MANoWAR

I just realised Lampard was in the lineup too. I really really hope he can cope this. btw theres an u21 game vs arsenal if anyone's interested!

Parking the bus to the maximum. I cannot see where our threat is going to come from.

Oh my word. Please no more than 1-0 Atletico.

Tbf may have been a little rusty. Things happen though

I said that because I was just suggesting that Mourinho likely wouldn't want him here because his defensive work isn't up to par compared to Ivan. So? Bakuna from Aston Villa handled Hazard well, so did the FB from Palace (forget his name). Doesn't prove much because Hazard has had his inconsistencies throughout this season including getting past players. Without a shadow of a doubt I'd have Ivan at RB than him. He may be unreliable going forward but you can often count on him to do well when it comes to protecting the back. The Crystal Palace game was hardly a one off as well; he's been like this throughout the season :|

I should say the same to you. He isn't very good defensively (and even his NT coach says he needs to improve on that side). Did you not see him last week against Crystal Palace for example? We're not going to get him but I honestly doubt Mourinho would have him.

Coleman is very poor defensively though compared to Ivan. Amazing go forward though yeah but isn't a complete player.

Largely playing in the same position (wing) as he was here. But still has 2 more assists there (source: whoscored/ESPN -- generally when in the #10 role though) than Oscar has all season in the PL.

Sigh. Silva is off. Massive blow.

Not going to happen lol but... Lukaku Hazard Hazard Salah Ramsey Matic Cole Terry Cahill Azpi Courtois/Cech

hm, Thorgan Hazard should go straight to the first team.

I hope ramsey becomes displeased with mediocrity and we eventually sign him. Perfect replacement for Lampard.

Does it really seem like we have proper control of the midfield with the players we have now? Would rather have less defense/control from there but provide a better attacking threat -- which KBD and Mata would undeniably help with. I'd think having Matic in there as well would mean that Mata wouldn't have to track back as more anyways, and while Ramires does tend to win the ball from the opposition with work rate, he often loses it as well and it leads to very little in terms of our attack -- is that really what we want? I also doubt it'd get too overun by the lesser sides really tbh. KDB/Matic seem capable enough. I don't think so. We're in the same position we were in last season, with supposedly a better squad and definitely better depth that we had last season -- which was evidently having an effect looking at how sloppy and tired our players were towards the end of the season. I don't think it's the hard work that has improved us, but moreso it helps in keeping those leads (or does it really, looking at some of our games?). However we're doing well in the CL so I'll give ya that; let's see how we go against a team that does very well defensively as well as being able to contribute to attack well too. In the big games it's good to do well, but the fact we struggle against the lesser ones is where I have concern with this. Now with Hazard, because we have less contributing to the attacking game, generally more of the play will go through him because our hard working players in Willian etc. wouldn't provide enough in the final third, which I feel limits us there. KDB and Mata may not be as good as Oscar and Willian defensively but we'd find it easier to create chances, thread in passes and score more goals with them IMO. And then after that, we could have Willian come off the bench as a sub to help keep a good lead.

Well perhaps it's time to go for lesser work ethic because more at the cost of end product doesn't look like it's that much better does it? Too late anyways tbh. Not sure what you're referring to with that last bit.

great team tbh. Oh well.

next season ya mean? which game are you talking about?

Ramsey is so good.

He is the 3rd best athlete in football but he isn't good enough to start for Chelsea on a regular basis. Yes, we do need someone else to partner Matic.

Don't entirely disagree with Steak Bake though. The Madrid job has probably been quite a stressful experience and has had a bad effect on him. He certainly doesn't act the same way he has done in the past anyways. We're lucky to be where we are right now tbh. Disappointing though. Not sure if there has been a great deal of improvement since the start of the season. By now we should be more comfortable in beating some of these sides but we don't. Not sure about not starting a strong team vs Liverpool; if we do Liverpool could beat us then Arsenal will be really close behind. Can't trust our team to get the remaining results against the likes of Cardiff and Norwich either.

That's true, but I doubt if he signed Costa from the start he would have signed those two to be honest.

Here's the list 1.Manchester City (PL) £5.337m 2.NY Yankees (MLB) £5.286m 3.LA Dodgers (MLB) £5.119m 4.Real Madrid (La Liga) £4.993m 5.Barcelona (La Liga) £4.901m 6.Brooklyn Nets (NBA) £4.485m 7.Bayern Munich (Bundesliga) £4.402m 8.Manchester United (PL) £4.322m 9.Chicago Bulls (NBA) £3.985m 10.Chelsea (PL) £3.984m http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27046221 Just came across this article and apparently City are top of the average wage bill per player in all sports edit: Dammit ^

I cannot agree. Are you quite sure they struggle to impress? Surely the fact they progress far in league in competitions would suggest that they've progressed to a level where they should receive some sort of lookin? What on earth would the criteria be to promote youth then? They have to play like Messi? Like a pirlo? Like a Terry at their age? Also the fact that they've beaten top class academies like Barcelona to get to where they are. So what...? There are teams higher than our level and teams lower than our level, and teams around our level who still promote youth products. Yet we're often looking at other clubs to get these young players in. Arsenal, United, Liverpool have all done that well in our league alone. Don't get me started on other countries... But you cannot possible believe in 11 years of having a better youth academy, ZERO of the hundreds of youth in there has enough talent to play for a top club? In fact I've read since RA came in and poached every youngster from a 100 mile radius, there have been far less youth products from London. Why? Because none of them ever get a show at a senior team. It is not the players fault they were loaned out too much; that is a big fault of the club. How beneficial is it to constantly loan someone out to play under a different manager time after time? Perhaps after constant years of loaning has shown this this model doesn't work? We bought Matic after letting Benfica do the hard work of developing here; at the time I'm sure we believed he didn't live up to his hype he had shown in his youth levels over at his other clubs. Boy were we wrong. Wonder how many of the other ones we've failed to develop efficiently by not giving them any chance? Do you disagree with the short-termism established by RA then? With regards to Josh, My view is that he's got the basic intangibles and really good clever runs- creating angles for the players on the ball to receive it and he's also got that WIlshere-esque ability to run through players. So, from that I feel that he's got the basis of what is needed to make it and all that's required is patience and faith in him. I would agree if he was a Cleverly and was given the chance but failed, I'd agree with those people (which I feel AVB would've) but he never really got the chance.

He's just as much a youth product as terry is -- both joined at 15. If you want to say he spent more time at QPR youth academy, well so did Terry at West Ham. If sterling was here he'd be loaned out to Vitesse after last season rather than being played like this season under Rodgers, developing into the fine player he is. Another case of not giving players a chance. Or is he one of those who failed to live up to the hype.

Good point with regards to the fans; there's a lot of expectation based on the money we spend as well so perhaps managers are further reluctant to use raw, young players.

Yes, most of them won't make it which is the main problem here... however, not sure how one can say it's all Josh's fault and nothing to do with the club? But anyways, is that all you're picking out -- so are you disagreeing with most of it? I fail to see what I said was really incorrect tbh, or why many people seem to disagree too? I'd actually be interested in hearing the opinions of those who liked your comment. What's 'at our level' meant to mean anyways...? Tis a shame many people here will never put any fault onto the club itself and always the players . Oh well.