Barbara

I don't think anyone would offer this money for him. I think he's a nice squad member when he's not performing to his best (and good in his apartment when he's bad). As I said I don't oppose to an upgrade. If we sell him we need to sign a new guy AND a backup. If we keep him, we sign a new guy, he's the backup, the guy for certain matches, to rotate the team, or when we face some injuries. Mourinho rotated very little this season because we have an awful bench form wise. Now that Ramires is back though we have more options. Willian is in no way better than Oscar imo (all things considered), Cesc doesn't produce as much in the #10 position as he does from the pivot and Eden has rarely been used as a #10. Get us someone to start most matches, if that's the case, but there's no point selling a guy that coming from the bench can always crack a goal for us, maybe assist or give a couple of key passes. There's no need to get rid of him from the squad, from the starting XI maybe, but not from the squad.

you've been missed. I was wondering where you went the other day. Happy to have you back.

If I took most people on this thread seriously I would be pissed, as I don't, I just smirk a bit and shake my head. Oscar was one of our best players in the first half. Created that chance for Costa at mark 6, another for Hazard, a through ball for Ramires from our field, and another one I can't remember now to whom... he linked up very well with the players surrounding him and while it wasn't an outstanding performance, by the comments made by the same old people here you'd think he was awful. He pressed and ran a lot and actually when he was involved we had control of the ball, and kept possession. His second half was mediocre, but then again, was he mediocre or was Chelsea pressed, neutralized and didn't offer much response until right in the end of the match? As I said, good thing I stopped taking you people seriously a long time ago. Your bias about your own player is laughable and quite honest shameful. He deserves criticism and I wouldn't oppose at all for an upgrade. The thing is most names suggested here aren't actually upgrades or don't suit the system. The kid can make a good squad member and I liked that formation the best - recently. Just bring Matic back, so Zouma can go to the CB and play Ramires-Oscar-Hazard behind Costa, with Fabregas with Matic. Not only Ramires has been playing pretty well recently, but he (nor Oscar) wouldn't have missed the ridiculous goal Willian missed. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Mourinho replaces Willian for Ramires for a few games and if we play like we did in the first (in an away derby), I think it'll last more than a few games.

Totally agree. I'm only now watching the match and with everyone saying he passed the ball to someone that was better positioned than him... I mean, am I blind or are people? Hazard had more chances to score the goal than willian. Hazard had the keeper ahead of him, Willian had two players trying to block his shot - which one of them did (Willian still should have scored though). But had you asked me who had more chances of scoring there? Hazard imo

(replace he by 'thread')

links pls?

Cesc and Mata together are a disaster waiting to happen in Premier League. We'd be outplayed in the midfield every single match. Mata issues with pressure goes beyond learning workrate, he just doesn't suit this style. Oscar literally has no interference on that. Mata would be a cuadrado a Player we use at the end of some matches depending on what we needed. It actually surprises me a lot someone can even wonder a Mata Cesc partnership seriously. We'd be overran easily

missed this fierce celebration to JT's goal. <3 x

Just love his passion. And how motivated he's to win everything x

This have to be on looping in every academy in the frigging world. As Mourinho said once, a team with XI Azpilicuetas is UCL winner (every season). x

that's what I've always defended, for someone that contributed as much as he did, he gets a lot more stick than say Willian who contributes with nice flicks now and then and a great deal of one assist or goal every blue moon (I'm only comparing them attack wise). I'm not saying he isn't entitled to criticism, he is. He's slumping once again in the second half of the season, but the stick he gets around here you would think he's preventing us from winning the league when in reality he won us some matches with goals and assists, was the first scorer in some games - an early scorer btw. But now we should be replacing him with Coutinho or getting the creative/productive/attacking wonder known as Willian to lead us to bigger things. Please, if we're going to replace Oscar - which I'm not against btw (I'm against selling him, not upgrading him), make sure it's someone worth it. Willian isn't the answer, Coutinho isn't the answer and while I do believe he's in a bad streak now, Oscar has had better streaks this season than both Coutinho and Willian on their best streaks. Not that many will agree because the fashionable thing to post here these days alongside Mourinho's ugly and pragmatic football is moaning about how despicable of a footballer Oscar is. Carry on that. Fact remains 1) Mourinho is back winning titles and he has big chances of winning the league - deservedly; 2) the club has just renewed Oscar's contract mid-season, something we did to very few players lately, so despite all theirr technicolor dreams I don't think the board is looking forward to selling him. He's here to stay at least for another season (and diminishing it to one season is a stretch already). If we're bringing another #10 is a complete different story, but people expecting to see him gone in the summer can fall from their beds, hit their heads on the floor and wake up. Something drastic would have to happen, and by that I mean someone willing to pay an incredible amount of money for him. But if he's as bad as you guys make him out to be, who would pay this for him? Luiz, Mata and Kev with all their problems and criticism here showed their worth in their NTs (Mata not much) and Luiz and Mata showed it here too (although they also had problems) and the three of them were players that mastered a couple of things. Most of you deem Oscar to be mediocre on everything he does, so by what logic would you see someone coming with big money for him? And if no one is willing to pay big money for him because he's terrible and average on everything, then you expect the club that has done the best business in the last couple of years to let one of their young bets to go by change money? His contract ends on 2019, why would the club do it if they planned to sell him less than 12 months later? I try to find the logic, but it keeps evading me.

I'm surprised at the question... and I'm not even talking from a girl's perspective.

which was a nice change after literally destroying every attack we had in the first half except that one long ball to Hazard. He was painful to watch in the first. And I think he improved some in the second, but nothing eye-catching imo. But as it's suitable, his first half performance is completely forgotten and disregarded and his second half performance overrated. nothing new. If we're going to have an upgrade from what we currently have to #10 position, I can't see Willian being the answer. He had a straw of 3-4 good games in the attack (regardless of the position), the rest were either average (like against Spurs, as we should consider his whole presentation as he didn't set the world alight in the second) or just poor. The only reason he still starts our every match is because he's the best WB we have in the team and he covers Ivanovic in the flank so Iva can move inside the box when opposition crosses or progresses in the attack through our right side. Denying that is pretty partial imo.

hasn't got a straight red in over two years...

I have real tears in my eyes damnit, we should haven't let him go

best.manager.ever. LOL

my new fave pic

Well, finished my work for Chelsea Brasil, can finally write my posts properly. I think he was spot on today. Yes, I was one among the people complaining about the lineup, but that was because I thought he was playing Cahill in the pivot. Maybe I should have waited the match start, but I was anxious, woke up at 6am for no reason other than I even dreamed about the final, and now that I'm talking about it, in my dream JT scored the first goal, but it ended 1x1.... So I needed to keep talking and I was infuriated with the idea of Cahill playing in the pivot ahead of other much more competent players. I was wrong, my first post in the live thread match after the game started I retracted from my previous comments and hailed José for having the balls of taking such a big risk. It was a big risk to have a 20yo with little experience in general to play in a position I suppose he has never played before. But even in my personal riot, I said many times I didn't have a problem with the system, whether it was a 5-3-2 or 5-2-3 or 4-1-4-1, and at the end of the day I still don't have a problem with the system. I think we didn't play football in the first half at all. We were roofing the ball every time we recovered it in our half, we bypassed Cesc the whole of the first half and that only made us look bad. If he's going to be our #10 the ball HAS to go through him. Hazard had a bad first half (actually I'm still waiting for a big performance by Eden in decisive games such as late UCL KO and finals - although I guess that's only his second final for us?), as well as Willian and both of them killed the few chances we had to attack. But the team in general was much better in the second and Cesc was amazing them because the ball actually arrived to him. That should shut the myth believers for a couple of days that 1) he can't in the second half of the season and 2) he can't play well in big games. Key words being 'a couple of days'. Diego Costa and JT were immense in their main roles. DC was much better today than the previous two matches - which shows that he needs to play games to be in his best performance. I'm disappointed on Courtois - he kept a sour face most of the time during the celebrations. I mean I understand you didn't play the final, but be happy for a title you helped to win. This post fits better in the match thread than here, but I wanted it to be here because despite saying that was what I thought the worst lineup decision made by Jose, I still back him up. I couldn't back him up with Cahill in the pivot, but that wasn't what he's done. He didn't change the system imo, we still played 4-2-3-1 and he showed some cojones by playing Kurt in that position. And he was so happy, you can say a weight was lifted from his shoulders. He was feeling the pressure and I hope and expect to see a more carefree Chelsea in the league as well as a more carefree Mourinho in the way he approaches matches. I don't have the same problem some here have with him being extra-pragmatic. I wish he wasn't as much, but I can live with it. My problems with him this season are small and related to something else (taking too long to make changes, being a bit stubborn sometimes). I've never had a problem saying I'm wrong. I was wrong with my assumption that Cahill would play DM, I admitted that, but I will never say I'm ashamed for sharing my opinion. I'm an opinionated person and I believe forums are made of opinions. Being proven wrong is just part of the process.

the more confidence this new set of players get by winning trophies, the harder we'll get to be beaten. I think we have big chances of winning the league this year, which means next season will be nearly impossible to stop us That's all this team needs, confidence, winning spirit that comes from trophies, from experience in winning them no, but I want one desperately

looks so happy

:wub: :wub:

I'm not ashamed for having an opinion... I didn't like the idea of Cahill playing as the pivot player. I stated on many of my posts that I didn't mind the system, only the player chosen. In the end, it was Zouma, not ahill who played there, so I should have waited more before speaking my mind, but I'm not going to be ashamed to expressing my opinion in a forum. I thought he was playing one player, he played other, it's called a mistake, one I admitted being wrong about early in the match. Thing is I'm not even the person - not even close - who moans the most about Mourinho and these tactics, still I'm the one mentioned. Okay then... I didn't post anything in this thread btw

We refused to play football the first half, but the goal came the way it's always been coming this season. We found it somehow. But the difference today has been our second half. Instead of parking the bus, playing deep in the pitch, we came for the second - something many complained about in other occasions. We not only kept the lead, but expanded it. I'm very happy with the title, not happy with the first half, but we were much better in the second and when we started playing, Spurs lost it. Azpili is my MOTM. Hopefully now we'll walk through the league now with the pressure off.