worstkid

I thought both Matic and Mikel had solid games today. A few of Mikel's passes were... err,non-incisive shall we say, but that's just SOP for Mikel and no harm, no foul in my book. It seems to me Matic is the player Mourinho wanted Mikel to be. Matic combines the defensive talents of Mikel with a quick attacking flair that Mikel hasn't shown recently. Could it be that Mikel's mistakes are more memorable? Possibly. He's got a longer record with Chelsea after all. I don't think anyone's saying you don't show love for Matic. I also think Matic is better than Mikel (at least now he is, arguably wasn't last season and certainly not when we sold him). Funny, I was watching the DVD of the Champions League winning season yesterday and Mikel was a massive influence. Such a short memory I have. It's been a long time since Dixon and Jukebox. Mourinho gives Mikel massive shout outs,I'm sure he said less than a month ago that he was/could be our best player. Let's be honest: good enough to play for Chelsea under Mourinho is a tiny contingent as it is, we're talking about a few percent either way.

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A specialist who's hard to kill and still I'm an assassin Natural born killer who die hard 'cause I be the last man standing The golden child with a golden eye like a james bond strike Extra terrestrial mind like close encounters of the third kind I cause flatliners, and last action heroes to go awol And turn rambo commando into two desperados I don't deal with basic instincts, my mind's like a computer I'm the total recall, lethal weapon times seven, starship trooper Fist of fury, karate kid, break out on some higher learnin' You can smell my goals from here to mississippi burning The texas chainsaw massacre scorer, with the fifth element intelligence Leaving defences brain dead like presidents Yeah, Diego Costa! With apologies, etc.

Why do you think Azpi, Fabregas and Costa have been better than Matic this season? Is it consistency,another quality perhaps?

Respectfully, that wasn't your question; which was, "Who is outplaying Matic at the moment?" Seriously, though, you know what... You're right. No-one can get close to Matic really (apart from maybe Hazard in the last half-dozen or so games. If there's one player I want as an outlet, it's him. He's got pace, trickery, the lot.)

Hazard, Terry, Ivanovic. The last two 'cause defensive players don't get enough credit. Your point is well taken, though. Don't score points if we don't don't score goals. Lose points if we concede too many.

Honestly, I can. I thought Man City's scoreline flattered thema bit but boy they look dangerous to me. They've been playing without strikers. Goal scorers for sure, but no strikers. We need their in-form players (Nasri, Toure, in particular) to go off the boil.

She said no Robin, she said no... Oh Robin, she said no. I think that the past influences and sets the context for the present, and that's one of the reasons, as you mentioned, that Mikel no longer starts. It's not that he's a bad player, far from it, he's just not quite as good as the first choice starters.

What's past is prologue. And that's, as you go some way toward intimating, as good a way to precis the conversation re: Mikel as I can think of. He is now an understudy. To be clear: I think booing him is unacceptable in every way.

Amen. Hazard is very important. And to think for similar money we could have bought Erik Lamela. :hollow laugh: God I hate Tottenham. [Edit: and I wish upon them many more bad buys like Erik Lamela] I'll get my coat...

I'll echo this. Not to reverse cause and effect too much, but Matic didn't play against Newcastle, our only league defeat of the season. Other factors contributed, for sure. So that's what we can look like without Matic. A holding midfielder as opposed to a defensive one.

I remember a season or two ago that JT had the highest pass accuracy of any Chelsea player. Easy when you're knocking it around the back four or to the keeper, all due massive respect to JT. I think my point, not clearly articulated; is that when going forward Mikel's passes seem to me to be more often misplaced compared to our similar players and also he seems to me to lose the ball or get 'sacked' more often. Can't knock him too much, though.

Assuredly defensive players do not get enough credit. I was thinking earlier today about exactly that w/r/t Ivanovic. He's like the new Carvalho (one of the unsung heroes, if not down right underrated) in that respect. Ivanovic's simulating was the only blemish on another wise great performance by him. I've thought this season in particular that Mikel's passing has been weak, but the stats seem to me to prove otherwise. Not sure why I'm seeing that. Wow, though. What a display. But for Adrian we would surely have scored four or five. Awesome display from Matic, Hazard, Costa and all the others. Great Christmas present. Thank you very much Chelsea FC. Onward and upward! [Edit: Matic is the new Makalele]

Was looking on the FA site at Chelsea's current tally @ http://www.thefa.com/football-rules-governance/fairplay and it doesn't appear to list reasons for the yellows, which is a pity as I believe they're recorded. Do you have another or better source? Is going down when looking to avoid a tackle necessarily simulating? If not looking for a foul (a wholly subjective call I will admit) then I argue not. Fair play for saying Chelsea players simulate more than average. I'm not sure I agree. As someone else on this thread said, perhaps this is because we pay more attention to Chelsea games. Yeah, the refereeing on this pretty arbitrary. thouh it always will be. That said, I think, though, that generally bad decisions will even themselves out over the course of a season. Every team gets their fair share, etc. Case in point, and purely anecdotal, Costa has one more than he ought and Cahill one less.

You're right to say that diving is not black and white. Just because everyone does it, doesn(t make it a legitimate tactic, though. Ethically, it's dubious if not flat out wrong. Morally I think it's easy to justify hence it's easy to rationalise away. Doesn't make it right. Far from it.

Definitely go with Luis at LB, I'm not overly keen with playing Cesar out of position from RB. Unless it impacts on the integrity of the back four, Mourinho does it all the time so he likely knows something (many things? lots? An infinite number of things...) from training that I don't.

I pray we'll keep our width against Stoke in a way we didn't against Sunderland. I thought Hazard was amazing against Derby and when clearing the ball from defence it helps to have a target. If Stoke can force us to play down the middle and play pretty passes on the edge of their penalty area it could make it difficult for us. If they play "park the bus" so be it, as has been said here these are the games we need to win "on a wet Monday night" to take the title. Parking the bus gets a lot of stick but it's hard to do for 90 minutes and I have respect for teams that can be that disciplined. Throwing something out there, play lower down the pitch and let them come at us so we can hit them on the break? Eden Hazard charging at you has to be an unnerving sight.

Exactly this. It's not unreasonable to expect a player to avoid injury where he can. Falling down does not imply the player is looking for a foul. Given all the conditions you've articulated I think it emminently reasonable to not put oneself on the line unnecessarily.

I was thinking about what you said about not giving free kicks for diving. What do you think is an acceptable alternative? Players, through their clubs, can appeal red cards (only straight reds? Or second bookable offences too? I'm not sure), can they appeal yellows too? I think they should be able to. I think they can but there's a penalty... As in, the panel has the power to raise a yellow to a red, and a frivolous appeal can result in a longer ban than there would be otherwise, precisely to stop automatic appeals. Regardless, Costa's (so far) seven yellow cards is a trend that could do to be arrested. I appreciate his passion, but still...

I agree big blue. Watching it again, Costa's looks worse than I remember. Still though, and as you say, Costa isn't appealing and it looks to me as if he's trying to avoid contact. Just because he goes down doesn't mean he's looking for a foul. I get the impression he's just about to half-heartedly raise his hands at the ref when the ref [edit: to say that was maybe a foul or to signal there was nothing there? I don't know.] blows his whistle, but I'm not sure. What do you think? I think his reputation might preceed him. Cahill's is just comical. Patently that's a bookable offence and he would have been off at that point in the game, having been booked previously. Frankly I'm just grateful that Chris Foy didn't send one of our players off as he had in six of the previous eight matches he's refereed when we've been playing.

Exactly. Classic misdirection.

To be honest, though, it is. If Eden Hazard Hazard is running full pelt at a player and gets clipped he might go over with arms flaling. It might look "funny" on TV but it it's no put on. He's running at full pace and the slightest touch can knock him off-balance. I would hope refs account for this. To accept your point more literally, though, sneakily winning a penalty is just cheating. I don't think we are being unfairly pilloried in the press over this. I don't even think we're being singled out as the poster child. Sure, we're more visible and that diving display against Hull was pretty reprehensible and Steve Bruce wasn't far wrong, although massively hyperbolic, in calling it Swan Lake. That aside, consider this: the papers only have X amount of column inches to fill with Chelsea on Sunday. If they're talking about Steve Bruce's hyperbolic comments they have less space to devote to Chelsea's mistakes. (No I am not saying Mourinho told players to dive...) My point is this was prevelant last year when Mourinho complained vociferously about ref's decisions. More space has to be given over to the, frankly, manufactured controvesies than to the game itself. If Mourinho can get the press talkin about that then he's erected a massive smokescreen while he fixes the problems for the next game. (Essentially I feel like the press is playing chequers and he's playing chess) And that, to me, is just one of the many geniuses of Mourinho.

Now that's just cynical. As Mourinho says, Chelsea players don't dive. Also, there are no American troops in Baghdad.

I agree. I mean, in practice it seems to me that if the ref makes a mistake that benefits your team is that player going to say anything risking the opprobrium of his teammates/manager and the ire of supporters? I do wonder what would happen in that situation, though. Would the ref listen and convert the free kick he was going to give into a ... I don't know, drop-ball I guess? By the time he's blown the whistle he's likely made his mind up. As I say I think it's an interesting point. I seem to recall an incident where something similar happened with that erstwhile role model (tongue firmly in cheek) Robbie Fowler. He got a penalty for basically tripping over his own feet and told the ref it wasn't a penalty but one was given anyway. It wasn't against us, I can't remember who it was though. [Edit: Think it may have been Arsenal in 97?]

I thought Costa's booking was harsh. I think it's often instructive to look at the reaction of teammates and the player himself. In the game against Hull, Costa doesn't appeal for anything (in fact he gets right on up looking to carry on playing) and nor does anyone else. Cahill's dive on the other hand was just tragic, if not comical. It frustrates me that players, especially Chelsea players, think this is a legitimate tactic. We don't need to do it and even if we did we shouldn't. As you say, it is cheating. Interesting point re: if a player knows he caught another is it cheating to say nothing when that player is booked? Strictly, yes. It is. In practice...