darrus

Why are you trying to pin the blame on Mata? Sure he didn't have a great games this season but this is no reason to imply that he is an arrogant prick who doesn't give a sh*t and won't fight for the team. That really was uncalled for. I know it's a favorite sport in all the forums pinning the blame on someone - hell, Barcelona fans blame Messi for everything that is wrong with their team at every opportunity - but for god's sake, it's too early in the season still, we're in contention for all competitions, why not wish for every player in the team and a manager to do well? Bayern isn't playing total attack. Dortmund does, and it's great to watch, but I'd rather watch counter attacking football that gets the job done than go all out attack and be in the situation BVB is now. Matter of taste.

I guess you should follow your own advice. Buying players doesn't mean being in transition. If Barcelona or Ajax buys 22 new players they will still be playing the same way and getting some sort of results because the way of playing will stay the same. We don't have this sort of identity so new coach, new system and new players means time for building a team. The same is happening with City and MU this season. If you think that sticking 15 good players and good coach in the same team means instant automatic results you seriously need a reality check - or just go study recent history of Real Madrid which is a great example of how amazing players and good coaches guarantees you nothing.

That probably sums up this thread and this board. Fact is we're definitely a team in transition and the reasons were already named - up to last year main players were the same as 5-6 years ago, now we have an almost full 'change of guard'. Fact is - Roman knew the man he is calling to build him a team, knew his preferred tactics and ways of playing and still appointed him as a manager. And Mourinho (Benitez, Guardiola, Klopp, any other name) is not in the team to keep players happy or adjust to their needs. Coaches are either appointed to get results NOW!! or to create long term project. Everyone loves using Barcelona as an example, but most forget that before going up they went through the abysmal period while building the system. Then they got a bit lucky with the generation they had - it's really one in a million coincidence to get Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Puyol and others at your academy basically at the same time. But the main thing - now that they have their system of play players that don't fit, no matter how great they are, are quickly shipped out. Eto'O, Ibrahimovich, Villa as examples. So it's either you get a bunch of players, stick them somewhere on the field where each of them feels more comfortable, build the play around it and get something out of the season. Problem in this is that next season you're probably going to get different players and will have to adjust your tactics to them. Or you create a system - sure, again based on what you have in front of you, but the point is in the system you remove any player, replace him with another one and it still works. Now everyone knows that Mourinho is building from the back - solid defence, quick counter-attacking and compact in the middle with some interchangeable positions and posisbility to change scheme during the match. Wether the players will get it and wether it works we'll se in spring - only then it will become clear if we're up to something or the season is lost. Right now when we're in prime position in League Cup, with another cup not even started, first place in CL group and in worst case 7 points off the 1st place in the table with 11 matches out of 38 played it's still too early to declare that it's not working. That the team is not playing as good as the fans would like and we're dropping points when we are not supposed to, yes, fair point. Some personal decisions too (I'll still take Oscar over Mata as #10 any day but Lampard should be benched I think). Though I object when people say we're getting lucky results. 1 time is lucky, 2 times is coincidence, 3 times is already a rule. It's not ideal to survive by last minute goals or forced mistakes by opponents but with team in transition (no matter how many people here dislike the word ) we get results the way we can, the main thing we are getting them. Mourinho's teams are always judged by his second season with Chelsea1 being an exception. First season is a build-up, and again at the end of season we'll see if it builds up to something or not. I for one refuse to start overreacting in November. Though the temptation is great I must admit.

I would be happy if Mata showed that we need him. He's on the pitch right now doing f**k all like the rest of the team.

God's sake, Willian...

Now *that* is depressing.

Expected one.

Actually you are absolutely right about first match. But surely the good coach will be playing all out attack in an away match with Barca being 1 man down the whole match? Pointless argument anyway.

Eto'O!!! In Russian 'Eto' means 'this' - so a lot of "this is Ooo" jokes around here.

There is a great distance between criticizing and saying dumb things though.

It took 30 minutes and suddenly our players realized that shooting at goal may actually be a good idea. Way to go, guys. *sarcastic pessimist mode off*

Again lots of posession, lots of movement and no danger? We've seen that already...

Refreshing to see us trying to attack from first minutes.

Surely calling a club and a coach outright liars and saying that a player should play every match regardless of his form because he is young (is 22 really "young" in football terms anyway? Messi won his first Golden Ball at 22 if you're using Messi as an example) and cost 35 m to us is taking it a bit too far? Anyway, what is more important, having a team play well and getting results or playing Hazard/Luiz/Lampard/Messi/MrBin to keep a player happy and confident? If there is a player for the same position playing well why should coach give a nod to someone arguably more talented but performing below par?

I'd say not fixed, but is working on fixing definitely.

WTF all this stuff about Hazard? Looks like the guy got himself into trouble. Just what I needed to spoil a good evening...

Lol, with Basel match ending 1-1 we're as good as qualified for play-offs already. Just what we needed! So who said we can't win a match in November?

What is Jose feeding to our forwards? They are scoring!!!

YESSS!!!

Eto'O, master of stealing balls from goalkeepers, 80 lvl

Meanwhile Steaua is 1-0 up on Basel. Would be a convenient result.

That's a bit more like it.

What passes for our defence today so far isn't called "defence", it's called many other words /censored/

Just thought the same thing. Well, anyone who comes in as a substitute will not be lacking motivation. Oops, no Hazard even on the bench. But he needs rest, really, and time to think too.

For players from Spain/Portugal/Italy/Latin American countries "Mister" is usual way of adressing the coach. Or maybe JOse's anger was too scary