Barbara

Do people actually realize the result is the least important thing here? Salah needs to play to get in form, as well as the rest of the guys. This is about getting started physically and also a chance for the kids to show Mourinho something special. Then for some reason we start behind the team parks the bus against us the kids don't look that confident and that's what happens. But there's no reason to panic, to be harsh...

he said in the video in the previous page that he couldn't take #3 shirt after Cole just left and called him a legend. I think it was his decision.

no, sweetie, I'm not calling you delusional. I'm saying the idea of having such big players as simply backups is an illusion. Ramires is a more than decent squad player. I don't want him to start our every match (he might though), but he's a very good squad player and so is Mikel imo. It's delusional of us to expect such quality in a team's bench. It isn't attainable imo. To have players better than Ramires and Mikel as simple squad members and ignore potentials such as Marco, isn't something that I'd call possible or real.

the thing I'm looking forward the most is how he'll work with Hazard. In the vid there's a bit of his display against us and we see him intercepting the ball and already linking up play. Hazard missed Mata a bit, and Eto'o partially made up for that, but you'd expect your winger to link up with the FB more than with the CAM and the striker (also with Cesc in the team he'll provide some of the Mata linkups to Eden as well). I hope it helps Eden take that big step in his development. Yes, he's had a better season in 2013/14 than the year before (which is more than we could say about Oscar for example), but it wasn't that big of a leap if you ask me. He played really well for a stretch of time and he disappeared for another stretch (prior and after the good part). We talk so much about consistency when it comes to Oscar, but we could use Hazard being more productive to the team. First, it'd be great if he started playing in high level early in the season. Second, as we discussed during the WC it'd be great if he got rid a bit of his laid back attitude. We need him on fire, wanting it more than anything else, forcing himself out there and I truly hope Luís will help him with that. It's much easier for him if there's someone constantly by his side, dragging markers, linking up, playing 2-1, feeding him quickly. I see a lot of potential in Hazard, but I also see the need for him to change a few things in his current game to reach that. Luís has quality, but also experience, and that should help Eden take those famous last steps.

That's the delusional part of it, Jason. To think that we'll have on par substitutes to every player in the squad (even if you say that's not you're saying, it is). We have Matic Fabregas and Ramires for two positions if we play 4-2-3-1. If we play 4-3-3 Oscar is also in the mix for the three positions. If one of those guys can't play, another can come in. The problem with Mikel is how we tactically use him. Whether he's a wonder or not, he normally plays as a DM and he gets the job done - which is primarily defend. Yes, he doesn't add one thought of creativity to our midfield and it took him 300 matches to score a goal, but he gets the job done. If we lose Matic for whatever reason, we could move Ramires to DM position or use Mikel. If we lose Fàbregas we could play Ramires there in the 4-2-3-1 or Oscar in the 4-3-3 and if he gets off from where he's stopped Marco as well. If we lose Ramires first we thank God we can play Mikel, van Ginkel, Oscar (if in a 4-3-3). So I don't really get why we would need to sign another midfielder... to play a handful of matches? This will disrupt van Ginkel's development. He needs minutes and I hope he gets them more than just some cup matches. I said it on the Fàbregas thread the other day when discussing his supposed 'ability' to disappear in important matches. Whether we like him or not, Ramires also got the job done in those matches. There's no comparison between the team last year and this year. We only used Matic in half capacity - as he only came in the winter and couldn't play UCL. So we added Matic on full capacity and Fàbregas. Half of Matic already makes up for Lampard departure - not considering the goals - and then we added Fàbregas to the mix. It's not only a replacement, but an upgrade. We have three players for the DM position (Matic, Ramires and Mikel), three players for the B2B position (Fàbregas, Ramires and Marco) and three players for third man in midfield (Cesc, Rami and Oscar), not to mention that unlike Azpili last year against Atlético, Luís can actually play midfield decently. He's done it in the past. And all of that is me completely disregarding Romeu as I don't know if he'll stay with us. If he does, it's yet another name for the midfield. I don't see where to put another guy, unless it's a veteran like Tiago, that will come for free.

great English indeed thanks for the interview and it's nice to hear the guy from Chelsea TV and one of our players talking about Thibaut as if he was here already. I don't know what's taking so long to confirm his stay. edit: also you have to respect the guy that acknowledges his predecessor is a legend. Such a great character!

you write spoiler between brackets [] then add the spoilerish part of your post and add the /spoiler tag after it, also between brackets. [ spoiler] xxxx [ /spoiler] without the spaces

I'm going to pay much closer attention to the boys playing for us right now. I think there was a reason why we played only youngsters in the starting XI against Wycombe and I think we'll see that again tomorrow based on what Mourinho said. I'm not naive to think he will add those 3-4 players from the U-21 just because he's feeling indebted with English football... there's the homegrown quota to be reached and we let go of Cole and Lamps to make matters even worse - and if Cech doesn't leave and Courtois comes we won't have the usual #3 goalie spot either as Schwarzer was given a renewal (that imo is the biggest indicator Cech may be leaving). Maybe he plans to keep Bertrand ( ) as a reserve to Luís, but I don't see even Moses being incorporated in the team again. I'm really curious to know who those 3-4 players will be. We have way too many young players - homegrown and foreign - in the squad now... it's so hard to even try to pick any of them, but I don't believe any foreigners will be chosen. Ake I think is a given, and maybe Bamford if we get rid of Lukaku (we did have Torres and Ba last year as backups to Eto'o, so Bamford staying isn't that far-fetched as despite his glorious goals against Liverpool and PSG, Ba was far from impressive and useful). who do you think he's going to choose to stay with us?

Filipe Luís is a compound name in Portuguese, such as Mary-Ann. Costa is a last name, so those are completely different situations. but he was almost cute I still think it's only about bad skin, you can see some of the acnes in that interview. Poor thing has rough looks and bad skin, but he used to be slightly cute, hahahahaha

Of course he forced himself out of the club for the way things happened, for how he talked about it before and after he signed to Barcelona. I doesn't mean he wasn't professional while he did it. He wanted to leave, he did everything in his power to leave, while still respecting the company that paid his wages - which is the honorable thing to do, but he forced his way just fine. He did everything ethical in his power. and I also agree with Daniel about him mentioning Arsenal. It wasn't optional, he HAD to talk to Arsenal (it wasn't Chelsea job to check with Arsenal if they wanted him). So he said what happened. We talked to Arsenal (something he couldn't avoid because of the clause) and they didn't seem interested. End of it. He never worded it in a way HE wanted to go back, it was just business as usual given the clause in his contract. I do think Mourinho is trolling, but I also think someone like Cesc wouldn't want to go to a club that doesn't win anything relevant in 8 years. Who knows how long it's going to take for them to win something again, especially something more important than FA Cup - a charming, nice trophy, but not that important. Relevant yes, I love the Cup, but seriously, 8 years and that's all they could win? Who'd want to go back there?

Which team in the world you take three of their midfielders (regular starters) and they'll have the same to replace? That's the kind of thing I think it's delusional. Mikel, Romeu and van Ginkel are more than enough to cover it and God helps us if for any reason we lose our three main midfielders all at once. That's tragic and no club is ready for that. The only thing I think we still need is a #2 striker with completely different qualities to Costa/Lukaku (supposing he stays, I don't think he will) and that's about options, not simply a guy to come for Costa every match at mark 70.

actually what I meant is that the gene carries on around on some regions simply because people with certain stereotypes genes keep reproducing between themselves in certain regions. That's how the world has kept some stereotypes in countries, continents, etc... I'm not saying everyone, which is why I said many... what I meant was more genetic than adaptive (which could even be a consequence of the conditions and environment). People in the south colonized by Dutch and German when reproducing among themselves still carry on the stereotype being blond, having green or blue eyes, very caucasian, etc (which is very un-Brazilian as most of the people here descend from Portuguese and native indians, in addition to Africans) because there's a considerable niche there. I meant a niche of a gene pool - which happens in many places in Brazil. Then people from the same predisposition marry or have children between themselves and the genes continue to carry on in that region. You're the exception because not only you don't look old, you don't look even your age, you look half of it. Come on, that's a compliment And there's nothing wrong with some people from that region looking older than they are... Angelina Jolie and Blake Lively (especially the latter) look a few years older than they are. I guess no man here would complain to have either. At least Brad PItt and Ryan Reynolds aren't . edit: what I think doesn't help Costa is that he seems to have had a lot of skin issues when younger as he has acne scars in his face - or something like that. He stayed in Brazil until he was 18, although when he was 16 he moved to São Paulo. I don't think it had anything to do with sun, but more with him carrying on the genes from his parent(s) who could also look older than they are. And his skin issue probably making it worse. I actually like how he looks, he's sort of scary and we've been soft for a few years - even in the look department (look at Torres). When a defender comes near someone who looks like could eat them alive, and whose look could kill, they may feel a bit more intimidated. What makes little sense to me is questioning his real age and I don't think @ concerns are realistic, as I'm 98% sure he's the age his birth certificate says and we shouldn't be worrying about him being older and start to feel the weight of the age slowing him down or affecting him physically. That makes no sense in my head.

Absolutely. If Mourinho's main concern was offering cover to Hazard's advances, he wouldn't have gone for a Brazilian LB of all possible. No matter how less impressive in the attack he is compared to other Brazilians, he's still a Brazilian FB and as I said here in Brazil (and he played plenty of time still in Brazil) FB are rated more about their offensive game rather than their defensive game. We still play a lot through the flanks, it's our style and while we've incorporated wings (we were the ones who invented them in the first place in the 70's), even the smallest side here will have a FB bombing forward, it's how we play the game. If Mourinho wanted to offer only defensive stability in the left flank he had two options 1) keep Azpili there (he's a beast defending) or 2) in case he wanted to restore Azpili to his original position he would have gone to the same profile for a LB (and there were a few available, even if not as good as Luís), not for Luís. All that said, I do think Luís is better defending rather than attacking and overlapping, although of course he isn't shy in the latter.

In the region he was born (Brazilian Northeast) regardless if people are good looking or not - I've always thought many of them look older than they are. The exception is @Dion, who looks half his age (but then again I'm not sure he is born there) but it's not uncommon to see people from that region looking older than they really are. Don't worry, an administrative error would have been caught by his parents while he was still young. He was probably born in a hospital, not in a farm (although it seems the city has a big rural population), and that sort of thing would be much more likely in even more remote and much smaller cities where going to the city hall at every new kid born would be difficult for the parents, who would get their kids birth certificates all at once.

if he decides to play with #3 at all. In Brazil the number LB traditionally wears is 6, and it's available, so if he wants to play as he would in Brazil he'll go for that one.

why would he be older? As I said he didn't play any youth of relevance - going to Europe too young and already playing for senior teams when he was still U-20, U-21. He didn't play youth international football, so there's no reason for him to have done it himself. As I also stated I don't believe it would happen in Brazil in the 90's (it was common up to the 60's in remote or rural areas here, but nowadays I don't think so). Maybe if his city is way too remote, his parents could have waited more kids to be born before going a long way to the nearest City Hall. Even then it's unlikely and it wouldn't be more than a few months - if they weren't careful enough to write down the exact day, month and year he was born. It's only had skin and genes... there's no reason to worry about that sort of thing at all. edit: just checked his city. It's a big one - things considered - with over 100k inhabitants, certainly it has a city hall of its own. There's no reason at all to believe he's even one day older than his birth certificate says...

I find it hard to believe that nearly in the XXI century we would have that kind of mistake in Brazil - about his age. He went to Europe young and never played for any youth NT, so there's no need for him to have been the one to rig it. But as he was born in the middle of nowhere, maybe his parents when going to the closest city hall (can't say if his small county had one), could have made a mistake about a few months, but at most (and I still find it hard to believe) a couple of years. But he looks even older than me tbh... I guess it's just bad genes and bad skin at the end of the day.

Definitely not buying this kit. Sorry, but I don't like it at all. Well, I'll watch the match, but reading your thoughts on the match and some of our players already make me happy.

Mourinho criticized Ramires, something he also only did about him, hazard and oscar... He criticized his numerous suspensions... that's the context of the compliments btw... saying he was important but because of his stupid acts the team was missing an important player, although of course he didn't use the word stupid, but we all know that's how Ramires acted... and Mourinho was pissed at him for that - as he should. Hopefully Mourinho won't want to rely on a hot headed again.

That was the case last year... especially early in the season when Ramires was actually good. Later on it wasn't like we had better alternatives and he was suspended for some matches. Hopefully Mourinho won't rely and trust Ramires as much this season. I'm still holding hope that he won't be more than a squad player for e eventual match. If that's the big matches, so be it. Whether we admit or not, as frustrating as he can be we won most of the big matches with Ramires featuring on them. As long as we get the result in those matches and actually play decently, I don't care if it's Ramires, Cesc, Oscar... we only play as many big matches a season. Of course it would be better if we evolved into a team that can face strong opponents without sacrificing as much as we do when we play Ramires. Let's hope for that, but I can handle Ramires in small doses if we keep winning big matches.

If he disappears in the big games, it's all much better of a signing. We had no qualms winning all big games in the EPL last season. He will be needed against the teams parking the bus. Also I don't buy this BS...

do you have a link for the list? I've been looking it since yesterday and couldn't find. Not sure he deserves to be there though. For his defensive work, probably, but he isn't a pivot player, and unless they chose a 4-3-3 he has no business being there. He had ups and downs offensively, way more downs than ups - but it's the WC and I'm so happy it ended, I hope he gets a new start here in a month from now.

dropped a couple of tears re-reading this thread. This kid is special. The more time goes by, more I love him. I simply can't wait to see him wearing our Blue shirt again. It'll be something special.

you mean so our signings don't take the shine away from the WC? well the combo of Cesc, Diego and Filipe (all coming from La Liga, lol) is a great one. I still wish we signed a good striker - doesn't need to be a big name - with the same style of Eto'o or Benzema. We'll need technique and someone that can create their own chances to balance the kind of strikers we have in the squad. The few times André played as a ST last year were far from impressive, and even if he plays like that, his high points are runs and positioning, something Costa excels at. We need a different flavor. It could be a youngster, I don't mind, as long as we have diversity depth. I hope Mourinho is thinking about the same thing. We can ship off Lukaku and Ba (as I don't see anyone in the world wanting Torres) and with their money (I don't wish to see them loaned, rather than sold) we could get a new striker. But other than that, I think we're pretty much done. If Tiago also comes, it's a plus. I don't think we necessarily need another midfielder, but for free and with his quality and experience, I'd say, welcome mister! I just want to know how Mou plans to use Cesc and who will be our AMs. Oscar, Willian and Schürrle won't be incorporated until much later, so I expect Cesc to maybe start there, alongside Salah and Hazard. Good thing Ramires is getting as late as the rest of the AMs, otherwise we'd have to cope with him in the RW, gosh, how I wish Mourinho could never do it again, but it's still very likely.

My God, how many through balls assists he provided in those three years? I should have counted them while I was watching the vid. As I'm positive I'll watch again, I'll count them. Seriously, I know those vids mask a lot of things, but how could Barça fans hate him so much when he's so much class? His finishing got even better imo, his quick thinking is second to few, his vision is also very good, his pass quality is amazing, a neat and classy player all around and they hated him? They're indeed assholes as their names suggest. Not only the guy professed his love for that club - that should be reason enough to love him, but I suppose when you're a Barça fan that's not enough, but he also offered an excellent end product. Maybe the games he suck he really, really suck? Because, otherwise, what's wrong with this guy? I keep trying to find the answer and the only thing that came to mind is that up to now his club choice was awful, but even that has been properly fixed now that he's a Blue.