haaggus

Two appearances: when MVG came on against Aston Villa he was casual and gave the ball away in dangerous areas, forcing us onto the back foot.

Oscar barely played before making his incredible debut against Juventus. Quality rises to the top.

On his full debut Oscar scored twice against Juventus and shut down Andrea Pirlo while playing the same position Van Ginkel plays.

If Van Ginkel was Dutch young player of the year, that's pretty sad for Dutch football. Oscar was 20 when he made his debut for us and I don't remember him giving the ball away 550 times.

Even if Kalas was fit I wouldn't give him his first start in a cup competition. If there's anywhere to have stability its in the CB pairing. Give Kalas his starts against Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Newcastle, and the other crappy teams.

I wonder about Van Ginkel though. I think he kinda sucks, and the League Cup is single-elimination. I'd rather use him in the league where he can't f**k us up and get us knocked out of a trophy.

There's no point putting Luiz in midfield. Mourinho said he will never do that, so don't expect it. It will be Mikel or Lampard, take your pick.

We cannot be a team that plays for a tie, ever. Did Ferguson ever play for a tie? Tottenham are garbage. AVB is a closet homo and wants to buttf**k his players. We can shut them down and make them suffer.

My confidence has been shaken after Everton and Basel beat us. I remember last year almost losing to Brentford in the FA Cup.

Xavi has played for Barcelona all his career. Perhaps you mean Xabi Alonso, who is Basque, not technically Spanish. The Basques are not big fans of the Spaniards.

It is. Mourinho will get the reaction from Mata that he wants. Mata is a pro and a thinker, he will listen to reason and Mourinho doesn't do things arbitrarily, there is always reason.

Good point. We need to move from defense to attack much, much, faster.

Please do it. Mods must be AWOL.

I couldn't agree more. At any rate our back 6 should be able to win the ball back and release our attacking 4.

Oh please. Benitez did a good job. We beat Man United 3 times, knocking them out of the FA cup and also winning at Old Trafford with the late Mata strike. I obviously prefer Mourinho, but to say Benitez only bullied Europa League teams is revisionism on your part. We were unbeaten for the last 8 Premier League games of the season, playing great football, controlling games. Our squad is f**king strong, Mazacar is our best combination of AM's still. Mourinho just wants to put his stamp on the team and that means breaking up Mazacar.

I watched the whole Everton game. I just didn't notice Mata taking corners. I was distracted by other awful problems on the pitch.

He can't be worse than Van Ginkel.

So you didn't watch us play last season? Especially the 2nd half when Rafa had the team playing great football? It was fast to me. Way faster than what we played like today before Torres came on and injected some pace into the attack. Conversely I dare you to watch Barcelona play their insanely boring style of side passes upon side passes followed by Messi dribbling one defender and dinking the goalie. Snooze.

Oscar offers "so much more?" I disagree. In some ways Mata offers more, in other ways Oscar does. For instance free-kicks, Mata can curl it over the wall beautifully, Oscar can't.

I've never seen Luiz or Eto'o score a header, ever. I see Luiz flail at defensive clearances in the air quite often though. It's awkward. I bet KDB is very good at delivery, good point. But just remember the most important goal in Chelsea history came from a Juan Mata corner.

No, but I guess that means it was poor, which means Mata is out of form. If you watch his assists from last season he was fantastic from dead ball situations. To be fair at Everton there was no Torres or Cahill, rather Luiz and Eto'o who are not good at headers.

He's a winger. From Germany. He has a good touch and good pace. I disagree with everything you think about Schurrle. He covered Ashley Cole all night, yet got forward every time. He's an upgrade on Victor Moses. Similar player, similar style, just slightly better. I think Schurrle is going to be important to the team because of his defensive capabilities on the wing. Also, Schurrle's dream was to play for Chelsea. I like players that are fans of the club and want to play for the club

Yeah it was luck. Luck that would never have happened if Schurrle hadn't been in the wide area to collect the ball and drive at the defense to unleash his shot, which luckily bounced to Oscar.

Perhaps Spanish players aren't as good at defending as other players. Although the Azpilicueta thing is definitely puzzling, except that Ivanovic is in his prime right now, shutting down any attacks from his side. He doesn't help us going forward but defensively he's a fantastic RB.

I just watched all Mata's goals and assists from last season. He is our best player! His link-up play with Hazard and Oscar is amazing, remember Mazacar?