Title Run In

[Blue Traveler 256]

In ideal world Jose should replace unfit Mata with fit same quality player.

Mata was sold because he didnt fit in, but that doesnt change fact that we lost best player. We lost quality and it should be replaced with someone equal quality that fits the system.

We should not sell a player in a January transfer window ever again even our shittest players! that is the problem of selling your best players with no proper replacement.

[Special Juan 27,530]

The issue with Mata was simple, he didn't fit Jose's plans whether people like it or not, he was a huge cash kitty sat on the bench that the club chose to take advantage of. People also forget that Jose and Mata spoke about what was best for both parties and he was allowed to leave. Now lets not get this mis-translated with he was shit, he wasn't, but a player that can fetch the sort of money he could doesn't deserve to be benched, good or not. Some of this cash was used to buy Matic and if people argue against that then I am sorry but that was a fucking quality buy.

You can argue all day about what he may, or may not of done, we will never know because Jose didn't think he was fitting of the role and thus was sold. This is also a WC year were he must be playing to have any chance, it wasn't happening here so the decision was right IMO from both parties.

[LAB 1,030]

The issue with Mata was simple, he didn't fit Jose's plans whether people like it or not, he was a huge cash kitty sat on the bench that the club chose to take advantage of. People also forget that Jose and Mata spoke about what was best for both parties and he was allowed to leave. Now lets not get this mis-translated with he was shit, he wasn't, but a player that can fetch the sort of money he could doesn't deserve to be benched, good or not. Some of this cash was used to buy Matic and if people argue against that then I am sorry but that was a fucking quality buy.

You can argue all day about what he may, or may not of done, we will never know because Jose didn't think he was fitting of the role and thus was sold. This is also a WC year were he must be playing to have any chance, it wasn't happening here so the decision was right IMO from both parties.

Perfect summary of the Mata situation. But i honestly fail to see why Mata benefited at all. Is it just because he plays football now week in week out? Very low standards if that's the case considering where he's playing, where he will not be playing next season and ONLY IF the new manager decides to favour him.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

https://twitter.com/markhoppus/status/464144238394220544

Oddly enough, I feel kinda relieved that we're finally officially out of the race. It's been that annoying feeling all season of knowing that you are very unlikely to win it but you're still in it and have the pressure on your shoulders to win.

[edetarod 2,155]

we can still win the title, if Manchester City FC somehow vanish into thin air

[zolayes 14,489]

We should not sell a player in a January transfer window ever again even our shittest players! that is the problem of selling your best players with no proper replacement.

unless it was Torres

[Fulham Broadway 16,975]

Our record of 103 goals under threat now..

both those Northern cunts on 99

[Azpinator 2,325]

Our record of 103 goals under threat now..

both those Northern cunts on 99

I hope they both end up with 102.

[dee25 1,044]

we can still win the title, if Manchester City FC somehow vanish into thin air

Soooooo....what you're saying is that there's still a chance??

GET IN!

[petre.ispirescu 4,928]

HAHAHAHA

[didierforever 7,349]

https://twitter.com/markhoppus/status/464144238394220544

Oddly enough, I feel kinda relieved that we're finally officially out of the race. It's been that annoying feeling all season of knowing that you are very unlikely to win it but you're still in it and have the pressure on your shoulders to win.

True. Somehow it felt good that it was over and not anotger day of

"Chelsea still have an outside chance in it"

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

This is how you win games vs defensive teams like Aston Villa. Play with width. Fullbacks making proper over-lapping runs. Look at the overlaps that Zabaleta made for both Dzeko goals. Ivanovic hasn't done anywhere near enough of that this season. Ivanovic's final ball is rubbish, he doesn't make penetrative runs and his defensive work is overrated. Zabaleta can both attack and defend. So can Azpilicueta. We need Azpilicueta back playing his natural position next season.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

This is how you win games vs defensive teams like Aston Villa. Play with width. Fullbacks making proper over-lapping runs. Look at the overlaps that Zabaleta made for both Dzeko goals. Ivanovic hasn't done anywhere near enough of that this season. Ivanovic's final ball is rubbish, he doesn't make penetrative runs and his defensive work is overrated. Zabaleta can both attack and defend. So can Azpilicueta. We need Azpilicueta back playing his natural position next season.

Just to buttress my ^^^^^^^^^^^^ post.

City's two most used fullbacks in PL:

1. Paulo Zabaleta = 6 assists

2. Alexsandr Kolarov = 7 assists

(Ironically, both their fullbacks have more assists than any of our attacking midfielders or wingers except Hazard!)

Chelsea's two most used fullbacks in PL:

1. Branislav Ivanovic = 1 assist

2. Cesar Azpilicueta = 0 assists (yes)

[nofacej 132]

This is how you win games vs defensive teams like Aston Villa. Play with width. Fullbacks making proper over-lapping runs. Look at the overlaps that Zabaleta made for both Dzeko goals. Ivanovic hasn't done anywhere near enough of that this season. Ivanovic's final ball is rubbish, he doesn't make penetrative runs and his defensive work is overrated. Zabaleta can both attack and defend. So can Azpilicueta. We need Azpilicueta back playing his natural position next season.

The other way is set pieces, but sadly we've been poor at those for much of the season.

We're still feeling Drogba's absence and it's not surprising things have been rough without a proper replacement.

Hopefully we correct that next season.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

The other way is set pieces, but sadly we've been poor at those for much of the season.

We're still feeling Drogba's absence and it's not surprising things have been rough without a proper replacement.

Hopefully we correct that next season.

TBF we had been doing well from set-pieces even before JM arrived, and as the season progressed it just kept getting worse and worse.

One reason i was upset at KDB leaving was because he offered us a lot of creativity on set-pieces as well. We had some beautiful set-plays in the pre-season but that went missing. Him along with mata leaving and we were left we no true dead-ball specialist, Hazard barely takes them, and between Luiz/Oscar none are as lethal as say KDB/Mata .

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

TBF we had been doing well from set-pieces even before JM arrived, and as the season progressed it just kept getting worse and worse.

One reason i was upset at KDB leaving was because he offered us a lot of creativity on set-pieces as well. We had some beautiful set-plays in the pre-season but that went missing. Him along with mata leaving and we were left we no true dead-ball specialist, Hazard barely takes them, and between Luiz/Oscar none are as lethal as say KDB/Mata .

Mata's delivery is missed. And so is Lampard's. He has been less involved this season for various reasons. I'm not convinced by the other set-piece takers.

[lionsden 4,689]

This is how you win games vs defensive teams like Aston Villa. Play with width. Fullbacks making proper over-lapping runs. Look at the overlaps that Zabaleta made for both Dzeko goals. Ivanovic hasn't done anywhere near enough of that this season. Ivanovic's final ball is rubbish, he doesn't make penetrative runs and his defensive work is overrated. Zabaleta can both attack and defend. So can Azpilicueta. We need Azpilicueta back playing his natural position next season.

No no no no you are doing it wrong. All you need is a top striker. The opposition compact defence will crumble at the sight of Diego costa in blues uniform.

[The only place to be 11,313]

It's a combination of the way City use their full-backs (they push far further on then our's and provide the width because, in general, their 'wingers' tuck in whereas we play with more conventional wingers in Hazard, Salah etc.) but also the fact that they have targets in the box in the form of strikers. Look at their first goal against Palace - it was a diagonal ball played in by Toure to a target man (Dzeko in this case). We simply don't have that, and whilst Ivanovic and Zabaleta both played the same number of crosses into the box against Norwich and Villa respectively, they were playing to entirely different types of target men.

Now I will admit that we need better full-backs going forward next season. I've been wrong about their effectiveness mainly because others have been way too harsh on them (Ivanovic in particular). But this is not a problem that exists in isolation. People are rewriting history when talking about Azpi's crossing ability, which was much maligned when he was at right-back. I defended him on the basis that our targets were simply not good enough and that's still very much the case.

If we slotted our strikers into City's team, they simply wouldn't morph into Aguero et al because their movement simply isn't good enough.