Barbara

Do you think this City loss take away some of the pressure today? We all know we desperately need to win a title. There's a lot of pressure on the club, players and manager to win something... 2013 was way too long ago and we aren't Arsenal that can go 8 years without winning anything. To play under the pressure of in theory being only 2 points ahead of City would have affected our 'need' to win today and assure at least one title, as the league could be under real jeopardy. I'm not saying a 5-point lead is big with still 11 matches to be played, but if we have a bad result against West Ham, for example, City still couldn't take the lead, even if we have the Leicester game in hand. But this game will only be played at the last week of April and given the seemingly frail mental strength of this team, if we lose the lead, even if an easy game in hand, they could crumble. So I think having the 5-points lead assure will take some pressure from the team today and Wednesday and I think it could happen us to win both matches. Or am I reading too much into it and they aren't as mentally vulnerable as I think they might be?

The reason Kevin left had absolutely nothing with Oscar. Zero. Mata, yes, Mourinho chose him over Oscar. Kevin was offloaded for completely different reasons - one of them, José didn't like how he trained and even sent him to the U-21. Also, a lot has been said between how suitable Kevin was here and how suitable he is on Wolfsburg. It never ceases to amaze me how people have such simplistic approaches on football and ignore so many factors. We could do an upgrade to Oscar, maybe we will, it has nothing to do with Kevin and it won't be Philippe Coutinho.

Ignore everything I said. I just checked the source. ESPNFC Asia? huahuahuahuahuahuahuahuahuahuahuhauhuahuahuahuahuahuahuahuahuahuahua Almost as good as Sky Nigeria. Espn FC out of Europe is written by fans....

West Ham played shitty football yesterday... they aren't in great form... if we need Matic to beat them, then the problem is us, not them and much deeper than missing one key player. they're so boring and predictable. It might help me fall asleep and sleeping I won't be anxious. It might work

okay, that was the only distraction I had since I woke up at 6am today... what will I do with the two remaining hours? I'll have an anxiety attack at this pace...

^^ maybe he's telling the truth.... or maybe he's just putting a lot of pressure on the board and owner... if they let him go (and they know he's quality) he'll manage a rival and make it all much harder for Chelsea to win titles (let's no kid ourselves, the only reason that City squad doesn't win more titles is because they have incompetent manager after incompetent manager, Wenger has been holding Arsenal back for years now). He really believes in the 'don't strengthen a rival' philosophy. He sold Mata to United knowing Mata wouldn't strengthen them, the same with Luiz to PSG. Maybe he's hoping the club also believes it, because I feel that was a bait. But if he's telling the truth, I think he's aiming the Arsenal job. He knows the club gives stability to their manager - otherwise, why would Wenger still be there. The ball is on Chelsea's court. Would they let him go knowing he could end up at the Emirates?

but... but... but aren't City the best thing on english football? Their attacking minded game isn't what we should learn from? wasn't it a shame we had a tough game against Liverpool? You know what? I guess this just proves that if we win the league, we'll get a trophy that could named 'the best among a bunch of embarrassing teams'.

I still count as a young woman at 35 so he can be a young player for many years to come

and while one normally plays better the first half of the season, the other is a very slow starter and normally starts playing better around December or January. So let's have both, Oscar to play the first half, then we loan him and Coutinho to be loaned the first half and play for us the second. As an Internazionale and Flamengo fan, I've watched Coutinho way more than I've watched Oscar before Oscar moved to Chelsea. I know the kid very well. And you're right, they're both inconsistent, but Coutinho also has a larger creative arsenal than Oscar. He isn't nowhere as tactically aware or does the defensive job Oscar does.

Henrique must have the best timing in the world, no? LOOOOOLLLL WHS for president!

and he's played in this position before. Not too many times, but enough to be more used to it than Azpili imo

This match is always going to be down to which Chelsea shows up, regardless of Spurs. if we play well we win and if we don't play our best, they win regardless of which kind of team or display they have (and they've been very shaky lately). They're basically a non-factor because we lose or draw most time because of our stupid mistakes, not opposition's brilliance

He needs to pick up some form there is no doubt about it . but people should also consider that he's been injured and he needs time to heal properly and to get back in form. yeah he's not playing up to his best but it's not only because he doesn't want to play well at this time of the year or that he can't play well at this time of the year but it's because he's been injured.It doesn't change the fact though that we've been bad without him on form and like Skipper said yesterday when he was playing well we played much better than we do when he's not playing well. we need him to pick up form but he can only do it when his body is ready to do it. he's being sick and injured and he's probably been tired as well. It sucks but it also happens...

funny you call me lazy when it's you who hasn't read the short post I wrote to summarize my previous big one. I said Bayern has had more ups and downs - domestically and continentally - than a roller-coaster. If that doesn't cover what you're saying, then I don't know what does. Also, the part you quoted is my assessment about the current status of the league. If you want to convince yourself, me or someone else Bundesliga now isn't a one-trick-pony, be my guest, but I'll tell you what, you won't convince me.

my point is - why does how a team performs on UCL decide the quality of their national league? Atletico was irrelevant in Europe for decades, RM for nearly a decade - without passing R16 for 7 years in a row - with only Barça representing Spain (in a time they were way ahead the rest of all teams in the world - still we beat them). Then Germany have only had Bayern with their ups and downs - domestically and continentally - for also too many years. English teams took advantage of that with United, Chelsea and Liverpool reaching finals, SF and titles in the past decade (Liverpool early in the decade). What does it say? So now just because Spain has three teams doing well in the league - although Barça did leave the competition on QF last season and Germany had a final a couple of years ago, as well as Spain last year so now those leagues are stronger than ours? That's a weak argument and 'fact'. Bayern, RM, Barça and Atletico may be better than us, it says nothing about any league in any of those countries. Some prefer a polarized league like Bundesliga where they watch a team smash the rest, a league with a lot of money bringing a lot of stars such as English or maybe even a league that is closer in the top like the Spanish is now - despite the very recent Barça domination. Others prefer a league where small teams make big teams life tough. This is down to preference, not only about what entertains you more but as well what YOU think or I think is best. There's absolutely no absolute true because this is a very subjective matter. People ignore the deep (and probably long) transition united just started after Fergie left, City is a mess with a lot of money, but heavily badly managed (both board and managers), Arsenal is stuck with an outdated and stubborn manager and Liverpool is appreciating their history, hoping the media will win them some title as they decayed quality wise. So yeah, some English top teams are going through tough moments, it happens from time to time to any big league.

I think this is quite the overreaction, a simpleton way of thinking and even slightly alienated idea. Championships are different in their own way. Teams approach them in different ways and some teams know how to play certain knock out competitions. A league is competition that goes through 30+ rounds throughout a whole season - nine months of football nearly week in week out. Nothing beats that for me, imo national leagues >>> UCL. I want my team to win the league more than I want them to win Europe. We already have an UCL under our belt, it's no obsession anymore, so while it's a great achievement, it'll always give me more pleasure to know my team was better than its rivals - Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester teams and Liverpool - then beating some small and big names in Europe. Knock-out competitions are way more unpredictable than long run competitions. A team could have a bad day, could pile up injuries, could have one individual mistake decide a whole competition and it says NOTHING about said team being worse than the other. So this whole trendy new topic around here diminishing English teams is overreaction imo. As if Germany had 2-3 top teams. Spain has it now, but Atletico was a non-factor for many years, and RM were 7 years without going through the round of 16. In this meanwhile England had Liverpool, United and Chelsea winning titles and making finals and semifinals in other occasions. Our smooth transition from a team with limited resources and chances to a big deal makes people think that it's easy to achieve. PSG, City, Anzhi are the norm, we're the exception that proves the rule. Money doesn't buy everything, it's not enough in sports although of course, it improves many, many things and gives a team many, many more chances. Now just because we were very smart, lucky and well managed (board and managers) in those 10 years and rose many levels, it doesn't mean it's an easy thing to do. And also people got spoiled and they want us to become the next Barça or Bayern in a handful years. Barça had it coming for too many years and Bayern worked to make it where they are for 8 years. And those were teams that were already in a very high level. Now we came basically from scratch, but people already want us to be the best thing in football since Pele... I teach five year-olds and it never ceases to impress me some of them can't even fathom what the word 'wait' means. It's like a foreign concept to them, I ask them to wait and they look back at me puzzled. It seems they aren't the only generation who doesn't know the first thing about waiting. I'm not advocating English teams are ahead of everyone else, but dismissing and diminishing the English Premier League like some of you have been doing it's beyond pathetic imo and honestly, it sounds even stupid. I agree with someone that made a post the other day saying that English teams didn't get worse, but didn't adapt to modern football as quickly as others have. And guess what, the same way tiki-taka was the hit a few years ago, then total football, the next one is coming soon and no one knows what that will be or when it'll happen. Things in this era change way too much - maybe that's why people have such a hard time learning how to wait - and someone can come with an old-new idea tomorrow and we'll have a new winning football style replacing the current ones. Barcelona are reinventing themselves, Atletico showed how physicality can still be a winning formula, Dortmund showed total football, Bayern attacking football, RM counter-attacking football. The fact that United is going through a deep transition after losing Fergie, that City is and has always been a hot mess taking advantage of other teams messing up, that Arsenal can't find a way to be competitive because of its outdated, stubborn manager and Liverpool lost themselves in their adoration to their own history should be taken into account. Mourinho may not be as sharp as we wanted him to be, but he's managing the best he can. We've been outplaying every other team out there in terms of business and sooner or later we'll start collecting the dividends in the trophy room as well. We're changing our profile, but the process has been slowed down because Mourinho, the club and the players have been feeling the pressure. It doesn't mean English teams are a fraud or that EPL is weak. This is a wild idea that some insist on trying to make popular around here these days. Spain 4 years ago had only Barça, Bayern have had more ups and downs than a Disney roaller-coaster and who was taking advantage of those things in those years? English clubs. Trying to see football in such a black and white way always misleads people and make they have the oddest notions. We're far away from becoming Italy 2.0 - but guess what? England, Spain, Germany and even Italy themselves have all been there and done that before. But as I said, in this postmodern world change happens way too fast so we're just witnessing things with the forward button pressed. All those big leagues have been through 'crisis' moments. Who knows? Maybe Juventus pull many shockers and win UCL. Then people will say what? EPL may not be the very best league in the world, but it's a top 3 to say the least. Also that's a subjective matter. Some prefer a close and unpredictable league, others prefer a polarized league with a team that is probably the best in the world playing there, others prefer more clubs getting more money to have more stars in the country. So in such a subjective matter, dismissing or diminishing the league as if it was the MSL (which is a new league and also progressing quite quickly if you ask me) sounds rubbish.

Hey, but that's what counts for blood geniuses in the Mourinho thread saying 1) shit about his style all the time and 2) praising City's and Atletico's styles. But who cares if they lose at home or ends a match with RIDICULOUS pass completion of 57% against a struggling Bayern... It's all about attacking football or a team that knows how to press. City and Atletico just need to add 'winning' to their repertoire. Other than that they're the dream teams, with mouth watering and effective football styles

OT - I miss you so much... not only on the forum, but privately. Don't be a stranger, love

lol, somehow Willian's 3-4 very good matches recently were converted in two months... the things I read in people's post quoting other people (because obviously I can't read the originals). Oscar has a lot of goals on him, and maybe he could develop into the player that will earn his place in a team - Chelsea or other - because of it. Either way he needs to produce more than he has.

the problem is if we don't win... and I guess it's a 50/50 Hopefully we'll win, but the team have been having too many ups and downs. The key players aren't doing well or deciding and we just lost one for the final. Here's hoping for an Iva winner. Or Terry. Or anyone actually, but I feel like if anyone was going to get us the winner would be one of those guys. that's my concern to the final and the match against West Ham - and reason why I keep saying instead of addressing CAMs and wingers we should be addressing our pivot backup players. Who can we play? Even if we move Cesc to the CAM position, who's going to play alongside Ramires? Mikel may be as good as gone imo, but at least he could have done a defensively job for the most part. Now what are we supposed to do? Some said getting one of the defenders. I've watched Luís playing a few times, it wasn't Luiz's level, but maybe the kind of protection Cesc+Ramires could use. Just have a triple pivot and see how we cope. It could be Ake as well, but is he ready to play a final, a derby nonetheless when the club, the manager and the players have a lot of pressure to win?

I think right now it could be, but earlier the season he wasn't coping well defensively. We should see him more often now - especially on games at home. I think in the calendar year - the matches we could watch - Luís showed to have adapted to the physicality and he has been doing well defensively. Up to that point I think Mourinho was fair with the opportunities he gave to him. I really expect to see him and Zouma in all home games and even a few away adventures. Azpili is better than Iva defensively, but Iva has been saving our arses way too many times to risk benching him, so unfortunately I feel like Azpili should be sitting a few more times, not sure Mourinho will do it though. If he doesn't, then I'll agree with you.

He's on course of proving his second halves of seasons aren't enough at all. I find this argument much more valid to Oscar than Cesc... actually it isn't valid about Cesc actually imo, but Oscar's three seasons here so far have been terrible from December on.

big time? So if he repeats 2009 or 2008 won't be enough? Damn if he repeats even 2009 - which is more than our AMs without penalties normally do, then it's still big time drop of form? also I didn't know wins in the second part of the season gave additional points. If he collaborated with X points in the first half of the league, they have the same weight as any points in the second, if you didn't know. This reasoning only apply to knockout competitions...

There's a line the size of a cruiser between fair criticism towards players and manager and the spoiled moaning from people that love to criticize. I don't know what's rational, fair, and so special in the arguments and reasonings a few have going on here like a broken record (thankfully they're only a few, otherwise I would have stopped coming here a long time ago, there's so many people I can have on my ignore list). They worship other managers and players - that make mistakes and have bad matches as anyone else, but they ignore completely when those teams and managers do badly. They also overly criticize Mourinho and Chelsea when things are bad or not ideal, but guess what? They take disappearing tea when things are well. This is not a case of greener grass, but downright unhappiness, bitterness and crankiness. Someone could defend them and say they're the kind of people that are perfectionists, that demand and expect a lot from others - be it the team, the manager, the board, the club. But some aren't anything else but narcissists that want to be proven right - even if it means the team's pitfall while others are just grumpy. Now, when people that can say the difference between fair criticism and bratty endless complaining have something to say, I'm sure most people won't react as if they were spoiled bitches and call them on their moaning because then it won't be moaning, but criticism. The team should have expanded the lead before the Matic episode, regardless of how awful the officiating have been and how it had clearly harmed us in the end. You could see the team was trying, they weren't complacent and lacking interest like we did some times last season. It's just that we didn't do it. Burnley played well against a few big teams, they were lucky today, had the referee favor, and we weren't clinical when we should have. That's what leads are for, for when matches get complicated and you just can't get the result, you still continue ahead. No team is going to win 100% of their points til the end of the season despite some here believing City, Aguero, Simeone, Atletico, Coutinho, etc are perfect and never fail, despite what their positions in the table say. Poor unlucky souls, they aren't leading their leagues, but awful bastards such as Mourinho, Costa, Fabregas, Chelsea are. This world is so unfair.

If I need I'll post this picture on every page of this thread, maybe then the myth will go away. He had good second halves of season as well as bad. He's been injured more often between Jan-May than Aug-Dec - which is normal as players normally start collect knocks and tiredness appears then. He was never played to his full capabilities on Barcelona as he was played out of position, so I won't bother with his Barça years and the 2005/06 season for Arsenal and the ones before he didn't have expressive numbers yet. I don't think a guy assisting a goal every two matches is bad return, even every three... there's no doubt he usually has better stats in the first half of the season - I suppose that was never in question - but the idea he can't perform from January to May is a myth. He's been plagued with injures the second half of season - most small injuries (except 2008/09) - but then again most players that are overplayed in the first months suffer from this. At the end of the day in 87 matches he started in the second half of the season he directly contributed with 47 goals, which means 0,54 goals+assists per match. If that's bad for a pivot player - then I don't know what is good... edit: all that said he had a bad match against PSG and today again. Maybe because he was ill, maybe he because he hasn't fully reach form yet after missing a few games with an injury. Either way this could have happened at any moment of the season, it has nothing to do with a general idea comes January he can't play anymore.