Phil Driver

And also Jose made another great point about our performance at Newcastle we just played horizontal passes from side to side with the posession they gave us ,so that means Mikel would have made no difference whatsoever ,in fact the problem would have become worse ,the horizontal balls would have become vertically challenged ?

wow choulou you continue to amuse ,the space we had was because Newcastle retreated and let us have the ball at the back this was what Mourinho was referring to there was no space for MaZaCar to operate in (are you sure you watched the game?) as Newcastle operated a very deep block with four midfielders staying close to their back four ,giving MaZaCar no space to operate in ,you do like to bend the facts to suit your argument . And as for Davidson can you back up your insults with a show? if so private messagge me next time you are at the Bridge for a meet . Choulou has threatened to ban people for insults like that ,it seems you are in agreement with his flawed logic and are thus escaping a warning .

What a load of nonsense . Newcastle defended very well, What a load of nonsense . Newcastle defended very well, much better than David Luiz for instance and we had no space to play in as Pardew stated that his plan was to defend deep and give us no space in front of their back and around their penalty box in the first half . Shalke were awful a team depleted by injury but they should have been 2-0 up against us they ripped us to shreds in the first half at the Bridge before Eto'os great anticipation . But you are so wrong on the Newcastle match ,maybe you do not get the after match anlysis in foreign countries ,but as was clearly seen in that match and stated by Pardew his game plan was to sit deep and not allow our three AM's any space between the lines,with a deep back four and a line of four prorecting them . Amazing how somebody can interpret a football match and get it so wrong ,even when the opposing manger has revealed his game plan ,but even without Pardew explaining his tactics it was very obvious if you saw the game?

All very good points but the most important one at the moment is that Lampard is a much better player in the pivot than the Chelsea mistake Obi Mikel.

There will be changes the Weds/Sat turn around demands that ,the fitness people at the club will tell you that performance will suffer, like a Thurs/Sun game turnaround . I think Hazard, Cole and Lampard especially will return on Saturday that looks fairly obvious .

Cole and Lampard wiil be back for the league game v West Brom no doubt about that, a Weds/Sat turn around makes it certain that players will be rested for the more important games and Shalke was a bit of a gimmee after the 3-0 away victory . The same 11 will not start on Saturday that is guaranteed and your top players need to play in the important games,after the Newcastle loss it is imperative we do not slip up here.

He struggled but was outnumbered in midfield and it was not his fault,Mikel just sits and Rammy was often battling against three on his own,this was a major part of our poor first half performance ,difficult for Rammy to win the midfield battle alone. All this one sits back and allows one to go forward really only works in forum land

He has earned the right to start next to JT now a proper centre half and a better distributor of the ball than he gets credit for,must play over the Christmas/winter period for us to have the solid base all teams need.

Any decent side would have killed us off in the first half when we stunk the place out and Mikel stunk the most,did that not show on the TV? The game would have been done against any decent opposition before Eto'o showed great anticipation,the slow sideways passing when we were 2-0 up and in control doesn't fool me.Although it does some.

It was ust like the first half v Spurs a better team would have killed us ,Mikel was dreadful live ,what was he like on TV have not seen it ,the MH were slating him for his errors they should have been 2-0 up,Eto'os goal was a massive relief and lets be honest Shalke are terrible we beat them 3-0 away.

The touch/1st time pass for the Ba goal was world class, what vision and technique only the very best can execute something like that. Lamps is very adequate in his new role but creation and his eye for goal are still there.

Can we quote you on that? The first twenty minutes last night were awful we should have been 2-0 down and most of it was down to Mikel he stunk until Eto'o got the goal,did Mikel look good on TV?

..............Cech.......... ...Ivan...Cahill....Terry...Cole.. ........Lampard.....Ramires......... ..Schurrle....Oscar...Willian... ................Eto'o......... Our front 4 and Luiz were the problem at Newcastle only Oscar survives and also players were rested last night with West Brom in mind.

I like him he gives us a balance and he is a threat ,for away games especially I think we need him and his work ethic. He was perect for the Newcastle game to do all the donkey work and then bring a Mata/Oscar or Hazard on for twenty minutes at 0-0 to win the game.

He may have a valid excuse ,but all of a sudden a lot of players will start to get valid excuses for missing training ,not good from a proffesional earning over 100k per week ,he was lucky he was not training on Sunday after the Newcastle performance,some managers would have had them in as punishment.

The first tweny minutes were terrible we should have been two down ,did you not watch? Eto'o's goal changed it for us but untill then we were awful and Mikel stunk untill he got some room for sideways passes.

Starting to look very sharp now great anticipation and great finishing. He may be gtting fitter.

Jeez he was awful ,he kept giving the ball away and was close to conceding a penalty and we were totally overrun in the first half and make no mistake they should have been two up untill very alert play by Eto'o got us in front ,then when we were in control he got a bit more space and reverted to his sideways stuff and Rammy seems to suffer badly when paired with Mikel he is left alone to engage the opposition midfield while Mikel just sits back . A welcome victory but his shortcomings are still there and we really should have gone two down in this game.

True but I was referring to MaZaCar being in the team but yes we bottled it at Newcastle in an Arsenal way ,not used to seeing that and dont like it .

I just get the feeling the Bayern move has gone sour ,I hope so,he is very good and is the world class front man we need to replace the Drog .

He was so good at centre back he played in midfield a lot of the time ,where I thought he did very well .

Agree he could be brilliant in Spain ,English football may not be his gig it is very different and he will need to adapt if he wants to be a centre half here. English football will not adapt for him and English club football is as succesful as anywhere in Europe,the small teams in England will not give you an easy time like in Spain ,they will give you a fight like at Newcastle ,that is what makes it the most watched in the world.

BluesMaster, on 04 Nov 2013 - 1:15 PM, said: And funnily enough, part of the reason why the away form is bad is because of Mourinho's negative approach at United and Spurs to begin with. The Everton one was just pure unlucky. On another day, we could have won that one 3/4/5-0 easily. And look at what happened when we went for a very attacking approach at Newcastle .A more defensive side may well have nicked that game 1-0.

We are not talking about International football ,we are talking about performances in England in the Premier league ,many players fail to adapt to English fooball which is by the way the top league in the world according to many and certainly in the top three . By the way I like Luiz as a midfileder but for some reason he is not considered and remember that is where the waiter used him .

Well it is a squad game and Alonso would be a great addition ,the one good thing it would do would end Mikel's career at Chelsea as he would crtainly start in front of him.