Branislav Ivanovic

[The Skipper 20,609]

He does come up with big goals doesnt he.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Happy about the goal, he's quite good at coming up with the goods in a knockout situation vs Liverpool isn't he?

Reading through the last few posts, I think it's very harsh to call criticism of Ivanovic as 'hate'. It's far from that. I think every Chelsea fan knows Ivanovic is a legend, he's been there through our highs and lows and he does have good character.. But like all fairy tales, they have to end.

He's been a weakness and a source of exposure in our backline for sometime now and I think the only reason it persists is because Mourinho feels he needs Azpilicueta on the right to account for Hazard. Not to criticise Hazard's defending either, but more to say Azpilicueta is better on the ball so he can help Hazard.

I hope that Mourinho is looking at either a right-back to replace Brana in June or he's looking for another left-back to provide competition for Filipe Luis. I'm not sure why Mourinho hasn't properly experimented with 'Azpilicueta - Zouma/Cahill - Terry - Luis' yet, maybe he doesn't trust Luis yet. I think for José he needs time with certain players to trust them.. If everyone recalls properly, last season even Azpilicueta didn't feature that much. Some believed Mourinho even had a vendetta against Spanish players

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Unbelievable how many important goals he scored...two against pool, winner against napoli, last year vs city, against benfica, now again vs liverpool

This guy is one of best game winners you can have. He is not best in defending anymore, but he is a fucking king when comes to scoring winning goals. Him and Drogba, hard to think of players who decided more important games.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Jose :

"They gave everything. Ivanovic's boot should be put in the lobby of the Academy, so the kids can see a boot completely full of blood. His foot with the big cut and lots of stitches cannot go there, but the boot, which is white, is full of red blood and should go to the Academy, but thats just one example. They gave absolutely everything."

[Jase 43,479]

Credit to Ivanovic for popping up with another big goal when we really needed it. But that shouldn't take away another poor defensive showing from him though. Went AWOL for that Moreno opportunity and had Courtois not denied him, we would probably be having a different topic of conversation right now.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Jose was not kidding:

[DH1988 1,348]

Warrior

[iseah100 5,612]

Aerial threat.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

Defensive liability.

Deserves credit for the goal but what the hell was he thinking on that Moreno chance ?

Just ran out of the the defensive line to go press a player that didn't even have the ball. :confused:

[Stats 7,140]

Nice when our players recieve credit from our rival team's legend.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/9684590/premier-league-robert-pires-thinks-branislav-ivanovic-might-be-best-defender-in-europe

[yuvala 2,167]

He's something special.. but his defending is horrific at times.

Never closes down the wide man, lets players cross with ease, never to be found in the right place in situations like the Moreno one.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Saturday will be his 300th Chelsea game!

[CFC888 219]

That story about the bloodied foot is awesome, what a warrior! Makes me question why he feels the need to dive onto the floor all the time...

[akandeel13 34]

One of our most consistent players this season. He will continue to be contovecial though under the Mourinho 4-2-3-1 system.

[Madmax 9,219]

Nice when our players recieve credit from our rival team's legend.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11668/9684590/premier-league-robert-pires-thinks-branislav-ivanovic-might-be-best-defender-in-europe

Don't blame Pires at all. He was in Goa for the best part of 2 months; must have smoked some really good stuff.