Barbara

WHY DIDN'T SCHURRLE JUST FUCKING PASS QUICKLY TO OSCAR? FUCK MY BLOODY LIFE

I'd bring straight at the start of the second Willian for Schurrle and maybe Luiz for Ramires

between Oscar, Hazard and Schurrle I can't pick who's worse...

I don't get why we insist in the annoying long balls! Even Fulham tries to get to the attack passing, but we try the annoying, and badly executed long pass. It's driving me crazy...

the only decent set-piece taker we have is Lamps. All the other are normally hopeless... *sighs*

And Cuntburg finally shows up... that wasn't a foul!

in all honesty - because justice needs to be done, Ramires is one of our best players so far. And he looks so cute with the mask!

how many offsides will Torres have in this match? He's wearing Ba's socks, it seems.

gosh, they're toooooooo bad their defense is even worse than Gala's

oh the support singing Willian's song even if he's only in the bench.

our defense watched Dempsey head completely unmarked... Rami's mask is cute

time flies, here's waiting for him to reach the 500 mark

If the whole leaked french interview thing is the reason why our most reliable (and even then, far from ideal) striker is completely dropped from the squad, FML. I do hope Torres does well, he did against Gala imo, but I trust Eto'o much more than I trust him currently. But here's hoping he has a good match, maybe a hat-trick? I wish both rested him. I forget those worthless friendlies are this week... here I was thinking our players would have a week's rest. Stupid me, but even more worthless friendlies (although even I admit this friendly makes sense for the managers to have an idea of who to call for the few doubts they might still have, still I HATE international football). A burnt our Hazard has no use for Chelsea in April neither for Belgium in June.

The day Mourinho starts thinking about any NT - including Portugal - is the day he can't be a club manager anymore. He's justified his choice and said Wilmots should rest Eden instead from a worthless friendly. He's doing his job and Wilmots will do his by having Eden playing. Sorry, mate, but that comment makes no sense here. I agree he should be rested, including from worthless friendlies... Hazard has nothing to prove to Belgium or Wilmots, especially as tired as he is. But it's part of the schedule and he should play. Choosing between any of those matches goes down to personal preference. I'd rather he didn't play either.

what people fail to realize is that defensive responsibilities take away from their offensive performance. Haven't we been discussing Mata's bad form this season for months now? Do you think he simply forgot how play football in the time span of three months? No, he was bad or subpar offensively - and his stats say as much - because he was coping with what Mourinho asked him to do defensively (and in the end it was proved he couldn't cope at all, hence why we kept saying he didn't fit the system). Why is it so hard to understand that asking more defensively leads the player to get more tired, to divide his focus and efforts and just to change how he approaches the game? so if Mata's creativity and offensive game suffered because of the other responsibilities he was asked, why can't Willian and even Oscar have the same fate (especially because they aren't anywhere near as creative as Mata)? Mata's playing in the wing for ManU and still he's had more assists there in 3 or 4 matches than he's had here in 11 (or 15, don't even remember the number of times he's started for us this season). Is he still only a shadow of what he's used to be? Absolutely, he's been through a patch of bad form. I don't buy the playing in the wing destroys him BS. He's played in the wing for his whole career except the last two seasons, he knows how to play there too (although I agree he's way more effective in the middle, but he isn't supposed to be garbage in the wing). He's just lacking any resemblance of confidence, even happiness to play and he's been in bad form. It's a vicious circle where each of those things makes the other worse and he'll need a new season (basically a well done pre-season, without injury) to start over. He probably won't make it to Brazil in the abysmal form he is (compared to his good days). Spain has incredible depth on his position and many players are preferred over him by del Bosque. I think he could use the vacation and after a good pre-season he'll come a new player, more like the one he's used to be. So ignoring a bit of Mata and talking about the problem in hand, Willian is coping with everything Mourinho's been asking him to do defensively and it's affecting his offensive game. He's through EPL football adaptation, has been trying to prove himself to Mourinho and Scolari. I think he's doing well (nothing exceptional, just well) under those many circumstances. I think once we have a more reliable pivot next season with Matic already settled, and maybe just maybe, a better partner for him (here's hoping Marco really recovers well and continues from where he's stopped), Oscar and Wilian will be released of some of their defensive responsibilities, although in a Mourinho team one, at most two, players in the whole pitch are exempted from defensive responsibilities.

dude, have you hanging out with YouNameIt? This is a forum, everyone will have opinions. If you think Luiz is garbage and I think Ramires is poor, that's our opinions. I think is ridiculous when you say people have mental issues if they think Luiz can play in CB against Fulham of all teams. If there's a game he can offer Cahill or Terry a rest is this one... but we need him more in the pivot than we need to rest our CBs (let's not forget Terry just had a 'pre-injury' that left him out 3 weeks and Cahill almost missed a match the other day, all from playing too much if you ask me). If people like him, they're not mentally sick, they just like him... Ramires is TIRED, he's played 90 minutes in Turkey, had a hell of a trip and might be without legs (which are his best asset) he's already been struggling physically according to Mourinho and then someone says if he plays we need divine help, people like you don't even try to understand why, just get offended as if I was talking about your mother instead. I'm above this kind of petty argument, if you want to have them, you'll have them alone, especially when you call me an hypocrite without even quoting me in the post. You're back to the place you should have never left to start with.

I don't follow Ukraine's football and much less Russia's (although I did watch some matches from the latter last season), but I think it's a big jump from either. Patience is a virtue that seems hard to find these days, Ron.

I agree with everything, I'm just cautious about Marco because the boy is 20 and had an ACL injury, so I think his future only God knows. I think Oscar isn't sacrificed in Brazil NT playing as the most advanced midfielder in the 4-3-3 we have. I don't want him in the pivot, I cringe every time someone suggests him to move there in the 4-2-3-1 because he knows how to tackle. He tackles well for an AM, but he isn't strong enough or defensive enough to do it well as a pivot player, even if a B2B that normally is less defensive and allowed more space in the attack. He isn't a #8, he doesn't even have the physic for that... so I guess we agree on that too.

In all honesty I've had enough from them. We don't have many of them here, but their need to come to Eto'o thread to demoralize him when Torres has been worse sometimes gets on my nerves. Neither of them are good, but while Torres has been poor, Eto'o has been decent, especially in 2014.

He hasn't been poor and he's definitely been better than Torres this season. Everything says it - assists, goals scored, shots on goal, work rate. Whoever says otherwise doesn't have any argument. Unless they're assessing Torres for being blond and cute.

I disagree that Ramires is a central player in Mourinho's tactics. That's Oscar while Eden is the star. The thing is Ramires is the only player we have with such a profile to play in the midfield and he's definitely a Mourinho kind of player. So he offers Mourinho some versatility, but here's hoping that one between Salah or André really make it here, so we don't depend so much on Ramires' pace and never see him again in the RW. If in the pivot I rate him a 6.5, 7 at most, in the wing I don't rate him at all, but I'd go with a 5 if I had to really do it. I'd really love for Mourinho to sign a better player for the position, but he just won't. So here's waiting that maybe we move to a 4-3-3 in the future and either Oscar or Willian drop to the midfield. I'm not ungrateful and I'm not disregarding everything he's done for us - although agree with whoever said he's been living off of a goal against Barcelona and is overrated for the exact same reason. But Chelsea three years ago and up to this season had different goals than the team Mourinho is going to get together. The stakes will rise and that's the problem keeping Ramires imo. With stakes higher than the ones we have, he simply doesn't cut. He barely does as it is. It's just our pivot has been so incredibly poor the last few years, that Ramires was more important than he should, but that's because the bar was just too low.

especially against a side like Fulham... do they expect them to score as if they were City? The overreaction about Luiz's quality is really annoying here. Everyone admits he's in bad form, quite behind both Cahill and Terry, but he isn't as bad as they make him out to be. Ridiculous if Eden isn't going to be rested, then I'd play exactly the same trio as Gala. At least one between him and Oscar should be rested. Too bad Mourinho won't rest him. Let's hope it doesn't backfire.

I think the key for us not to struggle tomorrow is more the midfield than the attack I don't think our defense will be that harassed, although Terry and Iva might be really tired. Back to midfield, if Luiz is fit, I can't see other combo, but Matic/Luiz. We won't play again until next Saturday, so the players will have time to recover. Not only Luiz is more composed than Ramires in the midfield, but also Ramires may be very tired. Mikel became a non-factor for me the moment we bought Matic and should be used only when Nemanja can't play, and even then, cautiously. Lampard is probably very tired and I don't think he should even be in the bench in all honesty. But we're sort of shortlisted if David isn't fit and can't play. In that case I'd play Rami and pray for God to help us. In the attack I'd start the same AMs that started against Gala, except Oscar for Eden. I've been campaigning for Oscar's extended rest for a couple of weeks, but now Eden looks as much tired. I don't think we'll play counter - even if the game is away - otherwise, I'd even have Rami in the RW - although I hate it, but desperate times calls desperate measures. Good thing I don't think we'll need pace. I don't want Salah anywhere near the starting eleven, and if he's an unused sub, all that much better. He's useless for us right now (because of the reality shock with the physicality of EPL especially compared to Swiss footie), let's give him minutes at the Bridge, moderately, coming in the second (even if early) and get him better used next season. The attack, I'd say go with Eto'o, although Torres was decent against Gala, but I still believe the key will be our midfield. Hopefully Oscar (who I believe will play) or Willian or even Luiz again can score a screamer, early in the game (15-25 mark) or one of our good headers get in in a corner. I don't really care about performance in this match because it's a derby, crazy things happen in those and we've been fucked by the FA - as usual - with this match scheduled for a Saturday. Many players won't have much legs, which is why I believe Schurrle, Oscar and Willian should play, with Eden coming for Schurrle around the 60' mark (or 70' if André can take it, as Mourinho said he was subbed last Wednesday because he was struggling physically after not playing many minutes for so long (and I wonder whose fault is that)).

Statistically speaking is general consensus that up to 2% differences are considered technically equal, a draw. But that's me being technical about stats Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4G using Tapatalk

People need to get one thing straight and that's about every other player. You can't keep bringing their price tag and demand them to perform according to that. Who decided to pay that money is Chelsea. Many players have release clauses that are overpriced to keep the players - who are important for their clubs. Also right now attacking football players seem in general overpriced... so it really bothers me when people accuse others of not playing their transfer fee. Their wage would make sense, as that's what the club is paying to them personally. But fees are paid to other clubs, that either imposed such a price or that we offered as much. Whoever says he's not worth 30M, it's a valid point that I even agree with, but saying he's not playing like a 30M is stupid imo as who decided or at least agreed to pay as much was Chelsea, it wasn't Willian saying he was worth that much.