Barbara

best post I've read in this forum in a long while. I absolutely agree. Wanted to write something along the lines in the Derby x Chelsea match thread, but wasn't as eloquent and clear as you. Developing youth doesn't come from a game gifted here and there, but integrating them to the squad. Mourinho is working with them this season, and getting to know them in the training sessions. I could see the ones he feels like are nearly ready staying another season but becoming part of the squad for real. If they don't, it's because Mourinho doesn't believe they're ready to be integrated - or even in more extreme cases, that they aren't cut to make it here. Then it comes down to trust. Mourinho had no problem benching Ramos and playing Varane - who later played most games there, at age 19, and forced Arbeloa to the bench. He gave Varane the chance because he thought he was capable. It really doesn't make a difference if Varane was formed at Madrid or not, after training a while under Mourinho, Mourinho saw what he needed and promoted the kid. Mourinho is competitive and I agree with everyone who will say he isn't know as a youth promoter kind of manager. I agree he's even reluctant to use them, but he's not a clown that will give those kids 1-2 matches a season in worthless matches or matches of less importance just to shut fans up. He will give the chances for those he believes are ready to receive REAL chances, not charity.

THANK YOU! On the Derby argument, I've watched the game and the first minutes - even with Bamfordinho's goal - Derby was high pressing, had high possession and Boro didn't do much. Then they dropped the intensity and Boro started balancing things on the first half and dominated in the second. On the youth, I'm sort of tired of people saying so many things. I want those kids to have real chances. 90 minutes - if was the case - in a dead rubber in UCL will only make RLC's family happy, but that contributes ZERO with his development in the club. We built a strong team because we needed and want to win trophies, it's been a while since we've won something relevant. Now it's not the time to introduce kids, unless we have injuries and suspensions problems and there's no other way. One match here and there, 30 minutes here and there ISN'T developing or giving youth a chance. It's crumbs, it's charity, it's looking nice for the fans. Those kids are TRAINING under Mourinho. He's WORKING with them and at the right moment the REAL CHANCES will come. It won't be some charity game or some consolation minutes that will make us a club that gives chances to youth. Mourinho isn't a manager known for that, but some of the requests around here are laughable. As if one match or two per season is what will make those kids make or break here... As if everyone and their mothers won't be talking all sort of BS if for some necessity one of the kids come and make mistakes that could cost us precious points. It's all dandy and peachy when they aren't there messing up (and what are the chances of them messing up?) and everything is beautiful in a fake and delusional world where letting them play one or two dead rubbers or a game in the least important domestic cup configures as 'developing youth'. Come on, this is charity, not developing youth. Give Mourinho time to work with them and if he continues to sign older player for the positions Baker, Ake, RLC, Boga etc... could at least be part of the main squad, then make your case. Making your case over a UCL dead rubber and League Cup initial rounds matches isn't a strong one.

Somehow I agree with both of you... I think it's a weakness of his game, but I also think he was much better than I expected. If someone complains about his lack of technique (or unconventional technique negatively) I'll agree to them to a certain extent. What really bothers me is that he was worshiped here for months - with the same limitations, after all he didn't improve or got worse in the time span of one month - are now being really harsh on him. He was the best thing since sliced bread and now he's shitty? Come on, he wasn't/isn't either. He's a very useful striker for us, that already won us matches, that has been key, that went through a blip, a very small drop of form and who has a few areas of his game that he can improve and some weaknesses he won't ever improve. None of those weaknesses limit his usefulness though. He's exactly the kind of striker we needed imo. I think we have complimentary strikers, which is always good. Suarezes and Agueros aren't found everywhere. Aguero is VERY injury prone and a cunt (I like most of Costa antics and approve of them because except with the Ramos episode where he spitted on him, he never kicked and stepped on opponents like Aguero has so many times, he's a cunt) and Suarez who is the cunt of the cunts, a cheater and whats not, score 5 against Norwich but seem to struggle very often against big teams or in big matches (I could say he bottles, but maybe some will think that's too much). Still they're amazing strikers, I'd have Aguero - I wouldn't have Suarez, but just because they're better than Diego on some aspects it doesn't mean Diego isn't what we needed.

In theory is a great team with a horrible defense... but they haven't been playing that well all their matches. But as you and others pointed out, City has no UCL confidence whereas Barça has tons of it. I still believe City will qualify. I hope I'm wrong though

I'm not saying he wasn't upset. But you could see the agenda from afar. There were some takes taken from the stadium and even TV cameras that away from the cameras he was quiet, just upset, but in one of them you see him completely transform once a camera moves closer to where he is. Google it. It's crystal clear. Everyone was upset that day and I agree many deserved criticism, Scolari more than anyone else, but he's been slammed by foreign media and here in Brazil it was actually much less... it was a spectacle. One I hate to remember. I lost all my respect for him that day. I do believe he was really upset, but he was also trying to save face - and hard.

Definitely the Everton match. What the fuck was that? I was at the edge of my seat the whole second half until Mikel back heeled to assist the goal. Wait... what? WTF you don't make stuff like that up. Btw can we get back to that level of finishing?

I didn't mean the football presentation, but the theatrics. The crying for the cameras, the fake forgivesses requests to 'his people' and all BS he pulled... disgusting. There was a fan made report that showed him looking for the cameras to show his 'heartbreak' and how every interview was filled of BS. It was the most blantant PR move to change the focus from the embarrassment he individually and the team collectively brought. So not to be blamed for 3 of the first 5 goals Brazil conceded he started that oscar worth performance. Disgusting

well if the teams can't stop us, someone has to... it's no coincidence imo, many of the yellows our players received were a joke.

I think City will actually beat Barça... I really don't know where people get the idea that Barça currently have a great team. They don't. They're a mess, with tons of 'lucky' calls their way, and more ups and downs than rollercoasters at Disneyland. I'm happy with PSG. I want us to score three past Luiz... in Paris and then four in London Seriously, I went from loving the guy to not standing him during the WC and all that shit he said (and cried) to the television cameras to pretend he actually gave a fuck. Clown.

I don't see much in common. City started way better than United did. Their competition were Arsenal and Liverpool as we weren't there yet. This year their competition is defending champions City and us - both of which a level or two (to say the least) above them.

You have aguero and Suarez in mind... so everyone has to be like them? How much has Suarez been scoring btw? Aguero has amazing service for him and he's a different kind of striker. Sorry but you sound awfully ungrateful, unappreciative and even a bit spoiled. Costa has 12 goals in 13 or 14 matches in the league. Yep, definitely ungrateful and spoiled no matter what afterthought comment you add at the end of your post saying you're happy to have him. You prefer the cunt or the cheater, clearly. But as Thomas said to each their own...

Harsh... Costa actually has pretty good hold-up play, DD is better, no doubt, but not to the point Costa's is amateurish compared. Really, really, really harsh imo. If Remy starts the match against Derby, then I'll see no problem with him being ignored yesterday. If he doesn't, then I'm somewhat disappointed with how has been giving him chances. He's been reduced to the Ba role from last season. Ba was only used more often towards the end of the season, when he scored in the UCL, against Liverpool, etc... earlier in the season he was seldom used. I understood the reasoning behind Ba's limited chances based on his style. But it makes no sense to me that Remy has been seeing so little playing time. But José is seeing him on trainings, maybe there's something happening that we don't know. We had no idea Schurrle was sick, maybe Remy hasn't been producing more than DD in the trainings and let's be fair and honest, after a shaky start when he couldn't even complete a decent pass and struggling with a few physical issues, DD rose. He's been playing very well if you ask me.

CUTEST THING EVER Also Oscar said in his post-match interview that he saw Eden asking for the cross. You can see when he looks up, and he must have seen some small gesture by Eden, because I see nothing. Anyway, it was a superb cross, perfect weighted and spotted, but it was also a brilliant run and a perfect header. His movement and jump to head it make it look like he does it every other week. You wouldn't even say he jumps with his eyes closed - because he really does, I've seen it before, as Mourinho said.

Also another thing people don't know or forget. Costa started playing football at very late age (16). That's when he STARTED, like the first time he's ever been to a football training session of any sorts, when he went to a football academy. Kids start way earlier and they learn a lot of things about the sport from being there longer. At this age Costa was punching people around because he had no idea what meant to be a team. I know it seems like a crazy notion that he didn't even know how to behave, but we don't know about his upbringing. He was very, very raw when he started and that wasn't even technically. Normally players aren't technical at that age, but they've already learned a lot of things. What I meant with all this is that despite being 26 he isn't at his peak yet. He still has some ceiling and I have no doubts he will improve. He started late, so of course he'll peak later. While other players have been playing football for most of their lives, starting in academies at age 10, 11 - if nor earlier - Costa has been playing football for only 10 years. I think when he's 28 we'll see his best football, and I believe he'll improve a lot in those two years and will polish considerably his technique.

That's something he's not given enough credit for. He's very clever. He reads things well, but when you don't have sky rocket confidence and you try the kind of play that isn't your best - although you can execute it 5-6 times out of 10, chances are you'll fail. How many times have we've seen he pass by opponents outside the box? How many times have we've seen him linking up with other players outside the box? We haven't been feeding him as we did earlier the season and he was going through a blip of confidence. Seriously, what are four matches? Especially because he wasn't missing chance after chance. He struggled a bit and then the frustration started to show, but he worked it around. If anything we should be applauding him instead of judging him. I can never fault a player that will leave his comfort zone - whether it's running or receiving the ball inside the box - to help the team, to make things happen, to take matters into his hands when we struggle to create. He's awkward when trying to hold up, to link up or even dribble passed opponents. You look at him and you don't understand what he's doing something - unorthodox as you say - but earlier the season he would make it work 5 out of 10 attempts - at least. And for someone that isn't that kind of player, I think it's B for result and A for effort. I can't fault or complain about Costa, not even in this attempt of a drought - because seriously, four matches isn't a drought at all.

Given the way we've been playing lately, I think it's very important that he regains form and starts receiving more chances. Schurrle is the kind of player we don't have in the team, at his best his a powerful weapon now that we have someone like Cesc that spots his runs. He's an important asset and I hope he gains the RW position in a couple of months. Also, he's yet another example of player that his gives all, he never stops trying. As we now know he was nursing a disease lately, maybe that's why he became suddenly so selfish and was trying a thousand shots by match. Yesterday he had a chance to shoot, and he chose to pass to Drogba (IRRC). He was never selfish, and I was surprised to see him over-shooting everything, but maybe it was because he knew he had some limitations and decided to take the thing he does better instead of going for the pass. When you know you have physical issues, you try to make things happen faster. It's normal reaction. You go for the kill earlier.

We all knew his strengths and weaknesses when we signed him and still he surprised me and I surrendered he was much better than I expected. I think it's a bit harsh to say he's simply a poacher. He fires up the team, he presents himself all the time, normally poachers - ofc there are exceptions - are all happy to be planted in the box and wait the team to feed them. The fight he has, the leadership, the way he gives his everything, all those things are important and we've missed them last season. I still can't believe how much he's been downgraded around here the last couple of weeks. We all know he isn't technically brilliant - far from it - but he will still try. The reason why we've seen so much of his limitations recently is because he's so eager to help the team that once he realized he hasn't been properly fed by our AMs, he left the box and tried to help. He doesn't have too many tools outside the box, but he's still there, biting, trying, fighting. How many clear chances he's missed in those four games he didn't score? How many times he received good balls inside the box and showed lack of confidence, quality or precision? I remember one, but maybe there had been a few more. The thing is, we stopped feeding him as well as we did earlier in the season, as a team we've dropped a few notches in our quality, but we're still scrapping wins. Yeah, we lost against Newcastle and drew against Sunderland, but we've been playing subpar to our own level for weeks now. Newcastle will always be a difficult side to play away and it seems like we've developed a Sunderland complex. I'm not defending him blindly, he has many technical limitations, but he isn't simply a poacher and he definitely isn't as inept as some of you are making him out to be. You sound especially fickle when you were all licking his ass for months and now are badmouthing him.

you're trolling me. Make it stop

For some reasons I read you meant only the match against Leicester. Well, they beat Bayern and Roma in those conditions (although I reckon some of them were back against Roma), which is impressive, but their latest matches in the league were very easy... Leicester sits at the bottom of the table, Southampton lost to Burnley, FFS. The win against Everton in theory was a more difficult one, but Everton have been really dogdy this season, they're in the bottom half of the table, just a few points clear from the relegation zone - which makes me laugh at Lukaku, but not the point. I got what you meant, and that's why I wanted them to lose UCL. When you have a lot of physical problems, your motivation can make you overcome the deficiencies, but if in addition to having a lot of physical issues your morale is on the floor, then where do you find the motivation to overcome those things? They should have lost to Bayern. Bayern SUCK monkey balls running away with their mickey mouse national league, but being useless in UCL. They also lost to City last year in the group stage and let's not talk about how Real Madrid humiliated them. Useless team with unbearable manager... and I strayed from the subject there. Bottom line, I agree with you.

Gifs!!!!!!! Hazard dribbling his teammates to celebrate his goal with his other bromancer side (come on, that's the cutest thing ever - and he almost makes Costa and Willian hug each other, as he leaves them in the space)

x I love his bromance with Oscar and ever since Pat made that comment in his analysis that they look for one another - especially Hazard for Oscar - when they're playing, I kept an eye on it today and that's absolutely true. These pics are too precious Oscar really looks like a kid on them, lol I think Hazard was superb today. It wasn't even one of his best matches today, he's played much better games for us in the last two and a half seasons, but it was how decisive he was. He won us the match when we were nothing special at all. That's what I want to see from him. I love the dribbles, the runs, the flicks, but I think what he really needs is to win us matches more often and I feel like he's made a lot of progress on that this season. He's still so young and he can and will grow so much, it's scary to think the heights he could/will reach. He stepped up the moment we needed him the most - when our creative outlet wasn't playing. That's the most important thing imo.

I think in a weaker league, he's an amazing player. EPL is above his level, it demands more than he can deliver in the final third, it's out of his league, literally. But as he plays in the EPL and he defends Chelsea's colors, we just have to accept it. But he frustrates me to no end. I hope Schurrle recovers and we see more of him. All that much better if we sign someone else, of course, but I won't be advocating for signings when I think we have a good squad. If someone like Reus comes, I'll be the happiest girl around, but I won't ask for him. I haven't been following the saga surrounding his departure from Dortmund, don't even know if there's a real chance of it happening, but seriously, why would he come here? I think the chances are remote, which is one more reason why I won't ask for him, but as I said, I haven't been following the saga, so I know nothing about what the chances really are.

Well, I did bother to read this one, so there you go. I'll give you a lot of arguments of why you said something that makes absolutely 0 sense. The weakest link can't be someone that according to you compromises in big matches when big matches don't represent even 20% of the matches we play in a season. Today was just the biggest proof of how much he influences positively our games. Are you calling PSG big? Sorry, I know you're French and all, but they aren't anywhere a big team, they aren't good enough (major proof of that is that Mourinho said yesterday that if he could pick an opponent for the round of 16 in UCL it'd be PSG). Barça have been alternating ups and downs. The only teams that are either strongest or at the same level as us are Madrid, Bayern and maybe City. Also Cesc isn't responsible and shouldn't be held accountable for how Mourinho sets the team against stronger sides (regardless if stronger than us, but stronger than average). And you realize what a contraction is to say he isn't good enough for the big games, despite assisting? You said it yourself, a guy who assisted our goals in the most difficult games we had in theory can't be the weakest link in the team. Again, I had a problem with how far you took it. He isn't at all the weakest link the team, there's no angle you can make it work to defend your opinion and it has nothing to do with my undeniable love for Cesc. If you had said that he isn't good enough to play the big matches, I would have disagreed but I would have never answered to you. what you said makes no sense whatsoever. Cesc wasn't brilliant in those two matches, I agree with you. The blame resides partially on him, but also partially on Mourinho. Mourinho is always going to play way too conservative in those matches, Cesc just becomes one of the sacrificed lambs. Against the Manchester teams we isolated Costa in the attack and tried to feed his runs, but we basically didn't create anything because the first priority to everyone that wasn't named Costa and Hazard in those games, was to defend. If Oscar and Willian were swamped with defensive responsibilities, being attacking midfielders, what do you think happened to Cesc, a pivot player? He could have done better, but he still assisted our goals, so I can't even complain much. I have more complaints about the system, our conservative approach than about Cesc. And I definitely don't believe the recurring myth that he can't perform in big games. Arsenal was never strong enough to face big teams, not Cesc's fault. Barcelona never suited his game and after everyone figured out how to stop their tiki taka and Xavi and Iniesta entered the descending years of their careers, Barça was just harmless - which isn't Cesc's fault either. I'll accept that argument after he plays at least two seasons for us and consistently doesn't show up in those games, but as long as he's providing the assists for the goals we score on them, I can't accept it either. I can and will say he can do better, especially if Mourinho doesn't set up the team so defensively aware, but he has to underperform a lot more in MOST upcoming big games for at least two seasons, for me to have a fair sample and be inclined to accept this nonsense, because right now given the context he played for Barcelona and Arsenal, this myth that he can't play big matches is just that, nonsense of people that don't analyze all variables, don't understand the game tactically and are more than ready to jump every bandwagon that comes their way.

I had absolutely no doubt this would happen... he's the kind of player Mourinho likes to have in the squad. I just wish Schurrle can find is best form ASAP so we're limited to playing Willian only against the big guns. He infuriates me, but as I said, the problem here is me, not exactly him (although, again, he's not the solution at all).

sorry to disagree again. I've just post thrice now because I couldn't access the forum earlier, and they were three negative posts, but come on, we weren't lucky to win at all. We were a mess, we were lost, we missed Cesc dearly, but we weren't lucky to win. Our first goal was simply brilliant - the only moment of brilliance we've created in the whole match as far as I can remember and we have a striker that doesn't forgive (thankfully) that kind of chance, which is also merit and not luck. We played a very bad match, but we played the worst side at the league at the moment, so that's the only context one could talk about luck, but even then, we don't know how we would have played against a different side. I think part of the reason why we were so lost and disorganized is because Hull is just a mess too. It's hard to play against a team that is a mess because you don't know exactly which game play to go sometimes. Lucky is Newcastle winning last match, that was a lucky win, today, not even close. We were going to win today's match 101 times in 100 attempts if the game was replayed over and over and over. I'm far from happy with the presentation, but we were able to do what we had to do to win. I think there are some adjustments to be done, but I don't know if it's fair to ask for them during the December marathon. I hope Mikel doesn't ever start another match for us in the two major competitions. UCL is now in knock-out stage - he has absolutely no business playing those, and EPL is close again, with City breathing in our neck - a situation that he also has no business playing. He makes us look much worse and like an average team, something even in our bad days, we aren't. I'm not blaming the whole fiasco (football wise) today on him, far from it, apart from Iva and Eden nobody had a great match - although Costa really upped his presentation in the second. It's just a question of Chelsea being a team with too many and big ambitions to have a player like Mikel figuring in important matches, and until the title has our name, any EPL match is too important for us to afford Mikel, as we already played Hull at home now. That was the only match I think we could afford him, unless another team has a deep drop in their quality and become as bad as Hull in the last months of the competitions (something very likely to happen). Ramires needs to recover asap because he's much better than Mikel, despite his clear and undeniable limitations. Decent result, good to see Hazard winning us a match, great to have Costa reconciled with the goal. Hopefully we'll play much better against Stoke. Now that will be challenging, but Cesc will be back and some of the key players will be rest against Derby, so I think we'll be more than able to deal with it. no, they don't. Kompany, Toure and Silva were all back. They've missed Aguero and Dzeko injured himself on warm up. That doesn't qualify as a lot of injuries.