Barbara

I'm saying in the first half he had a horrible match, it has nothing to do with how the team defended, how many goals we conceded, nothing. He had a bad first half, but couldn't be subbed because either Mourinho is giving him time to regain form (although according to Mourinho himself he's our best player of the season alongside Iva - which honestly makes no sense, unless it's in the physical aspect as Choulo suggested) or he didn't see a better option in our bench... Everyone with two eyes could see how he was individually bad, technically poor and misplacing too many passes without being effective pressing. He only improved in the last 20 minutes or so of the match. What I'm saying here has nothing to do with how the team defended through the match and the goals conceded, I'm not singling out anyone, I'm pointing one player had a terrible first half and in other scenario would probably be subbed off. I'm astonished as people in this forum get shocked now by the suggestion of a player having a bad match being subbed out in said match. I guess the football rules changed and I missed the memo? Aren't substitutions during a match allowed anymore? Can't players having a bad day be subbed? I guess those became foreign concepts around here because I only said he could have been subbed out and people are reacting as if I said we should give him a few weeks in the bench or that it was his fault we conceded three goals... talk about overreaction. I've been clear on my opinion about it, if people want to interpret it any other way, be my guesses, I won't be arsed to keep answering the obvious though. I think he could have been subbed, you disagree, we move on, but don't make it into something I did not.

really? So it's even worse than I thought. How can they have morons running their business like that? I don't know if I got spoiled by our board, but when I look at how those teams work their transfers I feel like they have mules running their business... Who's going to be their DM? Di María can be a CM with two solid DMs behind him, but then again, that's where Mata would play (not that he's effective there, but that's the spot available for him). Maybe for RM having only Alonso or Khedira behind him, with Modric by his side was enough to give stability to the midfield, but in EPL he needs more defensive support behind him or at least by his side.

I don't get this concern some have about United... They're doing a RM - signing players they don't need and leaving them awfully exposed. Their defense is terrible, I don't know Herrera that well, but he has to be a hell of a DM to make their midfield slightly competitive if the other two are di María and Mata. Although di María is fast, I'm not sure he won't struggle with the physicality. it's one thing to play CM for Argentina and Real Madrid and another completely different to play in EPL. I remember him struggling to play Atletico. Their midfield although filled with class players, is unbalanced and too light. Falcao will improve their attack, as Rooney has been sucking monkey balls and Robins spends more time injured than not. But then again, Falcao also visits the medical department a couple of times for season and he's had a serious knee injury last season, so who knows what's his real form? Shitty defense, unbalanced midfield, unpredictable attack and it should be concerning? Maybe next season, when van Gaal has a year under his belt and with a more balanced side I'll worry about them, this season I'm positive they won't see play Champions League again, then who knows if they won't give up on playing Europa League as they did last year when they didn't even try. United is very overrated by the media, but also by some members here...

so a player can't have a bad day in the office and be subbed out during the match? He had an awful first half, if we have a better replacement (as Ramires was already playing) I'm positive we would have subbed him - or maybe Mourinho would take the risk and hope for him to reach form, but no player is infallible and having bad matches is part of the job. Only in TalkChelsea this would seem like a foreign concept.

and still at the waking of his team - Besiktas - getting kicked out of the UCL by Arsenal he went on and on how he had always wanted to play for Arsenal and wished he was there... that isn't classy in my book... Also I'd much rather have such a cool character as Remy seems to be. I've loved this video. He seems as cool as @The Skipper.

Absolutely priceless, Lex. You should add a link to the older ones so we can go to memory lane and have a good laugh with those too. This is absolutely hilarious.

neither team worries me at all. Unless they sign Ronaldo AND Messi, I don't care at all... what's there to be worried about? United will be dangerous again next season. The months LvG needs to get going will have cost him too many point to threaten the title. Even their fans are considering 4th a blessing at this point. They're harmless no matter who they sign. And Arsenal? LOL... Arsenal is well... Arsenal. Nothing to ever worry there.

Not even close imo... There's still a gap between the two Milan sides and Juve+Roma+Napoli. I don't see Milan challenging those top 3 teams at all. They'll challenge Inter at the most, and hopefully Inter will come above

I'm wondering the reason why he stopped running, but I caught him stopping his runs a few times... for me it was clear he was tired or out of gas, but no doubt sometimes he stopped running - although I remember this happening more often we had the ball (it happened only a couple as far as I can remember when Everton had it).

well, talking about what really matters, I think it's apparent he's struggling a bit to get reacclimatized to the physicality of the league. After three years in the cake walk known as La Liga (in terms of physicality, theirs might be one of the lightest leagues in the world), he's feeling a bit the rhythm in EPL even if he played 8 years here before... I don't feel like he gave up on running sometimes because he was lazy, but because he didn't have gas in his tank. He's the kind of player that doesn't bottle (at least I don't think so), and he seems committed enough with the team - despite some opinions around here... so I suppose he's just physically struggling, which is where Oscar compliments him so well, he takes from where Cesc stops and keeps it going, although of course, not at all times. Our midfield problems in the first two matches weren't big and weren't related to him imo, but yesterday he had a bad day in the office controlling the midfield just like the other two. At some point he was well marked by Barry as well, and also had trouble dictating the tempo, linking up our attack, etc... That's again where Oscar is important. As useful as Ramires is and as physical as he can get, opposition doesn't pay him much attention when we have the ball and more often than not his passing is atrocious. Oscar hasn't been passing on his best either, but except for the assists and very high in the pitch - nearly Everton's box - Ramires didn't offer anything to relieve the midfield. Remember how we were criticizing Oscar (and then I said it was a team thing, not only an Oscar thing) to pass (or get rid of) the ball quickly in triangles? Well that was effective to keep possession, gaining time, fooling the opposition. While Everton's midfield is a huge upgrade to Leicester's and Burnley's I missed that quick exchange of passes and as I said after the Burnley match I think it's Mourinho's request because he commentated on training that kind of situation as we've been some bits of drills like that on CTV. We missed it yesterday because it tires down the opposition, they have to keep running from one side to the other trying to intercept the quick passes, until any of the involved players passes it somewhere else. It's confusing, it's tiring and quite effective, even if there's no creativity coming from that. Football these days is such a tactical sport, it's not only about defending and attacking anymore, there are a lot of variables involved and those quick pass exchanges that at first glance look like waste and lack of creativity play an important role tiring the opposition and may even lead to mistakes as after a few times the opponent may want to guess what's the next pass and offer an open. It's a good way to create spaces if done well. Cesc continues to be one of our best players imo and one of the responsible for our change compared to last season, but I think we haven't seen his best yet (obviously) because I think he's still going to need some time (though not much) to acclimatize himself again in the league. Once this mini-transition is over I think our midfield will look better. I want to see a combo of Matic - Cesc - Oscar + Willian although I still believe our best combo is Matic - Cesc - Oscar + Schurrle. It would be nice to see Matic - Ramires - Oscar/Cesc too.

ugh... forget what I said about our defense not being at fault for those goals. Just watched the MOTD thing and dear gosh, Cahill mistake in the first goal (very bad positioned to mark Mirallas header), bad positioning again in the second by Ivanovic who was supposed to be marking Naismith or whoever in the left flank but was literally in the middle of the pitch. The way our three defenders - Terry, Cahill and Iva - run late behind Naishmith is PATHETIC. The take from behind the goal makes it really awful to watch. It's like a (bad) swimming synchronized number... And while we had trouble defending set-pieces lately, I think there's more merit to Eto'o positioning and movement in that goal rather than us failing. But the other two goals are pathetic. I haven't changed my mind about our midfield though. Ramires was easily bypassed in the second goal, Matic is marking no one in the first goal and there was a huge distance between them and the defense in many moments.

well, I hope we can time well his yellow accumulation suspension, so he won't miss any capital match, but it seems like he'll be getting a few of them. Someone enlightened me the other day about the rules, but I already forgot, 5 yellows = 1 game (this one I remember well) and 10 yellows = ? I can see him being suspended at least once, but maybe twice if the referees continue to being cunts about it. It's a relief to have someone else to replace him other than Torres and I think our whole approach changed, so it also helps other goal scorers. But it's not only his goals we'd miss in a match. He fires everyone in the pitch up - his teammates positively and the opposition in rage. Sorry, maybe it's latin blood in my veins and how the game is played at his side of the globe, but I LOVE some provocation on football. Of course, I don't like the violence, but a few words thrown here and there, as well as soft shoves in set pieces? Come on!!!!! This is part of the sport. It's physical, it's a contact sport, it's a manly sport, excuse me if I want to see some virile dudes behaving like lions in the attack from time to time (again, I don't like violence, only the provocation). So I took a bit of pleasure of what he did with Coleman prior to Coleman's OG, he responded to the provocations - without violence - and showed him and everyone else that we aren't a bunch of scared bambis. I love it. So I guess I'm a bad person? I think we'll miss his positive attitude and leadership as much as his goals in the matches he eventually won't play for us.

Welcome!!!!! Hope to see a dozen of goals by him through the season

come on, it's obvious his main goal in the season (okay, main is an exaggeration, but one of this goals definitely) is to score against us and shut us up or show how much Chelsea lost by letting him go. He doesn't need to say those words, the collection of quotes by him regarding himself and us while he was still a Chelsea player loaned to Everton illustrates how 'vengeful' he is. He's not looking a bad kind of revenge, it's even a nice one, but what doesn't seem to get into his thick skull is that he has nowhere the quality required to be a #1 striker at Chelsea, he's not remotely as good as he thinks he is. Just because we were woeful in the striker department in the last few years, he thinks someone like him is what a club like Chelsea needs. He continues to overrate himself and if he doesn't fix this about himself, he'll never reach his full potential, because that's one big mistake someone can make about themselves and it detracts their development as they delusionally believe they're already too good and better than they really are and instead of focusing on improving they keep trying to show it to the rest of the world. Capital mistake.

I can see Cesc seeing Howard running towards someone and turning around probably brushing it off as nothing. The moment he turns around is when howard actually charges Costa. Then when he turns around yet again he sees the confusion and promptly gets involved and is actually the one to put Costa apart. Your main point here seems to be a comparison between Ramires and Cesc (you posted this same paragraph of words in three different threads, two of them being Cesc and Ramires) - which quite honestly - is laughable. Ramires is the guy who's got a suspension for elbowing someone or for creating this kind of situation in the first place. It's no wonder he runs across the box to get involved... We should be thankful he didn't pick a yellow out of it. In that case, I'm even more thankful if our players don't get involved in this kind of quarrel. and what sisterhood of traveling pants you're talking about? I don't have any idea how big or small TOPTB is, but I'm sure my size 2 jeans doesn't fit him. nice try though (or not).

but the main thing is that what he said happened never did in the first place. So it isn't about what Cesc's attitude represents, but how he acted in the first place. TOPTB's description of the facts matches the vid he posted and Cesc never ignored the situation. Actually he was the one that embraced Costa and took him away from the crowd of players. The point isn't of what it says or not about Cesc, but how what didierforever described never happened in the first place...

Luís also plays DM - played a few times before and as far as I could say, yesterday in his small cameo that's where he's played too. He isn't as usued to the position as Luiz was, but it's no stranger for him either. We're covered in the midfield, I just prefer Marco over Mikel...

to be honest playing his main role - a midfielder - he was quite poor at extensive streaks yesterday. His passing was on and off, his tackling was off, he was dispossessed and failed to press and mark on numerous occasions... He was good in the attack, but in his main job he was average at best, but mostly poor. But you can't blame him alone, it's a three-man midfield and the other two were average as well, and Matic was even worse than Rami in the first...

The kid didn't want to go to Milan, but probably there weren't any better offers and being left out from the UCL squad list (someone posted it here, but Mourinho said yesterday in the PC that it's going to be a hard decision for him to make and one he'll make only one second before the deadline, so I don't think the squad list - or at least the final version - has been submitted yet). It's better to play for Milan than not play at all, but I'm disappointed he was basically forced to go there...

Mourinho thinks he's our best player so far combined with Ivanovic - which is unfair and to be quite honest, not even true. He had an average first half against Leicester, he was poor piss defending in the first half against Everton where I counted four times he gave the ball away under pressure, in our half, and initiated Everton attacks. And then I thought, maybe we could sub him, but the option is Mikel and while I'm sure Mikel wouldn't make the same mistakes, he wouldn't have scored that goal either (although I would never say he would assist Costa with a back heel either, and well, he did it). His natural substitute is Ramires - or could have been Marco (I wish it was Marco in all honesty), but the matches Ramires is playing, we're left with Mikel. So in the end it was good he played the 90 minutes not only because of the goal, but because when things got tough before the fifth and sixth goals, he actually stepped up. He's one of the reasons our defense is conceding so much imo. He isn't protecting them as he did last season and we were a oil machine defensively last season because every guy played their part. He's not the only problem, but he's causing us a problem but helping to create the abyss between our midfield and defense - which is one of our major problems this start of season imo.

LOL FOREVER he kept discussing and quoting people who disagreed about what he described as Cesc's actions - but he never answered or quoted your post and video that show evidence that what he said is bollocks and not only he's wrong but saying something that's not true (even though I don't think on purpose). I never ceases to amuse me... but it's funny seeing him answering everyone's post and debating about his weird take of the events, but ignoring your facts about what really happened...

I have to rewatch the match and analyze it properly. I was all nerves yesterday in the second... then I'll comment properly, not only in the goals, but in the midfield and the defense. I don't think the mistakes were made by the defenders, but maybe I'm wrong. I'll wait @Dion, so we watch it together, hopefully tomorrow, if he feels like he can wait as much

he also says 'cannot start this kind of match with players that aren't' so I guess his plan was to start with Oscar? We really missed him in our midfield in my opinion.

Mourinho is so funny - but it shows how pissed he is about our defending... I agree with him we've made too many mistakes... I hope he gives those guys a headache and fixes it.

forget to do the standard procedure of clearing the cache. It worked. My savior