raumdeuter: Compare the quality of Belgian players currently to Brazil and lets know who has better player
Check this out and tell us how much you disagree.
patrickmuf: In the GK position, Courtois is better than Caesar but other than that, Brazil have a better Bench...If Diego Alves is picked as first choice I'd say it's a close call... LB: Marcelo/Fabinho/Sandro/Filipe is better than anything Belgium brings to the fore... CBs: I'd pick Toby Alderweireld and any of Silva/Luiz/Marquinhos RB: Alves despite is age is better than anything Belgium brings forth DM: Luiz Gustavo is better than Naingolan, Fernandinho is better than Witsel, Casemiro is also better than the both Belgians when it comes to protecting the back four. LCF: Neymar over Hazard AM: Coutinho over De Bruyne LCF: De Bruyne CF: Lukaku for the time being, in no distant time, we'd be talking Gabriel Jesus.
Others might play Neymar as the CF to accommodate Hazard and drop Lukaku and interchange the positions of Coutinho and De Bruyne... It's not too difficult to see that Brazil easily has the better players and better team than Belgium...
Cc: Griffon, raumdeuter, airmark, Adisaowala
That said, I think you should know that the difference between an average/good player and a great player is a gulf.
How does Brazil have a better chance than Belgium to win the next world cup? Explain how Juve cant win jack continentally when they won a season before idane got there and played 2 finals with Zidane Hazard has great players alongside him in Belgium and in the CL and never fails to fail
Please what is your definition of great players and how is Belgium in possession of them?
Meanwhile, I must say I love the cult-like culture I see in this team. Conte is so clear about what he wants and simply don't have room for those unwilling or unable to fit his exacting standard.
It is binary, there is no middle ground. Only those who fit extremely well with his core ideology and demanding standards are good to start. If you are a misfit you get expunged like a virus.
Just look at Mikel, Fabregas and JT.
This is what makes a manager and to be honest I'm happy to have this man around.
This time last year, despite being the defending Premier League title holders, Chelsea were in dire straits, Jose Mourinho was losing his grip, the team was in free-fall and any hopes of retaining the Premier League title had faded fast.
After playing the opening 10 Premier League games Chelsea had amassed a paltry 11 points, more relegation form than title winning form.
Just six weeks down the line one Jose Mourinho was removed from office.
This season, after 10 Premier League games, Chelsea have accumulated double that number of points and have amassed 22.
The team is on the up, sitting just one point off of the top and are on a run of four successive victories in the Premier League, with Antonio Conte at the helm things are on the up.
As for the person now known as 'The Previous One` he`s still up to his old tricks.
His Manchester United team, despite having spent a fortune, are off the pace and sit in eighth place in the Premier League.
Mourinho`s side have accumulated fewer points after 10 games than David Moyes, in his ill-fated reign, had.
Jose spent the second half of the game, against Burnley, sat in the stands (shades of West Ham away last season), once again having fallen foul of the referee, he already faces an FA charge for words he spoke about another referee Anthony Taylor, does a leopard ever change its spots?
Those who have been watching footie long enough know how this game we love can be so cruel and also rewarding ..how it can give so much joy and also so much heart ache. As a fan of Chelsea FC since the early 90s one could rightly say I am one of the spoilt ones..i have had so much to celebrate and comparatively so little to mourn about. It is true that like Oliver Twist who always asked for more I am one of those who has despite all the good fortune we have seen as a club have dared to ask for and dream for even more but today I reached a place i seldom do as a footie fan..football nirvana.
Each of us can name those few moments when the proceedings of a footie match made you reach a level of pleasure that can simply not be surpassed by anything else in the realms of sport. I reached it when I saw the greatest national team in history beat Italy in the 1970 world cup at the majestic Azteca and get to keep the Jules Rimet cup for good. I reached it when the Dutch finally won something of substance for all their long history of flair and Jogo bonito during the euros when Gullit, Van Basten and Rijkaard finally broke through for L` Orange..I felt it for the Albi celeste when the other worldly genius of Diego Amendo Maradona made the 1986 world cup his own. Even when he sneakily ousted my Moms Home Country England with the now infamous Hand of God, just because I felt that his kind of genius simply deserved to reach the Zenith of achievement which he did against the mighty Germans again in that my familiar theater of dreams…the Azteca.
For Chelsea I felt it when the "little club" I had pledged my allegiances to just a few years earlier climbed to the zenith of club football and beat Mighty Real Madrid in the European Club Champions cup match, I felt it when not too long after we got a brash new Manager called Jose mourinhio, after our fortunes brought us along the path of a man called Roman Abramovic who became the new club owner ( rescuing us from looming financial doom) and how in absolutely dominant fashion we took the Premier league title in a fashion that made many open their mouths aghast. Suddenly the "little club" I had come to love when they had brought in Rudd Gullit, Zola and Vialli had now morphed from being one of the upper half tier teams to a behemoth of the prestigious English premier league. I felt it again as we retained the title the next year in essentially similar dominant fashion as I selfishly began to entertain wet dreams of a dynasty of domination similar to those that Liverpool and ManU had had from eras past. But pride as the good book says goes before destruction and after these highs when football nirvana had become virtually the norm for me the years of drought and painful disappointment came. I didn`t feel that euphoria of football nirvana again till when a well cultured Italian gentleman took us on a swashbuckling run that brought us back to the zenith of what was now called the BPL and along the way had us hitting a league record of total goals scored. I had to wait after that for quite some time till 2012 when lady luck took a fancy on us and anointed one of our former legends Roberto Di Matteo as our next patron saint. In one of the most improbable scripts in our annals this pleasant gentleman who only got the job because no one else Roman wanted would accept such a poisoned chalice with a team presumed to be on its last legs did the nigh impossible winning a glorious double including the elusive "Rabbit ears" trophy.
This Sunday in just one match I revisited football nirvana again. Some may say it was just one match but this is not quite true. This was a huge statement match. We matched up against one of the two richest clubs in our league. We lined up against the club that spent the most this last transfer window by far..we matched up against that same Jose Mourinhio who would have all and sundry believe that the debacle that forced Roman to sack him a season ago had absolutely nothing to do with him; that he bore no blame. To see us win against this kind of opposition and to win so dominantly and so emphatically took me to football nirvana again but had even greater significance than just my delirious pleasure or that of the entire blue nation.
At the start of this season I indicated that I felt we were in real danger of not being able to finish in the top 4 because I felt that 3 of those 4 positions were essentially already taken leaving us to battle for the final position with 2-4 other teams and I didn`t fancy our chances as being very rosy. I had in those three guaranteed spots; ManU, City and the Gunners. Guys I am happy to say that I was wrong..with the season closing in on half way it really does appear that in fact there are only two locked up spots for those top 4; City and the gunners. ManU are in trouble and Jose is one of the big reasons why. Despite the expense spent assembling his squad it was easily apparent today that this is a side of superstar individuals and not a coherent team. Jose was roundly outcoached today by Conte and the difference in commitment and desire between the two team of players was shocking to behold. Yes our players clearly had a chip on their shoulders and had a point to prove but the mediocrity Manu served up was a huge indictment on Jose.
As I look closely at ManU I now realize they are in greater danger of not finishing in the top 4 than we are. That they have the sapping effect of the Europa league that we don`t dosent help their cause and the temperament issues of Jose are already becoming obvious with the season not even half way through. Conte lost big games against the gunners and Liverpool. See how he handled himself with class and dignity..contrast that with the classless self centered comments Jose made to Conte because the man had the temerity to ask his home fans to cheer on his team ( the home team) that had put on an A plus performance against what was supposed to be a top 4 BPL team. Those who have known and observed jose as long as I have will acknowledge that the warning signs are already there for ManU. He is two to three more critical loses away from a total melt down and with matches against City in the EFL cup and the Gunners a little later in November don`t be surprised if things get really ugly for Jose and Manu real quick. We all know how Jose hates to have his methods and authority questioned abut unlike Chelsea FC ManU is full of footie royaty who have won big for ManU prior to Jose's coming..many of these guys wanted Ryan giggs not him...as the loses pile up get ready to see combustible situation erupt into a full fledged inferno before long. If Jose felt there were political machinations aligned against him at Chelsea FC he has not seen anything yet. Honestly if that happens I will shed no tears for Jose. All it will mean is that it improves our chances of comfortably securing a top 4 finish which for me is the number one goal and priority for this Conte`s first season after picking up the bits and tatters that Jose left him. Any thing else including one or two cup trophies he can garner will be extra icing on the main cake.
Yes it is only one game but it is games like this that give a team and manager self confidence that had hitherto eluded them and I suspect when the history of this season is finally written for Chelsea FC, whatever glory we can attain this season, any trophies we may be able to win (be it the EFL and/or the FA cup..i wont be so greedy to even bring myself to contemplate us winning the BPL..were we to do that I will immediately start a petition to have a stature of Conte erected at Stamford Bridge), we will all look back and recollect that the momentum really took of when we took the highly expensive "superstar ManU" team and their "super manager" to the cleaners at Stamford bridge with a team of bargain buys like Victor Moses, Pedro, Marcos Alonso and Cesar. It is a fitting testament to how much difference a manager can make that with just Alonso, Kante and Moses as the new additions to the starting eleven , Conte took essentially the same squad that Jose was leading to what looked like relegation disaster before Roman had to pull the plug and has turned the team around to a cohesive unit that now actually looks like each piece knows their place and part and role and the players are finally again looking like they are having fun while doing their jobs very well.
For all in the blue nation it a great day to be a Chelsea fan and long may it continue. I raise my glass of non alcoholic beverage to all you my fan mates ..to even better days for the Chelsea..to more days of football Nirvana for us. Forza Conte!!! KTBFFH!!!
Jose Mourinho returns to Stamford Bridge with his Manchester United site desperate to avoid defeat. I expect a Liverpool-like performance and you should too.
When you employ Jose Mourinho you do it for one reason – Results. Football these days is big business and despite the detractors this week, Manchester United fans will accept that Jose Mourinho almost guarantees results (or at least had done before last season). Having spent three seasons since Sir Alex Ferguson looking for a new identity and finding themselves some way off the title race, United are looking to the man that has won titles wherever he has worked and a man that knows how to set a side up to avoid defeat.
Win your home games and take points away from home is the mantra that he follows, it’s demanded from his players and at the moment, each and every single one of them are buying into his methods. Make of their performance at Liverpool what you will but he took a valuable point, avoided defeat and frustrated the life out of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side.
We have to expect the same without question. Chelsea are a direct rival to Mourinho for a top four finish this season and picking up points in the games against those rivals is of paramount importance. But for maybe one or two changes, I would imagine that the same players playing in the same formation would take to the pitch for United to do a job.
As for Chelsea it would be interesting to see if Antonio Conte’s decides to stick with the same players that played so well against Leicester a week ago? John Terry is confirmed as fit and available so there has to be an obvious temptation for a recall based on the opposition.
As for Conte and Chelsea, this is the biggest game of our season so far because of what happened against Liverpool and Arsenal. It’s all well and good beating Hull and a Leicester City side who are nowhere near the same levels they reached last season but to step up and beat Manchester United would be a major shot in the arm for the manager and his players.
I cannot see this being an open affair by any stretch of the imagination. Jose will look to press high, remain compact and look to negate any space in front of his back four. If Chelsea can score early, then the game changes.
Chelsea is on the up, back scoring goals and looking much better at the back. Can we take our recent form and defensive stability into this one and come away with an important three points? Let’s hope so!
raumdeuter: 1st goal Fernandinho slipped Red card Bravo handled the balloutside the box 2nd goal Debruyne passed to a Barca player who was almost infront of their box 3rd goal Gundogan passed to Suarez who was around City Box
Man save me this line of reasoning. What fueled all these errors? Y'all make it look as if City players were paid to commit those errors. City’s process of coming to terms with how their manager wants them to play creates an environment where mistakes are more likely, so the manager takes the blame.
Barca when off the ball are very good at closing down their opponents, If Pep was that pragmatic he would have thought about that and instructed his players to release the ball quick enough, but hell no, he's a big fan of ball retention and there he got served.
You can't blame KDB and Gundogan for passing to Barca players when they should have made a clearance, they were only playing to the gaffer's instruction.
When things go wrong, this is what a manager does/says:
Jose Mourinho concedes he has work to do to stop the individual errors he believes are costing Manchester United.
The Red Devils slipped to their third defeat in a week as Watford ran out deserving 3-1 winners in their Premier League meeting at Vicarage Road on Sunday.
Etienne Capoue put the Hornets ahead with his fourth of the season before Marcus Rashford equalised for United - only for substitute Camilo Zuniga to re-establish Watford's lead before captain Troy Deeney tucked away an injury-time penalty.
The result, coupled with derby defeat to Manchester City last weekend and Thursday night's Europa League loss to Feyenoord, means Mourinho has lost three successive games for the first time in over a decade.
And he knows he still has plenty to do to turn things around at Old Trafford, despite what was a promising start to his first season at the helm.
Asked if United's drop in form was worrying, Mourinho said: "My feeling is that it is not because we started the season very well with (winning) the Community Shield and three victories in a row in the Premier League.
"(That is) the best start that a new manager has had at Manchester United I think. But was I thinking that my team was ready, perfect, unbeatable? Not at all.
"I was completely aware that we were not perfect, with lots of players who are not end products and can make their own mistakes...I feel that some individuals probably feel the pressure and responsibility too much."
Luke Shaw was singled out by Mourinho, who was unhappy with the England international's positioning for Zuniga's strike, with the Portuguese admitting it is up to him to drill his approach into his squad. "Their second goal is a mistake that goes against our plan and our training, because our intention was for their wing-backs to be pressed and not let them progress," he said.
(Nordin) Amrabat receives the ball and our left-back (Shaw) is 25 metres from him instead of five. Even at 25 you have to jump and go and press but no, we wait.
"This is a tactical but also a mental attitude. It's something that doesn't become perfect in a couple of weeks. So we have to improve, no doubt, individually and collectively. And that's my job."
PietroRico: So anything thats not gung ho football Is now parking the bus.
It's either you are parking bus or going for All attack. Issorite
Bros i tire for some reasoning mehn. Like one can't set up his team to reject space and maintain a good defensive shape again?
Individual errors didn't bring Citeh to their feet lastnite, Pep's ineptitude did. Top managers know when to re-strategise and that's what separates them from average joes like Roberto Martinez and Steve Bruce.
Having so much conviction in your philosophy even in the face of death is madness. Pragmatism is what makes you a manager not fantasy.
So in other to stiffen up a defence that has been noted for its fragility this season, Chelsea could be prepared to stifle their attacking prowess? Na the way?
timbros: Bonucci will seamlessly fit into Conte’s system. He has worked with him before both in club and NT level so he will easily know what his coach needs from him.
If both players are readily available for Conte right now, Bonucci is the man.
60 million pounds is being quoted for him, and we know he's already 30.
nateevs: Why do some salespersons do this? I ask a simple question, the answer to which is neither on the website nor on WhatsApp. But you send me there nonetheless. I just need a screenshot of a map at Lekki, with a marker indicating the exact position of this place. Can you kindly do this?
European Football (EPL, UEFA, La Liga) › Re: Official Chelsea Fan Thread: Club World Cup Champions 2025-2029 by Griffon: 10:35pm On Nov 08, 2016
