The drogs reporting in!

Hmm..i wonder what jose's team talk will be like for the second leg vs pool. Personally i don't think the bench is that weak,but practically all of them have been deprived of game time.

Alleged transfer targets like douglas costa better be prepared to sit by the sidelines,heck even cuadrado who's supposedly the better player will have to accept that if he's not good enough in jose's eyes,he won't get a look in.

It seems schurrle might be out the door first before salah..interesting. Wolfsburg really has some serious cash to burn.

Cuadrado apparently wants the move to happen. If we get him for £25mil, can i say it's a bargain?utd were quoted £40mil after all

Haha yep united really putting our spending to shame recently. Not sure if they do much negotiating these days. It seems more like they just tell clubs to name their price

Hmm i kind of feel the same about schurrle. He had massive potential and underlined that with some lovely goals last season,including a superbly taken hattrick which showed prowess as a makeshift striker as well.

It's tough to put a finger on what exactly happened,but he looks like a player who needs consistent game time regardless if he's doing well or not, to truly realise his talents. The problem is,at chelsea if you're anything less than 100% for most games,you get thrown to the bench unless you're a special talent like hazard or fabregas.

Sadly,even i can't remember the last good or great match he's had this season either from the bench or from the start,and the boss has surely noticed this too imo.

Well,well. It looks like the FA's second inaugural attempt at their 'Let's give Stevie G a trophy this year,' celebration has been unceremoniously CANCELLED once and for all.

Sheesh. Honestly i don't get it. Some of those blatant fouls / second yellows weren't even that hard to call. But that only makes victory all the more sweeter, and jose should really use this as a springboard to ram home his famous 'us versus them' mentality, which will fire up the players even more.

I expect them to come out fighting vs city,and i won't be surprised one bit if more rubbish decisions go against us,but we'll be ready. Oh boy we'll be angry,determined and ready to give as good as we get and make sure silly decisions will have no impact on the final result.

This is exactly the type of game we needed. An ugly,scrappy,hard-fought triumph to emphasise again that there's no easy game this season,next season or the season after that. To be fair to liverpool,they played extremely well (best I've seen them vs the chels) but thanks to some amazing goalkeeping from tibo,we dragged ourselves into wembley yet again.

That early mistake from zouma could've meant lights out for us,but he made up for it superbly by calmly tracking back. Wasn't impressed by our first half display at all,with poor passing and panicky defending being highlights of our gameplay. In the second half we were slightly better,and we could've had two or three in ET if not for some poor decision making in attack.

MOTM for me was willian, who eventually came up with the winning assist. Tireless running and tackling,only he and costa actually looked like they cared about closing down pool in their own half. Had a poor pass which could've released the latter through the middle,but after that he was well and truly our standout performer, making incisive dribbles and passes,while battling for every ball.

Definite starter against city. However,i'm most worried about the form of matic, who looked laboured and careless for most of the match. Really,i don't think fab can cover for him if he carries over his form vs aguero and co,so a speedy ramires to track back in case anything happens will be a good form of insurance.

Cesc pushed further ahead if he's fit,and the ineffective oscar dropped to the bench.


Yep. Nobody can really come into the team to make a major impact,and it's glaringly obvious that our first 11 is pretty much our Plan A,B and C most of the time.

Shades of those two headed goals he scored in the CL against them as well.

Iva's goal was crucial,but if anyone noticed every time he joined up in attack,there was a gaping hole on the right side which zouma/terry had to cover numerous times. he needs to be extra careful vs city.

Boy it's great to have azpi and ramires back!

Yeep it was in the CL,both from corners iinm. Haha jose with his 'my ramires' comments,doesn't really hide his obvious favourites does he? Fab has rightfully displaced him,but in certain games he can really have a major impact on stifling the opponent's midfield with his closing down and tackling. Would like him to be involved vs city,and tracking the likes of silva / nasri.

I think it was rafa who immediately saw this,and it didn't take long for him to discover his defensive form in the middle. Out at RB he can have an impact but sometimes his crossing leaves much to be desired.

He's been unfairly labeled as a diver,and as a result, defenders can resort to anything in order to stop him. Having said that he still scores on a fairly regular basis and this just shows the quality and attitude he possesses.

P.s: no more transfer news?cuadrado?costa? Kakuta?

I have faith in didier / remy,both have enough quality to do damage vs city. Keep silva and aguero on a tight leash and we're capable of getting goals.

Haha the 'stamp' ruling is such a joke. Violent conduct?lol i've seen nastier stuff being played around local futsal courts for heaven's sake. I have absolutely no problems with the ruling if it was only more consistent and transparent.

Last year we had other teams' players flailing elbows into the faces of opponents,which were deemed innocuous after the FA's useless and selectively stupid review process, which begs the question how exactly do these guys determine what's 'violent' and who are the teams that 'deserve' to be punished.

Even off the back of my head i can recall an incident where costa was elbowed in the face in midair a couple of games ago (iinm),the ref missing it completely and the incompetent FA as usual did nothing about it, for whatever reason.

That's a lot, agreed. But don't forget our backup strikers are no pushovers, and at the very least if didier or remy starts, the former can hold up the ball and bring hazard / willian into play (remember that one two with eden for the spurs goal? yummy!), while the latter is intelligent enough to make runs and open up space for the others.

anyway, some reports filtering in that we're ready to activate cuadrado's release clause which apparently stands at a cool 26.8 million pounds. the catch is that it expires in a couple of days so it's a no brainer that his price will rise much closer to the 40mil utd were being quoted or even surpass it, in the event that he has an outstanding season with fiorentina.

unfortunately this also means the end of the line for schurrle. the douglas costa rumours are set to disappear as well me thinks, if we secure cuadrado. might still be a few twists and turns in this one!

It seems we're going to contest the charge,with the result of any appeal being announced before the match. Let's see where this ends,but i don't have a good feeling about it.

Expect Jose to blank all english press conferences for at least a month ala fergie style,if we lose the appeal. Knowing jose,he'll use the outcome to fire up the players even further

Now where's that cuadrado dude?

many of us have been crying out for oscar to be tested in a deeper midfield role, but for some reason jose just doesn't see him fitting in there. benitez would've probably given it a try already, but then again he tries everything doesn't he?

schurrle's swansong at LW vs man city, getting the winner in added time? haha that would really fill the back pages (not to mention increasing his transfer fee by 5mil lol)!

hmmm some unexpected rumours regarding west ham's enner valencia. are we really interested in him?

3 game ban,not surprising. Meh. Bring it on city,villa and everton!it's rage against the campaign time!

Screw the biased and blinkered FA,i hope jose ignores all their stupid journos and reporters,and sends a non-english speaking representative to do the interviews just to troll them!

This post has been edited by Kerplunk: Jan 30 2015, 09:47 PM

Coach vincenzo montella has confirmed cuadrado's departure to chelsea with salah moving in the opposite direction on loan.

Welcome to chelsea fc,Cuadrado! Can't wait to see him unleashed vs city

Both teams looking really nervy. Game needs a goal. From us!

Iva's head is in the clouds. Seems to be dreaming.

Don't waste time appealing to the ref for soft penalties, we're not going to get those. Almost conceded from a some poor lack of concentration. Poor first half so far.

Reeeeemmmyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!

Poor goalkeeping from courtois,has to be said it's his first blunder this season. What the hell was iva doing though on the far side?he was the only defender who wasn't in-line and played navas onside.

Team looks very sluggish,especially in defense. It seems our pressing seems to be a lot less intense as well. Not sure what we can change in the second half..if it's still a stalemate,i can see the drogs being thrown in. Willian,hazard and remy have been decent but oscar is missing.

Drab and ugly second half,but i'll take it. Especially after the midweek exertions vs pool.

Trust me,Cuadrado will have an extremely important role when he arrives.

Good call on thorgan,i'd like to see him in action for us. Pogba would be a luxury buy but a central duo of pogba and matic..fuuuhh~ i don't think many teams will be able to get through that. Would be awesome,but as the city game has shown,the bigger issue that needs addressing is an able understudy to cesc. Thorgan would be an interesting choice, or maybe even jeremy boga if he shows enough promise.

If KDB was still here,he would've slotted in perfectly. But that would also mean spending lots of time on the bench , losing his place in the belgian national team, while cesc runs the show. Too good to be a backup player and not hardworking enough for jose's tastes.

Perfect,if only he was about 3 years younger
I think thorgan has a good chance of breaking through and we can use more funds to strengthen other areas of the squad.