Barbara

Mourinho needs to go, but I really don't know who has to come. Ancelotti doesn't know the first thing about turning a crisis around, he's literally the last guy for the job, even as a stop gas. I'm not too affected by the results tbh. This happens... ask United a couple of seasons ago... every big club has been through a slump at least once. We will get over it. But Mourinho made it impossible for him to continue. If someone in football needs a sabbatical, that's him. I really can't stand Guardiola, I think he's way more arrogant than Mourinho, but he tries to hide it better. I think he's overrated as hell and couldn't do as good with Bayern as expected. Yes, winning UCL ain't easy. Losing 7-0 in the SF isn't either... the team hasn't even slightly produced what could have with a really good manager. Klopp - imo - would have taken that Bayern much further than Pep did - all things considered and not only titles. I can't stand the guy, again, I think he's overrated, his success at Barcelona was a very ideal situation, with a lot of factors helping, a perfect marriage of philosophies (club and manager). I'm not saying he's bad, just that he isn't nearly as good as people make him out to be. His biggest accomplishments were winning everything with one of the best teams ever (most of the players were already there even before him, although he did add a couple key players) and winning Bundesliga with his Bayern side. With the squad he has, reaching UCL SF - especially given the teams they faced in the knock-outs was merely an obligation. Still, is there anyone better? We already saw that if one club is new to the football elite, also having a fairly inexperienced manager doesn't work, so we can't bet in one of the young names coming through the last few years. The old foxes are either outdated, or the few nearly good enough well employed where they are. I've always said my two names were Klopp and Simeone, but both seem out of reach now and Simeone whole being a personal preference doesn't match the style Roman seems to want to the team any better than Mourinho does. It seems like a dead end, but one thing is for sure, Mourinho has to really leave and I'm one breath away of changing my opinion that it should wait the end of the season. He desperately needs a break from football. He's lost, outdated and seems to have developed a deep victim complex, stopping to acknowledge his own mistakes. One manager and one season won't sink Chelsea irremediably, but just because it's not the end of the world, it doesn't mean it has to continue the way it is.

yellow card my ass. I'm done with this shit. bye bye (not because of Chelsea, but because this is fucking frustrating)

fucking Matic it pays well for Mourinho not playing RLC

we've been so fucking unlucky about an inch today And I really dig this Willian too

we've been playing better than we were a month ago, but we still look sort of disjointed

are you ducking kid me? ughhhhhh

I do, he's trying to clean his image by making Fabregas his wife now

not really. Can't remember many of them. He had his problems with RM - which he was right btw. Kevin criticized him a lot, and I think Mata and Schurrle let out some comments too, but is it a coincidence it's always by scorned players? If there's one thing he used to have before RM was players praising him, and like Ibra saying they'd die for him. RM ruined Mourinho in more ways than one, and ever since he scorned some players and mostly all of them had a few words to say, but then again, he chose others oven them, so I don't think they'd feel that great to speak positively? I just want the end of the season to be here and for him to be gone. Hazard is the long term asset here, not Mourinho.

you're not. I'm with you. So either we have a point or we can be mad together I think the passing was there, he tried some things, had some very good and key passes peppered in the 90 minutes, but it was either wasted (like that one to Pedro in the first that his first touch betrayed him and it was wasted) or the assist to Costa. He can still do much better than this, but I thought he was decent and as you said in the previous post, he's just the antithesis of athleticism and power, he's more about touch and intelligence and maybe I'm too naïve or just as outdated as Mourinho, but I believe modern football still has space for the likes of him if the whole system isn't compromised just to accommodate him - which I think it isn't. Thing is, for him to work on his best, everything around him has to be an oiled machine working to perfection. He doesn't change a team, he doesn't turn things around on himself. He can control the tempo, if others play their part perfectly, he can change and decide a match, if attacking players are moving well and taking well their chances, he won't compromise the midfield, if others help him to keep the midfield compact. He can't do any of those things all by himself.

I wouldn't say pretty bad, it was a slow burn towards the bottom rock. He was getting worse and worse, but I think we've only seen the very worst at the end and then it carried on to this season. He continued from where he stopped.

Yeah, it might send a message to the group, it might rile the player up, but Hazard is the kind of player that can win you a match in a moment of magic. Only Cesc has that ability with a brilliant through pass (how I miss those, btw), and even then Hazard is much more influencing, important and talented. So while I don't have a big problem with him being benched today (especially because I think this is going to be a one-time thing), I think it was a mistake and I think what José said afterwards might be an even bigger mistake. But I also disagree with people saying the problem is Chelsea or Mourinho, except for one good game for Belgium, Hazard hasn't played well at all during the two international breaks. He's in a slump, but especially given the fact he's was coming from his best game of the season - that happened to be with the NT - José had one more reason to play him, so he could carry on from that. Now instead his spirit might be a little bit broken... huge assessment mistake by Mourinho imo.

on the Hazard debate, I don't think he's like many Belgians players we've seen around - and I don't mean as a derogatory dig at Belgians, but you do have to wonder why you keep a manager that most people who defend him says is because he was able to control the dressing room and who has no clue of tactics, it's almost like he's more a nanny to the ego inflated players, than a football manager (also, not all players are like that, just a remarkable amount of them). So I don't think he's going to stomp and leave without thinking twice. He might leave at some point (don't know where though, as Real and Barça are stocked in his position, unless he considers Bayern), but I don't think it's going to be because he stopped believing in the manager. I don't think the hamburger gate was even intentional, imo he just stopped to eat and hasn't thought about the repercussion it'd have given the match's circumstances. So while I think Mourinho is taking a dangerous route here - by trying to rile him up AND making a mistake by keeping him in the bench, I don't think Eden is really going to rethink his whole career because of it. Also, he just signed a new contract, leaving won't be too easy and while we're known for letting unhappy players go, everyone can say this team needs Eden much more than it needed any of the other players we let go. Hazard is top5 in the world, something Mata, Luiz, de Bruyne have never been (and I don't see any of them becoming it either - although Kev could). Mourinho is an old fox, he knew the way to 'win' Hazard was through his father and we've seen a few reports throughout the years about Mou, Eden's father and Eden. They had talked a lot...

This makes no sense. Mata in a way compromised a whole team, that had to be built around him for him to be as effective as he was for us - something he hasn't been able to emulate in United yet, simply because they haven't done what we did. Hazard doesn't compromise anything - just in Jose's outdated head he's the reason why we're conceding so many goals... He may leave the same way Mata did - or not, but their positions in the team couldn't be any different. José didn't play Mata because he didn't fit at all in the team, Eden has been sidelined for one game and I don't think he'll be again any time soon. If I had to guess it, José is trying to rile up Eden, but I just hope it doesn't backfire.

that might be true, but it also shows a lot of character. To play well when everything is doing great isn't that hard. That's the kind of player Cesc is. I think he improved a lot, and now he added end product to his skills. He might never be brilliant, but he could become a vital player, that wins us matches. Not every one has to be a world class player. I think Willian's improvement is magnificent and inspiring and he's by far our best player this season so far (maybe bar the keepers, who had that fair share of saves and some very difficult, and still couldn't prevent the losses). For a change, I watched a Brazil NT game - against Venezuela - and he was very good then too. I completely changed my perception of him and I don't really feel like he has to improve many things - or anything specifically. I just hope he carries on and keep it up.

I can see people's point that he's young and needs games to improve, but I also agree he's far from an improvement to Iva. They're on the same level in 1x1s if you ask me. I saw this from Baba against Walsall, against Maccabi and now against Villa. All three VERY VERY VERY weak oppositions and he still made the same kind of mistake. One team is from Israel league and that says all you need to know, the other is from whatever lower division in England and Villa today showed one of the worst performances I've seen recently, and given I've watched all Chelsea matches this season, it means they were really bad... So people defending him saying he's adapting to the league, will say what when we look to the other two matches? He went through horrible streaks and decent streaks in all three matches and people think is just a big coincidence, or that he hasn't had enough minutes, or whatever else? I think he has big flaws to his game, and yeah - kill me Mourinho haters or whatever - he's small. So being small, limited and prone to errors, especially on 1x1 isn't any improvement to Ivanovic. But I do agree that at least he has a ceiling over his head and Iva only has the descending years of his career ahead of him. All in all, one of the biggest problems we have in this squad is lack of decent full backs. Only Azpilicueta counts as one and as much as I want youth to be developed, if Luís didn't displaced Iva, it won't be Baba who will and Luís is a hell of a FB - who struggled his first months here, just as Baba is - but lately wasn't played simply because José didn't dare to rotate.

He said in his PC that he didn't play Eden because of tactics because we've been conceding too many goals lately, all in the same breath. Surely, he could be lying and probably trying to protect a possible injury and stuff, but if it's true, my goodness, he might think it worked and we're fucked.

If the real reason he took Eden off of the team is because we've been conceding too many goals, I envision the remainder of the season being a huge torture to me. I'm completely ready and looking forward to getting rid of him at the end of the season, but this kind of stuff really is unbearable. I don't mind a conservative approach, I'm quite conservative myself, I don't mind that we won't play that fluid, attacking oriented football some here dream about. I was more than happy in the first few months last season. Results, good playing, happy team. I don't need us to be ultra attacking, but I think Mourinho needs to reinvent himself and adapt to the latest change in the way football has been played. He's been caught and unless he changes some things about his approach he's on road to have a lot of mediocre seasons, peppered by the odd title here and there. I want and wish more for Chelsea than that.

yep, I saw this guy saying exactly those things live on TV (not in the match, but in a kind of MOTD kind of show). It's a literal translation of what he's said, it isn't the media though, it was one guy's comment. That said, I think Oscar has had enough chances to prove his worth and he more often than not proved otherwise, he's always going to be that player that has a brilliant moment once in a big while, that will press a lot, but won't offer much else to the attack Willian got the evolution I expected from Oscar and should definitely be ahead of him in both Chelsea and Brazil NT.

I think 1) this Villa side is the far worse team we played this far and they could play another month and wouldn't score a goal 2) In the first half he made the same mistakes Iva normally does and that leads to goals 3) he was okay in the second - and barely proved in action. I think he's as bad as Iva regarding most things, but he's better attacking and with him Azpili plays on his original position, so maybe those three combined things would mean he's better than Iva, but I don't see José not bringing Iva back, because 1) he doesn't care about which side Azpili plays, 2) he doesn't care about Iva's attacking contributions, 3) he won't give a young player a chance if he isn't solid, and all three matches I've seen him play, Baba was shaky during some considerable periods of those matches. So yeah, get ready for Iva to come back as soon as he can run again (he'll come back before even healing 100%)

I think you missed the two times he had a 1x1 against him in the first then. Was easily and embarrassingly beaten on both

dear God, Matic... you can do much worse than I remember...

if Mourinho brings Mikel for one of the AMs or Fabregas before at least 75, I'll lose it

amazing pass by Cesc - and very good from Costa.

Hazard is no way worse than that... despite not being much better (currently form wise), but definitely better. Should have been the only sub we made during HT

That sub made no sense... sometimes it feels like Mourinho isn't watching the same match as me...