remains of the day

It also sends the wrong message to our current players that they have more power than the club and can force a move to the club of their choice. Right now it might just be Matic, who you can argue can be replaced fairly easily, but sooner or later one of our more talented players will want to move to a rival and it will be difficult for the board to refuse because they have already set a precedence of selling to rivals. 
 
 

It is about time we stop talking about how much we are receiving and start doing something with the money. If that is true, it is a lot of money however the squad is thin. We should have a player lined up before we even consider selling him, which I doubt we do.  Mourinho clearly knows he needs a CM to be a stronger team and look there is us giving him is wish. Why we are even dealing with them after Lukaku stuff, I don't know and they are a direct rival for the title. Matic joining them is going to make Pogba much more of an attacking force next season. And no he is not useless. Ridiculous statement. We don't strengthen another team when they are making clear that is a position they want to strengthen. We made a lot of money due to the title win and Oscar/Ake sales. Why can't the club just spend rather than one in, one out policy and selling to direct rival concerns me. Especially as I think it makes them a lot more of a complete team now.

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.

A lot of the comments on here proposing that we bring in a better number 10 I think are taking certain things for granted. With Cesc in the side, the player in the number 10 has to poses more than just the ability to pull off neat little through balls. The main creators in this team are Cesc and Hazard, while Iva this season has been contributing a lot to our attacking play, but for the most part everything goes through Cesc and Hazard. These players are given free reign, maybe not so much positionally but on the ball their given a lot of liberties in the sense that their free to do risky things that Oscar (or Willian) would be reluctant to do. Hazard's turnover stats are very high because his role requires him to be adventurous on the ball, so he can lose possession frequently (and he does) without reproach. Cesc too is very offensive, more so than a lot of deep-lying midfielders.
My view (and this might be debatable) is that a team can't accommodate a 3rd playmaker. That kind of thing might work in certain leagues or in fifa, but in the premier league it'll create an imbalanced side. Take a look at Real Madrid as an example, the midfield of Modric, Kroos and James Rodriquez really struggled in the beginning. Yes eventually they built a better understanding and became somewhat solid but it took a toll on Modric's offensive game to the point that it was basically non-existent. He was essentially playing as a defensive midfielder with little attacking contribution. Another example off the top of my head is Nasri when he made the move to City. For the longest time, a point of discussion among City fans was "why can't Nasri and Silva play well together?" Toure and Silva are basically City's main creators and in my opinion it had a knock on effect Nasri's attacking contribution. He went from something like 10 goals in 30 games playing at Arsenal to about 5 goals in 30 or some games (don't quote me on this). A team simply can't accommodate or maintain balance with three midfielders all trying to do something adventurous, risky and audacious each time they touch the ball.
As long as Cesc and Hazard are the team's main offensive threat, any playmaker, particularly one that's young and still developing as a player, will struggle to make an impact. So with Cesc and Hazard in the side, other qualities then becomes more important. Qualities like tactical nous is exponentially crucial. At the same time, you need the player in that position to have a good understanding and can act as a link between Cesc and Hazard and if he can do all of this while still chipping in with goals, then all the better --- think of Muller's role under Heynckes' Bayern. That's basically what the no. 10 position in this formation and system we play calls for. It's the most tactical position, in terms of balance, and I think too many people take it for granted.
Re: the bolded point. That's exactly what I think we should do - put Cesc in the no 10 and bring in a B2B midfielder to play alongside Matic but it just seems unfair to move Cesc from his preferred position. He's spoken many times about enjoying playing his football here partly because he's an important player and he's playing in his best position. He obviously sees himself as a CM, seems unfair to play him in the 10, I dunno.

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.

Yeah I really didn't expect a better response from him to be honest. We're all wearing blue-tinted glasses but him apparently. Lionsden is the football equivalent of a rebel without a cause. If that's his identity as a football fan, then all the power to him but seriously don't strut around here acting like you give a shit about commitment to youth when at the end of the day you care more about being proven right than actually supporting a young struggling player. What's with the pretenses? You don't care about young players, you care about your ego. Right from the very beginning, the guy has mocked, criticized, berated Oscar and every one who has defended him. Yes we get it, you don't think he's talented enough to play for Chelsea, so what? This is a young player wearing the colours of this club. He's a Chelsea player who's making a big step up in leagues and still developing as a player. You can't show him a little support, yet you sit there running your mouth about "putting faith in youth." I can only shake my head....

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.

A lot of the comments on here proposing that we bring in a better number 10 I think are taking certain things for granted. With Cesc in the side, the player in the number 10 has to poses more than just the ability to pull off neat little through balls. The main creators in this team are Cesc and Hazard, while Iva this season has been contributing a lot to our attacking play, but for the most part everything goes through Cesc and Hazard. These players are given free reign, maybe not so much positionally but on the ball their given a lot of liberties in the sense that their free to do risky things that Oscar (or Willian) would be reluctant to do. Hazard's turnover stats are very high because his role requires him to be adventurous on the ball, so he can lose possession frequently (and he does) without reproach. Cesc too is very offensive, more so than a lot of deep-lying midfielders.
My view (and this might be debatable) is that a team can't accommodate a 3rd playmaker. That kind of thing might work in certain leagues or in fifa, but in the premier league it'll create an imbalanced side. Take a look at Real Madrid as an example, the midfield of Modric, Kroos and James Rodriquez really struggled in the beginning. Yes eventually they built a better understanding and became somewhat solid but it took a toll on Modric's offensive game to the point that it was basically non-existent. He was essentially playing as a defensive midfielder with little attacking contribution. Another example off the top of my head is Nasri when he made the move to City. For the longest time, a point of discussion among City fans was "why can't Nasri and Silva play well together?" Toure and Silva are basically City's main creators and in my opinion it had a knock on effect Nasri's attacking contribution. He went from something like 10 goals in 30 games playing at Arsenal to about 5 goals in 30 or some games (don't quote me on this). A team simply can't accommodate or maintain balance with three midfielders all trying to do something adventurous, risky and audacious each time they touch the ball.
As long as Cesc and Hazard are the team's main offensive threat, any playmaker, particularly one that's young and still developing as a player, will struggle to make an impact. So with Cesc and Hazard in the side, other qualities then becomes more important. Qualities like tactical nous is exponentially crucial. At the same time, you need the player in that position to have a good understanding and can act as a link between Cesc and Hazard and if he can do all of this while still chipping in with goals, then all the better --- think of Muller's role under Heynckes' Bayern. That's basically what the no. 10 position in this formation and system we play calls for. It's the most tactical position, in terms of balance, and I think too many people take it for granted.
Re: the bolded point. That's exactly what I think we should do - put Cesc in the no 10 and bring in a B2B midfielder to play alongside Matic but it just seems unfair to move Cesc from his preferred position. He's spoken many times about enjoying playing his football here partly because he's an important player and he's playing in his best position. He obviously sees himself as a CM, seems unfair to play him in the 10, I dunno.

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.

A lot of the comments on here proposing that we bring in a better number 10 I think are taking certain things for granted. With Cesc in the side, the player in the number 10 has to poses more than just the ability to pull off neat little through balls. The main creators in this team are Cesc and Hazard, while Iva this season has been contributing a lot to our attacking play, but for the most part everything goes through Cesc and Hazard. These players are given free reign, maybe not so much positionally but on the ball their given a lot of liberties in the sense that their free to do risky things that Oscar (or Willian) would be reluctant to do. Hazard's turnover stats are very high because his role requires him to be adventurous on the ball, so he can lose possession frequently (and he does) without reproach. Cesc too is very offensive, more so than a lot of deep-lying midfielders.
My view (and this might be debatable) is that a team can't accommodate a 3rd playmaker. That kind of thing might work in certain leagues or in fifa, but in the premier league it'll create an imbalanced side. Take a look at Real Madrid as an example, the midfield of Modric, Kroos and James Rodriquez really struggled in the beginning. Yes eventually they built a better understanding and became somewhat solid but it took a toll on Modric's offensive game to the point that it was basically non-existent. He was essentially playing as a defensive midfielder with little attacking contribution. Another example off the top of my head is Nasri when he made the move to City. For the longest time, a point of discussion among City fans was "why can't Nasri and Silva play well together?" Toure and Silva are basically City's main creators and in my opinion it had a knock on effect Nasri's attacking contribution. He went from something like 10 goals in 30 games playing at Arsenal to about 5 goals in 30 or some games (don't quote me on this). A team simply can't accommodate or maintain balance with three midfielders all trying to do something adventurous, risky and audacious each time they touch the ball.
As long as Cesc and Hazard are the team's main offensive threat, any playmaker, particularly one that's young and still developing as a player, will struggle to make an impact. So with Cesc and Hazard in the side, other qualities then becomes more important. Qualities like tactical nous is exponentially crucial. At the same time, you need the player in that position to have a good understanding and can act as a link between Cesc and Hazard and if he can do all of this while still chipping in with goals, then all the better --- think of Muller's role under Heynckes' Bayern. That's basically what the no. 10 position in this formation and system we play calls for. It's the most tactical position, in terms of balance, and I think too many people take it for granted.
Re: the bolded point. That's exactly what I think we should do - put Cesc in the no 10 and bring in a B2B midfielder to play alongside Matic but it just seems unfair to move Cesc from his preferred position. He's spoken many times about enjoying playing his football here partly because he's an important player and he's playing in his best position. He obviously sees himself as a CM, seems unfair to play him in the 10, I dunno.

A lot of the comments on here proposing that we bring in a better number 10 I think are taking certain things for granted. With Cesc in the side, the player in the number 10 has to poses more than just the ability to pull off neat little through balls. The main creators in this team are Cesc and Hazard, while Iva this season has been contributing a lot to our attacking play, but for the most part everything goes through Cesc and Hazard. These players are given free reign, maybe not so much positionally but on the ball their given a lot of liberties in the sense that their free to do risky things that Oscar (or Willian) would be reluctant to do. Hazard's turnover stats are very high because his role requires him to be adventurous on the ball, so he can lose possession frequently (and he does) without reproach. Cesc too is very offensive, more so than a lot of deep-lying midfielders.
My view (and this might be debatable) is that a team can't accommodate a 3rd playmaker. That kind of thing might work in certain leagues or in fifa, but in the premier league it'll create an imbalanced side. Take a look at Real Madrid as an example, the midfield of Modric, Kroos and James Rodriquez really struggled in the beginning. Yes eventually they built a better understanding and became somewhat solid but it took a toll on Modric's offensive game to the point that it was basically non-existent. He was essentially playing as a defensive midfielder with little attacking contribution. Another example off the top of my head is Nasri when he made the move to City. For the longest time, a point of discussion among City fans was "why can't Nasri and Silva play well together?" Toure and Silva are basically City's main creators and in my opinion it had a knock on effect Nasri's attacking contribution. He went from something like 10 goals in 30 games playing at Arsenal to about 5 goals in 30 or some games (don't quote me on this). A team simply can't accommodate or maintain balance with three midfielders all trying to do something adventurous, risky and audacious each time they touch the ball.
As long as Cesc and Hazard are the team's main offensive threat, any playmaker, particularly one that's young and still developing as a player, will struggle to make an impact. So with Cesc and Hazard in the side, other qualities then becomes more important. Qualities like tactical nous is exponentially crucial. At the same time, you need the player in that position to have a good understanding and can act as a link between Cesc and Hazard and if he can do all of this while still chipping in with goals, then all the better --- think of Muller's role under Heynckes' Bayern. That's basically what the no. 10 position in this formation and system we play calls for. It's the most tactical position, in terms of balance, and I think too many people take it for granted.
Re: the bolded point. That's exactly what I think we should do - put Cesc in the no 10 and bring in a B2B midfielder to play alongside Matic but it just seems unfair to move Cesc from his preferred position. He's spoken many times about enjoying playing his football here partly because he's an important player and he's playing in his best position. He obviously sees himself as a CM, seems unfair to play him in the 10, I dunno.

A lot of the comments on here proposing that we bring in a better number 10 I think are taking certain things for granted. With Cesc in the side, the player in the number 10 has to poses more than just the ability to pull off neat little through balls. The main creators in this team are Cesc and Hazard, while Iva this season has been contributing a lot to our attacking play, but for the most part everything goes through Cesc and Hazard. These players are given free reign, maybe not so much positionally but on the ball their given a lot of liberties in the sense that their free to do risky things that Oscar (or Willian) would be reluctant to do. Hazard's turnover stats are very high because his role requires him to be adventurous on the ball, so he can lose possession frequently (and he does) without reproach. Cesc too is very offensive, more so than a lot of deep-lying midfielders.
My view (and this might be debatable) is that a team can't accommodate a 3rd playmaker. That kind of thing might work in certain leagues or in fifa, but in the premier league it'll create an imbalanced side. Take a look at Real Madrid as an example, the midfield of Modric, Kroos and James Rodriquez really struggled in the beginning. Yes eventually they built a better understanding and became somewhat solid but it took a toll on Modric's offensive game to the point that it was basically non-existent. He was essentially playing as a defensive midfielder with little attacking contribution. Another example off the top of my head is Nasri when he made the move to City. For the longest time, a point of discussion among City fans was "why can't Nasri and Silva play well together?" Toure and Silva are basically City's main creators and in my opinion it had a knock on effect Nasri's attacking contribution. He went from something like 10 goals in 30 games playing at Arsenal to about 5 goals in 30 or some games (don't quote me on this). A team simply can't accommodate or maintain balance with three midfielders all trying to do something adventurous, risky and audacious each time they touch the ball.
As long as Cesc and Hazard are the team's main offensive threat, any playmaker, particularly one that's young and still developing as a player, will struggle to make an impact. So with Cesc and Hazard in the side, other qualities then becomes more important. Qualities like tactical nous is exponentially crucial. At the same time, you need the player in that position to have a good understanding and can act as a link between Cesc and Hazard and if he can do all of this while still chipping in with goals, then all the better --- think of Muller's role under Heynckes' Bayern. That's basically what the no. 10 position in this formation and system we play calls for. It's the most tactical position, in terms of balance, and I think too many people take it for granted.
Re: the bolded point. That's exactly what I think we should do - put Cesc in the no 10 and bring in a B2B midfielder to play alongside Matic but it just seems unfair to move Cesc from his preferred position. He's spoken many times about enjoying playing his football here partly because he's an important player and he's playing in his best position. He obviously sees himself as a CM, seems unfair to play him in the 10, I dunno.

Yeah I really didn't expect a better response from him to be honest. We're all wearing blue-tinted glasses but him apparently. Lionsden is the football equivalent of a rebel without a cause. If that's his identity as a football fan, then all the power to him but seriously don't strut around here acting like you give a shit about commitment to youth when at the end of the day you care more about being proven right than actually supporting a young struggling player. What's with the pretenses? You don't care about young players, you care about your ego. Right from the very beginning, the guy has mocked, criticized, berated Oscar and every one who has defended him. Yes we get it, you don't think he's talented enough to play for Chelsea, so what? This is a young player wearing the colours of this club. He's a Chelsea player who's making a big step up in leagues and still developing as a player. You can't show him a little support, yet you sit there running your mouth about "putting faith in youth." I can only shake my head....

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.

A lot of the comments on here proposing that we bring in a better number 10 I think are taking certain things for granted. With Cesc in the side, the player in the number 10 has to poses more than just the ability to pull off neat little through balls. The main creators in this team are Cesc and Hazard, while Iva this season has been contributing a lot to our attacking play, but for the most part everything goes through Cesc and Hazard. These players are given free reign, maybe not so much positionally but on the ball their given a lot of liberties in the sense that their free to do risky things that Oscar (or Willian) would be reluctant to do. Hazard's turnover stats are very high because his role requires him to be adventurous on the ball, so he can lose possession frequently (and he does) without reproach. Cesc too is very offensive, more so than a lot of deep-lying midfielders.
My view (and this might be debatable) is that a team can't accommodate a 3rd playmaker. That kind of thing might work in certain leagues or in fifa, but in the premier league it'll create an imbalanced side. Take a look at Real Madrid as an example, the midfield of Modric, Kroos and James Rodriquez really struggled in the beginning. Yes eventually they built a better understanding and became somewhat solid but it took a toll on Modric's offensive game to the point that it was basically non-existent. He was essentially playing as a defensive midfielder with little attacking contribution. Another example off the top of my head is Nasri when he made the move to City. For the longest time, a point of discussion among City fans was "why can't Nasri and Silva play well together?" Toure and Silva are basically City's main creators and in my opinion it had a knock on effect Nasri's attacking contribution. He went from something like 10 goals in 30 games playing at Arsenal to about 5 goals in 30 or some games (don't quote me on this). A team simply can't accommodate or maintain balance with three midfielders all trying to do something adventurous, risky and audacious each time they touch the ball.
As long as Cesc and Hazard are the team's main offensive threat, any playmaker, particularly one that's young and still developing as a player, will struggle to make an impact. So with Cesc and Hazard in the side, other qualities then becomes more important. Qualities like tactical nous is exponentially crucial. At the same time, you need the player in that position to have a good understanding and can act as a link between Cesc and Hazard and if he can do all of this while still chipping in with goals, then all the better --- think of Muller's role under Heynckes' Bayern. That's basically what the no. 10 position in this formation and system we play calls for. It's the most tactical position, in terms of balance, and I think too many people take it for granted.
Re: the bolded point. That's exactly what I think we should do - put Cesc in the no 10 and bring in a B2B midfielder to play alongside Matic but it just seems unfair to move Cesc from his preferred position. He's spoken many times about enjoying playing his football here partly because he's an important player and he's playing in his best position. He obviously sees himself as a CM, seems unfair to play him in the 10, I dunno.

This is the key thing IMO.
Yes, Oscar isn't the greatest in the world. But what no.10s around are realistically gettable and definitely better than him? Especially when you consider he's still youngish (23 means he's likely still yet to peak).
Unless Real continue their mental attempts to buy a WC AM every damn transfer window and decide to ship out Isco (who is just amazing) then I just can't think of anyone.
The only other thing would be to shift Cesc forwards into the no.10 role and buy another CM (Pogba or Koke?) but i'm still not convinced that Cesc is as good in that role as I think he's often marked too tightly to make as much of an impact.
For now, I'm happy to persist with Oscar and hope he develops his game a bit more (especially his passing accuracy, his consistency and general creativity on the ball). Hopefully Mou can help him out there.

Completely agree with this. There's nothing more infuriating than the team losing throwing away 3 pnts due to lax defending. It drives me insane. We're 1 goal up, the team is cruising to a victory, the opponent is hardly posing any threat, everything is under control, everything is going according to plan, 3 points almost in the bag then Ivanovic switches off or fails to close down a cross, the opposition scores, the momentum then swings to them, the crowd suddenly finds their voice and the noise becomes deafening, the opposition begins slicing through the midfield at will, the defence is scrambling, Cahill begins moonwalking, they equalize and soon after they score again. Just like that, what would have been a comfortable victory ends in mayhem due to one moment of lax defending. I feel like I've seen this team throw away 3 points in this fashion so many times, I can write a book. The thing is, the approach Jose uses to see-out games depends heavily on every player keeping their concentration and sticking to their roles but Iva switches off too often.
Mourinho must be aware of it but he still persists with him so he clearly brings way too many vital qualities that's important to Mourinho's setup. I think he's Mourinho's most important defender and I don't see him ever being dropped regardless of how many goals we concede due to his lapses in concentration.

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.

Completely agree with this. There's nothing more infuriating than the team losing throwing away 3 pnts due to lax defending. It drives me insane. We're 1 goal up, the team is cruising to a victory, the opponent is hardly posing any threat, everything is under control, everything is going according to plan, 3 points almost in the bag then Ivanovic switches off or fails to close down a cross, the opposition scores, the momentum then swings to them, the crowd suddenly finds their voice and the noise becomes deafening, the opposition begins slicing through the midfield at will, the defence is scrambling, Cahill begins moonwalking, they equalize and soon after they score again. Just like that, what would have been a comfortable victory ends in mayhem due to one moment of lax defending. I feel like I've seen this team throw away 3 points in this fashion so many times, I can write a book. The thing is, the approach Jose uses to see-out games depends heavily on every player keeping their concentration and sticking to their roles but Iva switches off too often.
Mourinho must be aware of it but he still persists with him so he clearly brings way too many vital qualities that's important to Mourinho's setup. I think he's Mourinho's most important defender and I don't see him ever being dropped regardless of how many goals we concede due to his lapses in concentration.

Surprised to see him mentioned for MOTM. The goal was pretty awesome, but even though I couldn't watch the match properly, I could see he was out of position a few times and he completely lost Okore for the goal, he didn't even know where he is.

I'm sorry, but he just frustrates me so much. When the going gets tough, he can frequently turn in excellent (sometimes match-winning) performances; when he is feeling the pressure he often rises to the occasion. This is why so many fans (and Mourinho himself) hold him in such high regard.
However, I maintain that a player as prone to losing concentration as he is should simply not be guaranteed starts every single game, regardless of the qualities he may possess. Many of us have noted with annoyance that the team seems particularly prone to throwing away leads this season, and that problem is going to persist if Mourinho continues to let Ivanovic get away with his lax defensive play.
Yesteday's game is a case in point; the team appeared to be attempting to cruise through the game after having taken a one-goal lead, and all it took was for Ivanovic to completely lose Okore (whom he was clearly supposed to be man-marking) in the box and we had lost our lead. Of course, Ivanovic then proceeded to clean up his mess with the game-winning goal, and I DO give him credit for that, but I would rather find myself giving him credit for a game in which he defended well and contributed to a clean-sheet instead.

Imagine someone who constantly berates a manager for refusing to show enough faith in young players, only for that person to vociferously brag about the fact that 2 & a half years ago he wrote off a 21 yr old making a big transition from the Brazilian league to English football. Imagine actually bragging about something like that. As if that's something to be proud of. As if that's something that should be lauded.
There are a few members on here who questioned whether Oscar was good enough to play in the 10 position, Skipper being one of them. Yet despite not being entirely convinced by Oscar's talent, Skipper still defended him on numerous occasions. That's what a football fan with strong principles of nurturing young players does. Regardless of whether they have doubts about the player's potential, they still show a willingness to support the player. A strong desire to see that player succeed at this club. You though never even gave Oscar a chance. You never gave him an ounce of support. A young Chelsea player making a huge step up in his career and you constantly berated him, rarely praised him when he was playing well and the most perverse thing is how you used every. single. poor performance as a victory of sorts and as an opportunity to further slam him. You sit there in front of your screen and give lip service to showing faith in young players but the truth is, you lionsden care more about being right than any larger commitment to youth.
For all your talk about the ills of modern football, you exemplify everything that's wrong with it. You're a walking parody of yourself - a parody that honestly isn't funny anymore.