Barbara

Well, Mourinho decided to make two tests there and I'm sure he's already aiming the start of the league 10 days from now. He must have felt as happy as we did with the first half formation, but I don't think he liked the second half that much. We played 4-3-3 before this pre-season (against Vitesse in the second half if I'm not wrong) and it worked really, really well, the thing is today we played with Ramires, Cesc and Matic (a suggestion many of you have made btw) and I think that's the root of our problems. Ramires (kill me) was the third midfield man and played continuously ahead of Cesc. Ramires worked well against the strongest sides last season as a wing, but please, Mourinho, take notes to NEVER EVER AGAIN deploy him in a 4-3-3 as the most advanced midfielder. It's painful. Yes, he was good at some stretches, but showed his always so impressive ability to miss a 2m pass. Willian killed the rest of the system, and no, I'm not crucifying the guy - after all he's been training for less than a week, but he was the weak link in this match, sorry if some think that saying that is making him the next Mikel. We analyze matches - each of us has an opinion and imo he was our worst player in those 90 minutes (although Cahill wasn't that great either). He's just back in the team, he has a lot of time to pick up his best form and hopefully he will, but he and then Ramires ruining the 4-3-3 killed our attack in the second. We've created absolutely nothing except a corner Cesc took and that Iva anticipated Terry - who was in much better position to score. Btw, Mourinho, while we're at the willian subject, for all that is sacred, do not allow him anywhere corners. Thanks in advance.

yep, clean sheets have been too much to ask in this pre-season...

Wililan has been awful... the weak link in this match. Even Ramires has been better

and feel completely relieved he isn't playing for you

Why is Willian taking corners again?

http://footballhd.me/chelsea.html

Luis, Ramires and Willian starting the next match, the rest is just like the lineup that started against Fenerbahçe

Aww, they have a special with 'André Schürrle World Cup Winner'. well done Chelsea TV he's so touched and continues to be so humble. I may be a bit teared up right now

lol, ignore me. I completely forgot those two halves were matches apart. Mourinho could start with a completely different team in the next 45 minutes. He could just be giving those guys some minutes (and time for the other guys to have a rest before the second match)

of all players Mourinho had to get Ramires for Schurrle? Way to spoil our party. I know Andre was probably tired, but get someone else, Willian fox example...

What the actual fuck? This is a friendly and that's how the guy challenges? No wonder our brilliant drug cartel lord was pissed, he could be seriously hurt with that. I totally get why Pep was pissed yesterday, some of those guys forget these are friendlies? Amazing FK by Schurrle and nice finish by Iva. Now we have tons of free kicks takers all of sudden? LOL

WHAT A FUCKING BRILLIANT GOAL

We have two of the best four /five GK in the world.

doesn't work for me, G, I have to pay. But thanks, I'll have to watch the crappy ones

I need a new stream (preferably a HD one) because mine sucks. Can you guys share yours please?

Schurrle

Gigi just basically said they don't know when the match starts LOL

No Luís? It seems Mourinho didn't balance first and second half players, so I don't get why we have Iva and Azpili in the left instead of Azpili and Luís. Other than that also I think the match will start in an hour as every stream posted here doesn't have the match

I think the additions will help him a lot, but he needs to step up mentally too. What TOPTB said... maybe he will never score goals like Ronaldo (who does anyway?), but he has to have the same mentality, the same confidence and the same approach. He will improve a lot as a player if it improves.

I think both of you have good points. For him to reach his peak as you say that could happen at age 25 or maybe even longer, he needs to do some things now. He won't wake up someday when he's 25 and just reach his peak. There are serious improvements he needs to start doing now if he plans to ever reach his ceiling. Criticizing Hazard is very complicated on this forum and rarely people accept it, but he's overrated in general (not his potential, but his impact in the team) by people here and I agree about that with Alex a couple of pages ago - which doesn't mean he isn't our best player. He is our best player and overall a great player and stats - as my signature says - don't tell the whole story, but it's hard to ignore them when they are really bad. He was completely anonymous the first months of the season last year (except October), barely impacting any game, and then he exploded and was really good starting in December and then people just assume he was amazing for the rest of the season, but at the end of February he had already faded considerably and his really good matches were far and between. He didn't score from open play since February 8th and he had only 2 assists from February til the end of the season. Still nobody says a word about it and everyone just keeps saying he was amazing last season. Yes, he was insanely great, for three months, average for another four and had ups and downs (mixed with injuries) in the last three. Does it means he sucks, that he wasn't good enough or any other thing someone may assume I'm saying? No, it means that he hasn't living not even half of his potential. If he doesn't assist and doesn't score enough, I don't give a fuck how many dribbles and 'chances created' (unless they're clear cut chances) he makes (although as I explain below, those things can help a lot, but they can be very misleading too). At the end of the day he isn't effectively helping us win matches the way he could, the way he has potential to do. I kept defending him and I believe he's Balon D'Or material, but if he doesn't start to step up (mentally above all) now, he could end up being nothing but a very good player as TOPTB said in his posts. I'm quite aware that the stats don't tell the whole story (he could be the guy that consistently gives the pass before the assists, he could be the guy that drags markers and leave others unmarked, even if isn't directly involved in the match stats), but they don't absurdly lie either. Eden Hazard is an amazing player with a lot of talent, and his talent and meaningless stats such as chances created (completely different from clear cut chances) give him a reputation that seems to be much bigger than what he really is at the moment. I want to see him reach his full potential, but he has to start working on that, especially mentally, where I think he lacks, otherwise he will never be the player most of us expect him to be. His stats by month are (ESPNfc breakdown): August - 0 assists, 1 goals (Super Cup) September - 0 assists, 0 goals October - 1 assist, 4 goals November - 1 assist, 1 goal December - 2 assists, 4 goals January - 3 assists, 1 goal February - 0 assists, 3 goals (all in the same match and 1 penalty) March - 2 assists (Galatasaray), 2 goals (2 penalties) April - 0 assists, 1 goal (1 penalty) May - 0 assists, 0 goals

but that's what I meant. Who are the very top players Brazil have nowadays, I mean the players are that #1 or #2 in their position currently? Before the WC Thiago Silva had a case, now not even him. It's not a good moment to be filled of Brazilian players - not only this generation isn't the most talented in general, but our stocks are sky falling in the football market. Sure, Oscar, Willian, Costa and Luís aren't bad players, but they aren't THAT good either. Costa and Oscar could be one day, and while Costa is in great form he isn't exceptional, far from it. hence why having so many Brazilians now could give some people nightmares.

with all due respect, LOL Agenda against Torres? Actually it's impressive the amount of support he still has after being well... Torres. Many, many pages back even TOPTB was crucifying him. But he has a new instance these days...

I meant that if he doesn't start thinking where he wants go with things we can't expect much from him. It affects his end product because the guy is ridiculously talented, he makes nice plays, but it seems he doesn't know what to do with the ball after a certain point into the play. It's frustrating. He could be so much better, but I believe he will improve either way because he'll be more confident in the league, José praises him a lot (and there's a lot to praise, he's talented and has some flair on him, others on his place would try nonsense dribbles all the time and compromise the team's stability), as TOPTB said he's spared a lot of criticism by basically everyone, so I think he'll settle more. But he needs football brilliance. He doesn't know how to shine, he doesn't know how to add that final touch that could make him move from being a nice player to have to an immense player to have. Hazard has it coming out from his pores. Willian needs it. Also I said I didn't know if he was only limited in the field or also outside because he seems to struggle to talk things through. It could be a limitation he has, but still it doesn't have nothing to do with being dumb. There are many kinds of intelligences, at least nine and he - just like every being in the world - will excel in some more than in others, but the one thing he's missing could take him to a whole new level. I just linked that maybe the fact that he clearly can't offer a nice interview (despite showing he knows the language fairly well - Portuguese - and learning English well, I'm talking about depth) maybe he can't deep his thoughts in general, in whatever sphere of his life. Or maybe this is a lot of BS. Fact remains, he gives crappy interviews (which I couldn't care less to be honest, it was just a fact to support a theory, I'm not here to watch our players give cute or insightful interviews) and his lack of brilliance detracts his football a lot. I think all this confusion started because I used a metaphor saying he wasn't the brightest kid in the class, I meant it very lightly, not literally, just as a language expression. I'm not calling him dumb, I'm saying he's not bright and sometimes not even clever about what to do with the ball. Not being either thing in interviews is just a fact I used to support my idea of how he doesn't think things through before executing them. He starts well, you think he'll make something genial, but then he resets the process and does nothing with the ball. Of course, many times he does the right thing, but he isn't risky, he isn't bold, he isn't brilliant. Which is shame given his talent. If he was a bit more of those things we'd have two Hazards in the team... which isn't to be taken lightly as well. If it was easy to have the whole package every other team would have a Hazard in their squad, if not a few. I apologize to everyone if the way I wrote it made it look like I was calling him dumb or stupid. I'm calling him limited because of lack of geniality, brilliance or cleverness when he has everything else (there's mediocre between brilliant and poor or stupid). His technique is only second to Hazard (when it comes to dribbles because in a few other things I think Willian is our most technical player), he just needs to have some insights. He has pace, amazing work-rate, and he works his ass in the pitch. In those fateful matches we showed no interest or clutch, Willian was the one that tried his best in everyone of them. A few of our players seemed to approach small sides in a careless way, but Willian was one of the few that seemed to approach all matches the same way.

That's what I said, the style is nice, but the competition itself is a boring failure for me. I get bored easily watching Bundesliga.

I meant the teeth are better looking because I like bigger teeth. People with small teeth look like chickens in my 'Bobby's World' imagination. I just realized that if Oscar, Willian and Ramires keep their first team statuses from last season, there will be 5 Brazilians in the lineup (plus Costa and Luís). Even if they're in the bench, it's still a lot of Brazilians. It must be giving some people nightmares