Barbara

we look a mess. The only thing our training sessions are good is to injury our players for weeks. Our defense is ridiculous. Our defending is even worse and our attack players look uninspired, insipid, and just plain poor. There's nothing worth mentioning in this team right now. Yeah, some people pointed some problems we had last season when we won points playing bad, I did too, but never thought it was the end of the world. Nothing explains how bad this team plays. Yeah, Ivanovic may fail now and then, but fact remains two Everton players headed the ball completely unmarked... another one got to shoot from the edge of the box, unmarked, no one to close in and tackle. I wonder what the problem here is because we don't have one single good performer for a while - except the keepers.

please... people here complain about Oscar's inconsistency when he plays well half of a season while Coutinho plays well a handful matches plus a few other screams there and here. He's better technically I agree, but much more inconsistent. If he was a Chelsea player, his thread would have double the posts Oscar's has moaning about every breath he takes. If both figure out their inconsistency issues, I think Coutinho will become be best player, but as it stands, Oscar is more consistent than him and that's saying a lot. But then I read a little further and someone says he can do the same work rate as Oscar... I'm done with his lack of logic. You guys can get your pants wet for Coutinho all you want, but as DYC said, three different NT coaches with completely different styles don't think Coutinho is NT material yet (in the starting eleven). As much as I think Dunga and Felipão are stupid, Mano isn't and the fact Coutinho - being Brazilian and having his name ending naturally with inho - isn't in a bigger club, with bigger ambitions should just prove you that he isn't the second coming some TCers make him out to be. Brazilian players - as bad as they are recently with few exceptions - are still a fancy brand of players in the world. If Coutinho was half what has been written in this forum by him, he'd be in a much bigger club than poor old Liverpool.

LOL I don't know which WC you've watched, the one I did, Belgium didn't perform well, despite how far they went and Kev was nothing special - just like the whole team. So he was the best player in a completely insipid team? Sure. A player ready to shine in the highest level would have taken the team to a new level (with doesn't have much to do with the result, I'm talking about performance here). I'll stop the nonsense just after you

I don't think he'll flop, he's too good for that. But he's not ready for the highest level yet imo. He proved that being nearly invisible in the WC while he carried Belgium in the the qualifying. The same with Wolfsburg... they were visibly the second strength in Germany and haven't faced much trouble to be in that position, so he shone in the league. When time came for the team to show their true colors in the Europa League, they were dismissed by a third tier Spanish side... Of course, I'm not blaming de Bruyne for Belgium shy WC campaign (regardless of how far they went, they were a letdown for me personally and except in one match they played a boring, uninspiring and bad football throughout the tournament) or Wolfsburg disappointing EL performance, it's just it was the biggest stages he had the chance to shine and he was very invisible on both imo. I think he's very young and can make it in the big stage later in his career. I just feel he's not there yet. He may prove me wrong and be it already this season, but given City's usual lack of confidence and competence playing UCL knockouts (when they actually make it that far) and seemingly being one level above their rivals in England, Kev might shine in the league as they may face little competition from other teams, but I don't think he'll bring them to the next level on UCL knockouts..

People's memory is becoming the biggest mystery in the universe at this pace. I don't understand how it works around here, it's fathomless

this picture we have for his thread is a travesty, lol, every time I see it I have to double check the name. I'm sure we can find a better one... he doesn't even have that haircut anymore and yeah, I'm nitpicking

have no idea, there's nothing in Brazilian media about his recovery

And we thought Azpilicueta was a difficult name to say. Let's call him Joe and hope for a similar journey here

why are our physios fucked off and what does it have to do with Kenedy? Did I miss something (honest question).

it was meant to... the ones who feel the way I think they do will know what I meant... But what about all the rest? Care to refute everything I said about Willian being our second best player when we sucked or about the team playing its best collective football whenever Oscar was playing well? Both things can't be a coincidence if it keeps happening for long stretches of time.

This thread should be merged with Diego's and renamed The Twilight Zone. I'm surely confused and lost reading the posts. I don't know where I am and please don't ask my name. I can't even say what I came here for in the first place and believe me I'm not kidding. Good goal, that's all I've got to say now. When I'm not that confused I'll probably have more to say, but in the meantime I'll avoid Diego's thread (haven't been there yet) because it might make me even more confused.

I think he did okay. We can't expect a player who has just arrived to win us every match, still he got an assistance. The following part of my post may be filled with blind hope or excessive optimism, take it with a grain of salt, or hold onto it for dear life, lol. I can't wait for us to play Matic - Oscar - Cesc; Hazard - Costa - Pedro. With his pace, dribbling skills and pressing qualities, Pedro is an improvement to Willian in the right wing with the goals and assists added. Surely for when Oscar is playing like crap and unfortunately that is almost a given due to his inconsistency, we can have Willian replacing him, but fact is Pedro is an upgrade to Willian all things considered. Maybe we still need an upgrade for Oscar (that isn't Willian), but we got at least half of the job done. I really hope when Oscar is back he comes on his best form and helping the pressing, setting the tempo, making himself available for passes exchanges our midfield will look more solid and compact. This leaves space for Cesc to split defenses with his through balls, Hazard and Pedro to take onto opponents on both flanks and Pedro is an improved Schurrle, being a great target for those Cesc passes. Pedro is everything Schurrle should dream of becoming (and don't know if he will ever). He gets between the lines, he's fast, he's direct, he has a flair for goals (and important and decisive goals on big matches nonetheless). If we fix our midfield and that could be with Oscar or some new signing, someone to share the dirt work properly with Matic, help our pressing and start properly our attacks, Hazard - Costa - Pedro will be deadly. Jason said in the Mourinho thread that this is the most un-Mourinho team he's ever managed and while I disagree with some points, I definitely agree about the counter-attack thing. Pedro is the player to fix our attack setup and I agree with DYC. (or was it Pizy?) about us needing to fix our attack drills. It looks like we don't have any sort of identity, it looks like whatever player gets to do whatever he wants as he don't seem to have any kind of style and philosophy when attacking. With Pedro's presence that could change. He has the ability to replicate Hazard to a certain extent on the right - which gives opposition a much bigger problem and while Hazard is definitely more talented and technical than Pedro, Pedro is years ahead of Eden in terms of finishing, directness and experience - which makes him not only the perfect partner in crime for Eden, but also a damn good mentor. Pedro isn't our savior - I don't think our attack needs any saving to start with (only organization), but he's definitely the answer. Mourinho should now be able to implement some sort of identity to our attacking phase - whatever that is, but I think we just have the right players center, left and right to play counter-attack and the players we have are definitely capable of delivering what Mou expects from them. In many positions I think Mourinho is a victim of the lack of the quality needed for what he plans (whether he miscalculated the signings or had to deal with players already here is another discussion), but now this excuse can't be given anymore and with Kenedy and Willian I think we even have some decent depth in the attacking positions. So if we fail again to build a convincing attack, with some philosophy in place, it's going to be all on Mourinho (not that it wasn't before, as he's the one who signed the players we had, but he now definitely has the right players for a deadly attack imo). So either I'm sober and this makes a lot of sense, or we're just in such a dark place with the team now, that I'm holding onto blind hope and on straws... I really hope the former is the case.

excuse me? One is a striker, the poacher kind, the kid has a way to get the ball into the net. The other is an attacking midfielder, with a hell of a left foot for long range shots, a lot of pace and dribbling skills. How does one compete with the other? That's the same as saying the moment Pedro arrived, Costa could start counting his days in the team. No logic. My main problem with the kid is his decision making. If he can work on that like Ramires couldn't, I'll be impressed. Elasticos, pace, dribbles, don't impress me, but his personality and the way he approached the match certainly did. If he can develop well to improve his vision and decision making, then I think we have a great player in our hands, if not, we'll have a utility player - like Ramires - atrocious passing except for the odd day, but with some things that might help in certain matches. Also, I'm not saying they're the same player, they're completely different, they just showed to have the same problem. Kenedy is definitely more talented than Ramires.

there are two aspects of Oscar that are as clear as day, but only one of them is overstressed by most (there's a minority who stresses both or the other one). 1) Oscar in form is one the key players for our team because he gives the balance for players much better than him to shine (Cesc, Hazard, Matic) 2) Oscar isn't in form nearly long enough. So we've played shit with him when he was shit, but we NEVER and I say that very emphatically and absolutely sure of myself, we NEVER played as good as we did when he was at the top of his form. Every time someone points out the good stretches of good football we played in the last couple of seasons it had always been the same time Oscar was playing his best (so I guess we're supposed to believe this is nothing but a big coincidence?). He has a huge problem which is his consistency. The fact he isn't creative enough or doesn't have a brilliant vision for a #10 aren't that much noticeable if he's on form because he compliments and complements players more talented than him. Also he isn't as bad in those two aspects as people make him out to be. When he's playing well, he would get a 7-8 on both things imo. When he's playing bad 2-3. We desperately need Oscar now, but only if it's the good Oscar and as we never know how long we can count on the good Oscar, we have a problem. Oscar needs to fix it, José needs to fix it and the club needs to have an alternative. Willian isn't it no matter how much you guys lick his crouch. It's funny all of you have been saying he's been one of our best players since the New Year, but the exact same people and some others say we haven't been good enough since New Year. What does it say to you? That Willian is our best performer (let's exclude Hazard from the talk altogether as he's our best player) when we're playing like shit and instead of addressing it the right way - which is Willian doesn't contribute directly to improve our play - you guys prefer to take the route I can't follow: Willian should be our #10. Even in the matches he didn't play in the wing and played as #10 we continued to suffer... we have never - as far as I remember - played really well, outplaying opposition, being creative, fast, direct and all the other adjectives you could find about us in the first 3-4 months last season when Willian has been our #10. We were playing bad and with him in this position we slightly improved but he has never been or will ever be a game changer. It's not that hard to be the second best performer when the team has been playing bad for months. Oscar dropped his level horribly, and it was the time for Willian to take matters into his own hands, bring us back to where we were before (although not all by himself because Cesc and Diego were missed too through suspension, injuries and Cesc dropping his level as well), but he wasn't able to do that. Yes, I know being Ivanovic babysitter detracts his chances, but in 10 years of senior football he has never been the player to shine with stats, but neither with carrying a team towards the right direction, and Ivanovic has been part of only 3 of those years. I'm able to give Willian some credit today - something I wasn't in the past. But while most people here recognizes and cries about Oscar inconsistency, they aren't as ready to recognize the heights he brings when he's in form. I partially blame this because Oscar isn't flashy and his work is more about enabling others to do their best rather than him shining through and through, but I also see a veiled reason, especially from some members, and well, Oscar has been born the way he is, he may change his football profile someday, but he won't change who he is. It means some people will always look at him in a certain way.

they were both cut from Brazil NT after being called upon, so I don't think that's the problem at all. They are injured, that's a fact, if they're going or not to Juventus is yet to be seen, but they're injured.

I think we finally got caught. Earlier this year when the performances were bad, the results still came because Mourinho is a great motivator and it doesn't take much to motivate players to win a title that was well within their hands. Now, not only they relaxed a bit - probably resting a bit on their laurels - but our limitations caught up with us. His motivation skills haven't been enough, we got our technical and tactical limitations exposed and it'll take a great problem solver to fix it and certainly different players in a couple of positions. Mourinho used to be a great problem solver, long term and short term. He had a way to change matches with a sub or a new setup that we have rarely seen since he came back. He also had the ability to change the way the team played after longer periods of things not going the way he wanted. He's lost it (my guess is because he's trying too hard to be Fergie, that he thinks player loyalty - not to say favoritism - and stubbornness is what made Fergie win so much and stay so long, I'm not sure about either - him wanting to be the new Fergie and Fergie's success coming from those things - either way football changed and not even Fergie would have started winning nowadays, but once a team is a winner, and has this aura and mentality after many years, it overachieves). Speaking of overachieve, that's what we did last year. motivated by the title possibility, some of our players played out of their minds and covered for many other players' limitations. Now it's the time for everyone - manager, players, board and even fans show their true colors. We all need to react, they more than us, of course. We won't get away with our weak defense - it has always been weak, does anyone remember the first couple of months last year? We didn't concede as many goals as we should have because we were lucky, opponents missed a lot, and goalies made some miracles, but we were just as unstable, this year with less luck. Ivanovic and Cahill are liabilities that depend a lot on how much players such Willian and Matic will cover for them, but neither is playing so well yet, so the defenders are exposed. Cesc needs both Matic and Oscar to perform at their best level for his defensive and physicality limitations not to be exposed and for his geniality to be maximized. That means we need players to replace Iva and Cahill and alternatives for when things aren't working on Cesc's favor because when they aren't, he works against us as he exposes us. Mourinho needs to see if he can find the answers within our squad or still do some key signings, but the truth is we got caught and as he says all the time, we are in a league that is more competitive than ever... we need to react.

there you go, not even the bandwagon who says he never takes responsibility can say shit now. He's making mistakes, no one questions it, but let's talk about the real mistakes instead of the pre-fabricated ideas that sprout here all the time? Also, he's our manager, we could and should criticize him, but a little bit of support and faith is what supporting a football team is about. So let's hope he figures things out soon. And for Ivanovic to be gone next summer. I'll be happy if he's gone from the next match though

seriously, that was the worst post I've read here, and don't come say 'sarcasm', 'jokes' to hide behind it, there's none of it... I expected this comment from the two guys I've just mentioned, not from anyone else... maybe the guy who spoke like Yoda and who's been banned a long time ago... but that'd be it, only those three. Sorry Jason, but that has been awful. Not even MrBlueGuy would be able to come up with this.

I support the mods and I think they do a great job, and the rules are crystal clear about what gets someone banned. But there are a couple of guys in this forum that I wish weren't here anymore. I disagree with a lot of people, I have a huge ignore list, but that's just because I lack the patience to deal with some kind of people. But this MrBlueGuy and many times this Excalibur guy behave like the most obvious trolls. Come on, democracy is a big fallacy, some clean up wouldn't hurt

there are problems and Mourinho is losing the plot with a few things, but you guys need to get even more a grip than him. You come him to complain we're predictable, he doesn't throw the team to the attack when we need the result. Then he does that. You come here to complain he doesn't risk playing youth, then he does it, you continue to complain. You say he doesn't let the 4-2-3-1 go and is too stubborn, then he changes, you complain. He can't win with you. That said, I think there have been many problems today. 1) Ivanovic isn't the only reason we're losing matches, but he's one of the biggest reasons we concede so much 2) Fabregas has been a huge liability in our midfield and Matic is struggling to be the solid player he normally is 3) José should have subbed Iva off and not Azpili for the 3-5-2 4) We look lost and have absolutely no organization in any phase (that's on Mourinho too) 5) our players are poor piss, in general, at this moment 6) Remy has been the aim of the greatest injustices Mourinho has been doing Positives, only Kenedy (showed a lot of character there) and RLC. Pedro tried, but we were too bad. Good for Falcao he scored, Remy should still play ahead of him. We literally look like a mess, I don't know what's going on inside the club, surrounding Mourinho. I won't buy third season shit, but it doesn't mean he isn't messing up because he clearly is. I just think we should also talk a lot more about the players. They've been beyond poor. Mourinho has to own his shit and take some responsibility, but he doesn't play in the pitch. Hazard, Fabregas, Matic, our defense, players and areas we were so solid last year have been playing worse than Championship. And as much as Mourinho should find answers, those players can't say they unlearned how to play football. It's a 50-50 problem imo - Mourinho hasn't been able to provide answers and has been making some bad choices, and the players have been worse than I've seen most of them. It's a tragedy, but in all honesty, those things happen. Remember United, Arsenal, Liverpool? They all had recently looked clueless for a stretch... too bad we decided to join in the carousel.

happy for Kenedy and RLC though. They played really well in their cameos coming in a complicated situation...

Ivanovic has been a fucking, bloody coward now. He knows he's been awful and all players are destroying him, so instead of man up, he's barking orders around so he doesn't look so bad, but then he does nothing... just watches and barks... I don't know which is worse, being destroyed by opponents or hiding away being a 'captain'. FML

we look clueless defensively...

and have to admit it, that was a class goal... and an amazing long ball and an amazing cross

well, at least some people here won't be able to keep their shit on a broken record about Mourinho not bringing youth... Falcao scored LOL