Rekin

Had an excellent game against Italy, a rock in the defence but also there for the pass offensively. For those who like statistics WhoScored ranked him as the third best player in the game, the best of all defenders.

Dear god, this is so silly. Almost every striker has gone through a drought. it does not automatically make them poor. Costa has played on a high level for the past three seasons. I do not understand why you are bringing up Sturridge suddenly, first of all the comparison was between Torres & Costa, second of all Sturridge has shown himself to be an excellent striker. What does the League positions of the two teams have to do with anything? Soldado scored a lot of goals because Valencia played in a way that suited him. He was very good at a certain thing, a thing he has not been allowed to do at Spurs. It has very little to do with how good either league is. When it comes to the comparison between Stoke and Atletico you are really trying my patience. I thought it was very very obvious that the comparison was between Stoke and Rayo (and before you again misunderstand the comparison, it was about league positions, not style of play). When it comes to youtube compilations you are such a walking cliché. I am not talking about some speed/camera-edited masterpieces, but merely normal videos showing Costa scoring goals. There is nothing to add there, you only need to see how he acted when he scored. He goes down easily at times, but most of the time it is when he realizes that he has lost the duel, at which point he is doing a last-ditch effort to win the ball through other means. If you think our offensive midfield is as good as Bayern's then you are dreaming. They sure have the potential, but except Hazard they still have a way to go. Anyway, I am done talking to you. You keep making assumptions based on nothing else but your own opinion and you keep misunderstanding what I am writing (first about Cavani, and now about Stoke). Costa has a great record and will be the perfect purchase for Chelsea (and just to be clear, this is my opinion based on what I have seen for the past two seasons, not based on 5-6 games in which he has/hasnt scored).

You really need to work on your analytical skill. Your arguments seem more based on a perceived dislike on Costa than anything else, for they are not very accurate. First of all, the stats of Costa are if anything better than they appear. In difference to Torres who was the star striker of Liverpool which was a top team, Costa has not even played a full season as a first choice striker in a team challenging for the top. Instead, he played one full season in Rayo, which is a rather poor team, and one season as a wide player in support of Falcao. You could compare that to a Torres playing one of those seasons in Stoke, and another as a wide forward. In terms of his brute strength, you really need to follow a few more of his games. If you claim to do so and yet still keep saying that you have never seen him use it than I honestly do not know what to tell you. Just watch any random youtube compilation of his goals and you will see how he is often powering through two defenders thanks to his strength as much as anything before he scores. See how he at corners just mangles the ball in even though he has a stronger defender next to himself. In the last game against Real he also got through the defence more than once through a combination of technique and strength. In terms of a comparison to Mandzukic, I would say that they are close in terms of where they are right now, but I prefer Costa as I feel that he makes a mark on most games while the earlier goes missing during periods of time. Besides, Mandzukic plays in a much better team which is always making it easier to show of your good sides. When you play with virtuosos such as Muller, Ribery, Robben or Kroos it is much easier to provide good link-up play. Costa have good players on his team as well, but nowhere the level of those from Bayern. When it comes to Cavani it is again you who fail to understand what I wrote. It was never a straight up comparison between players, but between the prices of the two. Cavani is the better player in my opinion, but he is likely to cost close to the double. I do not rate him as twice as good as Costa. Just so summarize, Costa has shown himself to have the attributes to succeed. That you have missed his physical strength does in no way mean that it is not there. His stats (which are a part of the analysis required when considering a player) are very good. His workrate is excellent. I feel that I have made myself clear, if you disagree than do so, but you have provided little evidence to support your case. Referring to what "might happen" or what "happened to another purchase" that evidently had different circumstances is not good enough. You might ask what evidence I have presented. The answer is that his stats are available in many places, and that you can see the real thing every week. His performance on the pitch is supporting my conclusion, not yours.

Did you actually bother reading what I wrote? Torres had been through a major injury, had been a first choice striker for one of the best teams in the league, was older and also much more expensive. He also relied on completely different attributes than Costa. I tried to angle my post in a way that would dissuade anyone from making comparisons to Torres but I guess there is always someone...

Just to remind everyone who seems to have forgotten some key facts. Diego Costa has 41 goals & 14 assists in his last three seasons in La Liga, and for one of those he was not even playing as a striker. For another, he was playing in Rayo which is not exactly a top team. He has also scored and provided assists (and had some of his better games) against teams likes Real, Barcelona or Sociedad in the league. In CL he has scored against Porto and Milan (and others), teams that might not be the absolute elite but that are still worth mentioning. Many of those goals have come from sheer will as much as anything else. He has brute strength, he can finish, he can pass, he has an amazing work rate, is a team player, can head the ball well and is great off the ball. Why exactly would he be a bad purchase? There is a difference between there being better strikers in the world, and there being better strikers available for a reasonable price. He does not have a serious injury that could threaten his impact in the league, he still has his best years ahead of him, he is versatile in terms of positioning and would cost £32m which is very reasonable. Forget Mandzukic, Falcao or Cavani. This is the only striker that we need to buy. Costa and Lukaku would be an excellent set of strikers, the best one we have had for quite a long time. Add Shaw and Gundogan (if MVG does not recover) and there is no limit to what our very young squad can accomplish.

We would be lucky to have him, he isnt excellent at anything really but it is his versatility that would make him great here. His workrate and ability to bully defences would open up a lot of space for our attacking midfielders, and that is exactly what we need. The opposing team can not have two defenders on the front four constantly (well, West Ham can). He can also head it well, shoot and pass. £32m is a spot on price for where his ability is right now. He got a lot done today even though he was up against Ramos and Pepe.

Let us for a moment put aside his injury and think of him as the player he was before his back became problematic, and the needs of our current team. A large problem this season has been the lack of delivery from midfield. Ramires is excellent at driving forward, but often that is not what we need during a counter-attack (a quick accurate pass to someone in a more advanced position is much more effective, he can come as a second wave instead). He leaves a lot to be desired in his overall passing as well. Mikel might be good at getting the boll forward in Nigeria, but he has not exactly been doing it in Chelsea, which is what matters here. His passing might be more accurate than Ramires's, but it is lacking in the offensive department. Besides, we rarely see Mikel go with the ball higher up the pitch (I know it comes with his position, but Matic has been able to provide more both in the defense and the offense) which means he can not influence the game against packed defenses as well as one might like. Lampard is harder to put a finger on. He tries very hard but I feel he does simply not have the mentality for finding a good balance between defending and attacking, it is not in his nature. I also find he is often guilty at holding on to the ball for too long which means he loses it in the midfield. Matic is on the other hand a natural at what he does. He does not exclusively sit back and stop attacks but adds to the pressing game higher up in the pitch. He tackles, intercepts and heads the ball to us while at the same time offering a slightly more advanced passing option. He is a player that is capable both in the offensive and defensive duties of a central midfielder, but much better at the second one. With that being said, we now need a complement to Matic. A player who can provide more in the offensive than in the defensive but who can still play a role in the back. A player that can offload the responsibility from Oscar of getting deep in order to gather the ball and start an attack. When Oscar goes deep we are already decimated as the central midfielders sit deep enough to not be a part of the initial phase of the attack while one of our attacking midfielders need to start from a withdrawn position. Signing a player such as Gundogan would not only remove this problem, but turn it into a strenght. Instead of having a first phase of an attack that includes (usually) Hazard, Willian & Eto'o with the rest playing catch-up, we would from the start have Hazard, Willian, Eto'o, Oscar & Gundogan in the first phase. That means having two more attacking players in the initial phase of the attack (assuming Gundogan gathers the ball deep and carries it forward [with the passing help of Matic]). Over a season this is likely to lead to several goals. The worry might be that it offers too little protection to the back, but with five players remaning somewhat behind it still offers a solid defense that can deal with most problems (I assume the full backs will not be too advanced). That, and the fact that Gundogan only has one year left of his contract, is a very strong reason to look into the possibility of carrying through with the purchase. A lineup (yes, I went there) like this would be very, very strong but also balanced (with two very quick fullbacks): Costa Hazard -Oscar - Willian Matic - Gundogan Shaw - Terry - Cahill - Azpilicueta Courtois

Such an amazing little player. I first saw him in Osasuna ages ago by a coincidence, later buying him in Football Manager since he was good there. Ever since I have been following his career, I was in France during his spell there and saw many of his games. I always believed that he had a very high ceiling (altough I feared for his career progression after that injury) and I was delighted when he joined Chelsea. Today he is my second favorite player in the team (only Frank the legend is ahead). Anyway, another excellent performance today. He really shuts down his flank. It happens from time to time that he is beaten, but he almost always make up for it by getting back and closing the players down. The thing I dislike with Ivanovic is that he allows the opposite team the space to aim their crosses. Cesar does the opposite and as a consequence wide players have to just hoof it and hope it sticks. That is a big reason why we allow so few goals from the left side. I hope he gets a new contract during the summer as this player is already an elite fullback, within 1-2 years he may very well be one of the worlds best.

Was I the only one thinking he was one of our better players? He is not going to win the midfield by himself, but I think he was less static compared with a lot of other players. To me he was far better than Mikel who got less done. Should be the first name in the defensive midfield, but he has yet to click with anyone as well as he did with Luiz. As for Ramires he shouldn't be sold, but we could without any doubt benefit from a player similar to Moutinho next to Matic.

If stats are to be believed (and they are, in this case), Nemanja Matic had an even better game today than against Man City. Being a large fan of WhoScored I usually follow their numbers, and today Matic was the second best player on the pitch, securing a rating of 8,67 (Hazard had 8,9). He ended the game with 10 tackles, 2 interceptions, 5 effective clearances and winning 4 aerial duels. What you might have missed if you only checked the figures after the game is that he acquired most of those stats in the first half (8/10 tackles came there), which was the period in which we practically killed the game. It is really something when a DM gets this kind of ratings, Matic got 8,67 in this and 8,48 against City. For comparison, neither Mikel nor Lampard has gotten those numbers in any appearance during the whole season. Ramires has achieved it only once, while scoring twice against Bucarest (got 8,92 then). That in combination with the fact that he has only started twice in the premier league just makes him come off completely awesome. Oh, he also got 7,8 against Stoke.

How do people feel about Ivan Rakitic? Kroos quickly became a very popular transfer choice (for obvious reasons) but so far the public announcements of Guardiola, the chairman and Kroos himself all scream of negotiation tactics. Perhaps we could tempt him in the summer with a good offer, but I would categorize him as "very unlikely". But there are other players out there that could offer something similar, if at a slightly lower level. Ivan Rakitic has been sublime in Sevilla this season and was very good last one aswell. He is an excellent passer, and can score goals aswell (good shots). He is not a naturally defensive player but can play in the central midfield (positionally speaking he is similar to Kroos). Yesterdays game against West Ham showed us that players such as Mikel and Ramires can be very limited against a certain kind of opposition, and in those scenarios (let's face it, it is neither the first nor the last time another team will park the bus against us) it could be essential to have a player that can penetrate defenses from the relative calm of the midfield. He is 25 years old, will be 26 this year, so age is good. Experienced but still has a lot to give. Price is hard to say, but rumours are that he could go for anything between £15-25m. Sevilla have sold key-players more than once if the price is right (Navas and Negredo went to City during the summer from there). People might wonder how well he does against the better teams in La Liga. Well, if we look at the games against Barcelona and Real Madrid he has three goals and an assist this season, not too bad in other words. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp3N5laiI3w He is not an absolute top-top player in my opinion, but could be very useful. I would see him next to a more defensive player, Mikel or Matic against opposition that tends to park the bus. If the recovery of MVG will not go too well, it mght just be worth looking into this gem. Having said that, I would propably not pay more than 20m euros for him.

Brilliant game by Shaw. Got an assist and really worked well in the defense. Whichever team gets him can feel very good about themselves.

If Mourinho was so good at helping Cole and Marcelo develop, how come he has not even bothered to try with Bertrand and loaned him out? Why did he let PVA stay in Vitesse? Why does he now instead play a RB at LB? It is obvious for anyone to see that Mourinho is not happy with how the LB looks today and will surely want to do something about in it the summer. Shaw is a very good alternative. If you at the age of 17/18 can hold a regular starting spot (in a defensive position, even better) in a mid-table PL team and still receive praise I think it is a very good sign of things to come. What Shaw needs now is a world-class coach that can pin-point the areas in which he needs to develop and help him through it.

Funny, I was thinking about him earlier today. This guy is unreal, would be a beast next to Matic. Excellent passing, good shots, young etc. I'm all for building internally, but some players are just too good to pass up on and Kroos is one of them. A video for those who dont follow the bundesliga: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loJSat0SZxM

If/when MVG returns to form after his injury I think he would be the best partner to Matic. Considering that Matic is excellent in the defense yet offers plenty to the offensive I wonder if we would not benefit more from a creator next to him, or at the very least a player more skilled higher up in the pitch. Do not get me wrong, Ramires is excellent at what he does but he is lacking in some areas. So far he was very important because he offered a combination of both attack and defense (which no other player in the team did), but now that Matic can do the same thing basically, I would be curious to see how it would look with a player allowed to roam forward more (and being better at it). MVG might not be that player until the 2015/16 season, but I think it would be a very interesting experiment. Something similar to Matic - Modric, it would offer steel in the back and silky passing to the attackers. Anyway, I am very happy about having him in the team, it is in itself a huge upgrade. It is just that we should never stop trying to improve, the next step might be to find the best partnership in the middle (in which I consider Matic to be the first name [i realise this is premature after one game, but Im going after what I have seen so far]). I am not for buying player after player, so we should try to solve this internally first (still, it is quite sexy to imagine someone like Modric or Gundogan next to him. The best name would be Yaya but Im not even going to go there).

Dear god, this thread really shows the mental state (and age I assume) of a lot of people here. "Dear Mr Champions League, League and various cups-winner, We, the true fans of Chelsea, think that it would be a mistake to sell Mata. You see, he has more key passes than Oscar this season, something we are sure you and your army of people working with you have failed to notice. Since this stat is everything, selling him would be wrong, and we do not care that we are currently on a seven-game unbeaten run in which Mata has played a relatively small part in. After all, you have to win titles for this club on our terms, nothing else is acceptable. The fact that you can reinvest £40m and make our squad one of the best in the world does not matter either, for Mata has more Key passes than Oscar. He was also a suberb player the last two seasons in which we were not even close to the title (which we are now), but that too is irrelevant because INDIVIDUAL STATS. Kind regards, Pro-Mata" Seriously, wanting to sell him does not mean we hate his guts or think he sucks, it just means that we trust a club-legend who happens to be one of the most succesfull managers in the world. Getting £40m by selling a player who adds very little to the team that we use today (except being an option when resting another player) is hardly being ignorant or something similar. We all want Chelsea to move forward, and surely rebuilding the squad under the stability of the same manager is the way to go? Oscar is inferior when it comes to creativity, but just saying that he "tackles well" is just as silly as calling Mata bad. He is not playing very well now, but so did Hazard under periods of time last season, they are both young and keep developing so it is to be expected. The only drawback of this is selling to Utd, but if they are willing to spend £40m no, they will do exactly the same during the summer. Is it not better to know their star player very well? Know your enemy etc. This way, we have the money to buy say Zouma and Shaw and have money left, or Costa and like 90% of Zouma. Utd have the means to greatly increase their squad either way, for all we know the difference in quality could be marginal if they buy another AM.

No player is a guaranteed success, but people who call him a "one season wonder" really should look up his history (which isnt exactly hard). In two and a half seasons in Spain, in which he has played a lot as a winger, he has managed to accumulate 39 goals and 12 assists in 58 starts. It might be worth adding that he played in Rayo Vallecano 2011/12. He is a pig, but it might just be what we need. I would prefer Rooney, but you cant always get what you want.

I get that Mata is more effective as a 10 than Oscar, but is the PL, CL and other various cups based on individual accomplishments or a collective one? Oscar apparently adds something to the mix that Mata does not, it is hardly a coincidence that we have had an excellent run since Willian, Hazard & Oscar became the preferred trio. If something isnt broke, dont fix it. So far we have gotten the better results with Mata on the bench, so selling him for a rather huge amount is not as bad as some are making it. I am in theory against selling him to Utd though, unless we get Rooney in return. No reason for us to poke a hibernating bear. Getting Rooney would strenghten us more than losing Mata would weaken us, and Utd would be dealt quite a heavy blow.

There is only one scenario in which I would be ok with this, and that is if Rooney goes in the other direction. His positional flexibility would make the loss of Mata & KDB less noticable, while at the same time improve our attack considerably. I would not have said that at the start of the season, but the truth is that we manage just fine (if not better) without Mata in the first eleven (and I say that as a person who love Mata). Mata is too valuable to just sit there, either play him or sell him, and if a sale is the prefered option that it needs to be done while his market value is at its highest.

Guardian is writing the same thing though. According to them the deal should be done this week, cost is £11m and the player will stay at St Etienne till then end of the season. I am going to enjoy seeing him bash skulls against Stoke. "Chelsea hope a deal can be struck at around £11m for the 19-year-old this week – a player who has attracted interest from Manchester United, AS Monaco and Arsenal in the past – though the centre-half may remain at his current club until the end of the season."

Unfortunately he is not the same since he played for England, he used to be different you know..

Did anyone watch Benfica-Porto yesterday? I did, and my opinion of Matic have not changed. For those watching the game you might have noticed that Porto struggled to create anything of note through the middle, most of their more effective attacks went more or less through the wings. Now, I am aware of the fact that Matic was not acting alone centrally (so credit is not his alone) and I am also aware of this not being the strongest Porto side for a while, but you can not really expect much more from his type of DM. He operated deeply throughout the game yet was often at the edge of the opponents box ready to both pressure and receive depending on what side the possession was on, he also managed to track back almost instantly without exposing his team to any danger. All of this also didnt stop him from almost scoring twice (one solo run into the opponents box [something you see Ramires do who is a b2b] and one free header that really should have been a penalty as it was stopped by a defenders palm). He also won several aerial duels and free kicks (and stopped a dangerous counter, even though the ref was stupid not to allow the play to continue). He reminds me of Cesar, a player who goes unnoticed unless you are specifically watching him, and will most often put in perfomances that can be rated as 7/10 (neither game-changing nor average).

I think it is quite unfair to call Matic purely a destroyer. While he clearly isnt as good as any of our attacking trio in terms of offensive skills, he has shown himself able to dribble, pass forward from deep positions and hold the ball under pressure. Add to that his height which will win us a lot of balls from throw-ins, goalkicks etc in combination with his excellent stamina and we have someone that could improve us by a lot. I do not expect us to win CL so I am not too bothered by him being cup-tied. In the league he could however be the player that pushes our jog inte a sprint, and I think a league win is what most of us want. Of course I would prefer Bender, Pogba or Vidal, but we are looking at £40m at the very least there.

Isnt Matic the one who usually runs the most of the players on the pitch? Sounds to me like his stamina is one of his strengths if anything. People are always so quick to compare players, often forgetting that so much is determined by the environment. The style of play of both the players own team and the opponents is very important, as are the team-mates and of course the players own role within the team. Im not gonna pretend as if I were following every forum a few years ago (or today), but to use the example of Javi Martinez his value and opinion has inflated greatly after his first season in Bayern. Few people doubted that he was good before, but even fewer would call him one of the best DMs in the world. People are always experts on things in retrospect. What do we know now? That we need a DM with the skills of Matic and that he is to some degree available, that is all I personally need to know to feel good about this transfer. Are there better players for that position? Of course, but if they can't be attained now or in the summer (barring some really excessive spending) there is little need for obsessing about it.

"Benfica have agreed to sell Matic, with Chelsea in pole position for his signature [O Jogo]" Can O Jogo be trusted more than say, Daily Mail? I know a lot of people think it would be embarassing to sign an old player back för 10 times the amount he was valued at back then, but I really dont think pride should come before success, this player could be the difference between a third and a first place in the league. Something that I havent seen anyone mention earlier is that he was chosen as player of the month three times last season in his league, something that only Jackson Martinez managed aswell.