Anybody going? It's on at 2:45am here and with work the next day at 8 it's unlikely I'll get to see it! Rahman is set to make his debut at Left Back and there are meant to be several others involved including Traore who I'm really excited about! Oscar is back also so we will see if he can offer anything different to the constant garbage we've had for the past few weeks. Any predictions? I actually think we might win this one, but only just....
All I know about the opponents is they beat Basel, and Basel beat Liverpool and us in recent past. So no pushover, but surely not too much to exprct a win? Baba to start and a new right back as well, someone called Dave? RLC and Remy might get a run as well. Over to you Jose, can you get the team to fire?
Great city is Tel Aviv if anyone is going to the away match. Hopefully there won't be any controversy.
This is the ideal game for us at this point. We can put the league aside, bring in some freshness to the starting line up and hopefully tonight could be the start of a revival. I'd like to see Rahman, Dave at R.B, Oscar and a couple of the youngsters start i.e RLC, Traore etc. ,
Also, has anyone else noticed some of the ridiculous journalism over this slump? Yesterday on talk ****e they were advertising this week's C.L games for the 4 English clubs. They played commentary for a goal being scored for each of the 3 other English sides and when it was our turn they played a clip of a commentator basically saying 'this isn't the start Jose wanted'. Which presumably was either commentary following a bad result or of an opponent scoring against us!! Now I know we haven't scored many goals of late but I'm sure they could dig up a more positive clip!! Also many are reporting Jose is going to 'axe' a load of stars for tonight...when the reality is that we would have probably always rotated tonight given it is a winnable fixture on paper and with Arsenal coming up. Lazy journalists. Grrrr...
Yeah there will be definitely be rotation tonight. My prediction would be Begovic Azpi Cahill Zouma Rahman Ramires Mikel Willian Oscar Hazard Remy
Azpilicueta, Zouma, Cahill (c), Baba Rahman; Loftus-Cheek, Fabregas; Willian, Oscar, Hazard; Remy Poor RLC, stuck with Cesc for company; Fab better have a good game!
Big boost that the team needed. Gives us something to go into the Arsenal game with. RLC was immense, and Baba looked very promising as well. Hazard disappointing but he warmed into it when we started winning - I feel like he would have wanted the game to go on an extra 15 minutes. Encouraging, and nice to have a convincing win.
Hallelujah - something to smile about at last! We did in style as well, let's hope it carries over at the weekend!
Absolutely this. I know it was only maccabi haifa but hopefully people have played themselves into form. Rlc looks great. Not great dribbling with it but great athleticm reading of the game and simple passing. Was really happy with baba in the main solid and provided so much energy down the left hand side. Hazard was terrible first half and disappeared a bit after continuously losing the ball. Not a fan of oscar but was exactly what we needed today. Helped link the play up and played very well. Definitely helped up fabregas who also had a good game now that oscar was back. Both just move the ball a lot faster than when it goes to hazard who takes too long and doesnt run around making space. Willian was good for the short time he was on. Costa scored a great goal worked hard but i felt generally had a poor game. Touch wasnt there and lost the ball a lot. Dave was great at the back. Happy with zouma and cahill but there were a few dodgy passes round the back (zouma to rlc and baba to their striker)
All i could have asked for really! its hard to gauge things based on the opposition, but nearly all players played very well. loftus cheek is my man of the match. Imperious display. oscar looks fit and ready, fabregas looked like a man under pressure, but one who alos delivered. goal and assist will do wonders for his confidence. Rahman is still a bit raw, but give him time, he'll slot in nicely-obviously the plan after we spent 20 odd million on him. Costa is still a worry. I do feel we get more from remy being up top on his own, by virtue of stretching opposition, and forcing them to sit deeper, but jose wants diego as his first choice, and after 20 goals last season i cant really blame him for that. Willian is injured, which is a shame, but... we now have a selection dilema anyways; We have matic who played well on saturday, RLC who imo has bought himself a starting position on saturday today, fabregas who played well today, and oscar who looked great today too all vying to start. imo, we should start: RLC, Matic Pedro, oscar, Hazard Costa thats a team that can trouble the arsenals defence. we can have them on saturday, hopefully we will!
Well hopefully that gives the players some confidence heading into the game on Sat. How was Oscar? We could do with him being back and on song.
Didn't see any of the game but from everything I've read it sounds like RLC impressed in the middle which is great news! Good for us that the other game in our group was a draw so we've got a slight advantage already. No Pedro or Willian for the Arsenal game though so a bit of an issue for us. I hope that doesn't mean Ramires will play wide right....
Got to be something wrong with Hazard's brain at present, the drop-off in form has been ridiculous. While I'd say he is so one-footed defenders have probably figured him out, I've seen less talented one-foot players rip through teams season on season. Straight out of my fantasy team and in comes Pedro, so no doubt Eden will get a hattrick vs arsenal
Much better performance against very poor team. Nevertheless credit to Jose for changing things when this match could have given his out of formers another chance. Finally RLC started AND excelled, so good news for the kids. Dave looked in control, Baba promising AND lively. Hazard and Costa still scratchy, though Costa cracked a top strike. A more direct attack in general, with Fabregas a bit player ,but steady. Pity Willian and Pedro out against Arsenal, whose speed will be our main problem, so dont expect JT or Ivan to start against them. Encouraging signs should lift everyone. A change was indeed as good as a holiday.
