Barbara

Chelsea XI vs. Schalke: Courtois, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Filipe Luis, Matic, Fabregas, Ramires, Willian, Hazard, Drogba.

Brazilian ESPN journalist at Stamford Bridge reporting that Costa is starting in the bench. Good decision imo I'm posting the tweet just because those T-shirts are class

is there such a thing as a non-subjective interpretation? and I feel your pain you all. I have a sports package on my HD cable because I only care about sports channel - I pay extra 10 bucks to have the sports package (to the rest of the HD channels)... ESPN has three channels in Brazil, but for the third one (that will broadcast Chelsea's match) I need to buy all HBO channels. WTF? I don't even watch movies at home... And I'm on schedule to report the game for Chelsea Brasil, so I need a quality stream. My life depends on it

LMAO

Actually the compilation of Oscar against Swansea shows him pressing many times and well positioned in most of them. He was the less worse (although far from his usual level) in the team regarding that. He pressed the zone he normally does (opposition transition from defense to midfield). But I do agree about Ramires. I think it was both Ramires effect and Mourinho positioning and explaining how everyone should press. Oscar, Cesc and Matic all benefited from the adjustments made by Mourinho and Ramires' presence.

Well, based on Arsenal Mania, they seem to think Ramsey currently has been terrible. Also they play different positions. Isn't Ramsey the same as Cesc? A #7 as Mourinho would call? While Oscar can tackle and press, he's still a #10 - even if it not the most creative, although he shows some flashes now and then. At most I'd label him as an #8, but mostly a #10. So I don't see how Ramsey - who's supposedly the same as Cesc (at least imo), a #7 with some creativity could be comparable with Oscar - a #10 with a few shortcomings. Those kind of players balance each other, but they don't replace each other. Also I've read a lot of criticism towards Ramsey lately... even from Arse fans. I wouldn't go as far, but Costa >>>>>>> Daniel

not even Daniel Sturridge now Ha! Who thought we would say that so soon?

Coutinho is someone I like because of his Inter days. I really, really, really like the kid - even if he now plays for Scum. So those are two players who I have a soft spot for and CURRENTLY whoever says Coutinho is better than Oscar is either crazy or has very limited football knowledge. As usual some kind of fans only cares about flicks and that amazing pass. It doesn't matter if the player is tactically limited, if the player goes periods of time sleeping in the pitch, if the player has even more ups and downs than Oscar, has no awareness of collective positioning, no... all that matters is that he makes a mouth watering pass - even if that happens here and there... so for those kind of fans, Coutinho is much better. I guess they've never seen Oscar doing the same (he does from time to time, but Coutinho is even more inconsistent). Or is just a case of grass, green. Some just don't like Oscar. They'd probably say their dog's shit is better than Oscar, so I don't even bother.

Plain black boots will always be my fave. Those Cesc is wearing in the training are class.

I agree he has problems about it. But imo we don't need to work around it that much. We need to give him (and the others) time. I have no doubts he'll fix those issues under Mourinho. Mourinho is one of the masters of football tactics and positioning. His teams look like rehearsed chess keys. Fàbregas isn't disciplined, but he'll learn to. I think it's easier for him to learn this than let's say someone like Hazard. Cesc is midfielder by definition, that's his natural and first position, later on his career it changed. Also as Skip said, he's smart and I think he will be able to follow Mourinho's directions. It'll make him a better player.

I think it is a great analysis by Neville and he's normally very fair. I just feel like that kind of mistakes were done by many players during the first 30 minutes of the match. I know he doesn't have time to cover everyone, but it seems like he singled out Cesc - although the pivot is a critical area for pressing. He should improve, definitely, and I think he will, but others around him should and hopefully will too. The pressing and the midfield in general in the first 30 minutes was just a hot mess. and I can't for the life of me blame swans first goal on Cesc. He should have done a better job, but others made worse mistakes in that play. It wasn't his player who tackled Matic, it wasn't his player who's received the ball and although he slowly came back after tackling in the box, Swans passed the ball to a player ahead of him, he's trying to hunt him, but it wasn't his player imo. I don't know, he's one of the last I'd actually hold guilty for that goal. Matic shouldn't, under any circumstance, especially when he's as slow like that, hold the ball so long when pressed so closely by another player. Pass to someone to prevent exactly this kind of situation.

Goals this season in the Premier League: Diego Costa (7) Man City (7) Arsenal (7) Spurs (7) Man Utd (6) Liverpool (6)

Hmm... Dean is a cunt and he sucks, but he didn't cost us the league...

^^ this Diego Costa wallpaper is class, mate. Cheers

my selective reading only caught the CBs, lol. I miss you, fiote

and Matic himself isn't that fast either. Actually he can be quite slow at times...

couldn't find the gif, but found him vs Swansea - although the guy did put a lot of replays, he didn't put a replay of that specific play, but the music is depressing, lol. Better depressing than that annoying thing most people who make comps choose to do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggqcj5muJ1M also found this old vid - haven't seen it before. At the end of it he says he likes Chelsea a lot and that he wants to play here for many more years, and not just some as officially translated.

We feature the first Adidas special thing alongside Bayern Munich and Xabi.

oh I don't mean he needs to do it by himself and I'm a big defender of us using a 4-3-3 with Ramires... I said so after the match. I think our second half formation should be our default formation for all matches, with small adjustments coming for tougher opposition when Mourinho has a different plan. btw many teams in the world deal with having only one holding midfield in their system... we should have to find a way and maybe the answer is getting faster CBs rather than trying to turn our midfield more defensive... I think Matic isn't playing even 80% the level he was last season... maybe it's just an impression though.

I'm not emotionally involved on Fabregas. I'm just... it's just... it's because... when he takes the ball... and he looks up... and he's perf... and he's amazing... and he's so smart... and his vision is unmatchable... and he's so damn cute now that wears blue... and he's so hungry to win... and he seems to fit so well in the team... it's just... I'm in love, okay? There's a difference between emotionally involved and being completely, blindly, irrevocably in love with a player, right? Right? Speaking seriously though... I didn't watch MNF - although I would have loved to, just forgot it was on so early, as I live watched MOTD Saturday and plan to continue to do so, so I can't say what Neville meant... What I can do say is that Cesc isn't the one responsible for us being dominated by Swansea's midfield. Matic had a mare in the first minutes, misplacing passes, being sloppy in some tackles and easily bypassed. Schurrle also misplaced a lot of passes, we didn't hold the ball well enough, we didn't press well, we couldn't set up the tempo. Oscar wasn't as effective tackling (IIRC he didn't have one single tackle during the match - or at least during the first half). Azpilicueta was caught a couple of times... so if someone wants to analyze what went wrong with our midfield in the first 30 minutes, they have to look at what the whole team did wrong. Schurrle, Matic, Cesc, Oscar, Azpilicueta and even Iva exposed one another a few times, they seemed to have no chemistry, not to know what they were doing and one individual mistake from one of them, put the next in line in trouble. Matic - who's our thermometer in terms of solidness in the midfield - has been starting the matches quite slow. I don't remember Burnley anymore because that's too long ago for my memory, but he had a bad first half against Leicester, Everton and Swansea getting better in the second and as the matches went on. When the rock behind Cesc is soft, Cesc is going to suffer. Am I blaming Matic for Cesc's shortcomings? No, I'm not, I just think Matic - and not Cesc - is the rock in our midfield and had it been Ramires, Oscar, or even Mikel by Matic's side they would have suffered from Matic's mistakes and poor football early in all those matches. Then it's no wonder when Matic got better during the match, so did the midfield in general. Thing is whoever is going to play Cesc's role - and it should be clear we don't have even the slightest close replacement for him, the same way we don't for Matic - will probably have better defensive instincts than him, but they also won't have nearly the same vision and quality in the attack. I welcome his liability because of how productive he is. Remember the Mata discussion? He's a clear improvement defensively to Mata and he's faster (although not much) and he's stronger too (and also far more annoying for the opponents to deal with), but it doesn't mean he doesn't come with a price. He does - but it's a price worth paying. He isn't as weak defensively or physically as Mata was and he can offer nearly the same in terms of vision. He's an improvement to Mata in a system/team that desperately needed someone creative and with good vision to make up for our #10(s) limitations, but who wouldn't compromise defensively as much. Cesc can tackle, he's more physical and virile than Mata. He's just no defensive genius. The style changed and the reason why we pursued Cesc and brought him here is because we needed a player of his quality - vision, creation, technical wise. He fit the bill for what we needed and that's the new Chelsea and the new Chelsea won't ever be as solid defensively as last season's because that's not what we aim anymore. We've changed our profile as a team and being a little bit more exposed comes as a consequence. And to answer your latest post, Matic's mistakes - the majority of them - had nothing to do with someone else coming to tackle with him. His decision making has been poor, his passing has been poor and he hasn't been anywhere near the tough guy he was last season for some streaks of time during the matches. Maybe Cesc's presence makes it worse for him, but many of his mistakes were passing rather marking. He set opponents up with misplaced passes or bad positioning. I think he'll improve because of himself, but also because the rest of the team will too. I'm not saying Cesc's presence doesn't make his life more difficult, it does, but he should learn how to deal with it, because that's how we play now and he has the quality to deal with it, he just needs to hit the zone again.

thing is he and Oscar interchange a lot and he did the same when Ramires came against Swansea. The two more advanced in a midfield of three had been interchanging a lot regardless of who they are. I think with Ramires he should exchange less, not because Ramires can't provide anything higher - he seems to have found his assisting and passing boots recently - but simply because he can defend better than Cesc. When it's Oscar the partner, I think it could be 50/50 between them taking turns into the most advanced position. I honestly think we've been spoiled with Cesc and Costa working so well so quickly that we unconsciously sort of started demanding them to excel on everything when it's already a big accomplishment to have worked offensively so well and quickly as they did. It's only natural to take some time to make all adjustments necessary to not only welcome the new players - especially key players such as Cesc and Costa - but also to change a system. We've completely changed our style from last season. The defense is hurting now and one of the big reasons is because the midfield isn't fully set and gelled yet. I don't think we'll be as solid defensively as we were last season because it's not possible for a player to be deep and high at the same time, contributing ahead and defensively all together, but I'm sure there'll be considerable improvement from the shaky, leaky presentations we've seen so far. I think it's only fair to give Cesc more time to adapt as well as the team to learn how to execute everything they're supposed to flawlessly. We aren't in transition anymore - imo - but it doesn't mean we won't need time to adjust to all the changes. We need it and a few weeks and four matches isn't long enough. Cesc, Oscar, Ramires, Matic, defenders will certainly improve their understanding of the new tactics, the new teammates and of each other. A lot of a team working well defensively comes from good understanding, coverage and physical fitness. We had an immediate understanding between Cesc and Costa (or Cesc and the rest of the team when it comes to attack), but defensively it needs more time because many times the midfielders have their back to the defenders, or they're running all together to cover spaces and opponents, while they're always looking towards the attackers - who are trying to find spaces in the middle of the defense. It's sort of natural to see the team struggling to find their defensive feet after so many changes, while not being at their best physically - dealing among other things with how slow both our CBs are... we have weaknesses in our defense that were minimized last season by a very tight midfield that protected the CBs closely, restraining (more or less, depending on the opposition) our FBs to attack. When the pivot's first concern and goal is to protect the CBs and the FBs don't have free reign to support the attack, it's much easier to deal with slow CBs.

I'll do better, I'll re-watch the match because as far as I remember it, he was just another player who couldn't find the way to press and position in a hot mess that were the first 30 minutes of the match. When nobody around you is playing their part, it's hard to find the guilty. Also Matic committed a few mistakes that set Swansea up... it didn't help Cesc that he was the closest - formation wise - to deal with an erratic Matic. I'll analyze that match into detail and it doesn't surprise me that the media is choosing to focus (or at least pay attention) to what one of our players could have done wrong when another one had a hat trick or the debuting striker scored in addition to Cesc assisting twice. It's also a coincidence United netted 4 against the almighty Rangers. I mean why talk about what really matters when they can nitpick Cesc and probably worship United, right?

both - JT and Cesc - are quicker than me... I'm not qualified to answer (I still believe he isn't as slow as you think) I think Carvalho is one of the best defenders I've seen playing. Why are we discussing defenders on Costa's thread though? I'm sort of confused (although carrying it on - for which I apologize)

Half of Schalke's team is injured, that's why they had a less than impressive start of season. Some of them are expected to be fit against us, so I expect some slight improvement already. They were sort of lucky getting us as their first match. The odds of them beating us at the Bridge with their full squad fit were already sort of small, at least for the other matches against the weaker sides they'll have most of their players (if not all) already recovered. And there's no way they're currently the strongest side we've played this year. Everton and Swansea are stronger and maybe Leicester is more organized and well put together than them now. On our side though I could see some rotation if Costa really had some muscle issues in the last two weeks, even if they're small. Rest the guy, leave him in the bench and if we're in trouble, release the beast. It has nothing to do with Remy deserving to play yadda, yadda. It's just so we rest a player that could possibly be a stiff away from a hamstring injury that could get him out of the team for a couple of weeks (or even longer). Why risk, especially with City away around the corner? Hazard was spared from Belgium because of an injury. If it's worth giving him a rest because of it, I'd take it too. I don't see a point for either Schurrle or Salah to start this match - unless Mourinho wants to please them. We won't play counter... Schalke won't dominate the midfield, won't have possession. It isn't a game that would need someone of their characteristics, but I would understand they could play. I really want to see Luís though. If he doesn't start now, it'd be a shame. I know we have a League Cup coming next week, and then he'll certainly start, but I think he could play against Schalke in an UCL match. He has the experience, it won't be as physical as the EPL matches and we need to start introducing a player we spent some decent amount of money on. I don't see a need for Terry to rest so early in the season. He seems to be physically fine... it might help him to reach his better fitness sooner actually. Saved for injuries, the most they play now, the sooner they'll get 100% fit physically. All in all, I'd play Luís, no matter what, I'd rest Costa to prevent an injury (Remy should be enough to handle Schalke and Costa would be in the bench anyway) and I'd rest Hazard if he also has a minor physical issue. All the rest I'd keep the same. We could do the opposite too. Start Costa and Hazard and if the match is already dealt with by the end of the first half, get them subbed during half time. I don't get though why people are suggesting Cesc should be rested... First, we don't have a replacement for him (while Remy is no Costa, he's a decent striker, we have no decent midfield play-maker in the team. Oscar and Ramires are off and on regarding that, and still they don't come even close); second, he doesn't have a physical issue; third, playing him now is giving him a chance to keep assisting and maybe even scoring - that will only increase his already sky high confidence. We have a new style that is quite based on Cesc playing everyone in. I even go as far as saying it'd be great for him to get a chance to play with other players that normally will only come as subs so they can develop an understanding between them too. I'd play him no matter what.

Leicester away isn't the same as QPR home, not even close. I expect them to struggle more. I'm not saying they can't win, they could, I'm just saying it won't be a cake walk like QPR. They were handful in their first half against us when we were playing home. They're not a side other will shove around. You want to win points off of them you have to earn them. I don't see them getting relegated if they keep their current level.