Barbara

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/aug/28/chelsea-diego-costa-injury-hamstring well, we've been talking about it like broken records. If Costa gets injured or suspended we're fucked, so maybe it's a good thing this happened while the window is still opened and Mourinho, the board, or whoever didn't bring a second striker for us yet have this wake up call. I'd play Schurrle instead of Drogba against Everton tbh, with Cesc to provide him balls, he won't be as ineffective as he was on the few occasions last season when he played as our #9 - false or not. If we don't bring a new strikers in the last four days of this transfer window, well, we could jeopardize years of good business by the board because it's been overdue for Chelsea to win relevant silverware again.

during one of the most intense part of the season between December and January when we play a lot, we mostly face only bottom table sides in EPL. I think we may see in some of those matches too - but just a few, the thing is we never know how he'll respond, maybe he starts impressing in training and in the few matches and boom, he's the first name to come in when Matic and/or Fabregas need to rest or can't play.

I think he has more chances... Luiz was used as our first replacement in the defense and while Ramires would replace a few guys in our midfield, I think he's more of an AN for Mourinho than a proper center midfielder... I think he'll play much more than Kalas did in case he stays

that's it. The kid is only 21, there are some REALLY big guys ahead of him in the pecking order and he chooses to stay. Maybe AC Milan isn't what he wanted, but he chose the chance to fight for his space over the chance to play week in and out (no doubts he'd get into their first team). that's the kind of determination and fight I love in a football player - which doesn't mean if a club he rates better for a reason or another comes tomorrow he won't agree to be loaned. He's aware EPL >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Serie A. While I don't think any other league compares to EPL German and Spanish leagues are still top leagues to a young player to develop. Of course, he could also be loaned to a EPL team... maybe that's what he's aiming and he's just down right fighting for his space here - which is admirable.

no, I think we need a second striker. It's not like he'd agree to leave RM to be a 2nd striker here even if he became a second striker there. I didn't mean it for real as I can't see it happening. Neither he's leaving RM and if he was, he'd go to a place where he'd be #1.

If Real signed Falcao and it meant Benz was leaving, I'd have him with my eyes closed. It'd be perfect.

I still haven't come around to watch the first half, tried twice, but I could watch only 10 or 15 minutes before the player had an issue... bleh We were lazy, but I didn't feel like we were terrible. We just look lazy - we did a few times last year too and I do hope it was because of the match's time and it being too early still in the season, I hope we don't see that kind of attitude in other matches... Now, pardon me, but I'm resurrecting the discussion I watched the MOTM highlights now. Oscar was involved in all those plays I said above, but also in the second chance that came from his shot. He's the one doing the press inside Leicester's box and leading the defender to misplace a pass straight to Hazard. Then the ball stays there for a while and it's Oscar that finds Azpilicueta in a sort of through ball and Azpili crosses for Iva's header. Breaking down even further the chances... 1) his pass to Schurrle from the defensive third 2) his shot on the wood in the final third 3) his pressing/through ball to Azpili for Iva's header, both in the final third 4) his through ball for Iva in Diego's Costa goal in the final third 5) his shot that was blocked from a Diego Costa assist inside the box Other chances: 1) Cesc's curler 2) Ivanovic's shot (from the rebound of Oscar's blocked shot) I know we've been talking about his change of role - and it certainly exists, but a few things should be considered. 1) Oscar always dropped deep for us. But the thing is that when he - as our #10 - dropped deep our wingers didn't often come to the middle and we were left without a #10 and with two #8, limiting even further our creativity as nobody between Oscar, Luiz and Lamps were effective in through balls coming from the defensive half. Luiz had ups and downs in that aspect, so I can't really count him as a source. 2) As there wasn't this player to assume Oscar's position as #10 when he dropped to be a #8, his limited creativity was even more accentuated and noticeable. But now with Cesc it doesn't mean Oscar is playing #8 all the time, it means he has his counterpart in the pitch. Oscar is a #10 mixed with #8 qualities and who isn't an ace creating stuff. Cesc is a #8 mixed with creative #10 qualities and who doesn't excel on defending. Oscar hasn't changed much his role, but there's a considerable change in his responsibilities. He's dropping to the #8 now as much as he did in the past or maybe slightly more often... but back then it was still his responsibility to be the team's #10. Now he's sharing that with Fàbregas because they're actually interchanging, instead of Oscar simply dropping. Not only that means we won't suffer when Oscar drops deep, but it mainly means Oscar's creating responsibility is now split with Fàbregas. Oscar was more creative than Fàbregas last match... a guy who plays three through balls (Schurrle's, Iva's - on Diego's goal and Azpili's on Iva's header) can't be labeled not-creative. He doesn't have a fancy dribble or disconcerting pass on him. Everything he does is simple. Also if we look to this breakdown, only one of those through balls came from the defensive half. So it means he was playing his #10 duty with two other through balls as well as in his two shots where he was positioned at the edge of the box as well as inside it. Having Cesc on the team relieves him from the pressure of being the only source of creativity through the middle - which means when he has a bad day creating, he can share the burden with Fàbregas. Last Saturday was the opposite. Cesc struggled and Oscar stepped up to create things in our attack. It makes us more balanced, with more options and once his positioning in the midfield triangle is well gelled with Oscar, Cesc and Matic (we still offer more space than we should, but it's more to lack of chemistry than a liability imo), it'll work even better. on a different note though, in that amazing save by Courtois, Oscar is the one who couldn't run and stop their striker. He was the closest and that's an evidence that it needs more gelling, but also an Oscar's mistake.

probably... it's still only Tuesday, more than enough time to get him registered in the league. But certainly won't, I don't think he's been training anywhere

In theory, if Torres leaves, Marco can stay. There are two problems though: 1) Milan might make Marco's loan a condition 2) Marco himself may want to leave so he'll continue his development. I'm very pro Marco continuing his development, I just think that if we offloaded Torres, we could afford to keep both Mikel and Marco in the team, and instead of giving Mikel minutes, Mourinho would be giving Marco - some in the big competitions, and definitely full matches in the domestic cups, that until Mikel actually gets his passport and then leaves for good. But that's me... Mourinho seems to think Mikel is more useful than Marco.

let's not get ahead of ourselves. Getting rid of him now means bringing another striker - which is what we need, whether he stays or not. He doesn't want a loan contract (because he knows he'd have to do well to find a contract following it, especially in his last contracted year with us) so chances are it won't happen. But I wouldn't mind at all. It sucks to pay all the money we've paid to him and the idea of continuing to pay his wages if he goes on loan or is sold is bad, but we're okay in the FFP, bad deals are part of football, we've made considerable money in the last few windows with our sales. Paying his wages is like taking one for the team. We need Roman and the board to agree to this one last bit of bad business and actually improve our squad in the only area I think it needs improvement. I'm even willing to agree to a Marco loan in the process if that's what it takes for AC Milan to take him. We need to get rid of him, no matter how nor how much it would still cost us.

our main stance though is we need a better second striker to avoid any Costa absence to jeopardize our titles ambitions. The answer to that can't be Welbeck imo. As you said, he's inconsistent (although just bad most time) and what if when we need him the most he's going through a Torres phase? No, thank you, at all. Chicharito isn't my cup of tea either, but he's much better than Welbeck imo. Either way, that's not what we need. We need a good - not excellent because no excellent striker such as Cavani and Falcao as a few wished will come here to fight their position with Costa - that will score a few goals, that will link up, that has some technical quality on him. Having Torres became a worse problem the moment we brought an aged Drogba. We need a quality second striker, we don't have one. If before Didier was here, Torres was already the right name to get rid of, let alone now that it's down to the two of them. An aged Didier is much better than Torres. We shouldn't have gotten rid of Eto'o and I blame Mourinho's big mouth for that. If Samuel is willing to go to Everton, I'm positive he'd be willing to stay here if Mourinho hadn't talked more than he should as I don't honestly believe Mourinho rates Torres higher than Eto'o.

more like brains if they think Torres is a great CF. But they're too corrupted as well, that's why they are where they are. Everyone is corrupted - I'm not naive, but they take it to another level.

That's why AC Milan is where they are...

are there people actually thinking about exchanging Torres for Welbeck? that's like changing six for half a dozen - as we'd say in Portuguese.The only advantage would be the wages and the HG aspect, but we're not getting rid of Torres only because of wages. The main aspect here is technical and it's hard to get worse than Welbeck... I have a ManUtd fan as a brother and every time we watch his team (I do the sacrifice once in a blue moon) the only thing we can agree about is how terrible Danny Welbeck is. He might be even worse than Torres actually. No, thank you.

simple math here... We pay him 16m for him to leave, we receive his transfer fee - as he won't be on huge wages because it means he'll be receiving from two different clubs, we can ask a bit more than we would. Anything above the 16m is enough, even if we call it even. Just let this guy go. If I had money, I'd make a personal donation. in the CTV interview after the match Mourinho confirmed the players were given the Sunday off. So he was off Saturday and Sunday, enough to fly to Ibiza, we can't just assume he missed training...

A legend like this can't leave the club. There's nothing like one of our players owning a Utd fan's ass. In all seriousness, I'd keep him until January at least, I'd like to extend Courtois' contract beyond before letting Petr go as well. I know his price tag would probably drop by then, but there's always the chance of a club with a lot of money needing a keeper and being out of the Champions in the group stage.

Neither team seems that great tbh, but I'll be fair and credit it to early days. This City team doesn't scare me at all. And they gave the ball to Liverpool and played with tons of players behind the ball, but you know, when someone else who isn't Mourinho does it, it's great, when it's Mou, it's parking the bus, ofc.

we can finally say it. If it was Diego Costa that would have been a goal or at least an assist. Lambert was really poor in that decision

fairy godmother, I merged the words

Liverpool's defense. as usual a fairymother...

I know they don't, but one of my very first posts here were that Mourinho trusted him and that he has had a good match. So I'm just throwing in there. But as Mourinho is the manager, his opinion is far more important than anyone else's.

I don't think you're necessarily giving them too much credit. They're way better than the teams we've played so far and they will try to attack us - especially playing at Goddison Park. As we aren't as clinical defending as we were last year, and we haven't gelled yet, I can see them even scoring tbh, but I think we can outscore them. It's very important we win this match, so we don't face City with any additional pressure. They key will be how our midfield will cope with theirs. Clearly Oscar and Cesc are still getting to know how to play around each other. It worked fine attack wise, but we've been offering a little more than necessary space. I know with being more offensive comes more space between the midfield and the defense (we can't play with a high defense imo, we don't have fast defenders). Maybe we should take a page from van Gaal's book and play with Azpili almost as a CB (it's not like he supports the attack that much) against stronger oppositions (I'd like to see that against City, for example), but against Everton, maybe it'll suffice to one between Oscar and Cesc a bit closer to Matic.

maybe it's a case of playing both Willian and Oscar and instead of bringing Willian as a sub, bring Schurrle. I feel like there's a chance for that happening. That if Mourinho doesn't ruin my life and replace someone for Ramires in the lineup - as we'll do in the big matches (where I do think Rami is useful). Everton have been anything but brilliant so far, I'm sure they'll up their game against us, but I reckon we could face them as we face most of the teams in the league, they don't need the special tactics we have for the big challenges imo, even if the game is in their turf. We dominated them last season at Goodison Park in the first half, but we didn't have a clinical striker, our AMs weren't good in the final touch and I guess Howard had a good match. If we did that last year with a team that wasn't as good as this year's (even if by then they had more matches under their belt) I think we could do it again this year, hopefully having better luck and quality in the finish and not conceding a stupid goal.

Let the boss have the final (literally) word about it. Asked about players coming later from holidays because of the WC José said how he's going to use them. He talked about their agreement, about how they can't exhaust Schurrle, Oscar, Ramires and Willian and then he made sure to conclude with 'Oscar again had a positive match' - something he didn't say about the others. 'Nuff said. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24f4bw_mourinho-second-half-everything-was-us-hd_sport Those are the facts I use to base my opinion in Oscar's role in the team. José keeps trusting him. With good reason imo.

Actually in the Confed Cup Scorali used Oscar brilliantly. The best Oscar played in the last two years imo, even compared to his first months for us last season.