I'd like to see us try something like this against Swindon tonight:



.................Cech......................
Azpi - Cahill - Kalas - Bertrand
............van Ginkel..................
....Essien.............De Bruyne.....
.................Mata.......................
.............Eto'o - Ba...................

I assuming Cech wont play tonight, Not a massive deal now we have a decent back up keeper

Possibly not, though i'd play him anyway. Goalkeepers don't need resting too often, especially this early into a season. If our 2nd choice was a talented youngster in need of games like Courtois then I'd play him, but as it's an oldie like Schwarzer it's not really an issue leaving him on the bench.

No, but We were joint favourites before last weekend.

Never take any notice of who are favourites.

It used to try and make the brand look exciting etc.

We no where near winners even if City and Utd have a awful season. 3rd yes if we have a good season 2nd if we have one of our best for the last 3 years

Didnt have long to wait, did we?

you should give torres 90 mins vs swindon, he has done well vs lower league teams in past and a goal or 2 could do his confidence some good.

id play

========cech=====
azil==luiz==kalas==bert
==essien==van gink==
willen===mata===de bruyne
=====torres=========

The problem with Torres is everytime he does score it never seems to do any good for his confidence. He always seems to revert back to looking like a nervous wreck in front of goal. Personally I'd rather see Eto'o open his account for the club, to give him a bit of a boost before people start getting on his back. Or otherwise Ba, who hasn't scored this season either. Hopefully whichever of the three plays will have a good game though!

That would be my team too. It makes sense to play the second team in the same formation so everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet (although it's Azpi and Willian ) And you can compare like for like, so you can compare Essien to Mikel or Mata with Oscar or de Bruyne with Schurrle.

Thing is though, Torres scores anywhere else but Premiership, so Europe and Cups Torres is a different player.

You ignored the key part of my post - City will drop more points against lower teams. With or without Kompany.


Far from the most grown-up response I'll ever give, but....

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Better to play Ba or Eto'o - 2 strikers who actually stand a chance of doing us some good this seasons.

yeh quite a rude response really

torres scored 23 goals last season, one in a europeon final

that was also a season where he had frustrating spells

but no...he definitely does not stand of doing some good this year right? nope..never.

With Torries its the current obbesion we seem to have of finding this "golden" striker. If you offered me 2 players who scored 15 goals a season each or one who scored me 30 I would take the 2 players ever single time. It means the team is not dependent on one player and its more about the team.

Torries has been a very good player for us. Yes he could have scored more goals for us but I am pleased with what he has done so far. Was he worth the cash? I dont think any player is worth 50m myself but like every transfer the price is dictated by the amount the buyer is willing to pay and the seller is willing to sell at

Have you seen our second string of players that didn't play at the weekend?

It's just ridiculous, the squad depth we have.

Once JM gets everything clicking into place, its going to be very exciting.....just hope it doesn't take too long...

The second team should be more than enough to see off Swindon. We really do have enough depth for two teams at the moment, who would still do very well in the premier league its quite ridiculous. How Jose is going to keep everyone happy i will never know, infact the moaning has already begun if the Mata/Luiz storys are correct.

It's a shame it's a world cup season as players will want to play enough minutes in their favoured national side positions to make their WC teams. Luiz, Mata, Torres and van Ginkel may be concerned. In that light, the Lukaku move is a good one for the player and the club. Looking forward to seeing us click and how our playing style evolves over the next couple of months. So far it's a bit disjointed, but we've had some very promising periods.

Or, maybe some people see that teams are more dangerous and likely to succeed when they have strikers who score regularly? Doesn't mean we're 'obsessed', doesn't mean we get our opinions from newspapers or Soccer Saturday, and it doesn't mean we spend too much time playing Fifa/Football Manager.

United and City have 3 each who can score 15-20+. Torres has 15 in 86 matches over 2.5 years and, last year, looked hopeless outside of the Europa League. I think it's safe to say peoples reasons for being over him are entirely legitimate.

I'm hoping we do something more experimental with Swindon, try Torres with Ba up front, 3 at the back maybe. I don't see the point in playing Torres as lone striker ever again if we have an alternative as the past near 3 years have told us he's not going to score enough to justify it.

I don't see the point in giving players a game " just for the sake of it ". Mourinho should continue to use those players who he considers are the best for the formation and type of tactics intends to play for the rest of the season.
As far as I can remember, Jose didn't change his team around very much last time around in different competitions. The quicker he settles on what he considers his best line-up this time around the better, as far as I'm concerned..even if I disagree with some of his choices.
What happens if Mata, Willian or De Bruyne play a blinder, or perhaps all three have a great game ? Will he then bench Hazard, Oscar and Schurrie ?
It's the same with other positions, let's settle on a side and get them playing together as a unit. Obviously you make changes if form, suspension or injury is an issue. But Mourinho was never a tinker-man before, and now is not the time to start.

Its a fair point, i would much rather he settled with his first 11 as he does seem to be rotating an awful lot at the moment which is not normal for Jose.

I think he is trying to keep everyone happy but it isnt working so far.

At the end of the day he should be playing the best 11 on the day based on form, fitness, talent etc etc. Its a little different when you are playing swindon though, im quite happy for him to rotate on those days. For the premier league and the CL he should be playing the same players week in week out though save for bad dips in form / injury.

The problem will be that £30m we spent on Willian will be sitting on the bench, £50m Torres, £25m Mata £25m Luiz etc etc.

Makes the £30m we spent on Willian seem even more bizzare for a bench player

Tonight's team:

Schwarzer; Dave, David Luiz, Cahill, Bertrand; Essien (C), Van Ginkel; KDB, Mata, Willian; Torres.

Subs: Blackman, Terry, Ramires, Baker, Schurrle, Ba, Eto’o.

As expected really

Essien, first start and he's Captain. Thank you 'Daddy'

Will be interesting to see if Mata plays as number 10 or on the right.

Hopefully tonight's the night one (or more) of our strikers manages to score!