Glorious Failures and Moral Victories - OTT [R]

Diego Lopez lol.

Quality goal mind you.

 

Yeah I think so

 

What a mistake by Diego Lopez, unacceptable, let him do that against us !

 

Rik tearing apart the defense, midfield has been shit for madrid

 

Good shot by gama good save Lopez

 

Sad to see the demise of Essien , very poorly used by Chelsea burnt him out

 

Marcelo has been poor

 

Big guns on for Madrid

 

Gama doing well, hey Vocalz, Holy__Joe what is the opinion on him

 

Pizzi is a very good player.

 

Excellent goal by kaka

 

2-1 madrid game over.

 

ronaldo and ozil changed the game..

I've forgotten how dangerous Ronaldo is off the bench against a tired defense, some of those runs and tricks were vintage 03/04 ronaldo.

Gama and Pizzi were good, i havent seen Gama in a while but I'm glad he's doing well for himself... always had the raw dribbling but just lacks some explosiveness though.

Pizzi isnt amazing, but he's shifty and has a good right foot.

Nelson Oliveira, only 4 goals this season for depor, and is a perennial substitute...time to look for another striker

Di Maria was horrid...Essien, well injuries finished him off.

Modric was playing well when he came off, but Kaka seemed to get a burst of energy with the belief Mourinho instilled keeping him on, fantastic goal and nice through ball for Ronaldo to start off the winner.

 

All I want is for Ronaldo to get a slight injury which keeps him out for a couple of weeks over the two Clasicos.

 

How did Chelsea burn him out? He had a series of serious knee injuries (a number of them on international duty) and his career suffered accordingly. I've never read or heard anything to suggest that Chelsea were at fault for them, or that the club somehow mismanaged his treatment.

 

Less Chelsea, more Jose. His style can be the death of any player.

 

Aye. A minor hamstring pull or groin twinge would be ideal. I think we can beat them at home, Ronnie or no Ronnie. But he's an X-factor. There's no stopping him if he decides to lash one from a mile and god knows there is no stopping him in the air if the service is reasonable. Kind of thing that could change a game we are controlling.

 

I'm not sure what you mean? Plenty of players have flourished under Jose, and the core of the team he assembled was still going strong enough to win the CL last season years after he left. In any case, Jose had nothing to do with Essien's demise, he only played under Jose for just over 2 seasons.

I don't really see why there's a party that needs to be blamed here. Essien's knees gave out. It's hugely unfortunate, but it's not necessarily somebody's fault.

 

I should have said he should have been managed better, he was your answer to everything needing a lift up, midfield, fullback, defense attack, a body can handle so much.

 

I still don't see the connection between Chelsea's use of Essien and his injuries/decline. If versatility = knee injuries, then Javier Zanetti would have retired years ago, Rooney would have probably torn an ACL at this point and who knows how broken down poor John O'Shea would be.

It's not particularly controversial to suggest that Chelsea never consistently got the best out of Essien as a player due to shuffling him around so much. I just don't see how you make the leap from that to blaming Chelsea for his injuries.

 

Manucho in action Valladolid vs rayo

 

Mourinho's style is built on his players running themselves into the ground. He has left plenty of players not the same after having managed them.