Galatasaray game. He might start in that one but only if we go defensive which I think is unnecessary. For me he's fifth choice in midfield when everyone is fit (Matic, Lampard, Ramires, Luiz, Mikel).

Actually I used that as evidence to support the notion that City's squad depth isn't that great. Weeks ago I said that they were vulnerable if they suffered an injury to Toure or Fernandinho. Aguero and Fernandinho are key players for them, part of their tremendous spine (Kompany, Fernandinho, Toure, Silva, Aguero....used to include Hart in that too) much like JT is for us. I agree. Here's where I disagree. Terry is probably our most important player and has been tremendous all season. We missed him against West Brom and we missed him against City. There's a reason why Luiz simply hasn't been chosen over the last few months with any regularity. It was a subdued performance all round, but we missed the solidity at the back and the leadership on the pitch that JT brings.

You want to bet on that?

The step-down from Terry and Cahill to this guy is absolutely giant. Does any member actually think he's a secure presence in defence? Those who constantly defend him (and apparently feel like they can't change their view of him for whatever reason) will offer up distractions like his ability to pass from the back (which is much overhyped) or his innate physical and technical skills. They'll throw up things like nationality, like he's too Brazilian or we expect him to be more English. Bull....shit...I'd take Thiago Silva over him and if he could defend like Moore or even Ferdinand (technically sound, defensively strong) then he'd be no problem. But he doesn't. He's 26 and still the same player he was when we first bought him. As a midfielder I actually don't mind him, but as a defender he's always got a mistake in him that will arise from a lack of concentration or commitment. Here's the truth about David Luiz. He has the tools to be the best defender in the world. In fact with his physical and technical strengths, he could be one of the all-time greats. He has pace. He has strength. He has fantastic ability on the ball. He's tall. He has EVERYTHING. Everything except for the most important thing - the mental aspect. Unfortunately that mental aspect is what sets every top class sportsperson apart from the crowd. It's what made Jordan so great. It's what made Ali so great. It's what makes Terry so great. It's what made Schumacher so great. And it's what makes Luiz a liability.

Must-win, no room for complacency and no room for passengers. Cech Ivanovic Cahill Terry Azpi Lamps Matic Willian Oscar Hazard Eto'o That is a team for me that will actually do what is needed to win this game, even if it's 1-0. Maybe we go with a change up top but we need Terry back. We can't trust Luiz (don't care if he turns up in big games, if the guy doesn't think every game for Chelsea is a big game then he's welcome to fuck off). Need attacking, clinical intent from the pivot which means Lamps and Matic back in and we need every player to throughly redeem themselves after the City game. I trust Jose to get them up for this one after the City and West Brom performances, and for our key players to right the ship.

Mikel's best defensive performance apparently came in a game where every other player also defended (including the left-back playing on the left-wing, and even Bosingwa having the game of his life) and yet we still relied on being incredibly lucky. Mikel's greatest achievement is apparently restricting Bayern Munich to 21 shots on target....I believe those people who use this game to defend him also give him credit for farting just as Robben took his penalty, this putting him off. An amazing talent.

Good point. If you completely ignore our best performance of the season then he's only looked great against Newcastle. That's 2 of his 3 Premier League starts but yeah, he looked a little off against West Brom. Look, Matic has looked a class above in limited appearances. He hasn't been perfect but he's shown some nice touches and also a willingness to do things like press the ball and also show a bit of adventure going forward. That already makes him better than Mikel in my book. As for Ramires, EVERYONE on this forum knows exactly who he is. No-one will question his work ethic, his engine, his pace or his determination. But there's that bit of the game where the ball either by design or by error rolls to his feet and he's asked to do something with it. That's where he's massively inconsistent, literally from touch to touch.

The match was lost as soon as we lined up without John Terry and with Mikel. Mikel's effort (or lack thereof) in the build-up to their second goal summed him up. Ball passes 2 feet in front of him and he doesn't move, he then dawdles back and actually stops running as Nasri continues his run into the box. He's a passenger, always has been and you need 11 men against City.

I've always wondered about people using this game to cite Mikel's 'quality' (I'm not sure what you're suggesting he excelled at - controlling the game, being a defensive giant, um....). Bayern created 34 chances in that game, 21 of which were on target. What exactly are you praising the 'best DM/only DM since Maka'? Was he equally amazing in the Europa League Final? No, because he didn't play.

Wenger might actually be right about a 'fear of failure'. In my experience a lot of winners have a horrific fear of failure and are sometimes labelled 'bad losers'. Wenger's way around this is lowering the standards of a victory by treating top four as a trophy, as he said here. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2012/feb/19/arsene-wenger-arsenal-fourth-place He's happy to throw Arsenal's name into the title race because not winning it is not a failure by his standards. He's a 'winner' purely by finishing in the top four, and if you look at their fans' celebrations at Newcastle last season then you'll see how they've been brainwashed into believing that as well. The man is a coward plain and simple, and for him to criticise a WINNER'S fear of failure as if it's a character defect tells you everything you need to know about the man.

Isco has 8 goals and 4 assists this season. Gotze has 9 goals and 5 assists. Oscar has 7 goals and 5 assists.

That's well unfair. Just look at how successful Fabregas, Van Persie, Clichy, Nasri and Cole have been.

Definitely agree with that. Smaller pitches, focus on technical skills, less emphasis on short-term results. It's what happened in the FA Youth Cup match with Norwich. They set up purely to defend and hit us on the counter, but that bears no relation to what they'll be asked to do if they reach the first-team. Our team actually focused on playing football that translates to the first-team better - results versus development. Not that I'm bitter about the result or anything.

The funny thing is the amount of Arsenal fans who can't find fault with what Jose said. There were plenty of them who were ready to say goodbye to Wenger after their poor start and now that they're faltering, you won't see a rush to defend him. Plus Wenger teed him up perfectly and deserved exactly what he got. He's too easy a target.

Well that's the problem. The 'romance' of the idea of these smaller clubs will get in the way of doing other things, so instead we simply rename the reserves to the 'u21' and then we rename that the 'b-league'. The best setup possible at the moment is the one we have with Vitesse where you loan them half-a-dozen players and they play in a similar system to this one. Chalobah went on loan to Forest but the style of football he's been taught to play over the last decade is completely different from what they wanted him to, so he lost half-a-season of his young football life. Ideally what we'd have is a Barcelona B situation where players played in the same system as us, at a competitive level. But that won't happen. We won't develop young English players who 50 million people could watch lead us to World Cup glory and why??? Because it might be unfair on the 1,878 people who attend Dagenham's home matches. And when the 'b league' doesn't offer any real improvements, we'll rename it the 'Elite Development League'. Or maybe just Diet Premier League.

Wenger spotted a minute ago

Just called Wenger a 'specialist in failure'

Would rather see Kalas and Ivanovic at CB with Luiz in midfield to be honest. Would be nice to see what Kalas is actually like.

This is just another crap idea to be honest. If you want to develop English talent then let top clubs have PROPER teams competing in the lower leagues. Why would we put Piazon or Bamford in a 'B League' team when they can play PROPER competitive football? Scudamore is a fucking moron. Maybe I'm pissing on tradition but do we really need Burton or Fleetwood in League Two? What about Huddersfield or Doncaster in the Championship? If you're talking about elite player development then what exactly do these teams contribute to the next Wayne Rooney being found? Let the top clubs have B teams who can compete in the lower leagues but not be promoted. That might not sound fair, but is it any fairer for a club like Middlesborough to loan elite young talent like Omeruo and Chalobah to help them beat teams who can't get players like that?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2559247/Manchester-United-declare-support-safe-standing-Old-Trafford-handing-campaign-major-boost.html Now United are supporting it after Bristol City installed a trial run of safe-standing seats, and the whole thing seems to be gathering a bit of momentum. Having seen a demonstration of how they actually function and the fact that they do allow more people to be accommodated (of course for us egress issues might still exist) then I can't see how anyone could be against this. I can't see how these wouldn't be safer than the current system where people stand and have no barrier in front of them to hold on to. Anyone who has been to a few games will have seen people stumble over a row of chairs at least once and it would put an end to the losing battle stewards have trying to get people to sit, when sitting is not what someone should be doing at a football match. So fair play to Mr Woodward.

If Cahill is injured then maybe we could go with Ivanovic alongside Terry at centre-half, with Azpi and Cole at full-back. Luiz can then play in his proper position in midfield hopefully alongside Matic but more likely alongside Mikel. SCHWARZER AZPI IVANOVIC TERRY COLE LUIZ MATIC SALAH RAMIRES SCHURRLE TORRES More of a 433 than a 4231 with Ramires probably playing deeper.