CL Round of 16/ EL Round of 16.

[nine nine nine]

Mikus, you keep raising the suggestion that Chelsea don’t have strong characters in the dressing room.

Chelsea have multiple PL title winners, World Cup winners , CL winnets and FA and League Cup winners in their dressing room weak characters in the dressing room don’t win all those trophies!

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Have to agree with Goldie, they do have strong characters, if anything, too strong hence the issues every 18 months or so…

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[Mikus LFC]

Nine, just because they’ve won trophies under strong managers doesn’t mean they’re necessarily strong “grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck” characters. Had real strong winners like Terry, Lampard & Drogba been available in their prime vs Man City, do you still think they’d have lost 6-0? Not for me. And I disagree with Banjo, I actually don’t think Chelsea’s problem is player power. Chelsea only have a handful of long serving players: Hazard, Willian, Azpilicueta and Cahill. And Hazard already will have eyes on Madrid. And Cahill has been left out quite a lot of games. Where’s the soul of that team? And I’m not just picking on Chelsea – these criticisms could be thrown at many clubs.

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[sean the sailor]

Liverpool will most likely be fielding our 4th choice centre back and fabhino at centre back tomorrow

No surprise to see lingard and martial could be fit for Sunday.

Fancy us more tomorrow then I do Sunday

Chelsea need a big performance tonight and they are at home so be difficult for utd but they need to bounce back aswell

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[nine nine nine]

I think that’s closer to the reality Chucky but as always it’s difficult to accurately judge from the outside what really is going on on the inside.

My own view is that the players have question marks against some of Sarri’s team selections and tactics and they think it’s holding the team back and would like to see one or two changes to them but Sarri is obstinate and is not for changing and additionally the public criticism hasn’t gone down well either.

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[nine nine nine]

Amazingly Man City are now favourites for all 4 trophies.

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[Chucky McChuckface]

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’ve noticed a lot of players (and this is pretty much applicable to all clubs, nobody in particular) the moment a pass goes astray, stand there and point to their feet, instantly shifting blame to whoever passed the ball… maybe not so much during play but the moment it goes out of play… maybe it’s just me, but there really seems to be an element of “me,me,me” in professional footy these days, you watch the game tonight and see how many times it happens…

Like I said, no real club or players in mind, but it seems to be quite contagious…

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[Brian blue]

Nine….not for me….I think City will give it a good go but 4 titles is beyond them in my opinion. They will get caught in the fixtures narrowing and relentless progress. We have an excellent squad but this is a media generated hype I do not fall for.I think if we get two we have done well and I would prefer the EPL and FA Cup to anything else…..I know,…I know…it is supposedly what players want etc, etc but they have to ask themselves are they good enough to win it? Proove me wrong City

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[Brian blue]

Chuky, it has been happening for some time now, an easy excuse for laziness or not enough brain power to work out where the ball will go. I suppose in fairness to some, they put there hand up by way of an apology….that annoys me as well….get on with the game and do better next time the ball coes your way

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Double B’s… maybe I’m getting cynical in me auld age, but I really seem to notice more these days, and 9 times out of 10 I’m left thinking “you could have that if you bovvered to move”… the team in meat seems to have turned into a “dinner for one”…

Or they all are as thick as my Nan’s custard… 🙂

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[maverick1973]

Winning trophies doesnt make players strong characters 9,take Pogba for instance.Reached the EC final on his 1st majot tourno,won the WC on his 2nd,but not even in his dreams a strong character! Same goes for people like Beckham,Scholes,Giggs,OGS,etc.

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[nine nine nine]

Mikus, imo all of Azpilucueta, Luiz, Rudiger, Pedro and Giroud are strong characters Cahill is also a strong character but he’s coming to the end of his career at Chelsea now and Hazard is inspirational when he’s on form.

But you’re right it’s not easy though to replace characters as big as Terry, Drogba and Lampard. Liverpool have found the same problem since losing Gerrard and Carragher and as big a character as Gerrard was and there were few bigger even with him Captaining the team Liverpool still conceded 3 goals in circa 20 minutes v Palace after being 3 nil up when they were chasing the title which finally put pay to their title dream sometimes these things happen in football.

I think the Manchester City 6 nil was a one off with various factors coming together first Sarri’s tactics were wrong for an away game at the Etihad as was his team selection secondly Chelsea made a number of silly defensive errors that led to goals and thirdly City probably hit the the best form of their season v Chelsea.

Hopefully Chelsea will do a bit better in the League Cup Final but beating City will still be very tough.

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Don’t want to play devils advacote here, but the common thing about Lampard, Gerrard, Carragher, Terry, and I’ll even chuck in Scholes, Giggs, is that these players pretty much grew up with the club and spent the vast majority if not all their career at the same club.

How many players at Chelsea, Pool or Yooutd these days have both grown-up with the club AND played their for 6/7/8 years? Not many… at least City have a couple on their books, that might have somethign to do with their recent success… just a thought!

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[nine nine nine]

Christansen, Ampadu, Loftus Cheek and Hudson Odoi are all part of the first team squad and ex Chelsea Youth team players, playing them regularly is the trick but every Club suffers from that problem and very few Youth team players are regular starters week in week out at top 6 Clubs.

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[maverick1973]

Top 10 richest club owners in full:

1. Dietmar Mateschitz (Red Bull Salzburg/RB Leipzig, £17.8bn)

2. Sheikh Mansour (Manchester City/City Football Group, £17bn)

3. Agnelli family (Juventus, £10.4bn)

4. Philip Anschutz (LA Galaxy, £10bn)

5. Roman Abramovich (Chelsea, £8.3bn)

6. Stan Kroenke (Arsenal, £6.4bn)

7. Nasser Al-Khelaifi (Paris Saint-Germain, £6.2bn)

8. Shahid Khan (Fulham, £5.4bn)

9. Zhang Jindong (Inter/Jiangsu Suning, £5.2bn)

10. Joe Lewis (Tottenham Hotspur, £3.8bn)

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[Chucky McChuckface]

You missed my point Goldie, a 21 year old who may have been at the club since he was in nappies isn’t going to get the respect from players like Hazard and Co (the same for all clubs), they’re just too young, haven’t earned that “respect” we keep hearing about, especially when none of them are regulars in the first place. I’m not even a Chlesea fan (bet you didn’t know that! 🙂 ), but you really can’t mention any of those players you mentioned in the breath as your Terry’s and Lampard’s…

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[Mikus LFC]

Banjo, this is the point I make no apology for repeating – it’s why no team has won back to back titles in a decade and why no British team has won the CL in almost as long a time. My only hope (particularly with FFP) is that the penny starts dropping at these clubs and they start turning to and blooding their youth. It’s in everybody’s interests that they do – even if they’re not top dollar – the fight and passion they bring is priceless and they are the glue that sticks the dressing room together.

Chelsea & Man Utd may both play passionately tonight because they’re under pressure somewhat. But this turning it on here and there just nowadays seems to epitomise this era, and it’s why there’s no consistency. That doesn’t mean managers can’t also be criticised but it means without such help in the dressing room, the manager has to now also be responsible for constantly firing people up. Hence Mourinho has still been so highly sought after. And will continue to be, no matter what is said about him.

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[Anonymous]

Mikus, FFP has surely already had a positive influence on how PL clubs invest in the developmental side of things. So, I think the penny has dropped (or is at least falling), it’s just that it’ll take time for clubs to get results from these improved facilities. As the quality of their youth improves, you’d hope they have the sense to give these lads time to prove themselves but that’s a much more complex discussion and we’ll likely have to see some changes from the footballing bodies, in order to see more youth players being blooded in. There just aren’t enough subs for this to really take place.

Man City have spent an absolutely whopping amount on their setup and Liverpool have a state of the art complex on the way. FFP allowing investment in facilities to not be counted was a smart move.

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[nine nine nine]

Banjo@6:31pm yesterday: Banjo, no I broadly agree with you on all points and players like Terry,Lampard and Drogba come along once in a generation and are virtually impossible to replace.

As for players staying long term at Club’s very few do Chelsea’s longest serving players are Azpilucueta and Hazard who have both been at the Club since 2012 but that’s unusual and not the norm whatever the Club.

Significant change required at Chelsea which goes deeper than just changing the Manager.

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[nine nine nine]

Good luck to Liverpool tonight and City tomorrow night I think both will come through their ties City fairly comfortably.

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