Willian

[kellzfresh 7,229]

I don't really think its a about laid back mentality, because if he did, Mourinho wouldn't be playing him. I would be more inclined to believe that he's been instructed to play like that.

He is like mikel, in the sense that he follows the coaches instructions, and tactically executes them. But to become a better player one needs to impose yourself in the match, and Willian does this rarely.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

He is like mikel, in the sense that he follows the coaches instructions, and tactically executes them. But to become a better player one needs to impose yourself in the match, and Willian does this rarely.

that's true to an extent. He doesn't dare to take risks as often as Eden or Oscar do and sticks to what Jose probably does tell him to do.

[5354 204]

He does impose himself isnnt it? Just rarely.

I rememberd the few occasions whereby he scored some wonderful goals which wasn't really expected from him

[The only place to be 11,313]

Even with Schurrle, I still see him as a starting player next season, especially in the big games. Stats or not, he aid Mourinho's way of playing.

I think in the big games when we want to keep it tight, he'll play in that 433 that we saw yesterday in the second-half. We have a lot of big games in the first few months so he'll probably feature a lot but Schurrle NEEDS to be playing consistently from December onwards if we want to win the league in my opinion.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

I think in the big games when we want to keep it tight, he'll play in that 433 that we saw yesterday in the second-half. We have a lot of big games in the first few months so he'll probably feature a lot but Schurrle NEEDS to be playing consistently from December onwards if we want to win the league in my opinion.

If the aim is attractive football this season then Schurrle should be a natural starter. It's not like his work-rate is that bad either.

[The only place to be 11,313]

If the aim is attractive football this season then Schurrle should be a natural starter. It's not like his work-rate is that bad either.

Winning is the aim with Mourinho....although not losing is perhaps more accurate.

That 433 we saw last night is built to stop teams, and Hazard and Willian are the only real concessions to attacking aspirations (along with Cesc's passing and Costa's striking ability, both of which will come second to their defensive duties).

I think we'll see that more than we'd like up to December because we have a lot of big games and the important thing is to be in touching distance of the title come Christmas. From then on we face 'weaker' teams and that's when we'll play more attacking football in my opinion.

Or maybe we'll actually look to beat teams by outplaying them a la Brenton....but unlikely.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

I don't have a problem with Willian. I prefer Andre to him, but Willian is still a useful player and I'm sure he'll get a lot of playing time this season. BUT he must stop taking corner kicks. FFS we might as well give the ball to the opposition.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Winning is the aim with Mourinho....although not losing is perhaps more accurate.

That 433 we saw last night is built to stop teams, and Hazard and Willian are the only real concessions to attacking aspirations (along with Cesc's passing and Costa's striking ability, both of which will come second to their defensive duties).

I think we'll see that more than we'd like up to December because we have a lot of big games and the important thing is to be in touching distance of the title come Christmas. From then on we face 'weaker' teams and that's when we'll play more attacking football in my opinion.

Or maybe we'll actually look to beat teams by outplaying them a la Brenton....but unlikely.

I think we'll be looking for the win more often than not this season. We played 4-3-3 in the 2nd half of the season when we had already dropped deeper... Jose will still employ that in the big matches but the addition of Cesc will make that less apparent.

[edetarod 2,155]

i think we can all agree that he's a good player to have, can be very useful

but for 32 mill you expect something more

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

i think we can all agree that he's a good player to have, can be very useful

but for 32 mill you expect something more

Who knows maybe this year we see it?

[romeeh 139]

His stats aren't just a problem over the last year, but over the course of his career. He's never scored that many goals so the chances of him doing so at 26 are low. As for his defensive contribution, it's good in the context of a wide midfielder.

I also think he's deceptively slow over anything more than 5 yards. I don't think I've ever seen him outpace a player, but he does have quick feet and a fast running style which means he can usually beat the first man.

But it's hard to separate the fee from the man.

exactly thats what iam saying he has really high quality in dribbling passing..etc but his problem is scoring and even assist and he defend very well when u want to kill the match but if u compar to other players play in his position ...in numbers shurrle in all his career (played 233 match scored 68 goals) and he is 24 years....salah in all his career (played 143 match scored 56 goals) and he is 22 years still.......willian in all his career ( played 329 match and scored 46 goals!) and he is 26 years.. so i think schurrle and salah more forward players than willian.

[Iainrfc04 39]

i think we can all agree that he's a good player to have, can be very useful

but for 32 mill you expect something more

Agree with that, here's hoping that we see that this season

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

Happy Birthday!!! :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

[nadavTKL 1,787]

I have to ask again, people keep saying Willian has poor Stats over his career, but 'stats' also means Assists, anyone know how many Assists he gave every season in Shaktar?

Generaly, you dont have to score alot of goals to be a player who contribute alot statistics wise, you can also give alot of assists (Like Ozil for example, never scored more than 10 in Real but everybody knows he's a "Stars Player" with 15+ Assists per season).

So until someone will show he has low nubmer of Assists in Shaktar, i wont understand this "Fact" his statistics are poor for his entire career.

* Not every AM needs to be a scorer, so I dont get where this is come from. Ask Ozil, David Silva, Iniesta, Kross, Lavezzi, Turan, Koke... need more?

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Who knows maybe this year we see it?

Doubt it. He's 26 and has never been a scorer. That's just not his thing. 21 Goals in 151 games in the Ukranian and Russian leagues. He's not suddenly going to turn into a goal-scoring machine. He is what he is.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Doubt it. He's 26 and has never been a scorer. That's just not his thing. 21 Goals in 151 games in the Ukranian and Russian leagues. He's not suddenly going to turn into a goal-scoring machine. He is what he is.

I guess we'll have to play the wait and see game. he's a good striker of the ball and gets into good areas, 26 isn't old its the prime of your career. He's got better teammates to play off of too. I don't think 10 goals is out of the realm of possibility

[dee25 1,044]

Doubt it. He's 26 and has never been a scorer. That's just not his thing. 21 Goals in 151 games in the Ukranian and Russian leagues. He's not suddenly going to turn into a goal-scoring machine. He is what he is.

Cuadrado is the same age as Willian, last season he scored 15 goals in all competitions (11 goals in the league). He had never managed more than 5 goals before.

I think if you were to look, you'll find that there're plenty of other similar examples.

i think we can all agree that he's a good player to have, can be very useful

but for 32 mill you expect something more

I'm not even sure that's the correct amount we paid for him. Sky sports reported that the fee was around 25.5m,which is only about 6 or 7m more than we paid for Schurrle.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

I have to ask again, people keep saying Willian has poor Stats over his career, but 'stats' also means Assists, anyone know how many Assists he gave every season in Shaktar?

Generaly, you dont have to score alot of goals to be a player who contribute alot statistics wise, you can also give alot of assists (Like Ozil for example, never scored more than 10 in Real but everybody knows he's a "Stars Player" with 15+ Assists per season).

So until someone will show he has low nubmer of Assists in Shaktar, i wont understand this "Fact" his statistics are poor for his entire career.

* Not every AM needs to be a scorer, so I dont get where this is come from. Ask Ozil, David Silva, Iniesta, Kross, Lavezzi, Turan, Koke... need more?

I found these figures on the Russian site sports.ru:

2010-2011 7 assists in the league

2011-2012 16 assists in the league

2012-2013 6 assitsts at Shakhtar and 1 assist at Anzhi

But it must be noted that this site counts penalties earned as assists too.