Barbara

you know I call you my writing other half, right? I've told you this before - though I'm positive I've used the word soulmate back then Now in all seriousness. I really like your writing style. It's sophisticated although not snob, straight, but still engaging. And the 'elements of Chelsea support' made me laugh so loud because in Portuguese we call elements suspicious people, and when talking about some supports that word describes it even better Always a pleasure reading from you, you should do it more often

why so good, @? Great article, man

I loved this source

like a boss

Mourinho: "We have strikers, we have strikers that can work for the team and can score goals." Mourinho loves to bite back the media. I hope Fernando's and Eto'o's forms are here to stay

The thing is Mourinho gave him confidence, something nobody before him was able to. We don't know what caused his dip in form in the first months with us, but the thing is he never recovered his confidence after having a terrible start here and not even Benitez helped much (although he did help a bit). Now he has one of the best managers in the world - but also one that is known among players for being too demanding, for pushing everyone's limits and for not accepting poor performances without punishment (go ask Luiz). Players love Mourinho because he's fair, but they also know he's one of the toughest in his players. So this world class manager comes here, and reports on press before pre-season are that Mourinho will get rid of him (Torres) because he's done and is the worst business Chelsea have ever made. Torres joins the team weeks later after the rest because of CC and the reports and buzz continue about Mourinho dismissing him. Then Mourinho probably had a talk to him - a first one - saying where he stood and what he wanted from him. Then other conversations followed and I'm sure in one of them Mourinho said to him what he just said to the press: he trusts Torres because he's a hard worker and he's putting a lot of effort on recovering his best form. I'm going to give credit for Mourinho for recovering Torres if that happens, but I think Mourinho did it without any effort - almost not on purpose, as all he did for Torres was giving him confidence by trusting him and his hard work. I'm sure the training sessions, the private conversations about improvements he wants also contributed for that, but if Torres becomes the striker we need (and I'm not even talking about his best shape, as he's not a 'niño' anymore, and age isn't forgiving for a striker, I'm talking about top form for a striker his age in a club like us), I think it'll be much more because Mourinho believed in him than whatever tactical, managerial work he has done. Torres had lost his confidence and belief on himself and having a world class manager like Mourinho trusting him and putting his faith on him, changes everything. Hopefully Torres' good form is here to stay. I don't want to say he's back because I don't believe he can go back to his peak, but maybe there's a new beginning for him in this club with joy for both parts.

“He’s a hard worker, which surprised me! He doesn’t hide behind his name or the fee Chelsea paid for him. He’s a great professional who always gives his best for the team and is a player who I trust.”— Jose Mourinho talking about Fernando Torres If Mourinho trusts him, so do I

Mark my words: we'll win this in the same fashion Spain won the WC. Losing the first match, making many people doubt our quality and potential, but we'll raise the trophy at the end of the season.

did they? If that was the case I'm sure Fergie would have mentioned in the book that he wanted Mourinho to replace him or that Mourinho wanted to be his replacement. I still don't buy media's BS that Mourinho wanted to go to OT and I don't think ManU tried to bring him either as they probably knew they didn't stand a chance.

cute pic posted by him on instagram

And that's the power of a good manager. Perfect tactical match by Mourinho - from the start this time. We had a good 10 minutes of being pressured by them with those corners, shots and headers, but other than that not one minute looked like they could score. This match should be used by scouters as study material on how to dominate your opponent in their home and still being lethal, dangerous and efficient. Kudos to all players as well, but Mourinho is another level of manager. He's Special

we were tactically perfect. Perfect execution and Mourinho really killed the match without giving a chance to Schalke - this time without resorting to subs, and doing it from start. Of course the goal under the 5min mark helped immensely, but then again Torres was unstoppable and Mourinho got it right starting him. I don't have any complaints now, but I'll only watch the match properly later because watching it on a stream, having to write Chelsea Brasil match report in under than 10 minutes after the final whistle, I'm exhausted and I may have missed some stuff with the horrible quality stream. ESPN you suck for not having Chelsea in the website either. Wankers. I complained with their executive director about this fuckery.

except one is a striker the other is a AM? He should have played both imo, but then again, that's only me...

whoa, Keller didn't select Szalai? Good for us?

God help us with Cahill in the defense though... I hope he does well because against a talented and fast side like Schalke, his selection is a disaster waiting to happen.

I did commentated in the past live thread for Azpili to have the performance of his life in the LB. I've been longing for it to happen for so long and now it's finally here!!!!

totally forgot to thank you for that, Jay. Great stuff! Does anything similar exist for EPL?

Well, first my response was because it was said in the thread in a few posts about how he's unreliable in big games, and that's a lie imo. Then I said about games against lesser opponents and less important game. So that was the context... I did say though he has concentration issues that should be addressed by Mourinho and that he needs to fix it because we can't afford him to be casual, sloppy and lack concentration on matches, regardless of their importance. Someone mentioned the 2011 game against ManU. I don't remember which sloppy mistake he did, but he was still getting used to English football back then. Today the same can't be said and he should be fully concentrated and sharp at all matches if he wants to be in the starting XI at all matches. ***************************************************************************************************************************************** And just to be clear, and add another comment I refrained from the first time. If I'm never insecure and afraid when JT/Luiz are our CBs I can't say the same when Cahill is there, regardless of the partner. Luiz makes mistakes because he is sometimes sloppy, Cahill makes much more mistakes and normally because of his limitation as a CB. So unless we sign someone big, discussing how Luiz should leave the team is laughable imo. Then again I look all other CBs and I really don't see anyone better than him who's viable. The most viable thing is for Mourinho reinforce discipline on Luiz and then we'll have hands down the best defender in the world. If he has to push Luiz to the bench once in a while for that to happen, I'm fully behind the idea, but that's for Luiz to grow, not because Cahill deserves the spot because he definitely doesn't imo. Cahill is at most decent, can only do textbook defending and even then is prone to mistakes because he has no vision, he has terrible ball control, he can't anticipate EVER, he's a totally reactive defender. He's a hard worker, he positions himself fairly well, his movement isn't that bad and with someone as slow as Terry is right now, Cahill doesn't compliment him at all because he's not that fast himself and always does the predictable marking, making it easier for opposition attackers. He's good as a squad member, but that's about it. So let's talk about Luiz leaving at least when we have someone as good to replace him - which btw is hard to find. Some names suggested here made me laugh (Hummels actually made me choke on my drink when I read - for real)

and here I thought I clicked on Oscar's thread...

actually I feel the opposite happened. He was asked to play like a mere mortal - which is what he is btw - instead of being the Messi to our team. I really can't make up my mind around people comparing whoever to Cris and Messi because they're totally a league of their own, and there are only the two of them in said league. Who else scores, assists and wins as many matches for their sides that can come close to Cris or Messi? No one does. So the problem is wanting to play an amazing guy - but who's still a mere mortal compared to Messi - in a Messi role, expecting a Messi result. That's not what Mourinho's doing. That's what Rafa Benitez did and I think it's fair enough to say the results weren't Messi-esque were they? We didn't become Barça, did we? Because if anything the matches against Bayern last year showed that without Messi, Barça is only a very good team, though nothing exceptional. This season again they struggle a bit - even against sides such as Málaga - to get the things done like they're done when he's there to do them. So 'the problem' is that Mourinho arrived and he obviously knows he doesn't have a Cristiano Ronaldo at his disposal anymore, so he demanded all his players - not only Mata - to work their tits off for the team because we don't have a player that is up to the level of Ronaldo and Messi so we can build a team around them and say 'screw their work-rate'. It's not a problem, it's being realistic and becoming more competitive. Now if Mata can only perform as well as he did last season when the team is built around him, he will a problem here and everywhere he goes because while he's genial, a maestro and arguably the most creative player in activity (for some people here anyway), his finishing isn't anywhere as clinical as required for him to leave Chelsea and become the player that a top level team will build around. He's more of one of the biggest contributors than the guy that will win matches when everything else fails, especially because even if he assists, he will still depend on whoever received the ball to actually score. I do believe though that teams with strikers that have clinical finishing such as van Persie or Lewa could make Mata produce much more than we do, but I don't believe ManU or Dortmund would build their teams around Mata... their teams would continue to be built around RvP and Lewandowski, except their main contributor for their main man would be Mata and that would make them all much more deadly (not that ManU has been anywhere near deadly this season, but still)

I can't for the life of me remember a big match we had where Luiz was a liability and compromised the final score or even conceding a goal because of his lack of concentration, sloppy defending or because he made a bad choice about his positioning - but it must be said my memory sucks But I've seen a pattern - even in Brazil - that against weaker sides or matches of less importance he feels more careless, but in big matches, I could name very few (if more than a couple) of CB more solid than him. It doesn't take away the fact he has a problem if he lacks concentration or is sloppy when playing 'normal' matches or facing weaker defenses. But that makes me believe that someone like Mourinho is going to be able to fix that because there are few managers out there that demand so much from players and make them produce as much as Mourinho does. In big matches we have Luiz in the back (especially partnered with Terry) I have absolutely no worries about him making a mistake because of lack of concentration or sloppy defending. He may be led to make a mistake by attackers - but that's what attackers are there to do and most times it's more their merit than a fault to the defender. There's no infallible defender in any club in the world, but I know most of you are talking about sloppiness - which is far from forced errors. He needs to improve it, and Mourinho will pressure him enough - both with words and actions - reinforcing discipline at all matches.

yes, I counted that as he winning a tackle and setting up the counter, but for some reason I considered the rate only for the pass to Hazard, but yeah, you're absolutely right. Thanks, mate.

Got this from the stats article I've written and I'm really impressed with his objectiveness. He's always been an objective player - as he isn't much of a dribbler or someone who does flashy plays - but this season he added some lethal aspect to his game. Funny enough he didn't have one single defensive contribution for us, he entered just before I felt we started being a bit vulnerable to Cardiff advances, he didn't change the match pressing wise, or defensively wise, but I feel like he killed the match for us with his goal and his quick link for Hazard who then assisted Eto'o. I think that's why he's Mourinho's favorite son (don't remember where I read it, but I'm using it from now on ). He goes there and gets things done. Of course he isn't going to do that all matches, but he's been decisive for us this season and the space he creates for other players should also be mentioned. I just feel we could use a few more assists from him, but then again I don't know if the problem is that he hasn't been creating for others (and taking matters on his own hands), if others haven't been taking the chances he provides, or if he just can't do more.

I've seen Draxler moving a lot in their latest match, but well, I hope Iva has his running boots on. Iva is much more physical than Ryan is and he can offer defensively things that Ryan can't. I think he's definitely a downgrade offensively compared to Azpili, but then I remember how useless Ryan was in the attack in all matches I can recall, doing absolutely nothing but backtrack play by passing backward and my hair being pulled out of my head while I yelled and I think Iva makes a much better work. He's cross are bad, but while he's far from linkup brilliance I felt he at least tried, while Bertrand just conceded turnover after turnover when he didn't go for the backward pass. So if someone asked me if I'd rather Iva in the RB or Ryan in the LB - even if they don't directly compete for spots - I'd say Iva all week long. But Bertrand really surprised me and I feel like he can surprise me even more. He was far better than Iva offensively and even if I look back to Ivanovic's best matches this season for us, I don't think any of them compare offensively to what Bertrand brought to us. Ryan is still very far from what I call a great full back because I really like full-backs (yeah, that's random), but I think he may be able to change my mind about him being a viable replacement for when Cole moves to the bench in a more frequent fashion. I'm not sure about Azpili in the RB. Ivanovic is way too solid there right now, with only one bad match under his belt and I'm not mesmerized by Azpilicueta as most people here are. He offers different things to the match compared to Iva and I'm not sure I'd rather Azpili's package over Iva's

I'm not committing myself in November, Jay. sorry