bogey77

I started reading the books after the second episode of the first season. I was done with book 4 by the end of that season and read book 5 as it came out. Definitely would suggest reading from the beginning, the books are very good reads. It will be interesting to see if George R.R. Martin gives them any content from the in progress book for the show. It would surprise me if he does so as it would potentially spoil the book readers. The show can lengthen or create minor story lines for some of the characters without straying too much from the book storyline. There are some characters whose storylines continue in the books but don't progress very much. There is a fair bit of creativity that can be put into those storylines for the show.

The story is following very close to the books and some of those story lines do drag on a bit. I felt a little let down this season as I knew all the shock moments were coming before they did. I am a little worried about next season because of the book content. They should be able to deviate from the books a little more without changing the story next season.

I agree that changing too many players can be a problem but none of the current outgoing players have been a regular first 11. Lampard and Cole have been with the team for years but they were minor players last year. Even Luiz was more of a squad player at the end of the year. Ramires was one of the only regular starters and he was in poor form most of the year. Eto'o is the only other regular starter and I don't think too many people would be concerned about replacing him. The starting 11 hasn't been altered much over the last half of the season. Ramires is just too inconsistent and he killed so many attacks last year with wild shots and poor passes. I wouldn't hesitate if someone offered 25m for him.

I think the wide range of ratings for Willian come from his price tag. If you take out the cost of Willian, I would doubt many rate him below an 8 or 9. The price is also why Matic should be no less than a 9 on anybody's ratings. Schwarzer was free and Salah was reasonably cheap so those are both good values because both are average players at worst. Here are my ratings as far as value and another as far as general performance without regard to cost. Value for the money Matic - 10/10 Willian - 7/10 Eto'o - 7/10 Schurrle - 8/10 Schwarzer - 7/10 Salah - 7/10 Performance in general without regards to money Matic - 9/10 Willian - 8/10 Eto'o - 6/10 Schurrle - 7/10 Schwarzer - 6/10 Salah - 6/10 In my opinion, all the signings were good pieces of business. The cost of Willian is really the only questionable deal and if that were $25 mil instead of $30, I think he would be a 9 or 10 in value.

I had a look at the scoring percentages of Ronaldo, Messi and Costa this year. Costa is around 25% with 26 goals in 101 attempts. Ronaldo is around 14% with 28 goals in 197 attempts and Messi is around 19% with 25 goals in 134 attempts. They all play in the same league and against the same opponents. Not that I think Costa is better than the other two but I do like the success rate Costa has achieved. They all have around half of their shots on goal.

Creating opportunities!

All Chelsea supporters need to thank Eto'o for starting that play!

I'm with Lane ^ Keep him or kill him. I vote for keep him.

I was going to reference Peterson as well. He is the rare case of such mental and physical strength that he was better than before and at full speed only 9 months after his surgery. On the flip side, Derek Rose (basketball player) had the same injury and was cleared to play by every doctor he saw but he hasn't played a game because he says it "doesn't feel right". Much like Lane said above. It has been 18 months since his surgery and he was cleared at around 10 months. It is very mental for him. He dominates at practice but doesn't feel comfortable enough to play a game. Different situations for everyone.

Many professional athletes have such strong leg muscles that they can walk on a torn ACL without a limp. Their muscles will compensate to a certain extent. There have been a few American Football players that have looked almost normal walking just minutes after tearing their ACL. Once they try to move side to side the knee gives out. That's probably why he tried to go back out and then gave up. The muscles can only support a certain amount of use before the knee gives out. Hopefully he hasn't torn it but it sure looked bad.

I think we need to play a match without Ivanovic, Cole, Lampard and Hazard. They are all playing poorly compared to their top levels. Give Azpi and Bertrand a chance to play. I would pair them with Terry and Cahill. That would give you two centre backs that don't tend to wander and two full backs that can push the ball forward if necessary. Pair them with two actual DMs such as MVG and Essien. This is a lot a substitutes and could cause some problems but it also makes a statement that we need to play better and you will get put on the bench if you don't improve. For AM, I would like to see more of Willian and KDB. Pair them with whoever you feel would be best as long as its not Hazard. Torres or Eto'o, I don't care which player you start. Just not Ba.

I love his penalties. The ball is in the back of the net before the keeper has even left his feet. I agree that as long as he keeps them on target there is nothing wrong with his approach.

It was nice to see solid defending. Terry played great and Cahill didn't seem to even get caught backing up in a 1 on 1 situation. That pairing is solid if there is support for them. We we spend more time attacking is when we see Cahill have problems defending on an island and when Terry's age can show when he tries to cover more space. If all 4 CBs are fit, we have a nice mix that can be paired based on what type of game needs to be played. Cahill does well with support, Terry does well in most situations as long as he doesn't need to run all over the place. Ivan and Luiz are good in most situations. Hopefully Jose can take advantage of all of them when they are fit.

Spot on. He played well yesterday but still struggles when he is forced to defend one on one with no help. Still our 4th choice. I did think Terry had one of the best games I have seen him play in a long time. The Terry/Cahill pairing is pretty solid when they are not required to cover lots of space with no help. Ivan and Luiz are more mobile.

My bad, I was talking about the wrong goal. Doing what you said ^ is what I would suggest as well. Again, good luck with that.

Best way to defend that shot is to not make such an obvious foul at that spot on the pitch. Therefore, never letting the free kick take happen in the first place.

I don't think Marcelo gets that shot off if Luiz or Ivanovic were in place of Cahill. Ivanovic foul on Ronaldo was just dumb. It was in an area on the pitch that you never want Ronaldo to be taking a free kick. Cross from Isco to Ronaldo wasn't defended at all. Probably due to Terry and Cole fatigue at the end of a preseason match. I would hope that wouldn't happen in a game that matters. I think Van Ginkel had a few rough passes early in the match but improved as it went on. Hazard was a non factor for far too much of the first half. Not having Mata and Luiz for the match was rough. Lampard is a bit out of form but it was nice to see him out there. I thought Cole was a little off for portions of the match. He had some bad passes but was running all over the place. Nice to see us play a top team. It should help because it exposed some weaknesses and should allow the team to strengthen its deficiencies.

Now you've done it, all I will see when I watch PSG is a bunch of players wearing baby bibs!

I read that it was a thigh injury. Seems reasonable that he could be was doing a rehab type workout. Wouldn't want him running around with the other players if his leg has a problem.

I think that is spot on. I believe there was even a quote from Jose saying something very similar when talking about Torres. I pulled the quotes below from WAGNH. I believe Jose believes all 3 strikers posses similar abilities and none of them excel at link up play. "Fernando is a striker, nobody has doubts about it, but I think he's a striker more comfortable when he has space behind defenders. He has it more difficult when opponents are very close, when opponents are compact and when he has to play in small spaces." "He's more a player to go into a space than to play with the ball at his feet. That's something easy to understand about Fernando, so I will try to do my best." Mourinho was asked if he could manage to get the player back to his Liverpool best "I think when Chelsea plays with that philosophy he can. Against teams who compress the play very close you have to play him in small spaces, and he will have a little bit more difficulty. At Liverpool they played much more of a ‘low block’, and he had balls to attack behind defenders. In that aspect he was a lot more comfortable. Sometimes it's easy to say a player is not performing but that might not be fair because sometimes the way you play decides if someone is more or less comfortable on the pitch." So do any of our current crop of strikers have the ability to play in close quarters? "I would want to improve them, but that quality they don't have. I will work on it with them."

Could that game be at a worse time for you? Or is that about as bad as it gets?

I attended the Inter game and one of the things I saw was how much ground Van Ginkel covers. I thought he played well but made a couple mistakes. I also watched the AC Milan game and thought he played even better. He also played more than a half in both games if I am not mistaken. I would think that he will get a significant amount of playing time this year. He would be in my top 3 choices for the 2 positions.

I believe there is a whole thread that covers finding a replacement for Luiz for 20M and there are not many options that would be available. Just naming 3 players doesn't mean we can actually buy them.

Those are the players names up top and their numbers below. Just like their normal shirt, but in whatever script they use in Thailand.

Based on that chart, he should expect 25+ goals this coming season. He is an every other year performer! Sign him up for this year and sell him at the end of it, problem solved!