Barbara

I'm making none of those things. You are the one making him look much worse than he is. I was never comparing him to Falcao to start with (that was you and The Skipper), I was correcting you in some of your wrong assumptions about Karim (certainly because you know very little of him to properly speak about him) and I provided data to justify the point I was trying to make - which was basically correct your wrong assumptions. I've never even mentioned Falcao in my post except to say he and a whole bunch of other strikers are clear improvement from what we have. You said he has assists not because of his ability to make a pass, but because it's Ronaldo who's netting this assists. What I'm saying is if he didn't have the ability to bring a good pass, Ronaldo wouldn't receive the ball to score. Did you know that 35% of RM goals last season (57 - such a coincidence as that's exactly the amount of goals Cris scored) don't come from an assist? And you know why is that? Because many of Cris' goals don't come from assists as he receives the ball in the counter and pass by half opposition, cuts in, or dribbles, or whatever and shoots. Many of his goals are scored like that and if I had a way to dig those stats by Karim, I'm sure I'd find many of them being for other goalscorers and not only Ronaldo as you implied. Also other players for RM scored in the same fashion because RM was a counter-attack team based. And still some of those assists are counted by fouls and penalties won by the players - which I'll never agree as being an assist, but still statistically that's how they count it. You are the saying I was making Karim look like Ozil,I just said 15 assists is more than many AM's in the world have. Just look at EPL last season and you'll probably find 2-3 players at most among the top teams (or the whole table) that had more assists. Then you completely dismiss the player saying he only has as many assists because he has Ronaldo playing by his side. I've never compared him to Ozil, but as you did, I guess 15 assists aren't that far from 20... If you like one player better or if you think a player is better than another, good for you, that's your right, taste and perception are subjective. But the moment you use unfounded reasoning to assess someone (again, I'm not talking about the comparison) as you bluntly dismissed Benzema, you're wrong. So you can say Falcao is more prolific, you can say he's a better striker, a better player whatever you want. But you can't say 1) Benzema can't play at both sides of the pitch because he can. Watch the vid The Skipper provided and you'll see him right, left and center, playing with his right and left foot. 2) That someone with 15 assists only had them because of the strikers they're assisting to. That's not only ridiculous, but counter-productive. The quality of whoever nets the ball doesn't take away the credit of who provided them with the assist. I mean, you can say those things (and everything else you'd like), you're just going to be corrected on them because although you have the right to say them, it doesn't make them right as proved by vids, stats and everything else Skipper and I answered to you. You like Falcao better? Good for you, I may even like him better too, I haven't stopped to think about it. It doesn't mean Benzema isn't a good striker, who can't play in the two sides of the pitch and centered and who links up very well and consequently provides tons of assists to his teammates. That was my whole point, not to say he was living off the shadows of someone, who brought Ronaldo to the convo in the first place was you, or don't you remember that? I just corrected you that having Ronaldo by his side takes away from his stats, doesn't add to them. So you can stop right there putting words on my posts that weren't there.

I don't see Arsenal spending one pound. Where exactly can City improve? They need to gel the new players and the new manager's tactics, they don't need new players. United need everything... reason why I don't see them getting what they need the most

So, back with the stats. Last season Karim started 34 matches and played as a sub in 20. Pipita started 30 and played as a sub in 18. So in those Karim had 21 goals and 15 assists, Pipita had 19 and 8 and Cris had 57 and 11 respectively. Just like here, their AMs also score. di Maria had 11 goals (11 assists), Ozil 10 goals (20 assists), Calejon another 10 goals (only 3 assists). I think it shows both Benzema and Higuain are quality if they can score as much in a team with such high competition for scoring. And 15 stats is much better than many AMs around the world. A striker who can provide as many assists is an asset imo. Also RM IS willing to sell Benzema. I think he fits us just fine. Even Pipita when he was on sale, would have been much better than what we've got. I agree with anyone who says Higuain isn't much of a prolific striker, although he does have 14 goals scored this season already. I'd take Benzema, Falcao, Lewa, Diego Costa, any of those guys because at the end of the day ALL OF THEM are significant progress from what we have right now. source: http://espnfc.com/team/squad/_/id/86/season/2012/league/all/real-madrid?cc=3888

I feel it's the opposite. Because Benzema plays in RM with Ronaldo and now Bale he doesn't have better stats... Ronaldo is very selfish and if he has half a chance of shooting opposite to assisting someone who's much better positioned them him he'll try the shot in 85% of times (and he'll score in 70% of them - which is why I NEVER complain of his selfishness, he has the quality to be selfish). If Benzema played elsewhere I think stats both scoring and assisting would be much better. And how come when someone provides consistently balls for someone else to score has nothing to do with his ability? If he was bad at that he wouldn't be able to provide the pass... Also in another post you said Karim can't play at any side of the pitch. Untrue. He has quality on both feet. he plays well wide (to link up), centered to receive the ball, to play with the back to the goal, to link up. He plays everywhere. What people keep forgetting is that playing side by side with Cristiano Ronaldo, having another quality striker which who you're rotated constantly (Gonzalo Higuain) will detract your stats and you're more than expected to go somewhat long spells without scoring. In a team where Ronaldo scores 60 goals a season and it normally represents 70% or more of total goals scored, the striker will never have a chance to be as prolific as others in different clubs. Also as I said, he's rotated plenty with Pipita, so I'd say he'd started about 50% at most 60% of Madrid games in the last two seasons. I'll check the stat and come back later.

I don't get the rush, I honestly don't. How many under-21 players Barcelona and Bayern have playing for them right now? Because they're the teams that are supposedly the reference on how to handle youth and homemade players. Then question two, how many players over 22 from our youth that are actually first team material that are loaned elsewhere or that were negotiated? 1-2 players don't make a case, they look more like the exception to the rule, so why don't we actually give time for the kids from the academy to hit the level of maturity to be integrated in the first team? Our new academy project - when we started to focus on that bringing youngsters from other clubs and countries grow them here isn't that old. It takes a while for those kids to be first team material. We have plenty of talent in the first team and in the first squad, there's no rush to bring those boys right now. We now have plenty of competition for them organized by FA and UEFA, so they're actually having match time, competing, training, being formed and molded according to whatever the club wants. Let's give it time. One would think we have offloaded or loaned at least 6 players over their 22 - who are quality - to clubs all around Europe instead of giving them chances here. 18, 19 and even 20yo can wait a season, two, three depending on where they are in their development curve. I honestly don't get where this rush came from. Maybe people are complaining from the policy that has been in place for many, many years, but it was recently changed and now we need to wait those young talents to come of age and see if they fit the team or not. People applaud Arsenal for their youth-first team based, but they also mock them for not winning anything in 8+ years,often count them out of any tougher competition and moan endlessly about how we're only 3rd in EPL and have wasted our chances of becoming champions in May. It would be awesome if any team in the world had most of their squad formed by u-21 and still were successful. That's not the reality in Barcelona, Bayern or any other successful team. If anything those clubs proved they take their sweet time to promote kids from their youth to the main squad and don't put a lot of pressure on them. Then there are the isolatedl cases of 1-2 above-average players that actually were integrated in the main squad when they were u-21, but that's not the norm. Oscar, Hazard, van Ginkel, Schürrle etc... may not be formed here, but they're very young (all of which u-22 - although I guess Schurrle turned 23 earlier this month, not sure). If we keep the old guys, people complain because they can't play too many matches, because they're slow, past their prime, etc... If we keep the younger players people complain about the team's results (as I said no team in the world has a historic of being highly successful with most of their players being under 22. If we mix both some people will complain about inexperience and instability (both that come with the little age) and others will complain about the 'oldies'. Let's not forget the big recession England has been through in terms of revealing new young talents. Spain has A LOT of young talented players, they have an entire generation being raised there right now. They dominate U-17, U-19, U-21 NT football in Europe, the same doesn't happen with England (not even UK). Countries such as Argentina, Germany and Brazil ALWAYS produce tons of young talents... but how many world class players have England produced in the last 20 years? FA woke up to the desperate scenario and now they're working with the clubs, adding competitions and trying to learn from other countries such as Spain and Germany on how to produce real talents in a larger scale. I'm neither pro or against Emenalo - don't know him or his work well enough to say - but it seems the new project he's talked about recently is a good one (and it's recent) and I expect it to start paying off in a few years, not now...

Mourinho confirmed in his post-match interview he's starting Cech, so I guess you guys can drop Mark from your formations. I don't know what to do of our CAM position, supposing Ramires is back (Mourinho also confirmed the guy needed a rest and that's why he didn't play much) we will improve slightly in the pivot, but I don't know who to pick between Mikel and Lampard. I mean Lampard is the best option, but he was a sub against Stoke, played yesterday against Steaua and I don't fancy playing him three times in a row. Based on performance (and even opponent) Schurrle and Eden should start imo and I think we should rest Terry now and play Luiz and Cahill. Mourinho should give our captain some rest because we'll need him on his best against Arsenal and Liverpool as we'll be facing some of the best attacking sides in the league, one of which away.

and we played go get the win against the strongest sides we've faced this season (Bayern and City) we delivered. Of our recent matches, the one against Southampton was definitely the hardest, and it was one of which we played the best. The team seems to find some extra motivation when playing those strongest sides - and I wish they had said motivation to play everyone - or they've been performing well when they're under pressure (matches following defeats or bad presentations). I do agree we look weak compared to some seeded teams, but the way we perform against the strongest convinces me that we have a shot. That's the thing about knock-out stage, it's somewhat predictable, but at the end of the day anything can happen. City was humiliated at home by Bayern and then they went into the Allianz Arena and beat them. Ajax couldn't beat a 10-man Milan, but they beat Barcelona. So I won't write us off so quickly because of that... the same way I'm not writing Arsenal and ManCity off from potential crosses with the top 3 teams (although City can't play Bayern). I still think they aren't favorite to beat them (maybe not even Atletico Madrid or PSG either) the same way we aren't, but all of which can happen. That's the beauty of football and my point aforementioned is a real one. We raise our level according to the level of the side we're playing against. That's what we showed this season imo.

I meant UCL group stage. I'll take finishing 1st any day rather than ending 3rd and going to Europa League, even if we had better matches last year (which I don't think we did, we were terrible defensively against Juve and Shakhtar, so we were somewhat better offensively last year, but much worse defensively) and our opponents this year were much worse. I'm one of those people that while think we should have done better and gone into last 16, I don't belittle our Europa League title, I just don't like how much we struggled last year to win it as we faced some very bad sides, but the title itself, I welcome because we should have taken it as seriously as we did.

absolutely. I'll take this years outcome (finishing first) over europa league's passport last year when we finished 3rd in the group, regardless of how better we played then (which overall we didn't imo, only offensively) and how better our opponents were. As I said I feel like we're in a luck streak in UCL, I hope it's kept that way til the end.

I've missed the kind of defending he provides. The anticipations, the aggressive defending, the quality in the transition, the good positioning, the very much needed speed in our defense (that overall is very slow with Terry, Cahill and Ivanovic). I won't pretend he was tested though, he wasn't, and I expect him to start a couple of matches for us (and Mourinho) to decide if he or Cahill is the best partner to Terry. I also expect Terry to be rested (maybe against Crystal) because I think we're risking him with the amount of matches he's been playing. Terry is our best CB this season and his latest presentations (except today) show he's tired and we better not try our luck with burning him out and risking a muscular injury. I'd play Cahill + Luiz against both Crystal and Sunderland because they're more than enough to handle them and hopefully we won't be so unlucky in set-pieces in League Cup as we were last week.

I think he continued from where he's stopped in October. Two very solids displays by him. He offers something completely different to our narrow team. He was lively and he's made a few plays that really gave me something to write about that second half (along with Hazard, who's played better in the second than in the first imo). I hope he continues to receive chances either starting or playing more 30-45 minutes as a sub. He's our second best AM form wise right now. He's scoring, he's creating REAL chances of goal and he's in a good moment technically and physically.

yet another solid match for him. He seems to finally be in the zone of his game, now it's only about adding confidence and stats to his attitude. He seems a different player, he's more objective, more incisive and I do agree he should be shooting more, but I guess the most important is the change in his attitude in the three points I've talked about after the Sunderland match: 1) staying up more often instead of expecting fouls to be called; 2) dribbling in positions that while risky pay off with good chances in counter-attacks or shooting, 3) shooting more (even if he did a bit less yesterday, it was still way more than before). Let's not forget the kid is 22. I think he's progressing now and hopefully soon (as in next season) he'll be able to become the indisputable best asset in the team, winning us matches often.

I agree with everything @TorontoChelsea said about pre-season. How can you evaluate a player's role in your plans when most of them are out of form and they don't recover at the same pace? It's all about fitness and getting to know (in a personal level) the new players (or in the case of a new manager all players). Mourinho, Terry, Lampard, Ancelotti, Pep, among others have said the same. Players who recover form quicker or who weren't that out of form for whatever reason tend to take advantage in pre-season against weak sides or european sides that have plenty of players out of form. That said, I don't think the minutes he's getting now are fair. He's had problems in training earlier the season so it justified his lack of minutes, but right now he should be given more minutes if he's training well as Mourinho said he is. I do think he's wasted his chances with bad matches and bad attitude on training back in August and early September, but if the kid recovered from that he should be given a clean slate and have a fair chance now. Everyone is having them, except him and Bertrand (I don't count Kalas yet because he's in a completely different situation, transitioning from youth among other reasons). 10-15 minutes in a match we look uninterested and just waiting time to pass isn't a chance at all. He'll probably start against Sunderland and as we played them just two weeks prior, Mourinho will be able to compare his performance with others. I know the lack of matches rhythm can compromise, but André Schurrle proved my old theory that once a player really wants to show he can have a spot in the team his determination, appetite and motivation overcomes his lack of rhythm because being rusty doesn't mean you forgot how to play football. So the proper mental side can make up for the physical aspect if the player shows he really wants it. At this point I'm not even sure Kev is that motivated to prove he can make it here. I guess his head is already in a move - definite based on his agent's words - and that could detract his performance. I don't blame him though. And it's a shame.

I wish I could like your post 10x. It'd be worth it. Perfectly levelheaded analysis imo

Good read, Lex - as always

I think there are two sides of the coin... or two ways to see the glass and there isn't a right or wrong way. There are positives and negatives and both should be addressed imo. Positive - best defense in UCL - top of the group - escaped the more challenging sides in 1/8s - a clean sheet - a clean sheet against a crappy side attack - which is progress when we conceded three goals to each of the two worst scoring sides in EPL Negative - our pivot still sucks - our strikers still suck (the goals Ba missed today and how he never ceases to find himself offside drives me crazier than Fernando missing the obvious sitter) - we still have no pattern - we have no effective CAM atm We have two wingers playing very well (I just read a very harsh post on André - I mean, I didn't read it because I couldn't get past the first two lines. WTF? He was LIVELY in a second half we looked like a team of zombies!!!!), but none of the guys who can play CAM (Oscar, Mata and Willian) are particularly shining at the moment. Willian was my MOTM and two weeks ago I was saying my AM would be him + 2, but we can't forget (and he reminded me that in the EPL match and today too) he's in transition from Russia to English football, so he will oscillate and he's had. The flair, the class, the objectiveness and vision are all there, but sometimes he fails in execution (he had great passes today, such as the through ball he passed to Ba - who missed it, ofc, but he still missed a few passes that weren't that difficult). So while I think the 30M will pay off with time even if we're overcrowded in the position (imo he is better than de Bruyne - as he should, for he's older and more experienced - and I think once he hits form and completely adapts here, he's also more incisive than Oscar and faster than Mata, offering something completely different to them, which gives us more options depending on the opposition, and he's class), I think he'll fluctuate especially because his adaptation process is detracted by the amount of matches he plays. Hazard and Oscar had considerable quick adaptations because they'd played a lot last season, it sort of forces the process to speed up). Oscar is a couple of steps down from his start of the season and Mata is still very far from the creative player he was two seasons and his stats show that. They aren't awfully bad, but they aren't at the same level as Eden or André... David Luiz is a breath of fresh air. Yes, he'll make mistakes. But it's refreshing to see a CB anticipating balls, literally throwing himself into balls like he did today whereas other defenders (not only Cahill) would rather wait, watch, and hopefully guess the opponent's move and block the shot/pass instead of taking a risk to attack the opponent. I know some people don't like the style (or Luiz), but I do and I think he's had a very good match, even if he wasn't that much tested by Steaua, still he was there doing his thing and it made me happy. Oscar didn't impress at all. Ba is still terrible. Schwarzer wasn't tested, but I'm happy he had his UCL debut. A pivot with Mikel and Lamps can be hurtful to watch, but Rami needed a rest and if there was a match where a Mikel + Lamps pivot with all limitations the combination of the two brings wouldn't jeopardize the result was today, so I can live with that. Hazard continues to play very well and so does André imo. Cole wasn't missed at all, I'd rather have a confused and out-of-place Azpili over current-Cole every day of the week, although I wish Bertrand actually had a chance (against weaker sides) and Azpili had a chance to play on his original position. Ivan still can't cross for life, but that header should have gone in. So I'm happy with the outcome, but not with the means we've reached that. But still, I guess we've been lucky with UCL since the start (the group itself, losing to Basel, but seeing Basel going to Europa League instead - and therefore preventing to get them again down the road, now a considerable easier team in 1/8 when a lot of good sides qualified, finishing first, etc), so maybe despite our struggles we may go deeper than I've expected because at least in UCL luck seems to be working our way and I believe that while we aren't favorites to win it, we can knock out any opposition - even Bayern, Barça and RM - because that's the thing about UCL knock-out stage, the unexpected can happen. ManCity and Arsenal - who are in good moments - can draw one of the big three aforementioned and who knows, they can knock them out too. City did win - with a mixed team - against Bayern. So I hope things keep working our way even when we haven't been delivering well enough to earn them. Also I think it's very realistic to expect us to be performing better two months from now when UCL resumes. It's natural for this team to progress and I hope it does.

I saw that too, but regardless, before that and after that I think he didn't have a good match. It was decent at best, and Schürrle has been playing better than him. Between him, Mata and Willian I don't know if right now there is much of a difference. Willian is oscillating, Mata is far from his best level and Oscar is very down from the start of the season he had. We have Schurrle and Hazard playing really well, but the other three are sort of the same, one may have a better match, then another, but they're kind of the same, so I think maybe we could rotate a bit in the CAM position and leave the two wings for André and Eden.

Mikel is far from having a good match, but Rami needs that rest so much... UGH why don't we have more backup for the MD position?

how I bloody missed Luiz's anticipations. They disappear from our team when he doesn't play.

how I bloody missed Luiz's anticipations. They disappear from our team when he doesn't play.

there it is, the striker goal you've guys asked

^^ thing is that in other countries they don't carry the nicknames into their professional names, so it won't happen. Then in America (and other countries) once the guy is famous they give them some nickname, like Shaq for Shaquile O'Neal and others, so people will call them that when talking about them, but their professional names will continue to be their last names. In Brazil we always use the first name and nicknames are kept over birth names and last names are rarely used. Cafu, Branco, Dedé, Zico, Tostão, Hulk, Ganso, Pato, Kaká, Mineiro, Bebeto, Zinho, Mazinho, Jô, Fred are all nicknames in addition to the diminutives Ronaldinho, Juninho, Marquinhos, Paulinho, etc...

Mosquito is indeed a nickname (didn't I tell you @CHOULO19, nicknames are still a hit in Brazil?) and although I've never seen the guy, I'm betting he's very thin because Mosquito is a common nickname for tall and thin guys. My Flamengo won Brazil's Cup over CAP just two weeks ago and Mosquito wasn't there... he probably still plays only for youth football, I barely recovered my interest in the senior NT, let alone the juniors, and and the only youth club I follow in the world is Flamengo's, so I don't know the guy. I'll come back later with more information edit: watching the vid in the link one of our defenders is called Foguete - which could be translated to Rocket or Fireworks depending on the context Brazil is such a happy place edit 2: the guy who passes for Mosquito in his second goal (Brazil's third) is named Indio (Indian, as in the native people, not people India the country)... look at the guy and you'll know why. This one is overdone around here. way too many players named Indio (although this one is the most indian-ish) edit 3: his name is Thiago, his father is in jail for dealing drugs edit 4: "He's got the nickname while he was at Fluminense's academy because he was tiny and fast. His coach wanted this nickname at all costs because he had a friend with the same nickname. So everyone started calling him Mosquito and it's still like this til this day"

lol at the Chelsea TV comment

you're always very vocal criticizing him... I've taken notice. As for what he would have tried? Well, he's taken risks against Barça while he was at RM a few times, and Barça then was the current Bayern, only the humiliation would be bigger as it's the Clasico... so yeah, depending on what was at stake, I can see him taking a risk - I guess he would in this case as losing by 10 or 1 wouldn't make Chelsea lose the 2nd position (just like City can't) but winning could mean finishing 1st instead of 2nd... Also he wasn't defensive against this same City when we won 2x1, so I'm not so sure he'd do what you suggested he would.