Joe The Hobo

After today, I'd have to say Matic. Drogba and Remy have both looked good on the pitch with and without Costa. Willian does a similar job to Oscar and always looks to be covering the same ground back and forth, just with less end product which we can cope with. Terry, I think would be a huge miss, however Bran and Cahill are both really good defenders who can do the job to a high standard, just maybe not as high as Terry + Cahill. And as of late, Hazard hasn't looked as good as he usually does, he could maybe do with sitting a game or two out and if he did, I don't think we'd notice such a huge difference as when compared to games where he's always looked like scoring earlier in the season. Fabregas' assists would also be a big miss, however, it looks like we could cope with Matic playing a slightly similar role, with some of the passes he's managed to play this season and last season, except obviously with less of an effect. Which is why I believe he's so irreplaceable. With Matic, he does so much when you watch him. Whenever we need him to win a tackle, he'll win it 9/10 times. He's started going forward a lot more as well, and he's actually quite the driving force when he does run. Not only this but his decision making as to where and when to stand, and when to go for the tackle is brilliant. The second goal in todays game showed how much we missed him. Newcastle went on the break, and Mikel went in with an important challenge that he had to win, and was left on his backside, and then Fabregas followed him with an even more important tackle that he had to win more than the last tackle, and he didn't, which left us completely exposed with a 3 v 3 counter attack to deal with whilst on the back foot. I genuinely believe that if Matic was playing today, he wouldn't have fallen into the same trap that Fabregas and Mikel fell into and he would've followed the defence staying on his feet, trying to keep pressure off the defence, and not making such a rash decision to quickly try and tackle straight away and putting all the pressure on our defence and this would've greatly reduced our chance of conceding such a goal.

Too bad we've already had the home game, but at least we do get to see him again! Wish him all the best with Schalke

Last night he was absolutely brilliant and I can't remember him really doing anything wrong. And as we as being defensively brilliant, his runs and heat seeking crosses were good too! Really making me curious as to who will start the City game.

The rumours of Ronaldo leaving Madrid are still going, and are gathering momentum. So it means if Ronaldo goes, who will Madrid replace him with? And of course there's one main contender for Real Madrid to replace him with: Eden Hazard. Everyone knows what Madrid are like when they need new players and how they just go around throwing money at replacements. Do you all think there's any chance of Eden joining Real if Ronaldo leaves? Lets hope he gets this new record contract sooner rather than later!

And now he scored his first hatrick! I still can't get over the fact we have such a prolific striker!

We've got Bolton on the 24th, hopefully he gets at least a 20 minute cameo, although, I really hope he gets a start

Reading this thread just makes me realise how many great albums my collection lacks! I don't even want to attempt to pick 20 because I know I'll regret most of my choices after a day and I'll end up changing it on a daily basis

Now there's more reasons to be excited about the new season! Just made mine and joined since my Internet has been a bit funny as of late.

I seriously think Torres will score more goals than before, I wouldn't be surprised if he hit the dizzying heights of 10 league goals because no one is actually expecting anything of him even though we all support him for as long as he wears blue. So, saying this with a bit of optimism, I think he'll chip in with a reasonable haul because we really need him to take some pressure off Costa and he has came through (sometimes) at those types of moments eg. Europa League final, CL semi final when we've needed him, so I have a good feeling he just might this time round

It's like having to choose between a Veyron and a Zonda. We are somewhat lucky to have such an issue

Probably will have been. I can't imagine Barca starting an 18 year old kid when they have the amount of wingers they have

In the space of two years, Deulofeu only made two appearances for the main Barca team. While all his appearances were made for Barca B in the league below which is just a worse version of the Championship, a bit like the Belgian league. There isn't really much difference between Hazard and Deulofeu except Deulofeu has made two more appearances at a world class club than Hazard. I would love to see Thorgan Hazard in next years squad, however, him being loaned to somewhere like Everton would be a brilliant idea.

Odds on Skybet put us at 1/3 to sign him ahead of everyone else, considering Lampards odds of going to New York were 1/5 just last night, Fabregas at Chelsea is looking quite realistic

I reckon Bamford will come on and score an 86th minute winner. And if he does, we'll have a premier league club we could loan him to if he doesn't get the necessary minutes

He cried at the fact he's leaving the club which shows how much he cares about the fact he's probably leaving, and yet some people have the nerve to boo him and others off in what could be (and most likely will be) their last home game. Absolutely world class left back, wish him all the best wherever he goes.

Think Norwich will turn up tomorrow? They're practically relegated and don't really have much to play for, however, we've seen in the past the already relegated clubs going all out trying to win even though their fate has been sealed. Either way, we need to win to keep that tiny thread we're hanging on to in the title race hanging

After reading about how some people on here think Ibra is overrated, I have a horrid gut feeling he's going to run us ragged in the quarter finals. Ibra is definitely world class, his strike rate says it all really, the only problem with Ibrahimovic is that he isn't getting any younger, so probably in about 2 or 3 seasons time, he'd need replacing. I think Ibra would be great at the right price, but I think we should go for Costa

It all depends on the context on wearing the other team's football shirt really. There was a Newcastle fan, who went to Wembley in place of his dad because his dad had died about a month before the final, and he wore a Sunderland shirt to this years capital one cup final. Read about it and thought it was a lovely thing to do

Out of all the teams to manage on Football Manager, every year Chelsea is always is the easiest. Especially this one since you get a good strong budget to buy lots of young players, and you have the older players to train the youth! I managed to get Lorenzo Insigne to score 15 goals from right wing in his first season

You're right, it isn't a massive deal, it's just I think the 4-2-3-1 drowns out the striker a bit, which means the striker would have to be world class or on having a really good day to contribute really well. And since it drowns them out, I think we should change, so we can still have a playmaker and the flanks, but it also adds some more shooting power since ours are misfiring a bit. Plus it adds a bit more English tradition to our side being 4-4-2 :P

The 4-2-3-1 just doesn't seem to work as much anymore, it's a very possession based tactic, but the Everton game today, we finished the first half with about 45% possession and not many good chances. Fair enough, Everton are a difficult team generally, but we aren't making the most of our chances, like with west ham and That just shows that we can't exactly be a consistent squad with our chances. I think we should do what city are doing with 4-4-2 like what you've put, with a playmaker running riot in the middle whilst we have Matic covering at the back. Hazard nd Schurrle would be a lethal duo if Schurrle could find his feet, so for now Willian is probably our best option there, even though he isn't the most attacking minded player. Then I really hope we sign Costa or someone of his calibre to go alongside Lukaku when he comes back.

Courtois put in yet another man of the match performance last night. As much as I love Cech, I don't think we can afford to pass up on someone THIS good.