Barbara

He's too physical for the soft La Liga - with their tika taka bullshit. I think England accepts more the physicality. He isn't violent, he's just rough and shove people around with his body. He's the annoying guy that won't back off, but I wouldn't say he is unfair, violent or a cheating cunt that bites on people. I think he may get a suspension. It's one match after five yellows and three after eight yellows or the suspensions are three and five? I ALWAYS get confused about EPL suspension rules for booking

According to ESPN he's had RC as following 2012/13 - 1 2009/10 - 1 2008/09 - 2 All other seasons he's got no red card. Tons of yellows though: 2013/14 - 13 (League: 7/34+1 (starts + subs)) 2012/13 - 14 (11/24+7) 2011/12 - 9 (9/15+1) 2010/11 - 5 (5/13+15) 2009/10 - 9 (9/32/2) 2008/09 - 4 (2/34+1)

Oscar seems to hold him back so effortlessly (just compare their bodies, their torsos and legs say it all, and still Oscar doesn't break a sweat to stop him)... someone pls, stop this man from ever playing for us again.

Well ManU got only five shots in this match three of them blocked (all of which out of the box) and the two goals, I'm not shaking on my knees as it stands regarding their attack.

should have loaned Oriol and a bunch to Saints in exchange of buying Jay Rodriguez. That way they wouldn't spend much money in rebuilding their team and we would have a decent (far from brilliant but decent) HG striker. we could have sent Oriol, Marko - if anyone even wants him - Moses, Atsu and who else they wanted from our U-21. All those kids would get EPL experience in a good club, Saints would have saved their rich little money (and make some more from Rodriguez) and in a year or two they could even have bought a couple of them (if we saw fitting). Even PIazon and Bertrand could have made part of the package if we have thought about it before. Except for two matches they play us, they could have had a few guys to replace theirs. Everyone would be happy and Mourinho could keep his three other strikers, as Jay counts in the 8 players from the 25 squad. Damn it.

still not enough to compete for titles. We need a new striker... God could make some miracle for Torres leave this club this window. Even if he stays, we should get another striker and work with 4. Bring an English or HG - such as Jay Rodriguez - so we don't need to offload yet another non-HG. Splash some money on Saints, their owner the Catharina woman wants to make as much money off of the team as possible. We have the money to splash Does anyone know what's the status of Sturridge's contract? Maybe when he realizes he won't win fuck at Liverpool we could buy him back a couple of seasons down the road - if Liverpool accepts the money, that is. I wish there were release clauses in England in times like these

We shouldn't need to play 4-4-2 to beat smaller sides. We need to work well in the attack. With the quality of our AMs and Costa, we should win without much trouble against the bottom half of the table. You don't need two strikers for that, you need to be clinical and dangerous, many teams manage to be that without two strikers. But I, of course, agree we're very poor with our available backups for the striker position. It could be our Achilles heel, and could here is just me being nice, it probably will. I still can't believe this shit. my point remains the same. That picture has 22 players, at most 17 can be non-HG and as you guys counted only four it means one of them has to be off. Also their HG players aren't that great, so instead of strengthening their team with HG players (like we did with Fabregas for example, already having two first team players), they're just filling their quota to complete 25 - which we're also doing, but I believe our HG core to be stronger than theirs, which means we can have even stronger non=HG. We have three first team players, while they have barely two (as I said I don't consider Hart that great and Clichy ma not even start for them). so in order for them to accommodate those players you're mentioning and that aren't even in those 22 pics, they'll have to let go of at least one of those non-HG players. Also if Lamps leaves in January, they'll have to let go of another or bring a HG replacement for Lamps, because I don't believe it's possible to continue to have him counting as HG after the winter window when he's going to be gone

I didn't mean it like that... I meant from those 22. They need to have five in those 22, they have only four Their 'advantage' is having an English GK. I put it between quotes because Hart can be unpredictable for streaks. He isn't a top GL imo, there are tons better than him. Then they have a few English players in the bench and young prospects. We have two English players starting for us as well as a homegrown, I wouldn't say they're better than us per say. If you count Victor Moses in the squad we'd have more than them, as Aké and Christensen have been promoted and Zouma - staying with us, will spend three years until he's 21 and therefore will count as HG in the future too.

how many HG are there in their team anyway? English I spot Hart, Milner and Lamps, but any of those foreigners are HG?

is the one in pink Victor Moses? Mikel joined the team in Netherlands but Moses wasn't there it looks a lot like him in this picture

Personally I disagree with almost everything (it happens ) Comparing what Matic and Cesc both offer going forward and passing makes it very clear about who among the two should be sacrificed. Including Ramires in any capacity that isn't against big teams, once upon a time and not even in the pivot, but as an AM, is a big no to me. You're destroying everything to afford a player that doesn't play that well as a #5. Ramires, with all his problems and limitations, suits better #8. As a wing and as a DM he's just terrible imo. He works well as a B2B, but that's it. The thing is that when we play him as a 'winger' his main responsibility is still defending and then running. The moment we put him in the team our pass quality drops considerably. I can't get over his 50% pass accuracy during one of the WC matches. That's atrocious. So why should we sacrifice our whole transition to accommodate a player that doesn't even play that well as #5? So even if Matic is underrated for his passing and vision (he is) Cesc is far better, so he should be given the role of providing us with that. Matic can hold position if he's asked to, not only can but will. It's his style, but Mourinho has the team in his hands and if he asks him to be more reactive or to hold position he will. I'm just not sure it's going to be needed. If we want to give a bit more freedom for Matic to go ahead in a 4-3-3 his natural substitute has to be Mikel. van Ginkel could be down the line, but he's still a bit too flustered right now. I think Oscar or Willian with their incredible work-rate are enough to offer the team some balance in a 4-3-3 with Cesc and Matic in the pivot. We've been shaky defensively in the pre-season and maybe that's why people are so concerned about it, but I don't any of the combos made of Luiz + Lamps, Matic + Lamps, Matic + Ramires, Luiz + Ramires far superior (if superior at all) in offering coverage to our defense than Matic + Cesc would. Luiz didn't hold much position, Lamps had ups and downs, Ramires had shockers in the second half of the season quite often. Still we had a great defensive system last season, Cesc isn't as slow and as bad defending as some assume to the point it'll expose our defense or jeopardize the system. And for the tougher matches, when he could be a detractor, we either move him higher in the pitch or to the bench. I have little doubt Ramires won't play those matches, but always as an 'AM' with two pivot players behind him. Also people should be aware that Mourinho's plan wasn't to be as passive as we were last year. He made adjustments in the team, changed the approach around December to adapt to our limitations - technical, mental and human. We lacked key players, we lacked a winning mentality and some of players weren't as technical as they should. Now it's different (as long as Costa plays all matches) and I'm sure he'll adopt a more aggressive style. Depending on how the progress to move to this more aggressive style goes we'll be using Ramires more or less, but his idea, I'm absolutely sure, is to find a way to balance the team having Cesc playing in the pivot. It could even be Ramires as you suggested, but in that case I guess he'd be either the second or even the third midfielder, there's no way he'd be the most defensive midfielder at all. We'll have to wait and see, but changes in how we approach games and how we're set up should be expected. We didn't make those surgical signings just so we could keep the tactics and just improve mentally and technically. That tactics we used for most part of last year weren't even his plan A tactics anyway. He had to adapt along the way.

my assessment on him is entirely based on his season for Galatasaray. I've watched them in UCL prior to playing us. Eto'o was considerably better.

Honestly I don't remember seeing your post, maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I'm positive I wasn't referring to you. But it should apply if your conclusion came from the last 135 minutes he's played. The point isn't questioning his signing in general or not, but questioning it on what's been shown in two friendlies, especially with the assumption he can't play the pivot position when in 180 minutes (a bit less because he was subbed last match) he played there only 45 and he and Matic were nearly flawless then. He hasn't been anywhere near the pivot today and still there were people saying he can't play there because he's slow, because when he lost the ball he couldn't be fast enough to recover it and it exposed us, etc... make assumptions it will happen is anyone's guess, but that hasn't happened yet because the only 45 minutes he's played there he didn't face this.

Bremen actually had about 5 players from their first team in the 1st half

both goals in the first came from his side, that miracle save by Courtois was from an attack that also came from his side, his crosses were bad (but it seems only Ivanovic is trashed because of it - no jab on either of you, guys) and he didn't link up that well (although not bad). I didn't like at all his last match and today I don't have much to say positively. I definitely wouldn't pick him as one of the best players in the first half. At all.

exactly why he has to be there because we already proved we don't have the player that will take that risk. Cesc will. Cesc will pass them, as he did in those 45 minutes against Vitesse. It's natural for him to do that. And today Cesc also dropped deep in a handful occasions to get a touch as well - same as our AMs last season. I think Mourinho is making as much tests as he can now and will only take the last two friendlies more seriously (not that he hasn't been serious so far, I think he'll make tests until then, but with the full squad at his disposal he'll probably stick to the test he liked more and won't make as many subs in the last two).

I meant those three, Ron, not the amount itself. The three we have aren't enough. We have one #1 material striker and two #3 material strikers. We don't have a #2 striker that has the qualities to play his part.

There are two things to take into consideration: 1) if we want to get rid of Torres, Mourinho has to continue to praise the only possible aspect of him that can be praised and give him some match time, who will buy a player that doesn't play? It's really a case of being between a rock and a hard place. 2) Who are we going to play if he gives him the Malouda treatment? We don't have four strikers waiting to play. we have three, two already passed it. I can't believe whatever happened because of stupid French television ruined Eto'o and Mourinho's relationship to the point he wants to stay in London but won't stay with us. Sorry for people who may get offended by it, but based on current form Eto'o >>>>>>>>>> Drogba regardless of what Etoo's real age is. Also, the order things are released to the general public isn't necessarily the order they happened. Mourinho probably knew about Lukaku's departure before we went after Didier. We probably went after him because it was clear Lukaku wasn't going to stay - the deal just hasn't been done yet at the time. It's a HUGE miscalculation on Mourinho and the board's side thinking that Drogba is enough just because we have a good striker on Costa. Costa could struggle to adapt, injury himself and a lot of other things that will make us look to the bench and only see two players that aren't on their best anymore. We should have brought someone other than The King (as much as I love him and I think he can be useful) because the awful truth is that both him and Torres are #3 striker material. None is up to being # striker. They should be getting the same amount of minutes as Ba had (even less actually, as last year we had a rotation for #1 striker throughout the whole season). It should be having Torres OR Drogba in the squad, both is nonsense and suicidal. There will be only one person to blame if our season is jeopardized by not having a decent #2 striker and that is Mourinho. Even the board can't be held accountable if Mourinho tells them the same thing he tells us: that the three strikers we have is enough. It isn't.

It isn't an obsession. How do you think an English Chelsea fan feels when he looks at his team lineup and don't see one English there? Or just one or two? Chelsea became a global team since Roman is here, but it will always be by definition an English club and a team should have a core of players from the country where it's based. This isn't an obsession, this is staying true to your identity. We need more English players like Terry. Many more. Not just one or two, but at least four or five.

I agree on the 4-3-3 but I'd have Matic-Cesc Oscar Schurrle/Willian-Hazard Costa by far our best formation if all of them are in form.

well, mate, if I must say there are some bad choices there. We don't know for sure who will play between Cech and Courtois, so maybe it'd be wiser to pick another top goalie now (Howard, Hart, Mignolet) and later when we're sure we have a #1 for the league you trade them. You're getting two pricey GK when most people have a crappy, inexpensive 2nd option. Just a tip though. Don't spend too much in your bench, have some inexpensive players that are likely to have plenty of minutes in smaller sides and invest your funds in your starting XI.

he may not be able to do anything about Lukaku's departure, but he's as guilty as hell if we don't sign another striker. It doesn't need to be world class because there's none available. But someone around the same as Lukaku (preferably with a different set of skills) is enough. Those two are worse than Milito... I hope Jose's hope isn't that just because he won an UCL title with Milito he can do it again with the likes of Torres and Drogba. Also in addition to injuries, Costa can have a bad day in the office ... every player has one of those from time to time. Then he's off one match, we look to the bench there's Torres and Drogba? fml edit: see? just what I said. He hasn't received ONE single ball inside the box. Yes, he overplayed a few times and should have released the ball, but he didn't get any service at all.

at least one of our players is already completely in form two matches: two missions accomplished. 100% accuracy

Oscar needs to regain form. He's proved to be the one player that gives stability and balances our team. If he continues from where he stopped last season we're going to struggle. With Cesc by his side or behind him, someone will make up for his limited creativity (although when he's in form he isn't that uncreative either), but he seems to get the pieces of our midfield together. We just look like a more balanced side when he's in form. So let's hope he comes back with some confidence and in good form. He'll be needed, especially in the beginning while Cesc is still adapting to the tactics and the teammates.

we need to start the prayer circle asap for this guy's health. Torres already showed in two matches he's back in form... form of missing anything and everything. Drogba was already bad last season for Galatasaray, so you can't expect only motivation to be back here to help his cause (although he's definitely more useful and resourceful than Torres). everybody, raise your hands