Closed Tottenham 5-3 Chelsea

[The Chels 2,502]

Mourinho #CFC "We have players and players. I don't have on the bench better players than Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry and Azpilicueta"

That's harsh on Filipe. Miles better than Brana as a full-back and a better player overall than Cahill.

'We have players [who I love and won't drop no matter what] and players [who I couldn't give a ***t about].'

Imagine if it were Luis who made the mistakes Ivanovic/Cahill did in the first half. We'd probably not see him for the rest of the season.

[The Mak 4,459]

Mourinho #CFC "We have players and players. I don't have on the bench better players than Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry and Azpilicueta"

That's harsh on Filipe. Miles better than Brana as a full-back and a better player overall than Cahill.

José is either talking out of his arse or is angling for some funds in January; I pray to Jesus it's the latter.

And I always said we should've sold Ivanovic when PSG were sniffing around him - jack of all trades, master of none. The mere sight of him attempting to close down a cross with his hands behind his back pisses me off to no end.

[Atlas Lion 1,223]

Still top of the league

[Yeboii 1,844]

What makes it harder to let go of Cahill is that he is home-grown, and we don't have many of those in the first team at all.

[MichaelDance 552]

'We have players [who I love and won't drop no matter what] and players [who I couldn't give a ***t about].'

Imagine if it were Luis who made the mistakes Ivanovic/Cahill did in the first half. We'd probably not see him for the rest of the season.

As much as I love Jose, he's a great manager and one of our best but I agree with you there mate. We've got good players on the bench which never get any play time unless one is injured.

[Jase 43,479]

Mourinho #CFC "We have players and players. I don't have on the bench better players than Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry and Azpilicueta"

That's harsh on Filipe. Miles better than Brana as a full-back and a better player overall than Cahill.

It's incredible how Mourinho can turn a blind eye on certain players and yet be so critical of others. I have no issue with his pragmatism whatsoever but at times, he can be too pragmatic for his own good, allowing it to cloud his judgment.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

It's incredible how Mourinho can turn a blind eye on certain players and yet be so critical of others. I have no issue with his pragmatism whatsoever but at times, he can be too pragmatic for his own good, allowing it to cloud his judgment.

He has been like this his whole career, even his best and successful squad was made up mostly of a limited amount of players with around nearly 1/3 hardly being used at all. He has never been the type to use a whole squad 24 men effectively, he basically limits himself down to around 16-17 regular for some reason everywhere he went.

[Jase 43,479]

He has been like this his whole career, even his best and successful squad was made up mostly of a limited amount of players with around nearly 1/3 hardly being used at all. He has never been the type to use a whole squad 24 men effectively, he basically limits himself down to around 16-17 regular for some reason everywhere he went.

Using 16-17 players is fine and understandable, provided the manager trusts them and manage them well. But the issue right now is that Mouringo isn't doing that with us. He's only like using 12-13 players while almost ignoring the rest.

[illmatic 901]

Horrible match, principally in defense, All approach of Spurs seemed to end in a goal.

Searching something good to this bad day, I should to say that likes me that the team never surrender, playing bad but ever trying. And not only the quality of Hazard, if not his attitude, putting the team on his back.

For me, seeing only the course of the game, the draw would be a just result, but Spurs was more effective.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

Using 16-17 players is fine and understandable, provided the manager trusts them and manage them well. But the issue right now is that Mouringo isn't doing that with us. He's only like using 12-13 players while almost ignoring the rest.

I think the XI Jose picked today is our best XI. It is not as good as we'd like it to be however. It does need improvement and we're all acutely aware of this each time the side under performs. The trouble is that none of the backups solve the issues we have. Many of them are essentially unusable in my opinion. Some of the youngsters might help in future but it seems Jose is unconvinced that their time has come yet. I hope to see one or two kids involved on Sunday but, first and foremost, I want to win.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

Mourinho #CFC "We have players and players. I don't have on the bench better players than Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry and Azpilicueta"

That's harsh on Filipe. Miles better than Brana as a full-back and a better player overall than Cahill.

I agree with Jose. I'm not saying I'm backing him because he's the boss, I'm saying I share his opinion.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

If Mourinho really meant that, then he needs to have a word with himself. His management of the squad in the last 1-2 months has been questionable to say the least.

If he meant that, and I'd say he does, then what could he have done about it in the last 1-2 months?

[termninja 5,290]

Oh come on, whatever the fuck they did it worked for them... I'm not even bothered... Their sole existence is based on beating Chelsea and now they just did... Ref was very soft on their players...on to the next game...

Hazard was really brilliant... I just knew Kane was going to kick our ass, certain players are just born to play their best games against us...

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

This result could shake things up for the better and drive the players, Jose, and the board to improve. Maybe giving Boga a chance and/or getting Reus. Boga and others in our academy can definitely be better than Kane, given the chance.

How old is Kane?

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

Absolutely. At that point we had nothing more to lose. Should have loaded the attack and just went all out.

Matic and Willian for Drog and Remy.

Matic is a key part of our attack.

[Jase 43,479]

If he meant that, and I'd say he does, then what could he have done about it in the last 1-2 months?

Like actually rest or rotate players a little bit more, like against Sporting Lisbon or even Derby in the League Cup.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

What makes it harder to let go of Cahill is that he is home-grown, and we don't have many of those in the first team at all.

Exactly, imagine if we sold him today. Other fans will say we're foreigners team. Also we would force to buy another English player, which is most of them are overrated and overpriced (if not all).

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

The thing is, there are only a couple of places he CAN rotate without the quality dropping significantly.

RB and CB are really the only spots I can see us changing whilst maintaining our quality. Rotating Schürrle for Willian is pointless because they're both useless offensively these days. Can't really rotate in the middle because we have no one remotely close to Cesc or Matic's level. Can't just constantly drop Oscar and putting Mikel in there next to Matić because he's not an every game player.

The longer the season goes on the more it's starting to show how lacking our squad is outside of our best XI. We have the best first XI in the league but if some of them are in a lengthy run of poor form we don't have top quality to slot in. This is why we need a signing or two this month in my opinion.

Was on the point of liking this till I read the sentence about us having the best 1st XI. Of course I respect that this is your point of view, but I don't share it. City's top team vs our top team and my money would be on City. Worse, I believe City could lose as maybe as many as three top players in certain positions and still put out a better XI than us.

Absolutely agree with everything else though. Top post.