Barbara

hopefully he'll play Sunday. He really needs to add minutes and get used to the team and the manager. I really want him to succeed with us

I've watched Milan x City and they were underwhelming for the most part. But they played with their B - if not C - team and I don't know which team they'll bring to play us. I didn't watch their match against Valencia so I don't know if they played with a better team. I will probably miss the match as my boyfriend is taking me out exactly at the match's time... going to try to work it around (he'll never understand as he doesn't even like football), but chances are I'll miss all of it or most of it. I did watch Real Madrid though against LA Galaxy (twice) and Isco was just wow... I really don't get their obsession with Bale - especially for the outrageous amount of money rumored - given the players they already have. Perez is a crazy cookie... Anyway, my point is, I think the only real competition we could get in this cup is RM so we better beat Milan as I think they'll definitely beat Everton. And if we play them it's going to be a GREAT match and I wonder what Mourinho will do and say

Congrats to @CHOULO19 and @, you boys deserve it a lot. Jay, you'll get a special congrats on Twitter later.

I may be mistaken but I guess I read in the match's thread someone saying ChelseaTV would replay the match 14:30, so if it's true you can use the firstrow link and watch it.

@ Cris being helpful defensively. That's one of the funniest things I've ever read in this forum.

oh got it, mates. I haven't read @LukakutoStamford's post when I wrote mine... Thanks edit: match's replay is on and I'm watching it again now I'll pay attention to the tactics

http://internationalchampionscup.com/ NYC

both things are true. They compliment each other and I guess we could play with both of them. The thing is we can't afford to have more than one player with no defensive responsibilities and that might be Hazard, although Eden had one of the best work rates there tonight. So while Eden is working hard to recover the ball and putting pressure we don't need Mata to do it. Mata added a pace we didn't have in the first half, but it felt like it was like the team settled down when he came in rather than him making an impact all by himself. It shows how much the teams trusts Mata... Also feels like Mata improved Eden, as Oscar played closer to Moses than to Hazard imo

oh you guys are always so nice to me! Thanks a lot! My general English may be deep, but my football lingo is ridiculously small Good thing there are always so nice guys like you to explain it to me in a way I can understand

I've read an expression quite often on both matches, please help the English dummy and explain to her what you guys mean by "to run the channels". A lot of people said Lukaku did that, but I have no idea what that means

I did mention them except Lamps. I meant play depth, not squad depth (in that bullet). I mean, we need to make up for the lack of very fast wings with the deep play from the first/second third to the last third. I'm not a Rooney fan, but even I can concede he's an improvement from our options now. Probably better than the three of them together as I really don't rate Lukaku, Ba and Torres at all. Lukaku has tons of potential, but there are so many things he needs to work on his game to be useful against tough opposition... he will be very important to us in the future, but in the present, I think he's far from being ready. That doesn't mean he won't score some important goals already. I think he's great to change the match throughout it, but he isn't yet regular starting XI material imo.

It's NYC as far as I can say

There are few positive things I've seen today that make me really happy and relieved for our new season. squad depth. We were good in the first half and you looked to our bench and there were great options. If you think Mata is the regular and Oscar is the sub, and then add Schurrle and Kevin to the mix and I'm a happy girlthe double pivot with Ramires and van Ginkel was an amazing (and welcoming) surprise. I think one of our problems resides there and they showed that we can have the work rate - they tackled everything and some more; intercepted many balls and Marco adds so much quality in our transition (passing, penetration, carrying the ball). I'm yet to see if Marco can add the long pass, but I'll cover the depth in a bitMata completely changed the match. It seems like the team relaxed and played their football once he got in. The team depends - and trusts - quite a lot on himWe must pray for the striker position. There's no other option left. Whether we pray for a new signing and for Saint Mou to be able to fix the guys we have, it doesn't matter. They have different deficiencies and stronger sides will make it even more noticeable. It's worth mentioning Lukaku had two guys on him all the time and it's unlikely to happen in EPL so it might help him. Ba tries hard, but he just can't. Torres seems to want to prove to Mourinho he can... the problem is everyone knows he can't.Moses was really great in the first half - but that's the problem. He sometimes plays amazing and then he simply disappears in a streak of matches. He needs to add consistency to his gameWe still lack depth - but it already improved from last season. One thing that was remarkable imo in CC was David Luiz's long passes - not only the amount but the accuracy. Tonight he had a chance to do it twice and one of his passes found Mata (or someone else) inside the box in a great position to assist or dribble and try to score. I think he could add to our depth even if he plays as a CB and I'm sure Mourinho will work on that.All in all the feelings are so much better than last season's.Do not forget Eden doesn't perform the same in friendlies. It's bigger than him, he needs the official competition to motivate himLukaku is promising, but there's a lot of work he needs to do to be able to compete in high level football such as UCL and EPLOscar still seems tired, but he showed the class is still thereEssien looked good.

that was a good display We had the best defensive midfield in the first half and the best attacking midfield in the second. A combination of both things is what I'm looking forward to seeing... it could be amazing!

that's the passing I want to see from Luiz. I'm a broken record about it, but he has the skill to make the long passes we so desperately need to add depth to our play, although he was in the last third now.

you can't showcase a performance he never repeated again. He can't pass, he can't cross, but he's a warrior in the work rate. But what you expect the most in the position isn't work rate. So he's better in the double pivot. He was amazing with van Ginkel there in the first half

but I think Eden could be trained to play in the position. He is no Messi - but then again nobody is - but he has some of the tools for the position... Nobody can fix Ramires' passing on the other hand

Ramires on the wing is one of the worst tactical choices to be done in this team.

it was half good by Torres. Is it progress?

those are the deep passes I want to see more from Luiz He improved it so much! Had a field day with them during CC Torres and Bertrand in, Hazard and Cole off. My commies were right when they said there's no subs limit

Mata made the match all that much more dynamic and objective

Mikel, Azpili in, Ivan, van Ginkel off

Essien assisting Mata... Things are getting better and better

van Ginkel! I don't want the kid to ever leave the team!!!!

lol Ba gets in and Torres not Luiz in for Cahill