bouletje

anyone knows the reason why he wasn't on the bench against bayern?

both feet on the ground again, back some modesty in his heart and open for business now.

if he's barely playing now with this low lvl of competition(torres, ba, schurrle, trololololo) on the forward position i don't see him getting the minutes he wants after eto'o for example comes in. we'll see how this turns out, if mourinho chooses torres as the sub for the new striker i don't see lukaku staying happy at the bridge. altho as a striker at such young age he should learn to deal with these things. can't expect after one good PL season to be trusted as the main striker in a team with ambition like chelsea. we need to be certain we have a good striker, not making a guess and putting our trust on the 20yo fella that proved himself just one season in the PL so far. for chelsea: always good to have a kid like lukaku with the ambition and talent to become very important for the team for the guy himself: maybe one more season of bullying PL- defenses on a weekly base would have been a better idea, i'm starting to think they brought him back in one season too early.

Moses not in the squad, his loan seems to be imminent http://www.uefa.com/uefasupercup/season=2013/clubs/club=52914/squad/index.html this was posted earlier, don't think he'll be part of this. I like the signing tho, no one on the attacking part of the team is certain for a spot, competition brings out the best in ppl usually

we stole away 1 point at OT, when you say it like that, it's a good thing because only few teams will succeed doing that. about the game itself we were lucky our defense was outstanding today. if we would have gotten one in, we would be screwed, there never was the intention to win this game, schurrle up front was the proof for that. and well lukaku... this is a mentality check for him, if he manages to keep his head clear and doesn't get too disappointed by this, it will show he's maturing.

as football always works, the best will play the most, if kevin has the talent/mentality to be of importance to chelsea he'll get his playing chances. on the other hand if he doesn't manage to show his talents in the now probably reduced playtime he gets, i would advice him to search his luck somewhere else the first coming transfer period. now personally i would love him to be of importance to chelsea, not as a benchwarmer, that's entirely up to him an jose how this will evolve

you can't always expect a game to be won the way we did on sunday, though game against the villa. Was anyone's game, but we managed to pull it off. on the defense, iva was amazing imo, typical defender i like to watch in a game, though, sometimes over the line(with the elbow) but that's what i like to see, character and an over my dead body mentality. more towards the front, didn't see mata at all, made some basic passes nothing more, expect more from him. hazard did his job and so did oscar ba disappointed edit about the elbow, don't want him to be a butcher but it's the over my dead body mentality i'm referring to.

lukaku had a poor game, i really want him to succeed and become one of the greatest ever but yesterday was a real poor performance. he was moved off the ball by a player half his strenght 3-4 times in that first half while lukaku was standing between the ball and the defender IMO that's something he really shouldn't allow, never in any defender's life should he be able to get a chance at touching a ball that has lukaku in between him and the ball. the two issues in that matter were that he was waiting for the ball too often, and that he failed to use his immense strength. second half he started well, but he missed that chance, well maybe it had too much pace who knows. but then benteke came in and there was suddenly alot more possession for the belgian team, because he did manage to hold a ball and he did manage to keep an impossible pass in the team. MoM was Kompany, the guy was amazing.

so what we are talking about here is to sign an injury sensitive?? 35m striker maybe and he's been second choice for a year because he wasn't performing at his highest lvl? aren't there any better choices available?

haven't been following the premier league for a year or two because of work and traveling etc, but what is the reason he is second choice to van persie there?

What i found him doing wrong yesterday was his obsession to always go deep whenever he got a long ball towards him. It wouldn't do any harm for him to just control the ball and hold on to it for a few without storming to the other end, we were having a very though first half, very demanding for the back lines, holding the ball midfield would give the squad the chance to move forward slightly. Possession alone is a good way to be relieved of the pressure Madrid was giving us.

That was a real pain to watch yesterday the long balls that were not even near a target once. Was a good test on the stamina of our back line tho first half no longer than 2 minutes without pressure...

Well my opinion on this match is: even the best striker in the world wouldn't have won us that game, the long balls going forward is a shit way to play, not effective and yeah, wich striker on this planet would you think could've handled himself against 4 of madrid's defense? don't see rooney for example make his way through that. the squad had other problems that first half other than not having a world class striker. I see all the fuzz about a better striker would solve all the problems, well we can have the best in the world out there and we still wouldn't have won that first half. second half we started well, started playing our own game, nice few passes, less respect for the opposition and we had our second one coming until we got that asshole head in a good one in our own goal. after that third goal it was over for me, feed fell off. Can't say if that good start was because of the input of de bruyne and moses or the half time pep talk, certainly was not for torres to take credit for that. it's a friendly, and if you look at what friendlies are for, this game was perfect imo. it's strange to see how the result of a friendly turns out to be something that looks like a crisis here in these forums. When the season starts and we crush hull city, we'll see it's just some fine tuning and the quality in the squad is well enough to start winning against a top opposition.

going to bed, shame i can't see the last 10 minutes, streams are all down.

there's no transition from defending to midfield, not sure if another striker will solve this problem.

Tried to sleep for a few hours, but failed... Opened my first beer so probably lying face down on the couch in an hour...

true, pigs will be mad, u comparing them to that

well every single player had the chance to prove themselves whether it's pre season or not, kdb hasn't disappointment annoyne and he's performing well, give him a shot in the PL and I'm sure that he'll prove himself worth there, just like he's been doing in every game he played in the past. Chelsea Will love him I'm sure:)

you'll have an insane amount of running on the flanks in that first half, guess he'll have to bring in new defenders to prevent his players from drooling on the pitch

antwerp here, all windows open, plus there's no heat a cold stella can't take care of

haha i fell for it, ok man thanks

why? Always on the night shift and i have a day off, just my normal rythm

So no chance for us here in belgium to see the game live...

Why are we talking about praet here? Well imo ,lived up to the hype? No. Confirmed he deserves a spot every week in last years champion of belgium? Yes. His coach confirms this by putting him in his 11. And he still looks young so that's a good thing.

how come you both get so frustrated about this? here's a video so other ppl can comment on the kid because you two seem to disagree. My own opinion is: great potential, but 16 is too early to tell. ps. comment is in dutch and this is my first post so i don't know if the vid will be posted the way it should be.