Barbara

Bundesliga sucks. nobody will ever convince me otherwise. The style is even nice, and the support is great, but anything else is bad imo.

that picture is weird. Oscar has flawless teeth, better looking than Filipe's imo.

But I never called him dumb and I separated football brains from general brains. I said he's a shallow thinker when I finally found the words. He doesn't think the whole thing it seems, but either way, he's very talented, but could catalyze his potential and results if he had a better end product. Whether is because he doesn't think enough, doesn't think at all or is football dumb we don't know, but fact remains his end product is precarious compared to talent. @Shakez, Oscar is average smart imo. In Portuguese he's much more articulated and he could try a career after he retires either as a pundit or as a manager (despite being only 23 in a month) because he actually has nice ideas and talks in a very clear way. He isn't dumb at all and again I didn't call Willian dumb, I said he can't articulate things and repeat the same basic things over and over. And I honestly don't get why you were so defensive. So it's okay to say a guy can't score, can't dribble, but it's not okay to say he can't think things through affecting his end product or that his interviews are an accumulation of nothing? Double standard much or what?

@CHOULO19, @Jason, so I suppose the timer continues wrong? The match isn't 6pm according to those info.

everything. The girl is hot as hell and most of you said her body wasn't that great and that her face wasn't pretty (or something). I'd love to have her body

Congrats, chap!!!! A lot of happiness for you and the missus! and your wedding seems to have been AMAZING. I loved the amusement park details! as for all criticism Kate got last page, in all honesty, the more I live the less I understand men. I don't even try anymore. You guys are weird about girls.

if what you do right - because of being highly technical - is much bigger and better than others who don't make as many wrongs as you, you're better than them technically and that's the end of it. So instead of focusing on how his accuracy isn't that great, we should be focusing on the quality of what he makes right. The 2009/10 Drobga you seemed to have tried to convince us was technically worse than Lukaku is one of the best strikers in the world. And what really irritates me in those kind of articles is that in no moment is mentioned that it wasn't the club's choice to sell the player. It was just the club's agreement (to avoid a bigger evil) to let a player that wanted out to go. Chelsea didn't choose to play Drobga instead of Lukaku. Chelsea definitely knew where Lukaku stood and were stupid enough not to bring a better striker to replace him, but the decision was made firstly and mainly by Lukaku who wanted to leave as his aspirations here couldn't be met or promised to him by Mourinho. The question here isn't if it was a good or bad idea letting Lukaku go because that was his decision, not Chelsea's, so we just fulfilled a player's wish. The real question is if it was a good or a bad idea to think 2014-Drogba is a good replacement. Everybody in the world is convinced it isn't except Mourinho and the board (unless they surprise us with a new signing until August 31st)

LOL Dortmund owning Bayern's and Karl's ass with that statement. LOL About the shirts, a few pages ago people seem to really believe they sold it. It's nonsense. They signed a player they didn't need and in a club that has marketing shark Ronaldo, there's so much a second star can bring in marketing revenue.

Has he ever showed anything special while here? People talk about us not giving chances to players, he had plenty. His best role here was impact sub - which sometimes worked and others didn't. Should I rate him for that? He counts as HG and that is his biggest advantage. Instead of having him - who seems to have a limited ceiling = I'd rather give one of kids with real potential coming from the youth a chance to see if their potential comes to fruition. He isn't a bad footballer - but like Ryan Bertrand (who I also don't rate at all) - he isn't a profile to a club as big as Chelsea, even as a super sub. Our super sub last season was Schurrle. This season could be one among Oscar, Schurrle and Willian (depending on who starts and who doesn't). Can you even compare Moses to one of those guys? Salah is still new here and young in general coming from a soft league, so I won't include him in the list, but Oscar, Schurrle and Willian (even with his end product problem we've just talked about) are a different beast compared to Moses. They're higher level. People talking about Moses did here seem to forget what he didn't... when he came and worked, yeah, it was a great impact. But many times he was subbed in and did absolutely bollocks. Like Ramires (though not to that extension) what makes him 'special' is physical rather than technical. He's strong, he's fast, but he isn't that technical.

nope

come on, guys, there was a gif of Kate Upton (sp?) in a match thread the other day while she shook every little cell of her body (even I had a #@$% for that gif, too damn hot). Threads here get awkward all the time. It's just Cho Cho and I had a moment. I feel you're just jealous and want to confess your own feelings to @Jason and propose to him because you have a thing for kitties.

1) Also thought something happened to Reus 2) Maybe if did because I didn't read the last two pages 3) I really can't believe people believe RM sold 350k shirts in two days. Let me tell you something, they didn't have that stock produced, they wouldn't be able to produce that to deliver if it's pre-order because that's 1/4 of what they sell a whole year with Ronaldo there. It's BS 4) Image rights is only a percentage over an endorsement contract. So when you pay the star to your ad campaign you pay for the campaign itself (most of the money) and image rights (a small percentage), among a few other things. 5) Did Reus even go anywhere? I love him so much, but I don't think we need him. We need a striker, I'm obsessed with our need of a striker.

that's the thing, I'm not even sure if he's what I'd label stupid. He seems a shallow thinker. Those people don't articulate their thoughts and don't fulfill their potential (in thinking). IF - big IF - that's the case it doesn't mean he's stupid, just that as he doesn't think things through he comes off as shallow. It shows in his interviews and football wise you think that he's been interrupted - by himself - and doesn't conclude the brilliant things he starts. Or maybe he's just stupid indeed. We don't know. He made in a few years of football career more money that I'll do in my whole life and a couple more of them if I had them. So stupid or not, clever or not, bright or not, deep thinker or not, he's rich I'm not

you meant the cutest ever husband? Yep, that's you

LOL but that's Sergio Ramos and Pepe. We all wish we could have done that I'm kidding (sort of) of course. That's ridiculous.... cabra retado demais Well, I hope we don't feed this behavior here. Our style isn't that. yep - that's what I meant that he shoves players around, and as he's a Chelsea player they won't think twice about charging him. If he was Liverpool, United or even Arsenal they wouldn't have it too hard on them. It's always like that. No surprise, but let's hope he won't be easily riled up. Here there's the language barrier - for once it'll be something in our favor because I have NO DOUBT at all he was provoked too. Ramos and Pepe are no saints at all.

CC: @Barbara we're soulmates, Cho Chou, the same time you were mentioning me here, I was tweeting you about the same thing. Let's get married - I'll make an exception about the spiritual sides of our lives. No hugging is assured, unless you ask

absolutely which is why I mentioned multiple intelligences in the second post. I think Willian's main problem is not thinking per say. He may even be able to think smart things, but it seems he doesn't take the time to actually think deeper about it, you know? I don't know how to describe, but he seems to struggle to get things deeper and so when he does the most difficult (because he has the most difficult imo - but than again that based in my own set of intelligences, I'm terrible with motor coordination and manual things in general, I can barely draw a stick person) he doesn't deliver it because it feels like he didn't think through everything he was going to do. I don't know, I'm struggling to find the words in English (HA!) - I feel like he goes through the first stages of thinking what he's going to do, but he doesn't think the whole thing through and then he does the first thing that crosses his mind or acts on instinct (which can be good, if one has good instincts).

actually he creatively he had some very nice moments and was sort of anonymous at others - hence why some people were criticizing him (prematurely imo). He's coming from tiki taka BS and even if he was too direct for that shit, he still programmed his brain for that. I think in a couple of months he'll be completely in sync with the team, but until he reaches his highest level, Oscar (and others who also failed to be an answer for us last season) will have to step up. Regardless of Cesc, Oscar needs to step up ASAP.

I have no idea where this image of him is coming from. I've never got it... but maybe I haven't watched him close enough. I think he's a tough cookie, that will shove players around, but hot fuse, long suspension coming? I think people are exaggerating a lot. If he was that bad he would have gotten more red cards. There's so much leniency in La Liga or in Portugal for it to ignore the kind of guy you keep describing. It seems like he's been cheating the system time and time again, doing dirty things that the referee doesn't see when most times I caught him in action was very blatant and immediate. He isn't the guy that will bite you or head you when nobody is seeing. Or I'm the one with the wrong impression. Either way, Mourinho 'tamed' worse in his career, so I'm not worried. He's Ramires 2.0 except he isn't as moronic as far as can I say - I can't get over some of Ramires reactions - especially at the end of last season when he basically got two consecutive suspensions. It is moronic. God help us with Costa if he's the same.

I never mentioned education though. Being a teacher myself I know well the difference between both. He shows nice knowledge of the language, doesn't struggle with grammar, and bla bla bla you could think about education. He seems to have caught up with the education aspect of it and he's learning English quite well imo. I'm talking basically about his inability of articulating his thoughts. If you read his interviews it's a repetition of something very superficial, time after time. This has nothing to do with his education. we have Neymar, for example, or David Luiz, both Brazilians, who can articulate their thoughts very well and talk things that go beyond the basic acknowledge of the subject. Articulating your thinking can be catalyzed by good education, but it's something about you, very little influenced by your upbringing. Have you ever met a person that was difficult to have a deep conversation about a subject with them? Willian seems like that = but again, I've mentioned I don't know him personally, so I can't say for real, but based on his interviews, he isn't very bright. edit: but the fact he may not be that clever, and still plays here and was wished by many, shows his quality in other things - and maybe even in managing his career and other stuff. Multiple intelligences is a very nice theory I like, so his major intelligences are probably somewhere else. I also like him a lot as a player, it just frustrates me that if he had a slight better end product he could be brilliant.

I was just talking about a pic as people did many times, it's only the impression the pic gives or shouldn't I assume people will be able to say that a frame of an action is misleading and sometimes funny? I'll develop further for you to discern though. Cheeky comment: someone as small as Oscar can stop someone as big as Fernando Torres barely touching him LOL although this is a pic and it may be only be a impression. Serious comment: I can't stand seeing Torres here anymore. Good thing I've switched careers and work with four-year olds now. Endless source of patience to my already very patient nature.

I agree the problem is his decision making,but that's not the main mistake he does imo. Comparatively, Hazard makes that mistake you mentioned much more than Willian does, especially when he isn't playing his best yet yet. Last season I was pulling my hair when Hazard was dribbling everybody and their mother in OUR half. That's not where you do that, and many times he lost possession in the second third, offering a counter to opposition. Then he started playing better and that was much less noticeable and prominent. And we don't need to say for the 3495874th time that Eden has bad decision making about shooting on the goal. He just doesn't do it as much as he should. Now Willian's decision making problem is of a different nature imo and I feel bad for saying it so bluntly, but he's just not a clever person (or player as I don't know him personally, but judging by his interviews even in portuguese you can say he's far from the brightest kid in the class, very far). If the guy doesn't think, he doesn't execute, simple. Also he lacks some directness. He's all flair and technique and that's cute and dandy and it makes vids such as the one on the previous page mouthwatering. But he rarely does something out of it. He dribbles, he has such a class touching the ball, flawless ball control and first touch, but as he isn't direct or clever, well, the result is what we see. Said all that, I think he will improve this season simply because one more season makes a lot of difference for players coming from a different league to the EPL. The first season can be tough, but normally the second is when they settle and grow. That's likely to be the case with him, but I wouldn't hold too high expectations because of those two limitations I've mentioned. While Mou can help him directness (someone like Cesc too), the cleverness part is there for good imo.

I don't rate Victor Moses at all. And while one might argue that coming here detracted his development, if he was really that good he would have stayed and shone. We weren't filled with AMs when we signed him and the fact he never consolidated his position is only a consequence of his (lack of) quality as a player. His competition were Hazard and Oscar going through a transition to English football and injured (and even worse quality wise) Marko Marin. Mata was the indisputable #10 and Hazard consolidated his position in the very first matches, but then went a long streak (from October to the end of January) struggling a lot. I don't know if he's better or worse than Salah but I don't think it's fair to compare them either. Salah was in Switzerland and is one and half year younger (although I don't see a high ceiling for him either, he's useful, he offers something different, but at the same time he's nothing special imo). I also don't see a point at all of keeping Moses here... HG or not.

already did in another thread. 21 goals all comps. Although I think I'll raise that to 25. 21 seems too modest.

Bold prediction one out of Oscar and Schurrle to score more than 15 goals (if not both of them). My expectations were higher when I thought we weren't going with Torres and Drogba as options for the striker position. They dropped significantly ever since and I think Mourinho stubbornness in the matter will cost us the title UNLESS my bold prediction becomes true. If Oscar or Schurrle, but especially both, scores 15+ goals, we're settled. Our attack in general has to improve from last season, not only the strikers. We lacked incisiveness, aggressiveness, accuracy, bite and especially cojones. We need balls and I hope those players can be fired up by DD, by Mourinho and by themselves. We have a certain profile of players that concern me. Oscar, Hazard, Willian, Ramires, Azpilicueta, Torres, maybe Salah (don't know him well enough) or even Matic (not sure) don't have the winning spirit that Lamps, JT, DD, Ballack, Robben Iva have/had. Azpilli will leave his blood in the pitch, but that's because he's a clutchy player, not because he's a natural winner. we need to fire those guys up, to make them true Mourinho players that accept nothing less than winning. So another bold prediction, at least half of those players (excluding Torres) will actually grow some wins-greedy balls (more like wishful thinking than prediction, but here is hoping).