Marko Marin reporting in! Any link for the Mou's interview guys?

JT for Galatasaray? Some powderful weed they have there.

Anyway, my predicted line up for tonite's match.

------------Schwarzer--------
Azpi---Kalas---Cahill----Bertrand
--------Essien----Mikel------
KDB------Mata-----Schurrle/Hazard
------------------Ba------------

, I think Mou will rest some players. Hazard has been playing every game in the PL iinm. Ram too.

If Mata or KDB do not start tonite, I guess we all understand what it means. Both of them not in the right state of mind to play (focused on transfer away from the club).

Btw, Derby is one of the on form team in League One iinm. We can't take them lightly. So I think Mou might play a semi 2nd team with Cahill, Azpi, Mikel.

Luiz eligible to play tonite?

Seem's like Mou is taking Derby quite seriously. Mata on bench, 50% he'll stay in Chelsea. KDB... Mou said will give him some playing time, but now not even on bench. I suspect KDB's agent is already finding clubs to loan him.

Can't find live streaming site. firstrownow seems not to be streaming this match.

didn't watch the game. but looking at the starting line-up, i expected ntg less than a win.

will download the highlight tmr.

I think Mata will stay. And let's not forget Cahill, Azpi and Ram is our spine too. Azpi and Cahill has been fantastic to us for the first half of the season.

Definitely fergie factor. No more extra time goals, no more penalties, no more 6 min extra time in derby. The refs are not afraid to give decisions against man utd dy.

Imagine if u gave a decision against Man Utd. It's SIR fergie wei. later he bombard u 9 9.

Just watched the highlight for yday's match. I muz say Torres look very lively. He always too eager to make a point to the fans and himself. If he play relax a little, take some time to shot, he'll do much better.

Ram was all over the pitch. This guy's stamina is like Park Ji Sung x 2. lel. Just a pity that he dived.

KDB moving, we will either need to sign 1 winger or just promote 1 of our youth into first team. Kakuta or Piazon is a good replacement for KDB's position.

If we get Rooney, then it will give us more options and varieties in our attack.

Mata might be pushed wide. Oscar and Rooney will be fighting for central AMF position. LMF Hazard/Willian, RMF Schurrle/Mata.

It's very flexible too. When we're chasing games we can change to 442. Rooney can play up front.

Totally agree with this part. Chelsea first 11 have high standard imho. And we tend to have to be really assure that that particular youth have what it takes then only we put him in first team action. A good example is Ryan Bertrand. The next step up to the first team action imo is Van Annholt (If Cole leaves), McEahren (If Essien leaves and Lamps retire).

Maybe Mou will start to change the tradition, maybe not this season, maybe in the summer. Who knows. But tbh, a lot of our youth players can actually be other PL team starters dy. Let's say if they are playing for Arsenal, I think they'll be rotation players dy. But our club Chelsea, we tend to be a bit different. Maybe coz we are afraid the move might backfire us, being too cautious.

Torres, Lukaku and Balotelli for Next Season. That is some strike force we have there. Torres for super sub as he always provide energetic performance off the bench, Lukaku for Drogba-ish approach to the game which is to lead the line, Balotelli for speedy approach of the game.

But I don't think Mou will want any troublemaker in the team. Although Mou has proven to work under these circumstances before. Such as in Madrid, Casillas, Ramos was using their player power to force trouble to Mou, for Perez to drop the axe on Mou; In Inter, Mou even said Balotelli was unmanage-able which lead Balotelli being sold iinm. And now Mou wants him?

This post has been edited by briantwj: Jan 7 2014, 01:22 AM

Balo over Rooney for me. Don't want to see more competition for Oscar and Mata in the AMF role.

Balo's off field prob memang a lot, but on field, he can deliver it. So it's ok for me. Plus, he can kuda around and seek media's attention off the team, all attention also on him. XD

I'm with Ichi on the bolded part. As much as I want a new striker now to boost up our goals and attacks, I think Mou will stick with Torres, Eto and Ba 1st. I think our striker reinforcement will only arrive on the summer break.

A bit off topic, but how come Man Utd thread got this rule.

Please do not predict/mention the outcome (goal margin/scoreline) for any Man Utd matches (eg: Man Utd to win X-X against ABC or Man Utd to win by 3 goals and etc).

o.0 Just some prediction. Chelsea thread ok with it right?

Is a Mata for Rooney swap likely between Moyes and Mourinho?

Every football pundit, armchair expert and diehard expert has been screaming for Moyes and United to find a Paul Scholes replacement.

Mata is the only Scholes-level player who would come to Old Trafford in this January window.

And by Moyes’ own admission, Rooney is at the peak of his powers and is likely to command an asking price right now.

Can the big January move be Mata for Rooney?

sos

So how would u guys react if we do a direct swap involving Mata and Rooney?

nice one.

I follow Mata's facebook too. Seems like he is really keen to prove his worth in Chelsea.

Since we're on the topic of legends and striker. How about our cannon shot Hasselbaink?



Really miss those days, his link up play wif Gudjohsen was superb.

Those were the days, Roman just bought Chelsea, under Ranieri we played 442.

Desailly + Terry as CB. Bridge and Melchiot bombing down the flanks. Steelman Petit. Gronkjaer with his superb champions league goal scored from so far out. Hasselbaink, Gudjonsen, Mutu and Crespo. Good old days. I would say most of our players was playing superbly that season.

How I wish we have 4 top strikers right now.

This post has been edited by briantwj: Jan 7 2014, 03:50 PM

Was searching for transfer news. Then saw that news. They are different type of players, Mata being more technical, Scholes being more physical. But anyway, that is what Man Utd needs now, a creative midfielder, which we have at abundance now in Chelsea.

Btw who is black widow?

The agent of Manchester United target Fredy Guarin has revealed that the Inter Milan midfielder never received an offer from Chelsea, and now looks set to stay at San Siro beyond the January transfer window, reports Sky Sports.

Responding to mounting speculation about his client, Marcelo Ferreyra moved to deny rumours of an imminent transfer to the Premier League, and reiterated the Colombian's commitment to his current club.

"It's false. We have never got offers from Chelsea," he told FcInternews. "We are happy at Inter, even if we don't know what [club president] Erick Thohir's intentions are."

"They must let us know if they want to count on him and if so, we must discuss the new contract of which we already spoke about last June, but that has not arrived yet because of the club's sale."

Red Devils boss David Moyes is also understood to have been monitoring the 27-year-old's situation, as he too weighed up an attempt to lure the player to Old Trafford.

"It's a heartbreaking thing not to know what Thohir wants, because he never talked to us," he added.

"However, we want to know what the president thinks about my client, because if he considers him the best player of the team he must be valued like this."

sos

I think Guarin's agent is toying with Inter, Man Utd and us to see which side offer better deals to Guarin. If Inter do not give contact extension, Guarin will still be sold this month to either us or Man Utd.

Signing 1 striker is ok la, either Rooney or RVP. But both?? we are playing 4-2-3-1, so we need only 3 striker. Man City is playing something like 4-4-1-1 with a striker playing as AM role, slightly deeper, that's why they need 4 strikers.

This post has been edited by briantwj: Jan 8 2014, 03:58 PM