Mundaka

Well we might have a chance if we score first...

Kinda hard to pass when theres no-one making himself free

He could be back for werder's game this weekend. Yeh hope he's fit for our games vs macedonia, if we win those we are sure (+/-) to be at least 2nd. + Wanna watch KDB hazard an lukaku play together in good form

Sad game, MoM Terry.

Kaka was already brought on in the 1st half for the injured Di Maria. He didn't really had much of an impact and when the sending off happened, Madrid needed another passer like Modric anyway in that midfield. Capable of playing short, run with the ball etc. It worked. *doh* but was trying to make the point the midfield wouldve worked anyways! (since alonso was free again)

Basicly i'm more pro Ajax/Netherlands/4-3-3 (as they invented it, not the way some like to play it now..) and for me personally its unacceptable to play with alonso/ khedira/ozil @ madrid (with their history, the galactico's you know) while you could play alonso/modric-kaka/ozil or khedira/modric-kaka/ozil. Same reason why he would get essien (nothing against him, huge fan even) to madrid instead of playing modric/kaka.

Well they do come hand in hand but i shouldve said play-style there (the part you made bold, as i ment it like that) indeed (in dutch i can explain this stuff better ) And i dont mean to say he's mediocre tactically, i still see him in the top 10/20 in that department also. He also always set out his team to be defensively solid(maybe not with Madrid this season) and aggressive as a unit and be extremely potent when attacking. Here is where i see it differently , they are only extremely potent while countering, where Dortmund or Bayern fe are also (very) dangerous while not. And thats also the difference between Chelsea's style under Mourinho and the style under DiMateo (this year). We dont have the players anymore to play like that (as successfully as we have been anyways), nor is it the aim to play like that (why else would we change our style like that?). I give you on a paper he will drop at least one, perhaps 2 of the 3 AM's we have playing now to replace him with essien orso and play with 2 holding midfielders. In my opinion he plays to much on assurance instead of really overpowering sides (with pressing/playing high on the field), and i am just not a fan of playing like that, even though it might be the best way... (and no RM aren't the best in pressing, he just recently changed to such a tactic against Barcelona after the Milan game against Barcelona, and if RM were really good in it they wouldve destroyed Barcelona (thinking 5-0) with their current form). He immediately responded by bringing on Modric to turn the tide in his favor. He seized the opportunity and didn't wait for it(unlike a certain Spanish manager) and what happened? United were suddenly pushed back and Modric scored after 6-7 minutes of coming on. Well yeh but i give more credit to Modric than to Mourinho, because i think kaka wouldve been better in that situation. (Because their midfield would work again anyways with the man more situation)

Well no , he wants to much assurance

I am not so sure about Mourinho being the best option tho (i prefer Klopp for us anyways), in mind-games hes the best, man-management skills are also among the best, but tactically? I have my doubts about that one, since hes not very flexible in his way of playing (looking at all the teams he coached) and for real madrid it's not perfect... just look at kaka's situation, even ozil has it tough. Also yesterday they were owned by Ferguson tactically fe. + You can pretty much say mazacar bye bye then if he joins... it's just not his style to use that many players of such type, which would be a shame for the football-style Chelsea set their eyes on.

Well yeh, if we buy it should be an all-round midfielder or a left back in my opinion (that preferably can also play in centre) But if lampard stays and you have KDB comming back (if they dont loan him out again) that should be covered no?

Same (with mikel then), as long as he keeps his position

Witsel has proven himself allready tho... at CL/EL/national team level if portugal is not good enough. Anyways to prove my point: Standard vs Liverpool CL qualification, 2008 when liverpool was a great side (They lost quarterfinal vs chelsea ), and well yeh you know the coach (Benitez), was a draw and standard missed a penalty + were very unlucky. Witsel was 19, defour(plays at porto now, but injuryphrone sadly enough) 20, fellaini (no need for an introduction) 21. The Standard liege midfield back then, if they wouldve sticked together what wouldve been impossible for a belgian team, would be be one of the best midfields by now. Then they kicked out everton in the following EL qualification matches (here at home, sclessin has great atmosphere ) , after that Everton bought fellaini => Big games for an 18 year old midfielder i would say... (sorry for the quality of the footage) Btw benfica had a great CL campaign last season dont rly get how they are doing better this year, just watch any of those games, high chance he made a difference. (vs Manu for example) (And still think CL is highest level possible?) Also + 30 caps for our national team, which aint a crappy side either with loads of competition. Edit: And thats the nice thing about Witsel and what we currently lack (without the likes of Lampard/Terry), he thrives on big games, dont think i have ever seen him playing a bad game when it counts. Hes such a complete midfielder he could play in any league / team, wouldve been more sure about him doing great in premier league than any other belgian player (including hazard).

Or we can lighten the defensive work mazacar has to do by putting a defensive pivot that stays in position? mikel-luiz mazacar ba & next season luiz back to defence mikel-kdb mazacar ba/lukaku mazacar could roam more like this

Makes it 14, also least goals conceded.

lucky arsenal there sighurdson shouldve shot tottenham is toughest competition for place 3/4 by far if you ask me, no way arsenal will get much points

Ow did you guys see one of his heavy-foot goals already? Here's one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cblh3xx0FuM forgive those Americans tho :/

Happy he's here! Still dont get why sturridge had to go tho... shouldve sold torres back to liverpool... wouldve been better for all parties.. Especially for next year with ba/lukaku and sturridge we should have had enough options without having to spend another 30 million.

I still think mata shouldve played hazard the 2nd time, oscars 2nd header was pretty difficult to make (at 15:30 minutes game time) - way more difficult than the possible tap-in for hazard if mata wouldve played him, he was completely free so cant really blame oscar for that one since he was marked

Especially if you consider our country is friggin small and we have our best generation ever by far (we arent brazil where they have a worldplayer every year orso ) The amount of good players we have playing in the pl is becomming rediculous for us considering before we almost never had any good player playing in the premier league (well phillipe albert, newcastle player from 94 till 99, and perhaps one/more few), and when your favorite team picks up our best you get quite cheery Like now arsenal - tottenham, 3 belgians starting, if anyone wouldve said that 5-10 years ago they wouldve lol'd their asses off... That aside, i think most here stay pretty neutral (belgians arent patriotic people generally anyways)

Play the same team as we did against middlesbrough? Think they did rather well. (didnt see the whole match tho) They should be even more used to play together by now + more motivated prolly to play a match in europa league// show what they can do internationally and we can still finish things at home / sub if needed. if they are registrerd :/ edit: nvm already mentioned

Any objective analyst would agree with the following i think: When you say hazard was best fieldplayer 2nd half. (do note fieldplayer...) When you say hazard was with oscar and cech best players of the game. When you say it is a hard pick because most of our players had a good match.... Perhaps i shouldve picked Cech yeh, but not many people pick a goalie as mom. Especially since that goalie had all that work once hazard was off the field....

Perhaps you have never seen hazard playing as a 10 then Well just watch/read reports of our first 3 pl matches this season if so, hazard played mainly as 10 then, still one of the better periods of chelsea this year. Or the difference in our attacking play when hazard is not playing. http://www.chelseafc.com/fixtures-results 19/22 an 25/08

olé

Hazard off = usually falling apart offensively time

Fantastic play so far, but it will be hard to keep this up i think (lots of running around). Also against better oposition we'll need to score more/make better decisions in last 16 in my opinion because it's likely they will get a counter in like this.