CacOBG

Name me the chances and I will take everything back. All I see is general talk from all of you. Their best offensive player was Fellaini even though he isn't an offensive player. No. 9 also didn't play too bad but nothing special.

Name the (what did you say 4?) chances he created, don't talk nonsense.

Let's remove the bias. Name the chances : ) Everything that was remotely dangerous he had nothing to do. A coincidence but still a fact. Actually he might have passed one of the balls to Lukaku. But wouldn't call that a great play as Lukaku wasn't taken into a clear cut chance position. Nothing else, even after skimming through a match report in case my memory fails.

Witsel is always solid. Shame we have no place in the squad as he is fantastic every time I watch him and I imagine he isn't very expensive playing for Benfica.

You said that buying M'Vila and Schurlle is better than buying Hulk in the short term. Which is just rubbish. The rest was OK but this statement makes 0 sense.

He created nothing. I don't like people that just pass the ball endlessly for no particular reason (that is Barca style and I hate it with passion). He created NOTHING. I am not saying he was the only bad one but you can't change the fact that he played in an attacking rola and creating nothing either for himself (two passes to Hart) or for others. I am not judging him based on 1 intern. friendly .... lol. Just saying he was extremely poor in this particular game.

That friendly can only be defined by the term "waste of time". All attacking players were useless - ours or theirs, with maybe Defoe being the only OK player when he came on. As for our boys, only Cole impressed. Hazard massively underwhelming. I am still more excited by Hulk.

Pf, that makes two injured ones.

With Atletiko winning EL with our boy things might change. I can see the coach giving him a chance today. I like Mignolet, too, but it's a friendly so I think there's a good chance that we see Courtois. Hazard is 100%. Lukaku might start for the same reasons as Courtois - he hasn't played a lot and I am sure the coach would like to help one of his most promising stars with a First 11 start at Wembley - just to remind Chelsea on what they're missing by ignoring him. KdB - broken toe, unfortunately. He would have been a sub anyway but would have loved to see him smash a couple of sitters past Hart! : ) From England - JT, Cahill, Cole - the ususal suspects :) Oh, and based on the England squad, I can predict a surprising result at Wembley. Narrow win for Belgium with Hazard and Witsel the scorers for them.

No issue with that - everyone has the right to an opinion. He is not amongst my favorites either. In fact I started screaming every time I saw him on the pitch 2 seasons ago but he has been excellent in the past 3-4 months (I am excluding the AVB time overall as that was a time of madness when even if you were great, you still looked sh*t compared to any player from the opposition). And if this progress continues, I personally won't have any porblem with him being one of our 11 starters in the next couple of seasons. M'Vila seems like a good passer according to YT but can't comment on his defensive skills until I see him in action - Euro 2012 it is!

Mikel is not a bad passer at all. He even came as a supposed playmaker at the club. It is just that they use him as purely as an anchor man, which I find nothing wrong with. He does that job very very well. For the place next to him, both Lampard and Ramires can pass, create and run forward. And KdB is essentially the same type of player Frankie is only 14? years younger. I want him as next great CM at Chelsea. Why buy all the players in the world when we have good players already. If Ramires can't do the job I am sure Frankie can do 1-2 more seasons at top level until KdB is fully mature as Frankie is an incredible professional and he won't give up on 34. So there you have - your passing concerns sorted. Now just the manager needs to digure out what to do with Ramires who is a great player and it would be a shame for him to be a substitute... If you don't trust me on KdB - check out this - .I've seen a few full games of him. He is sensational on the ball.

How is M'Vila btter than Mikel for what we need - solid defence? M'Vila is a passer from what I've seen on (admittedly) YouTube - he just makes endless short passes and tackles here and there. We already have Frankie, who for me is better suited to the role, and KdB as a potential replacement when Frankie's legs let go. Why pay 18m for M'Vila when he won't improve anything in our squad? Oh, and I don't doubt the front 4 will be banging goals left and right considering how much class there is in all of them so I wouldn't worry too much about have exceptional passers in the midfield although both Frankie and KdB are and I am sure Ramires can be if he wants to and prepares for it. The midfield needs to provide for a solid back-up to our back 4 and Mikel must be there to do that.

The problem with Ramires is that he is neither a winger nor a central midfielder. He is a Maggio- type of player - he can run all the way on the wing - from an RB to a RW but he is not ideal for any particular position except a strict 4-4-2 with more defensive wingers (i.e. Beckham position?). Chelsea don't play with such a position - we have either very offensive wingers (Hulk, Hazard, Marin) or CM/DMs. He will have to adapt to a CM role if he wants to be in the first 11. How they work all that out with Lampz present is up to the Manager. For me 50/50 rotation between the two would be ideal. With Ramires occasionally filling in for Hulk, too, as he won't play every single game of the season. I can't see us playing without Mikel type of player either. Even freaking Barca have Busquets and Real have Khedira/Xabi. It wouldn't make sense with so ineffective in defence front 4.

Until Lampard can run and Ramires is fit I don't think there is space for either of M'Vila and Dembele. And by the time Lampard's legs die we should hopefully have a fully matured KdB as a like-for-like replacement. No place and would be a waste of money. On the Mikel can't play with a noncreative player argument, I tend to disagree in general but there is some validity - he really is best with Lampard. Nevertheless, I don't agree with the notion that Ramires can't do short/creative passes. His physique and attributes all point to the fact that he would be great in such a role. Anyway KdB is my favorite for this position anyway, but he needs a season (or two) on loan in the Prem to develop a bit more before he starts playing for Chelsea just in time for Lampard's likely retirement.

EVA!

I agree on Schurrle - he will be great pretty soon, but I don't think he is up there yet to make a difference at a club like Chelsea - he does it at Lever though so that's a start! M'Villa... I don't want yet another Mikel in the team - one is enough for me to slow down everything. High percentage rate of passing means nothing. Mikel also has high passing % but his passes are sideways or backwards more often than not. Stilian Petrov from Villa used to play like this for our national side - over 90% passing accuracy but majority of passes were doable for a 5 year old kid and a lot of people were frustrated as he was slowing down an otherwise pacey side. I am reserving judgement on M'Villa until I see him play for a big club against big teams (quite possibly next season by the looks of it) but to me he sounds like a Mikel, whom we already have and with a not bad replacement in Romeu.

We can easily play Ramires/Lampard alongside Mikel with the same effect (I can't believe M'Villa would be better than either of those two lads we already have.....). Willian is around 20m, Lucas is 30m+, Schurrle is rumoured to be around 18m. It's not like they are giving them away you know : ) Marin is far far away from 1st Team Football IMO.

My FB profilepic in 2 minutes time. Time to replace Petr kissing the cup!

Where exactly would M'Villa play? Instead of Mikel? What makes you think he is better than him (I personally have seen 1 game of him and can't judge him)? Schurrle's good, I've seen quite a bit of him as I follow Bundesliga but I would easily rate Hulk as a better player with no hesitation. You might be right about the long term bit, ut for the short term bit I can't agree. I think Hulk will fill in the place that exactly needs to be filled for next few seasons as we have other 10 great players to play alongside him. And I seriously doubt Roman thinks long term right now, I can see his mind - I want to defend that CL title and put my name in the history of European football once again!!

Hence why I am not saying he will score 36 but 20... You do realize there are crap teams in the Prem, too? Remember Carlo's winning side goal difference (not to mention some poor teams in Pot 3 and 4 in CL + some weaker sides for FA if he plays there, too)? Just to let you know Porto's 2010/11 seasons GD was 73-16. Chelsea's 09/10 was 103-32 (8 more games). Add to that an additional cup in the form of League Cup if he get a couple of games there in the latest stages and that is 10 more games a season than he had at Porto where he banged 36 and assisted for 20 in that season. Still think he can't manage 20/20 at Chelsea? I wouldn't bet against him.

1 Champions League win + 1 League win = more than 40m pounds overall when all benefits are included. 2 top class seasons with major contribution for ajor trophies and he has paid off. Whether he will do it, we will see. Don't forget Porto paid 20m Euro for him. They were never going to let him go below 30m pounds due to their business model and importance for their squad.

You do realize that Chelsea will play 60+ games next season? His 10/11 season was 36 goals + 21 assists in 53 games. 20 Goals, 15 assists sounds fine (or the opposite) for let's say 53-54 for him games. Sounds pretty doable to me.

Nobody expects form him to bang the same G/G ratio he did in Porto. But 20 goals + 20 assists per season would be more than good for 38m considering how other recent big name signings have gone + I am yet to hear a Hulk-quality RW that would come to us cheaper and we need a player to play there.

Say it once. Don't repeat it 20 times in the same thread as it that turns you into a troll who doesn't respect the staff at his own club or from that sentence the owner who has given Chelsea A LOT.

Portuguese league is a class above Brazilian defensively. Benfica, Sporting, Braga are all good teams defensively (maybe Sporting not so much but anyway). And Hulk plays in CL and EL, too, against world class oposition... He is just a biased person refusing to accept a good argument.