Barbara

That's my feeling too.. Cuadrado was the consequence of the Schurrle sale, not the cause Still, I'll never get over it

[emoji24] [emoji24] [emoji24] [emoji24] [emoji24] [emoji31] [emoji31] [emoji30] [emoji30] I'll NEVER get over it [emoji26] [emoji26] [emoji26] [emoji22] [emoji22]

I agree with most, but he wasn't called for Copa America because he's injured and will take a while to recover, not being in form in time. It's a sort of a myth he's more creative and important to Brazil. I watched him in the WC and CC and there was nothing different. I haven't watched any friendlies ever since the WC though, but I've never seen anyone - especially in Brazil - praise him for any of those matches, so I suppose it was just about the same. He completely stagnated in his development and I already said it once, it seems like he's satisfied with what he's accomplished so far, he doesn't seem to have a lot of objectives regarding his progression and seems a bit accommodated to me.

I rate Nathan higher after doing some research. But it's still too early to say. He doesn't have an eyecatching raw talent though, somewhere between Willian and Oscar raw talent wise imo. I place Piazon on the same bracket as Oscar (speaking of raw talent only). The rest: tactics awareness, versatility, vision, creativity is early to tell imo.

Lol, gotta love his honesty. I hope Eden takes the advice to the heart and carries on for life. He needs to shoot more, he has a very good finish, he just needs to release it.

I'm not so sure because most United fans I know (if not all of them) had many complaints about Mata. Then he had a good run of matches a couple of months ago and started to fade again, alternating good matches and invisible ones. No one I know thinks he's their most consistent player... I also don't think Jose is saving face. Everybody with two working brain cells knows Mourinho sold Mata because he didn't fit his system, not because he thought Oscar is a better player. So why keep an expensive and talented player in the squad if he doesn't fit your system and is sulking in the bench. I can't actually believe over one year after it happened people still don't understand it. But Mata is a well liked and appreciated player for Chelsea fans, so I think emotions cloud their judgment because not only Mata hasn't been for United even close the player he was when he had a team built around him (actually he hasn't been even amazing in 10 matches according to my brother who is a hardcore United fan who watches their matches literally in a looping - according to him he had a few great matches, some good and many average for them), but his sale had absolutely zero to do with Oscar. If we didn't have Oscar, Mourinho would still have sold Mata and would have brought someone else because Mata just wouldn't do it for the system he had in mind. It had never anything to do with either player's quality.

that's the shit that have people with high expectations... seriously, Nathan isn't seen as the next big thing even in Brazil, let alone the whole continent...

It's actually simple. Jose likes players like Lampard (a jack of all trades master of none - except for his ability to score goals, which was above average). Many prefer other kind of players, especially for a #10, maybe not Jose. Nobody denies Lampard was an amazing player at the peak of his career, so if I had to guess why he gives Oscar chance after chance, made the unusual contract renew happen in the middle of the season and gave him the #8 shirt (I don't believe it was just a convenient coincidence) is because he believes he can turn Oscar into our new Lampard. It could work extremely well and some could even call him a genius for that, or it could backfire. With Cesc in the team as a number '7' he can afford or maybe is even looking forward to having a wildcard '9' which would be a mix of a #8 and #10. It fits a lot Mourinho's views of football and for five months in the first half of the season it worked just fine. If Oscar will fit the bill only time can tell, but Mourinho has been adamant about Oscar, if not stubborn. I think he believes more in his own ability to make it happen rather than seeing Oscar naturally becoming that player.

Cuadrado made his 10 minute cameo worth of making him the worst player in the pitch.

a glimpse of real Hazard there now

Hazard has been painful to watch today... too bad we don't have someone to put on his place

really? I can't even put in numbers how far superior Luís is to Bertrand.

I know it's not fair, my previous point was that with those mistakes, new in the team, Mourinho won't trust Luís. I'm not saying he's right and he does overlooks all of Ivanovic obvious and even worse mistakes. I was just stating what I see, not that I support Mourinho's choice. I do hope Luís starts the remaining matches

Mikel should have been subbed off for Matic... not Ruben

Most of us want Luís to cement his place in the first team, but we must also admit he makes some major mistakes in most matches he plays... some eye-catching mistakes. I think those cost his chances here. Two mistakes in a row there now

he doesn't have a brain for set piece it seems. It's not the first time he pushed someone of our players leading to opposition goal. Remember against PSG he pushed Terry? (Or was it in the league? I remember it was a big game)

Cesc

you and a few others have been fair. I think he deserves some criticism even for some isolated decisions this season, but the slamming he's been getting around here (especially before the title was finally confirmed) has been absurdly unfair. He adapted when we needed to be more pragmatic. Maybe he had been a tad too much cautious, but I don't have major complaints.

and not surprisingly enough, this thread is moving in snail pace. Why would be buzzing? We're playing good football, Mourinho started an academy player, we even have much higher possession, although I wonder if now that we conceded people will come from their hiding places.

and they said Chelsea can't play football... We're playing the same way we used to the first half of the season. With the pressure off, the players are back to their carefree playing. The rotation helped and we're the Chelsea we'll be for most of next season. People that insist that José can't play like this really make fool of themselves. Mourinho is just too smart for them... And Diego Costa is class and a legend in the middle of the fans

Matic has been beyond tired for a while now, I hope we don't use him at all in the remaining games we have. his stamina improved here compared to when he was in Portugal - imo - but he still has some trouble towards the last third of the season in terms of form (not that he's too bad, he just isn't anywhere as sharp as we're used to). Delighted for Luís and Ruben. Didn't expect Cesc to start and if Oscar wasn't injured Eden would also receive his well deserved rest. I've always been against bringing Cuadrado and he can already leave for all I care.

Cesc pretty awful in big matches? I think I've missed many Chelsea matches this season...

He was touch and go for the match, recovering from injury... Probably far from his best physical condition. Also I believe Mourinho was there more for Aitor than Bamford (although to watch him too).

I took the guy five months to score his first assist, then he scored another one in the following game both at the end of december. Then two more two weeks later, and in addition to the screamers, that have been his season. I'm not saying that because of poor stats he's bad - it could be a case like Willian where stats don't make the player justice (even if he still lacks end product and should aim to improve on that), but it isn't. Many times his flashy dribbles and plays lead to nothing because he lacks purpose as you correctly put. I've seen a thousand players like Coutinho in Brazil, a thousand. Actually it's what you see the most here, everyday. People say Brazil stopped producing talents and while this is true to some extent, at the same time less and less teams in the five big leagues in Europe fall for the flashy player that is disappointedly poor tactically, even if gifted technically, not to mention the ones that have no vision to make their natural talent matter. Lucas Moura is yet another example of that imo. It's his 3rd year in Europe, a lot of people here and in real life disagreed with me when I said he wouldn't end up being anything relevant - which is why I wanted him to go to United instead of PSG... three years later, he's still inconsistent, fades, has one Messi-alike dribble sequence every now and then, but that's it. What has he influenced in PSG? They're a mess, their managers are clueless, but Lucas doesn't have many things and some of which he won't develop to take his talent to the next level. I see Coutinho as a far superior player (compared to Lucas), but he's even more inconsistent. Henderson should win their POTY, but as Coutinho for some kind of joke made the PFA team of the season, and got some attention lately because of very spaced out screamers, the fans that are specialist in history will vote in the shiny 'new' toy instead of recognizing the player that was more consistent and helped them more throughout the whole season. So, my point is, Coutinho is talented, I've seen a thousand of those in Brazil, but if he doesn't add the purpose on his talented moves he'll be the nearly thousandth Brazilian that is all flash and no end product that matters. Most many teams in the big leagues stopped buying those Brazilian myths, but it seems to fitting so see Liverpool worshiping yet another one. I said Lucas would be the next Denilson (the one that played for Sevilla too). I think Coutinho could go farther, and maybe even become the real deal, but currently there are so many flaws in his overall game (lack of tactical awareness, lack of purpose in most of his plays, huge inconsistency, lack of defensive contribution and work rate, lack of end end product, lack of physical strength, and the list goes on and on) that are overshadowed by his flashy style. It may fool a lot of people - especially here where the grass is always greener, but if he doesn't add a few things to his game, he'll just be one of those players that makes the news sometimes with dribbles and screamers, but that contributes comparatively little to the team's success in a whole season. I do hope he improves though because I'm very fond of the boy. I've followed him closely while he was at Inter and I really hope he goes beyond the useless dribbler label. And if that's the case, I hope some other team that isn't Barça or Bayern comes and get him from Liverpool.

There's another Copa América next year (let's not delve into the ridiculousness of that), so he can maybe play then - which means, not much to be disappointed by (except he loves playing for Brazil... ) I wonder what the injury is...