Barbara

People don't seem to think before saying some stuff. Because Klopp is one of the best managers at the moment and has a great team, then they automatically think Mata would be perfect for him because Mata is the best thing in football since Pelé... I completely agree with you about Dortmund and what Klopp requires from his players. Total football isn't for players like Mata. He played the football of his career last season, with too many appearances and he never convinced del Bosque he should be in the starting XI. I don't see how anything is jeopardizing his chances. His chances are already small in this Spain side and as a squad member I'm sure he'll be in WC.

@Ankit, you and @CHOULO19 definitely set up a competition for the cutest guys in this forum. Too cute for words But I already knew that

Mata became mean source

oh, so we agree I understood your post wrong then. I thought you used Varane and Balotelli as examples that Mourinho only plays youngsters if they're already well established in their NTs. But we meant the same then Mou got a lot of stick for letting Canales go in RM, but God help me, I love that kid, but the few matches he played under Mourinho were terrible imo... I didn't want him anywhere near the senior team.

I have Eden, Oscar and Zaba for tomorrow. For Chelsea's own good, I hope to score tons of points again (not from Zaba ) I dropped Yaya for Eden. Hope it doesn't bite me in the arse.

sorry to correct you, but Varane and Balotelli played in a Mourinho team much before they were capped in the senior teams of their countries, and even before they were a constant presence in the U21 NT. If anything Mourinho is the one responsible for their later presences in the their NT's - even in the U-21 - not the other way around. So because Mourinho saw talent (in Varane's case as Mario was already in Inter), signed them, and brought them to the main team, the NT's managers (youth or not) brought them to their team. Varane had a total of 5 caps (U-18, U-19, U21 combined) before Mourinho signed him in June and then played him in September in Madrid... he was 18 then... Mario was 19 when Mourinho started him in the senior team as well. So bottom line is, if Mourinho trusts a youngster, they will play. If Mourinho thinks they're ready, he'll promote them to the main team or allow eventual matches. If Omeruo is ready and Mourinho trusts him, he'll eventually play regardless of his age as well as other boys. IMO it's sort of a myth that José can't work with youth. He can, the thing is he protects a lot his youngsters and don't risk playing them when they're not ready emotionally, physically and technically. He's not an expert like others and he prefers to work with boys older than 21, but he gets too much stick for how he handles young talent when he isn't as bad as people make him out to be. Oh and btw, Varane isn't RM arguably second best CB. He's our best CB, period. also I don't know the context of your convo with Sidzeret, just thought I'd give my two cents as I support followed closely Inter and Madrid in the seasons both of them were promoted to the main team and watched first row how Mourinho handled them, especially Mario who had tons of disciplinary issues and was quite handful for Mou to manage. ************************************************************************************************************************************************ Tons of posts today saying if we lose we'll be 7th place... Only a quarter of the fixtures was played, being 7th, 5 points behind the leaders we'll still play both away and at home isn't as tragic as you guys are making it out to be especially when Arsenal had the easiest fixtures they possibly could and they'll start to drop points when facing harder opponents more often. Losing to City at home, means we'll probably have to beat them away in a few months from now to balance it. You look at those teams at the top of the table and the likes they dropped points to (especially losses) and invariably they slipped against teams they shouldn't and they still have to play other teams that really have potential to make them drop points. So they dropped too early against oppositions they shouldn't drop at all. We dropped points against ManU, Totts and Everton, not against Villa, Cardiff, Newcastle, Swansea, West Brom/Ham and Stoke City. Except ManU, most of the other teams haven't played tough competition and still they already dropped almost as many points as us. It's not time to desperation or panic, whether we lose or draw tomorrow. I really can't bring myself to be concerned (or maybe even care too much) if we finish the weekend 7th place. There are 29 rounds to make it up... that is if we lose

just lost 11 points because I changed my captain. It has been Suarez since he was back from his ban, then today I decided to go with Giroud for a change. FML Still 58 points isn't that bad... but it could have been 69

I can't agree with how superior you're making them sound, @CHOULO19. I'm not even sure their squad is superior to ours, let alone as superior as you're making them to be. Those are the guys who lost to Aston Villa a couple of weeks ago... Their best this season may be better than our best this season, but why should we think they'll play their best against us in our turf? Why should we fear them, if it's them who are coming to our stadium when we have scored 14 goals in the last 4 matches, and have been showing progress in each of those matches?They got their butt properly kicked by Bayern in their turf, whereas we played a very competitive match against them this season and only lost it in a very unfortunate penalty-kick (most of it with one less man). I'm not saying this is going to be easy or that we're going to win no matter what nor am I underestimating City, but the way some people talk about them is a bit overboard imo. Yeah, we haven't beaten them in almost 3 years now. Both teams are going through a transition, with new players and under new management and while they seem to have had brighter moments than us this season, they're still behind us in the table, they aren't nearly the end product yet and if we lose, then we lost (we lost to Basel and I'm sure we aren't the much inferior team compared to them), but given many comments in this thread (not only yours) one would think we'd be playing Barcelona at their peak tomorrow...

okay, I won't blow your cover anymore. Let them think you're not totally awesome, with girls throwing themselves on you all the time, some of them waiting in line for a few years now. Nope, I won't blow your cover at all. As your sis, I you, so you're not completely left to rot. Although that's brotherzone

liar liar pants on fire. You have dozens of girls willing to love you, but you don't want to love them.

Well, Eto'o is also in good form, why shouldn't have rotation? It should imo especially because you don't want to overload one player if you have a replacement that is just as good. Also Eto'o and Nando play different styles, some matches are more suit for one and some to the other. Let's not get carried away, Torres has been playing well, but that's it well. he isn't on a Lewandowski form that justifies the lack of rotation. He's good and that's about it. So is Eto'o right now and both with realistic room for improvement

great words on Mou by one of the greatest managers of time - whether some like to admit it or not.

bc in my opinion Guardiola is wasting Lahm... He turned one of the best FB in the world (actually I considered him the best FB in the world last season) into a CM. FML! Also Luiz-Rami won't be too offensive if Mourinho is clear about what he wants and expects them to do and what he doesn't. They're both very compliant players, so I don't think there would be a risk.

I think he has his moments, but I don't think he's genuinely creative, but yeah he's has created nice assists throughout his career, but normally they aren't all that much creative per say, and the really creative ones are far and apart imo. I'd say he's got a good reading and play simply and objectively. Mata is something completely different imo. he makes the play you don't see it coming, he thought about the play even before he ball arrived on his feet. He's something else, so compared to Mata Lamps isn't creative at all. Standing on his own, I think he can be once in a while, but it isn't a trace to his style. He is very objective and reads well the game - hence many assists in his career. That's more about being effective and objective imo rather than being creative. If my teammate is ahead of me, in a good position to score and I give him the obvious pass, it's me capitalizing, not necessarily being creative. I guess it's hard for me to explain what I mean.

my team is Cech Iva - Cahill - JT - Bertrand Luiz - Ramires Schurrle* - Oscar - Hazard Torres** * - if he's totally recovered from his ankle pain, otherwise I'll play Mata ** - if Eto'o plays it's the same difference, I think they're both in a good moment, but I think Torres might be a little be better for us in this game, but there's barely an advantage.

I would, but then you'd die. No man can survive two western wives... one is already handful enough and can drive you crazy, now imagine two

that's the important thing. Barcelona looked very poor without Messi last season and this season although Neymar helped, they looked nothing special. That's one of the biggest problems of being so dependent on a player, no matter who they are. If they miss matches for whatever reason, you're left much more weakened - and Barcelona even has one advantage. Most those players play together for years now, and they're all very good. Still when Messi doesn't play you can't compare. We also struggled last year without Mata - either the matches he didn't play or the matches he disappeared. It's good not to depend on one single player. We also played well without Oscar recently, and without Hazard, so I think we're in the right path.

I think people only call good football what Barça played for years, and then Bayern and Dortmund last season. Let me tell ya a secret: it took a few years for them to get there... it isn't instant change. Now another secret: there's something between that and anti-football and it can be a hell lot entertaining. We don't need to play like any of those three to have an attractive football. What any fan - neutral or not - should see about us, it's that we're a team in transition, with new players, a new manager and a new philosophy coming. We are nothing right now because there hasn't been enough time to establish what we will be. I do think Mourinho is trying to replicate his RM tactics here - and anyone who tells me it didn't work there, I'd say they don't know RM enough to say it. RM is a hot mess of a club with too many interests involved, too many egos and a lunatic running it. They have amazing players and as long as they were a group that as a whole trusted their manager they played some out of this world football. If we play that level of football down the road, I won't have any complaint. But people want Chelsea to be Barça, Bayern and Dortmund - which is okay although we don't have the players to replicate none of those three styles imo - but they should understand it took years for those clubs to build their style and sharpen it. Wanting us to have the same within 3 months is delusional.

I already see plenty of 4-3-3 in our matches. Actually we've been switching into different formations (especially on defensive phases) very often this season and I'm not sure if that's because the tactics are yet to be completely absorbed and settled with the players or if it's purposeful on Mourinho's part. But I've seen 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 5-3-2, 4-5-1 this season while defending - depending on the opponent and the match's scenario. I think the 4-2-3-1 is easier to notice in attacking phases - although most times either Ramires or Lampard are quite high in the pitch as well, but we can clearly see the 4 lines when we're attacking (but not counter-attacking). I also think all those changes during a match are welcoming and positive - as it complicates the opposition's life. Look at yesterday... Keller must have had a good talk with his players about how to be sharper and more narrow to break through our defense during half-time. He knew we were accepting their possession (although not promoting it) and trusting our ability to defend and hold them back. Then the second half starts and we have a completely different posture in the pitch and it seemed like it surprised them because in the second half they looked lost most time, not knowing what to do. So maybe Keller had a plan to put in action, but then the match restarted and he had yet another think coming. Now seeing how drastically we changed in the second half, I think the way the players 'waited' for Schalke was more a natural reaction from them rather than a guidance from Mourinho - meaning he took his time during HT to fix what he wanted to fix. Either way those switches during matches - if well executed - are very positive imo. 4-3-3 is my fave formation for Chelsea and I can't complain about the '4-2-3-1' we have in place because many times during matches we switch to something else - 4-3-3 being one of the most common.

I have to agree... saying Mata is our most creative player along with Lampard detracts from Mata more than compliments him imo. It's a laughable statement, sorry. Lamps is a lot of things, and I love him. Creative isn't what I'd associate with him at all. As for @Tomo's comment, I get what he means. It seems around here now if I say I love Eto'o it automatically means I hate Torres, if I say I love Schürrle, it means I'm taking a jab on Kevin. The Mata x Oscar thing I blame on that stupid article and the subsequent discussion - that at some points reminded more a of a war between two rivals clubs rather than two players fighting for the same position. Ever since then it's hard to have a discussion about Mata that doesn't involve Oscar and a discussion about Oscar that doesn't involve Mata. I pointed out problems I had with a team built around Mata because of the liabilities it offers but it was simply because I was defending Mourinho's choice to demand from Mata the same he demands from everyone else. I had little to do with Oscar, although it does a bit, as Oscar offers a completely different package that meets Mourinho's demands better - which still allows both to be in the team btw, after all they were both at the team last season. That said, it doesn't diminish Mata... he just has to adapt, and he's adapting. Currently the problem I have with Juan is not about what's Mourinho is demanding from him, but why he's been struggling so much to play a high level match for us - attacking and creatively wise. His finishing against Cardiff was dreadful, he's yet to be as creative (effectively) as he was last season and if someone says that's because of his commitment with defensive responsibilities I have two things to say: 1) Hazard and Schürrle then should have the same issue and they don't; 2) then it's a limitation to Mata as a player because Ozil, Iniesta, Isco, Ribery, Rooney and the list goes on and on and on all can execute their defensive tasks without detracting their offensive contributions. If they're good pressing, tackling, intercepting it's another story, because at least they're committed to try. Learning how to defend isn't easy because it requires many things such as good read, good vision, timing, precision, etc... but all those guys accept their responsibilities with the team and the tactics regardless of how good or bad they're defending. Bottom line is accepting their responsibilities defending didn't stop them from continuing to do their thing attacking. All that said, I don't think it's his defensive obligations that are preventing him from shining offensively (although they're not helping his case either and may be collaborating a little bit, but I don't see them as the main reason) I still think we overplayed him last season, that the injury in the pre-season wasn't the only consequence of it. There may be some longer lasting effects and consequently he may take a while to be really 100% fit. Which is all more reason for us not to overload him again. his body may still be feeling the after effects of going years with reduced vacation, playing nearly every fixture for his club and combining that with a few NT matches. It's also common in high level sports that when the body doesn't answer as it used to, that an athlete also develops confidence issues on minor or major scales. The same way I've been waiting for Hazard to gain form, and he has now had, I'll be waiting for Mata. I just wish we knew exactly what's holding him back as all we can do is theorize.

I'm so happy and proud that he's finally started playing again. I was dying to see it happen and I hope his good form is here to stay, not dips in december-january

I partially disagree. I say it's blasphemy ever comparing Torres to DDA, but Torres has scored against highest caliber of oppositions too. He may have not scored enough times, but he's scored especially in Europe.

Lampard is a big no for me, but I doubt Mourinho won't play him. But in my bubble Frank won't play and then I look to the bench and options. Mikel for Lamps we gain the defensive aspect, but we completely lose the midfield with him... we're playing at home, we're a big team, we have a great squad there's no reason why we should submit to their midfielders and accept our role as defensive only. Yeah we need to be solid and try to stop Fernandinho and Toure, but let's not behave like we're scared little girls. Our turf, our rules and we bossing them! I understand when Mourinho is cautious away, but it makes no sense for us to settle with defending at home. The second option is Essien. The only problem I have with The Bison is that he has played only once this season and it may mean Toure and Fernandinho would eat him alive because of lack of match sharpness. Then there's a third option, one I may like better. I'm 100% against transforming Luiz into a DM, but it could work here. His passing is good, he could alternate with Ramires about running, he has a powerful finishing from distance. So I'd make an exception this one time and I'd play him there. He'd add defensive toughness to what Lamps normally delivers, and I think he's the closer we have to Lamps with long distance shots, free kicks, decent passing, and he can add runs (although Rami does that too and if Luiz didn't, it wouldn't matter much). I just hope I don't see Oscar in the pivot. That will always be a big no for me. In the AM I'd play exactly what we played against Schalke if Schürrle is really fit. If he's not I'd play Mata. If this match was 2-3 months down the road, I'd play Willian-Oscar-Hazard, but I don't think Willian has match sharpness enough to face ManCity midfielders or FBs. I'm not sure who to play in the ST position. Torres was a completely different guy against Totts and Schalke. Eto'o played well infiltrating behind Cardiff's defense, but that's Cardiff. If Ba wasn't so awful for us, I'd play him because of his physicality, but I don't even think about him. If I'm against the wall and have to pick one, I'd pick Torres. Whatever José does, the only critical choice for me is not playing Lampard. He may have a great match, but there's also a big chance he won't. Totally not worth the risk.

@Dion, how many of those things Sherry wrote we talked too while were watching the match yesterday? It's so funny because reading his article I almost felt like he heard our conversation when we were watching 4-4-2 check 4-3-3 check allowing possession in first half check changing completely in the second check space offered to their FB check I think Sherry spied on us

maybe for the same reason Oscar was made a Bale-ear look alike? it's a cute image, I'm a girl, I'm easy like that, let's not delve into details.