The Benitez Thread

[robdog 2,084]

Well, regarding Aston Villa, it's a win against a team which fight to avoid the relgation. Granted it's a huge score line, at the end of the day that's three points against a team from which we merely had to take three points. Nothing special. As for Everton, it's a tricky team and they are the 3rd best home team, so well play — just as United (maybe if they weren't playing for 'nothing', it would have been different ?).

But, taking into consideration what I said in my previous post : we took three points out of 21 from this seven games. Out of those six teams, two are going down, and the others are respectively 3, 4, 5, 5 and 8 points away from the relegation. That's 18 points lost out of 21 from games which we should have won. We should have, at the very least, had taken 15 points from those games. We would have 12 points in more, which means that we would have had now 81 points — 4 below United and 6 ahead of City (had we not beat Arsenal/Everton and United, we would be on par with them).

Furthemore, gainst top-table opponents — namely United, City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton, Loserpool — we took 12 points out of 21 available (seven games) -> we took 'only' half of them. I do not believe that's an over-achievement.

Finally, since that skinny dude is the manager, here's the League table :

United -> 55 pts (23 games)

Tottenham -> 49 (24)

Arsenal -> 47 (23)

City -> 47 (24)

Chelsea -> 45 (24)

We're not in the top four.

Bro you need to stop using stats. It makes the people that say FSW is our savior looking stupid BTW, I don't believe the Villa match to be a walk in the park. They will be fighting relegation & they have been playing some good footie as of late. Won their last two & in their last home match it was 6-1 in their favor. CFC need to be on their p's & q's to get all 3 points.

[The Skipper 20,609]

Well, regarding Aston Villa, it's a win against a team which fight to avoid the relgation. Granted it's a huge score line, at the end of the day that's three points against a team from which we merely had to take three points. Nothing special. As for Everton, it's a tricky team and they are the 3rd best home team, so well play — just as United (maybe if they weren't playing for 'nothing', it would have been different ?).

But, taking into consideration what I said in my previous post : we took three points out of 21 from this seven games. Out of those six teams, two are going down, and the others are respectively 3, 4, 5, 5 and 8 points away from the relegation. That's 18 points lost out of 21 from games which we should have won. We should have, at the very least, had taken 15 points from those games. We would have 12 points in more, which means that we would have had now 81 points — 4 below United and 6 ahead of City (had we not beat Arsenal/Everton and United, we would be on par with them).

Furthemore, gainst top-table opponents — namely United, City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Everton, Loserpool — we took 12 points out of 21 available (seven games) -> we took 'only' half of them. I do not believe that's an over-achievement.

Finally, since that skinny dude is the manager, here's the League table :

United -> 55 pts (23 games)

Tottenham -> 49 (24)

Arsenal -> 47 (23)

City -> 47 (24)

Chelsea -> 45 (24)

We're not in the top four.

Very interesting this Peace. Thanks, I'll be using it in any argument against the ones that blindly love Rafa/think he's done a good job. Rafa's been average, he's not overachieved simply because we failed to take points against the bottom half of the table.

[HRiver 1,512]

Terry, Lampard, Ba!

I see experience, game changers. The best defender available. One of the best midfielders of his generation, who is set up for that situation, and our best striker available... All on the bench. You see no-one. I see Quality.

I don't see that much quality in Ba, tbh (and I know I am going to get slated for saying this). Imo Torres has been better than him ever since he came. I was trying to find his thread in the 'Current Squad' subforum earlier and I had to go to the second page to find it, which imo speaks volumes.

Furthermore, in a recent poll nobody voted him as the best signing of the season, and only one person voted him when asked 'Who do you see here in 5 years time?'. So, long story short, he has been above-average.

[Hutcho 8,443]

I don't see that much quality in Ba, tbh (and I know I am going to get slated for saying this). Imo Torres has been better than him ever since he came. I was trying to find his thread in the 'Current Squad' subforum earlier and I had to go to the second page to find it, which imo speaks volumes.

Furthermore, in a recent poll nobody voted him as the best signing of the season, and only one person voted him when asked 'Who do you see here in 5 years time?'. So, long story short, he has been above-average.

It also means that he hasn't had any poor performances.

Torres I think has more than 3 times the pages that lampard has...

Lampard is 100 times the player torres is... And it's only because he has been that bad that he would be talked about more. As for the voting. No he hasn't lit anything up... When you compare him to the likes of hazard. And azpi has been better value at 7mil. But for me ba has been head and shoulders ahead of torres. Just simply in what he offers for the rest of the team, even though he hasn't been playing that great.

As for the "who do you see here in 5 years time"...

We are Chelsea a buying club. Ba was a value buy with good resale value to help us... He was never bought to be a long term number 1 striker, so it is very likely he won't be here.

But in terms of the game yesterday. He can hold up the ball better than torres. He is stronger... And most importantly he was fresh.

[Kojo 4,676]

When it comes to making substitutions this guy is truly the worst, I've never known anyone so bad at it.

It's weird for a man who managed to change the game in the great come back against AC Milan, by putting a defensive midfielder on at halftime which ended up changing the possession massively.

[Reddish-Blue 2,512]

You're right. Had di Matteo still been our coach, we would have lost against West Ham, QPR, Newcastle, Southampton. We also would have drawn against Fulham, Southampton and Reading.

With di matteo as our coach, the results would have been pretty much the same...except maybe 1 win rather than a draw out of the fixtures you listed.

Also, with di Matteo as our coach, we wouldn't have beaten United 1-0, most likely would of lost against Everton and i'm certain we would of screwed up against some other mid-table side.

Kinda glad that Roman pulled the trigger on Di Matteo, hope he gets a coaching job sooner or later.

[robdog 2,084]

Yeah Ba is below average:

The nerves of some people

BTW check out the nice deer in the headlights pose by De Gea :eyebrows:

[Tomo 21,751]

Ba has been better than Torres, that shouldn't even be debatable.

Torres hasn't scored in the league since Ba's arrival. Torres scores in the Europa League where surprise, surprise he has no competition for his place.

[manpe 10,861]

I don't see that much quality in Ba, tbh (and I know I am going to get slated for saying this). Imo Torres has been better than him ever since he came. I was trying to find his thread in the 'Current Squad' subforum earlier and I had to go to the second page to find it, which imo speaks volumes.

Furthermore, in a recent poll nobody voted him as the best signing of the season, and only one person voted him when asked 'Who do you see here in 5 years time?'. So, long story short, he has been above-average.

Is this a serious post? Ba is a worse than Torres because his topic was lower? Have you read Torres's topic and what 95% is made of? Hate towards him. In fact his topic has the most pages, does this mean he's our best player? It's also no surprise he wasn't voted for best signing of the season when he's been used sparsely, he joined only in January and we signed Hazard. Also, you're saying Ba has been above average and Torres has been better, what does that make Torres then... good?

You're entitled to your opinion, but your arguments to support this opinion aren't valid.

[Changingman_2000 876]

With all respect - people often "know" why they do things but that doesn't mean they make sound decisions. Perhaps they just don't know enough and need help.

And Benayoun looked exhausted after just 5 minutes on the pitch.

We had Terry, Lampard and Ba on the bench, no?

Yep, a bench full of nobodies, Lamps, JT and Ba. I'd rather he brought in Ross Turnbull and put him on the wing, instead of Benayoun.

Benayoun, like Thrush, will be gone in a matter of weeks, thank fuck.

[Reddish-Blue 2,512]

Yep, a bench full of nobodies, Lamps, JT and Ba. I'd rather he brought in Ross Turnbull and put him on the wing, instead of Benayoun.

Benayoun, like Thrush, will be gone in a matter of weeks, thank fuck.

It's always funny seeing Benayoun on the pitch...such a useless player.

He must love life at Chelsea....just train with the first team squad, make a few time wasting substitute appearances and then collect your weekly wages.

Why did we keep him this season?

To be honest, I'd rather see the skinny Josh McEachran on the bench than Benayoun..who kissed the Arsenal badge and celebrating when RvP beat us last season

[bushman 2,043]

Terry, Lampard, Ba!

I see experience, game changers. The best defender available. One of the best midfielders of his generation, who is set up for that situation, and our best striker available... All on the bench. You see no-one. I see Quality.

JT & Frank were rested for Saturday´s game. I agree BA could have played. I see no reason to play them. You can not see what Rafa´s thinking.

[whatthemata 249]

Yep, a bench full of nobodies, Lamps, JT and Ba. I'd rather he brought in Ross Turnbull and put him on the wing, instead of Benayoun. Benayoun, like Thrush, will be gone in a matter of weeks, thank fuck.

Did that on FIFA, as a joke (instead it was Courtois!). But agree, hopefully this summer it will be a clear out (Benayoun, Malouda, possibly Marin on loan). And then the reinforcement of game changers can begin! Not much tweaking though, just need someone 'special' to take over! :eyebrows:

[didierforever 7,349]

With di matteo as our coach, the results would have been pretty much the same...except maybe 1 win rather than a draw out of the fixtures you listed.

Also, with di Matteo as our coach, we wouldn't have beaten United 1-0, most likely would of lost against Everton and i'm certain we would of screwed up against some other mid-table side.

Kinda glad that Roman pulled the trigger on Di Matteo, hope he gets a coaching job sooner or later.

away wins at arsenal and tottenham. the way we toyed with pool for 60 odd minutes before suarez pushed rambo to score.

under RDM we were having a bad phase like in almost evry other winter. the juventus game was bad. he gambled and lost the plot but i can safely say this RDM HAD FAR MORE KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT HE WAS DOING AND WANTED TO DO WITH THIS CHELSEA SQUAD THAN FSW EVER WILL.

[Strike 7,505]

I don't see that much quality in Ba, tbh (and I know I am going to get slated for saying this). Imo Torres has been better than him ever since he came. I was trying to find his thread in the 'Current Squad' subforum earlier and I had to go to the second page to find it, which imo speaks volumes.

Furthermore, in a recent poll nobody voted him as the best signing of the season, and only one person voted him when asked 'Who do you see here in 5 years time?'. So, long story short, he has been above-average.

The thing with Ba - he's shown up in the big games, where our defenders and mids are closed down quickly and they play the long ball over the top to Ba. His goal vs City was typical example of this. I think Ba was a great signing, especially at 7mil, but NOT as a first-choice striker. Next season, when we get a proper quality striker, Ba will be a great option to thrown on from the bench and add a presence up-front. Something like the role Dzeko plays at City

[HRiver 1,512]

Is this a serious post? Ba is a worse than Torres because his topic was lower? Have you read Torres's topic and what 95% is made of? Hate towards him. In fact his topic has the most pages, does this mean he's our best player? It's also no surprise he wasn't voted for best signing of the season when he's been used sparsely, he joined only in January and we signed Hazard. Also, you're saying Ba has been above average and Torres has been better, what does that make Torres then... good?

You're entitled to your opinion, but your arguments to support this opinion aren't valid.

The fact that Ba's topic is lower doesn't make him worse than Torres, what has made Torres better than him this season is his performances. I am not saying Torres has been good, but he is somewhere between above-average and good. I should've said slightly better in order to make that clearer. I wasn't trying to praise Torres, btw. The point I was trying to make is that, considering the hype that surrounded his move, so far Ba has been a disappointment.

If I had to rate their seasons, I think if I was generous I would give Torres a 7. A 6 is the highest I'd give Ba.

[didierforever 7,349]

The fact that Ba's topic is lower doesn't make him worse than Torres, what has made Torres better than him this season is his performances. I am not saying Torres has been good, but he is somewhere between above-average and good. I should've said slightly better in order to make that clearer. I wasn't trying to praise Torres, btw. The point I was trying to make is that, considering the hype that surrounded his move, so far Ba has been a disappointment.

If I had to rate their seasons, I think if I was generous I would give Torres a 7. A 6 is the highest I'd give Ba.

how? why? what do u see when you watch a football match? did you watch the united game. BA was in vidic's face every bloody minute and every bloody second. he might not have won even 40% of the long balls but just his making the defenders work counts a lot. his hold up play is brilliant and infinite times better than the ladyboy you think is better than him. the fact that BA has scored 2 BRILLIANT AND AWESOME goals against the MANCHESTER clubs tells us about his quality. when was the last time torres scores against a proper top flight english club? all he has done is score against pub clubs like brentford and europa league clubs.

how any1 in the world can say "If I had to rate their seasons, I think if I was generous I would give Torres a 7. A 6 is the highest I'd give Ba." is beyond me.

[karaclouds 47]

ITS THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

[bushman 2,043]

Now I read above, RDM had more knowledge about football than Rafa..?

In what way, i´d like to know ?

[HRiver 1,512]

how? why? what do u see when you watch a football match? did you watch the united game. BA was in vidic's face every bloody minute and every bloody second. he might not have won even 40% of the long balls but just his making the defenders work counts a lot. his hold up play is brilliant and infinite times better than the ladyboy you think is better than him. the fact that BA has scored 2 BRILLIANT AND AWESOME goals against the MANCHESTER clubs tells us about his quality. when was the last time torres scores against a proper top flight english club? all he has done is score against pub clubs like brentford and europa league clubs.

how any1 in the world can say "If I had to rate their seasons, I think if I was generous I would give Torres a 7. A 6 is the highest I'd give Ba." is beyond me.

Only 6 goals in 20 games is still a disappointment in my book, no matter what.