henlin007

I'm hoping against Basel we can use our A team, or at least the offensive half of it once, and hopefully kill the tie, or at least make the job easier than the Spurs did for their second leg.

My concern is that playing Fener or Benfica would require us to commit a lot of first team players over 2 legs while the champions league race is still on. Not to mention our starters tend to turn off once they go ahead in the Europa League. Much rather play rotated sides against Basel so we can keep the Champions league spot pressure on, and then we can take out which ever team progresses in a final where our players actually turn up.

Moses is not just any squad player he's a young squad player. People seem to have problems with his decision making but that'll improve along with his skill on the ball.

Let's get Witsel and Puyol too.

Really hoping we get Basel. Normal cup sense says to go for the strongest team over the 2 legs, but we have to rotate, and Basel is the only team that our rotated sides stand a chance of beating at home or away. We would definitely need our best side to be favorites to Fener or Benfica, and we can't afford to field 2 full first team sides in these next couple weeks. Not to mention or first team seems to have a hard time turning up for these 2 legged Thursday night matches. If we end up with Fener or Benfica for the final, our league status will be much clearer, our away support will be better, our best players will play less matches, and hopefully theyll show up.

It seems a lot of people doubt the quality I our squad players. I think the earlier poor results were due to a combination of total rotation, unfamiliarity, and lack of match fitness. Marin and benayoun are proven starting quality in champions and Europa league sides. With less drastic rotation, performances like rubin (a side that had beaten teams easily upper mid table in England) should be more common now. I was skeptical but now I think that a couple half rotations when absolutely necessary should see us still being able to challenge on all fronts.

The difficulty was turning the defender. After that, the finish is the same anywhere in any league with any team. He's too old, in a position where pace and insane reactions are everything. His strength isn't gone yet, but that may be all he has left. Mazacar live on the reactions of the players around them, let it be Azpi, or Ba. I respect Moses as a squad player, but when he's on the field he often seems like he can't keep up with the others technically. The difference is, is that Moses and Lukaku and our other non perfect AM's are young or only squad players. Drogba may come back in another role though. As a coach, he could teach Lukaku everything.

Clarke is a CFC legend and Lukaku is the CFC future. Let's see if they have what it takes. They've broken plenty of decent teams, and Clarke's defense is usually solid.

I personally rate Baines higher than Cole this year. Cole's just getting older really. His technique and stuff is good, but honestly, between Baines's free kicks, experience, and leadership qualities, along with his excellence, I would choose him over Cole.

Sorry to go off topic, but what a load of shit. Speaking as a fairly regular frequenter of Augusta, the club is fairly diverse given that it appeals to elite golfers from across the country... It's hardly a piss poor hick "country club" you might find else where. And I assure you all the members love women. I've seen spas that don't permit men and tennis clubs that also forbid women. Leave some things to tradition, and Augusta's masters is a tradition unlike any other. Further more Condoleeza Rice and some Carolina financier both got approved a while ago to be the first women with full memberships at Augusta. The food there is great though. Pulled pork to die for.

This makes more sens,e even though I don't think Roman will listen. Also, to play devil's advocate, we really don't know the terms he offered Di Matteo. Di Matteo may very well have had much higher standards as part of his agreement due to his lack of top level managerial pedigree (stupid policy if the case, but definitely fair in the sense that it wasn't a wanton temper tantrum and from an employee employer relationship-perspective.) Also, Di Matteo is not Roman's only employee. How well did Roman treat Drogba, Lampard, Terry, and, unfortunately, Torres. They're also his employees. Just a different angle to consider. Every boss has his favorite and less favorites. How well did Roman treat Shev? I would argue in some cases he is almost blindingly loyal to his employees--to the detriment of the club occasionally, but usually to its benefit. When AVB failed to control our aging and deteriorating assets, the old guard, Roman could have just as easily replaced them as him.

I have noticed that Rafa has not addressed SAF in person at all. I honestly think he's an objectively intelligent guy. He's learned his lesson with running his mouth, he's been humbled by Inter (as indicated by him accepting the interim job at all), and now he's just doing what he knows best. Being a top tactician--though not quite world-class. That belongs to Jose and, unfortunately, SAF.

Haha, Japan's a crafter and farmer state? Sony, canon, etc beg to differ. Not that I'm a big fan or anything, that just seemed really strange to me.However, If our players take it seriously this should be a walk in the park. The whole tournament. Weak brazilian fullbacks against the likes of Hazard, Moses, Mata, or Oscar (depending on where they play?). If our defense performs like they have been in the last two games we'll easily be fine. Oscar, Ramires, and Luiz have all played and beaten Corinthians with weaker sides behind them. We're not even matching a purely European side against Corinthians. We have some of the cream of Brazil, combined with some of Europe's best young talent. Though if we slack off and get cocky, I would hate to think what Brazilian technique rapid strikes could do to us. Also, compared to Brazilian defenses, playing Chelsea would feel like playing Stoke to those unused to EPL teams. Stoke with much more skill, pace, and technique. Cahill and Ivanovic can bully the Suarez, Rooney, and even Crouch. Good luck though, should be a good and refreshing two games.

I don't think anyone's argued that it's a matter of what rights they have. It's a matter of how productive doing so is, as well as what class it has. Benitez was a scumbag to us at Liverpool, but he serves in a different context now. He works for what we all want, a winning club. Furthermore, even if that doesn't persuade you to stop the booing, its tangible effects should. It's unproductive for the club, makes us a laughing stock, and is negative to the team as a whole. The players are professional and good players, but that doesn't mean the hate of the manager should make home matches feel like away ones. Isn't the crowd a key aspect of the difference? No matter how well they play now, they would definitely perform better with more united vocal support. This applies double to away matches. They get abused and insulted by opposition fans; they don't need their manager suffering the same from those who are loyal enough to follow the team.

lll Drogba's playing skill was honestly going too quickly. Probably would be great in the locker room and during half-time meetings, Frankly, he's better than torres, but still not on par with any strike we should have signed or would panic sign--especially given his wages. Lampard can play deeper, pass the ball, and take long shots, while Terry is still not too old. Strikers however need the pace and reflexes of youth most of all, not even counting other traits that disappear with age. Besides Drogba left on a good note. He could still boss the set-pieces I guess, but the dynamic, instant runs when the ball's being passed around the final third would be a new weak spot for him. This is not even factoring in the injury risk of a player his age with the requirements of his position. How quickly would he tear a ligament with Skrtel, Colo, Agger, or, god forbid, Vidic or Kompany tackling him hard. I do agree with your genera assessment. Essien is still playable after his injury, and Raul Meireles could be brilliant. Both are young enough to be competitive for a few more years and old enough to offer guidance. We should have replaced Essien, at least, immediately after his injury if we were going to take him off the team.

I've been a fan for decades and the fans should always come first. But the reason behind that is because we'll be there long after all club personnel are gone, because we love the club. And a football club's primary purpose is still winning, with fan favorite players, tactics, etc. coming second (a very close second but second nonetheless). If any manager, no matter how much we hated him, brought wins, then naturally we'll find favorite players, come to accept the tactics (like in the champions league), and be optimistic about club decisions in general. I don't like grant anymore than anyone else, but at least he hasn't called us fans plastic, and at least he's had tangible success with the club (regardless of other reasons). Also Cole and Cech in the old guard are still around, though I don't know how profound their insight to the club would be. That being said, assuming Benitez's Chelsea's shitty form keeps up (a bigger if in my opinion than most seem to believe), Grant literally can't do worse. We're still terrifying on the counter attack, like we naturally always have been, and if we focus our training their, we'll probably finish our chances better than we did against Juventus. If we bring in a more physical player or two, we can still play like Mourinho. The likes in-form Malouda, Damien Duff, etc. are not replaceable, and on the training ground we have, barely, enough foundation to bring a bit of that verve back. It's not a long-term situation, but I genuinely believe that with 50-70 mill in january panic signings, and a mediocre-to-slightly-better-than-FSW manager, we can hold our ground. Manchester United looks amazing offensively, but an injury or two in their attack would cripple them at this rate, while City's stats don't reflect their performance--especially relative to last year. Those are just the other title contenders. A final four finish against an inconsistent, if sometimes brilliant, Spurs, and an absolutely awful Liverpool and Arsenal seems more than just realistic but very likely.

I genuinely think that Roman's made a change away from buying big-named established players. He's a businessman, not a democratic leader, and the shift towards young talent is the beginning of that. Our academy program is still relatively young, and hasn't had a chance to bring out good players yet--keeping in mind that outside of barcelona, most good academy's would probably produce one player who's worthy of starting in the BPL top 4. You might point to his big money on players even now, but they're young players. He want's something for the future. He spent huge cash on that for this season, but it's a different mentality over-all than the days of shevchenko. Torres won't be the last massive signing Chelsea makes, but he's the last of a purchase to that sort of extreme. The new thing is to balance young players with expensive stars (proven ones like falcao or cavani or lewandowski). Hopefully in 2-3 years we'll be able to produce those young stars, but there's nothing wrong with buying them. Liverpool bought Torres when they were still competitive and Dortmund bought Lewandowski.

Avram's pretty shitty, but yeah, he knows when to be pragmatic and hands off. He let the players who knew what they were doing better than he did virtually run the show, and they didn't do too bad. 2nd in the league and a final is alright. Unfortunately, we know longer have as many of those players, but just slightly more conservative play, a new striker, lamps and terry coming off their injury, and a hands-off attitude, I believe, will see us finish okay this season. Better than Rafa's shitty tinkering... though I guess the knowledge that we can keep a 0-0 against a title-challenging side is comforting in a really shitty, I-hate-our-current-form kind of way.

I think the current Dortmund form might be that kind of remarkable. That would be such a fantastic match, even as a neutral. They should be able to beat most of the other european league champions in their current form though, especially this mediocre (which is still pretty good don't get me wrong) Madrid. That being said, if more teams play to their weakness like Celtic or we did last season, I don't know if they can innovate enough to crack it. They're still playing tiki-taka, and not always better than before. Though I also don't know if any current team is desperate enough about their current position in the CL to bring that bus on.