Barbara

and you know who he worked with between Roberto Carlos and Pep Guardiola? José Mourinho... so I guess José isn't exactly in for a surprise about the kind of player he brought...

I don't remember much of Cudicini's form when Cech joined us, but wasn't Mourinho in a similar position back then? I mean, I'm not saying Fabio was what Petr is now because even though I don't remember much I remember enough to know he wasn't at the same level Petr continues to be. Courtois just gave a very levelheaded interview to FourFourTwo where he stated two important things imo: 1) he didn't want to risk losing his position to Mignolet in Belgium NT, especially not in the WC - but he also said he'd be willing to take them from next season on 2) he said he isn't afraid of Cech - or anyone else's - competition and that he can fight for the position with anyone. So he's willing to fight for the position, he isn't demanding to be #1 Taking into account both things I'd say bring him next season and may the best man win. If that's still Cech, so be it, if that's Thibaut, good for him. He used both examples - Mourinho with Diego Lopéz and Iker Castillas, and Cech and Cudicini. I just don't think we'll rotate goalies. It's never a good thing to have a goalie out of practice. I hope it's a smooth transition, but I have no doubts Mourinho will give the position to the best man. And that man may be Cech and Courtois said he's willing to take risks (being benched) and that he's ready to fight for the position. So I guess it only benefits us. And I wouldn't be so fast on writing Cech off. Not at all.

I feel like he had issues playing against Villa - he was subpar imo. He may be performing, but not at high level all the time. The wise thing to do is rest him, but Mourinho can be stubborn sometimes

his portrait pics

Oscar looks like a boss, like he actually owns the place, and that's only with one look... then he starts playing he looks like he's about to cry (because of his grimacing I mean) happy that he'll play only 30 minutes

my hope was he would join a team where the manager would force him to change... but he joined Barça... being a diver and faking being the victim of aggressions is how they play football. Hate them and hate that aspect of Neymar too...

who flops? Neymar? Because I can't stand his antics. He's very talented - but such a Barça player - an actor, a diver who has no fair play, and now he seems to be an arrogant mug too because after the goal he yelled "Eu sou foda" (I'm the fucking guy). UGH! Can't stand his antics at all. So thankful Eden isn't like that - although he dives once in a while, but when he does it it's cute (yeah, I'm biased). I feel like Eden fears doing it, losing the ball and being judged by that. Neymar does it all the time because in Brazil and in Santos nobody cared if he did it 10 times and lost possession 10 times (after all there are sometimes 3 players on him). I guess I remember Belgians saying Eden used to be a lot more daring while playing for Lille - where he was completely comfortable and sort of owned the team. With us I feel he's still unsure, feels the pressure because the level is higher in EPL and CFC

Eden couldn't get rid of Manchester United players... an entire match of players doubling on him and he didn't answer. Neymar did this 3-4 times this match alone (other times in the second third, looking for space). Neymar does it much more often than Eden does because he feels confident doing - while I feel like Eden doesn't most times - but I do agree Portugal's defenders aren't that good. I'm not questioning talent, I think they're both just as talented, I mean that Eden isn't bold or confident enough to keep doing it... something that is easily solved. The hard part is the talent and he has it, he just needs to start going for it, without fear.

I really hope eventually Eden starts to dribble as well as Neymar. I've been noticing since the match started how he gets rid of 3-4 players marking him - something Eden never can get rid of. I think Eden has the talent... he misses the boldness - but he'll have time to develop that GOLAZO! (although I actually meant 3-4 attempts before that where he got rid of the defenders)

Meireles is a frigging legend! and Brazil's defense with the exception of Silva is a hot mess

we don't cry, we assist to Raul Luiz asked Maicon to head it back to Julio, he did it

hey

I have a completely different level of respect for guys who still play on black boots. A whole different level.

yep... the Cup match... I felt like literally banging my head on the wall.

nice moment between him and the Brazilian Chelsea boys after all conceding 6 goals is never easy...

conceding goals last season all I remember is Ivan against Swansea. nuff said

I never made the connection between Mazacar and goals conceded. I'm not sure if it's only them because our backs had some shameful displays last season, but you may have a point. Thanks for pointing it out.

you're the sweetest guy ever, thank you so much!

I don't think it passes through Mou's mind that in order to keep both him and Mata in the team, he'd have to move Oscar to the pivot, so Mata can be the CAM and have one of our wingers in the right wing. I don't think Mata is rated too highly with Mourinho - until he proves otherwise in the pitch (something Oscar already did), so I don't see him moving Oscar so deep because of Mata. If Mourinho decides Mata is better as an AM than Oscar I guess he'd be benched rather than go to the pivot. In addition to the reasons I'm about to explain to you, there's also the fact that it seems that Ramires-Lamps is untouchable under Mourinho for as long as Lamps can play. There's one thing Mourinho absolutely loves in his players: his defenders being capable of distributing and what he calls 'building' and his attacking players to defend. Based on that I guess we'd never see Luiz in the DM or Oscar in the pivot except for injury issues or during a match when he's ran out of subs. Mourinho prefers a CB that can do the transition and distribute well rather than make this player a DM because it's sort of part of the job description of the DM position to have a good pass, so why waste a CB that has a 'plus' compared to others and make him look trivial or mediocre or just another guy in a position where that's normal? The same applies to the attack. Why would he move one of his men attacking to the pivot and be average there - as players in the pivot are supposed to have good defensive skills, if he can have a guy with something else in the attack and that can offer him a sudden attack by tackling or intercepting the ball high in the pitch? He's said it many times in the past and since he arrived here, although he didn't touch the Oscar possibility - because nobody asked - he already made it clear that Luiz is a CB in his team and end of the story. The reasoning behind his choice is exactly the one I babbled presented to you. He does the same reasoning with attacking players - I'm trying to force my memory and see if I can remember someone he refused to do that in RM or Inter, but right now the closest case I can remember is Modric, but that's a bad example for many reasons (that we may talk about if you want) one of them being many people consider Modric more a midfielder than an attacking midfielder (I don't). But I won't deny it's a possibility. I'm not sold at the idea though. Right now I'd say play him as an AM or don't play him at all, but to be completely sure of that I would need (all of us actually, I suppose) to see him playing there a few matches in a row. Felipão may play him there tomorrow - supposing he plays in the first place - as in the training session he was injured he was playing in the pivot.

I think the main reason why Mata was an unused sub was because Mourinho saw the extra-time coming and he chose to space out his subs a bit more and then Hazard scored for us and with our team needing to literally defend the result bring Mata would be a suicide mission with his poor defending skills. Add that to the fact that we lost Rami during the 90 minutes and chances for him to come are even more unlikely. Also we were able to create chances (we could have scored a goal or two between Oscar's sitter and a couple of saves by Neuer). We only really parked the bus in the second half of the extra time because we had to and Bayern was pressuring us a lot. That said, I don't disagree about Mourinho not being clear about Mata - he hasn't. While he was praising other players and being very emphatic on Luiz not leaving the club, he was mild and many times simply refused to address Mata. He'd say a 4-5 words sentence to answer questions about Mata and change the topic or wait for the next question. Who knows Mourinho's antics caught it easily. It's the half-truths he says all the time (and imo also his great likeness to Oscar and his work rate) that make me unsure of how he'll use Mata. I've learned reticent Mourinho about any subject is never a good sign and gosh, was he reticent about Mata at many points?

If I had to rate the players work-rate and defence production I'd rate Mata at 5 and Willian at 6.5 - and I feel like being nice to Mata with that 5 rating. On the bold parts I think you guys covered basically everything I'd cover myself. Yes, his work rate is considerably better because he's more athletic, but also faster. He presses more than Mata does. So if the ball is lost in his territory he's the kind of guy that turns around quickly and starts pressing the ball. But he has a problem - sometimes he seems 'to forget' to do it, which is why he doesn't make the 7 rating imo. So the fact he's faster, more willing to press, and more athletic than Mata already puts him ahead of the Spaniard regarding this. Also I agree with both of you who said Mata is much better a #10 than he is. This may be an unpopular opinion - or maybe I don't make much sense - but at the end of the day it could be that Mata is splitting more matches with Willin in the RW than in the middle with Oscar. I may be wrong, but I feel like Oscar might be Mourinho's favorite player in the squad (although I think he rates Eden higher in terms of talent and potential). So unless Oscar starts playing sub-par or Mata changes completely his work rate from the last two seasons (Hazard himself improved a lot on it, already under Benitez, but more significantly already under Mourinho imo) I think Mourinho may favor a partnership of Oscar and Hazard + another and this 'another' could be Mata, Willian or Schürrle. Of course there will be plenty of matches Oscar won't start and a few he might not play at all. The same may happen with Eden. But along with Cech, Luiz and Ramires, I think those two are going to be the players to start most matches for us this season. Ivan and Lamps might be close seconds and I think there will be some sort of more often rotation between Terry and Cahill. I think Eto'o will start a lot, but Mourinho won't give up on Fernando so soon and he has to allow Ba to play the odd match. As for Mata I honestly don't know where he stands. I could be wrong in my Oscar assessment, but given what I know about Mou, what both him and Oscar had said about each other (especially Mou's words) I just feel like that. Also let's look a bit to Mou's Madrid. Ronaldo was even worse at work rate than Mata is; di María was quite decent and even Benzema and Pipita pressed a lot. Ozil really depended on the day. the biggest difference? Their pivot is much better at defending than ours. Although Lamps and Ramires are better than Khedira and Alonso in some things (Alonso is slow, Khedira distribution is awful - although Alonso makes up for it x10, they didn't offered much coming to the attack [scoring or assisting, except Xabi's eventual perfect cross]). Their counter-attack style relied on Alonso giving amazing long passes or Khedira passing to Alonso, di Maria, Ronaldo or Ozil. Because of the quality of their AM and Xabi's passing their transition was smooth and worked in the counter. But their pressing was high and good with the exception of Ronaldo. We don't have the same pressing quality - yet, I guess, but it'll come and I guess soon - but mainly we don't have a double pivot as solid defensively as Alonso-Khedira imo. Rami-Lamps are more b2b players with above the average attacking resources, but not exactly defending. We need our AM to press and tackle more than RM did because of that. Again, it's only my opinion and take on this. That favors Oscar style and the reason why I think Mou keeps affording Lamps in the team. Yep. No matter if he's in the bench or starting he has to play in the middle. We have plenty of options for the wings now and Willian is really good with both feet so he can alternate positions with Eden during the match more naturally than Oscar does.

I'm really happy to read about the strategies and philosophy in the club now. It's a good investment - to sign the players when they're potentials and consequently less expensive - and then give them chances to keep developing until they're ready to finish their development with us, especially with a master in polishing gems like José Mourinho. Everything seems to be coming together, great timing (getting Emenalo in place, Roman's change of vision, Mourinho joining and the signings themselves). I do hope they really start taking the Academy more seriously - and it won't be just nice words to get a few thumb ups - England desperately need to revive their academies and I'd feel so proud if we were the pioneers doing that. I want to have more cases like John Terry in the team. It's a respectful thing and England needs to keep its status as one of the big countries in football for EPL to continue to be successful.

I agree with this And because of the demographics of members here, a certain kind of silly posts is now popular because it appeases to teenagers and young people - which is no problem as everyone who's older than that have been 20 someday. Hence the massive support it sometimes have, because if anything this thread made it clear that the new trend of being silly isn't as popular as initially supposed. ************************************************************************************************************************** it was suggested to end the damn thing last thread, but it didn't make one of the options in the poll. Actually it was even said (joking or not I don't know) to have been decided between admins that this was going to be last 'award' granted. I like the 'like' system. One day I was out of likes and I wanted to agree with some posts and I quoted 25 of them saying I just agreed with them. My Mean Girls analogy yesterday keeps making sense ... also some of people (I can't say for everyone, but this person I'll give the example is one that is 'defending' the award - as if the actions I'm about to describe don't make it clear where they stand) here pretending they do not care about the award or popularity are lying. I remember one of them came moping in my PM saying they were upset I didn't vote on them the first poll I participated and I had to explain in clear English that's because I like The Skipper's posts more than theirs - as if the vote itself wasn't a clear indication of that (although I also said the 'award' was stupid - that was three months ago). How ridiculous and pathetic that is? It might be in one of the many, many, many PM's I have printscreened and saved so maybe I should look through the endless files and post it here to illustrate what I mean (without exposing the poster's identity). it's validation, and it's not only for the teenagers because I'm not even talking about one of the teens... The award is passed its due date imo. Time to grow up... as I said I've never seen this kind of award in any other forums I go - and trust me I go or used to go in many of them. For as long as the thing exists some people will mold their posts to win the damn thing. Remove the 'award' and some posters' daily post account might even decrease from night to day. Remove the like feature and the serve will notice the difference... it's as transparent as clean water... Maybe we should keep the like system and remove only the reputation part? I still think the like feature is useful to show agreement and avoid unnecessary posts, but it seems like some people will hold onto anything remotely involving recognition and popularity, so maybe remove it will benefit the forum more than keeping it this is so spot on. That was when I stopped going to the Pub - the day I went there and it was LITERALLY a gif contest. Didn't complain at the time and left because well, the title there says it all "The Pub - post anything" so they were doing what they should, but it shows how things are working him lately and why the gifs and the stupid posting left the community board and is slowly making it into other places.

I'm laughing for real at the transparency of this whole thing. It reminds me of the movie Mean Girls - a chick flick, so probably most of you haven't watched - about a high school queen b and her minions. I could use a gif to show one of the scenes, but given the subject that would be I agree with Tiwaz in the name-calling. It was all over the place - but I guess ever since the mods really started warning threads it's got better... but it's still a shame that they need to literally patrol threads for that kind of stuff. And yeah, obviously it hasn't been about the MOTM subject alone anymore - because the thread (the voting thread) started a subject that many members have been bothered about and that reflects in the momt voting. Open a thread to talk about it and the subject will be moved there - it felt like it fit here because the whole motm charade started because people with quality weren't getting recognized - which soon became about how it's more and more less about quality here these days. now that I disagree. Almost every thread don't have those problems. It's a few of them - at least among the ones I read on a daily basis (my fave players' threads, Mourinho thread, matches threads, international and english football threads). also your last line is the whole point of the discussion. Discussing topics is the purpose of forums in general. It's becoming less and less about discussing football and more and more about personal attacks and else. edit: in all this mess I forgot to congratulate The Skipper aka the only reason I've been voting on this recently. Now that I know Peace. won it twice already, my last vote ever in this 'award' belonged to our Dutch gem.

:worship: :worship: Sherry, sometimes it's hard to believe you're 16, sweetie. You're way too good! We need more teens like you in the world That was a heck of an analysis about the team. Even if I don't care - at all - about Brazil NT, I must admit you made me have the 'feels'. I've watched the second half in a TV replay yesterday because I wanted to see Rami - everyone was praising him on the sports show I watch every day. Felipão is actually someone that is honest beyond doubts, since he resumed his position as the coach I felt compelled to give more attention to the team. I'm not implying Mano wasn't honest, but I feel like he was manipulated a lot out of naivety and inexperience. Felipão won't let those bastards at CBF (Brazilian footie federation) play him, so I guess that's a team I can support knowing the players are there for merit, not because of some shady business.