Barbara

Great, great display. I think it was all about the mentality we approached the game and that both from players and manager. You guys know I love Mourinho and it took me time to want him gone (even if I don't like the idea of firing managers during the season), but this is a breath of fresh air. I can love the guy, want him gone later, but still appreciate the changes of his leaving. The boys played with a lot of passion, a lot of dedication, something we haven't seen in months. That's on them and I got over their bottling or lack of effort playing for Jose. After my first assessment in the Sunderland game I took some time thinking. When the work atmosphere is bad - no matter which field - it's just hard to perform at your best. They probably weren't doing on purpose, they just couldn't do it. But even if they were doing on purpose, that's their problem too. I still want many of them gone, but simply because they aren't good enough. But the approach was absolutely refreshing. At HT Pardew probably got his guys to exploit our weaknesses and instead of making them more noticeable by parking the bus, we did the opposite. We continued from where we stopped in the first, retained the ball, played very compact, pressed the whole match and counter-attacked with numbers and thirsty. This is amazing and I haven't had this pleasure watching a Chelsea match in a long, long, long time. I'm still slightly disappointed with how the kids are being handled, but that's not something we can complain only about this manager. We seem to have some problem incorporating them and I wonder who that comes from, if all managers behave the same. Guus did well today, very well. Mikel was a great call. Still I'll vote for Diego for my MOTM. Great movement, goal, assist, smart plays and not one scene. When he was kicked on the legs in that counter-attack, he'd create a fuss, but not today. He's been amazing.

Zouma and Mikel have been amazing, the best imo. we still have underperforming players, but as an unit and the approach were amazing. My only complaint is not playing one of the kids in the last 10 minutes.

Between Oscar or Pedro is the same as hugging the devil or going to hell. Too bad either way. This squad is depressing... Edit: but I'm quite happy with the performance

Wow. Willian is back. The Brazilians are on fire there

Oh my fucking gosh. What a fucking goal

Happy New Year to everyone Hope 2016 is better to you than 2015 was - especially for Chelsea, hahahahahaha

if the way we've handled the kids for years now under many managers doesn't give you a clue about how it works, then I don't know what else does. Then there's the tweet just above my post to reinforce what everybody already felt would happen, he won't be here because the manager (or whoever is behind this decision in addition to Hiddink) doesn't want him in the squad.

I think it's far-fetched and wishful thinking of us to expect him to stay with us. I don't see the club doing it. Hiddink, Emenalo or whoever decides things these days have been making it clear the Academy is to make profit, not to promote kids - unless they're some wonder kid. We barely use youth, no matter the manager it seems. The one that used more, used a couple of players sparsely. I completely lost hope...

Okay, but he's new, I'm expecting him to know how terrible Oscar, Iva, Cahill are when he probably hasn't had time. I'll concede I'm too harsh to expect him to drop one of them from the lineup. But then the game happens, you have to react. The level of football played by Oscar today should have prompted him to stay in the bench during HT. He's an attacker, he won't affect much how we defend against a desperate United. Willian didn't have a good match either. Pedro is new to the team and the league and still struggles. At least Kenedy should have made an appearance today - at least 15 minutes. He wouldn't have compromised our defending and even a baby knows that. Taking an AM for another is a simple switch that doesn't affect the balance of the team when said AM has been shitty.

Well, but you have to react someway. I'm talking about our attacking players. Mikel and Matic (except for the goal he missed) were good. But Oscar, Willian (he has credit, but wasn't good today) weren't good at all. Pedro and Hazard were better, but he could have just given one of the kids some minutes. I don't know, I thought things would be lighter. That was literally my only expectation when Mourinho was fired and then when Guus was announced I thought even more so. I doubted then his tactical qualities - but more based on results, as I don't follow international football much less Russian league... I won't talk about tactics, about systems, about approach. There's no point on it, he's an interim... but knowing the squad weaknesses and making some changes is the least we can expect. Sure we should give him time, but the lack of subs really annoyed me.

btw - I agree with whoever says is too early, but when you see 60, 75 minutes of horrible football by some footballers in a way it's difficult to imagine how worse they could be, and you still won't have your subs done there's just no excuse to be done for you as a manager. Happy to say I used to criticize Mourinho a lot for the same. One of the things he missed from his early days, when he was sharp and quick with his subs.

never agreed with it and made it clear many times. I don't believe in interim managers. I just hoped Guus was better than what I feared, turns out that doesn't seem to be the case, quite the opposite. But I won't criticize him beyond his team selections - as someone mentioned, José had been walking in thin ice for weeks, and Emenalo or whoever probably talked to him back then. Study a team doesn't take weeks, it takes only that: study. If he had studied the team, he wouldn't have dropped Zouma and he'd know Ivanovic is a walking nightmare. He'd play Kenedy instead of one of our many useless AMs or even as a LB. I know there's pressure on the team to recover and although he's only an interim, there's some pressure on him too, but he could and must do better than that. At the end of the day criticizing an interim work is counterproductive. He's not here to stay, he doesn't seem to have a clue, but at least the atmosphere is much better now - or it should. Getting a better atmosphere was the only thing we could accomplish by firing Mourinho in the middle of the season, and we might get that, but I don't see anything beyond that - because as I said a few times, I don't think the players are good enough to dig out of the hole they and Mourinho got the club in. I'd be worried about relegation, but it shouldn't be hard as Villa and Sunderland already claimed their positions there with some delay if you ask me. If don't get to finish out of it when in reality there's only one spot in dispute, we deserve what we get. I don't see this team even finishing in the top half, no matter who we bring on January (I don't think we'll bring many guys). I just think it's the best chance we have to start integrating youth in a more significant way. We won't want to throw the kids in the lion's den, but once we get a good margin away from relegation, they should be more played. What was the point of having many of them in the bench today if he hasn't used them?

Pedro is much more suited for the striker position than he is. Better movement, shoots more, but anyway, we won't know until we see it happening. I would have played Traore tbh... but what were the chances?

Chelsea team v Man Utd: Courtois; Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry ©, Azpilicueta; Mikel, Matic; Willian, Oscar, Pedro; Hazard. #CFC at least he got Cahill where he belongs. One game too late edit at least we have the bench I'd like us to have every match - except the guy I can't spell. Chelsea subs today: Begovic, Baba Rahman, Djilobodji, Ramires, Loftus-Cheek, Traore, Kenedy. #CFC

Ruben's place? You mean the player that hasn't been even getting a spot in the bench. Don't blame Cesc for things that are beyond his power, aren't related to him and that haven't looked likely in the first place. We should keep him because a player with his potential, given the right condition can produce a lot for us still. He just shouldn't be our only option. Bring another very creative player either for the wings or CAM and bench him or play Ramires in a 4-3-3 to give them support. You know the even better option? Buy an amazing, physical, complete MD and keep him ahead of him and Matic, with Hazard, and two more attackers (could even keep Costa as the striker) and we already take several steps up. Players such as Matic and Fabregas - who are completely out of form or far from their best - should be kept in the squad because they showed what they can do on their very best, and not for a match or two but for prolonged streaks of time. Cesc only stopped playing after the whole team started to fall apart and stopped playing. He isn't the guy to turn things around, it doesn't mean he's useless. Selling him would be silly imo.

true.... but ... mainly what he's said. Oscar was terrible, slipping was just icing the shit cake.

Cesc needs special conditions to fulfill his potential, we aren't offering them. We did last season during the first months. That means he should be a squad player, not the guy we rely to get us from trouble. But we don't have any player - except Willian - that has been taking us from trouble lately. Matic needs to play much better, we need much better movement from AMs and striker, we need a more compact team, that offers him coverage and that presses a lot more than we do. We must not rely on him to harass opposition, we need Willian and Oscar - or whoever completes the midfield alongside Hazard, to be much more effective in their marking, not to mention a 4-3-3 suits him all much better than 4-2-3-1. If all those things happen and stars align, Cesc can play for us the same he played last season or is rumored to have played for Spain (as I haven't watched either).

As I said in a reply a bit before your post, I'd have Kevin. I think he's great. The thing is the thread can get annoying (with the ex-player cult we now have here), not that I don't like or that I wouldn't have Kev. There's no need for him to be a big game player - ever or yet. It doesn't take away from his quality, it'd be a plus if he shone in those kind of matches too. A midfield of Willian, Kev and Hazard would have been perfect in my opinion. I also rate James Rodriguez a lot and I really like Silva, Özil and others. I completely disagree about Mata. The amount of excuses made to him under many managers - Mourinho, Moyes, van Gaal is a pile as tall as the Big Ben. Always an excuse, if not the managers - who aren't up to him, it's the position he plays, the players he has around him, the system that exposes him, the kind of opposition, etc. Yeah, exactly, that's all the problems he has and we have one player that is very similar to that who has everyone here badmouthing his limitations (although he's also in terrible form), which is Cesc. As I said, if we need to have such special conditions for Mata to shine, which was only special when he had the team built around him - otherwise he has ups and downs, well, that makes him unnecessary. We already have plenty of squad players in our team, we don't need to bring yet another one. The thing is I think we need players that would make us progress as a team - Kev is one of them - not simply improve our squad. We're beyond simply improving, because while Mata would be an improvement to almost all options we have, he wouldn't make us progress as a team. We wouldn't become title contenders because Mata would fix our problems. I understand his widowers want him back and for emotional reasons I'd understand if we had a competitive team, then he'd be a luxury player we'd bring back because of our emotional connection to him, but it's about time we bring ourselves to the level of squads such as Bayern, Real and City. Barcelona seem too far away, but we need to make progress right now and the only player we dismissed or accepted to leave that would bring us that is Kevin de Bruyne. Bertrand, Luiz and Lukaku are a joke if people believe those are the kind of players that will take Chelsea to the next level. The thing is we have so many ordinary and average players all over our squad, that people are settling for players as ordinary and average - if not worse - simply because we had them go. We don't need to bring those guys back, to regret letting them go, we need to let go of all the rest average players we have: Ivanovic, Cahill, Oscar, Pedro, Mikel, Ramires and if possibly get improvements on Terry, Matic, Costa and even Willian. I think these could be squad players, but those others should just leave like Mata, Luiz, Bertrand, Lukaku, Schurrle and others had. We need to decide which size we want to be and that depends a lot on the profile of player we keep and the profile of player we let go.

Definitely! It wasn't a criticism, but a pattern I see. He's played how many big games, big teams or difficult teams and people keep bringing the one match against Bayern... I think he's a great player, I said many times he could mature his game and start shining in big teams. Right now he isn't there yet which is okay. I don't like his posture and attitude and Jose, Wolfsburg and Belgium managers have all commented on his attitude, but I'd get him back in a heartbeat, something I wouldn't do about any of other ex-players mentioned here. Bertrand, Luiz, Mata, Lukaku weren't, aren't and hardly will be ever be Chelsea level. They're at most squad players, but as we have many players who also aren't good enough is fashionable overestimate the players that aren't here anymore. Kdb was the only player worth keeping, but he wanted to leave because he didn't accept the bench. Whether Mourinho made a mistake or not, whether Kev should have fought for his place further or not, it doesn't matter now. Both are gone and it won't change. What sometimes bothers me is how we worship players we let go, overlooking their limitations and stressing and sometimes even exaggerating their quality - like Mata, for example, who never really did anything special at Utd - for the sake of highlighting what in their opinion bad business. Don't know if this trend is new or has always been like this. This happens all the time on football, I don't know why people don't get over it. So, for the record, I'd have Kev back any time, although I don't sugarcoat his attitude when he left. He's an upgrade on any AM we have now, especially if you can keep him happy.

Didn't know once you have an opinion about one player you can't about other. You guys are cuteI've always acknowledged Cesc's limitations and continue to do and I did say it was enough - about both Kev and Cesc. But very cute anyway

I still see him as a player who shines against small teams and disappears against big or decent ones. This thread went literally 2 weeks without any post when I prompted it. I knew the moment he smashed an almighty team like Sunderland it would come to life again. As I said, it's enough to shine against small teams. Thing is people say a lot about how our current team is awful, but City with their great team, is rallying after Leicester and Arsenal. Even if Pellegrini is a moron, the quality of the team alone should have them carrying away with the title. But they didn't exactly show a lot against big or decent teams have they? On the other hand, I do admit I'm not looking forward to them having Guardiola though.

It wasn't what we needed to win the match... The players would have done it for themselves if Oscar wasn't so shit. Your compatriot had a game to forget and didn't ease me at all about my concerns on his quality. I'm happy it's him and not some moron, but as I never supported changing the manager in the middle of the season... Also as I said this team doesn't have enough quality to overcome this now at their will. They dug their own grave

Oscar is playing for Mourinho looool He's been shit through and through today with only a couple of decent plays. Should have been subbed off. If he had been maybe we'd be winning now

Oscar can go fuck off. Should have been subbed if he was wouldn't do this shit

Too early to say, but shit like this is why I asked if tactically Guus is still decent. Got it all wrong imo on what was up to him. If hazard isn't fit yet don't waste a spot with him if he is, bring him earlier. Don't take Zouma from the team for Cahill and don't bring Mikel for Fabregas when we're drawing at home. I agree the team still has Mourinho fingerprints which won't go away instantly, but every decision Guus took was a poor one imo. if we need caretakers, let Holland be it. Hopefully this is just a one time thing