His work rate is excellent and he's intelligent. But is he creative enough to play attacking mid? He's Mourinho's type of player and he has good passing and technique. Just because I said I'm skeptic about him being creative force, doesn't mean he can't be top player. Just my opinion he would be better suited as b2b. *******, people get so defensive in this Chelsea thread oO)
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If he wasn't creative enough to be a no. 10, Brazil wouldn't play him there. It's not all about being the best attacker possible though, it's also about working within the system. For both club and country at the moment, Oscar is doing a very valuable job by harassing enemy midfielders and effectively turning their 4-2-3-1 into a more compact 4-3-3 when they don't have the ball. You only have to look at the 3-0 against Spain to see that in full effect. Mata can't do that.
If we going purely on creative ability, Mata is by far the superior choice and I don't see how anyone could possibly disagree with that. However, they perform different: Mata is the creative force, Oscar is the more rounded of the pair. You don't need to be an all out creator to play as an attacking midfielder, and to answer your question, yes he has got the skill to cut it there.
Different strokes for different folks and all that: Oscar is perfect for the top teams that rely on distribution from a deep midfield player, Mata for teams that need some magic to unlock them. So why we played Oscar at home vs Fulham is beyond me.
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Oscar is better defensively, but in every other thing Mata is superior. Like I said, Oscar is perfect Mourinho's type of player - intelligent, works hard and his technique is bonus. Thus I said I think he would be suited better for b2b role, even as a Lampards successor. I'll draw a line comparing Oscar with Kagawa. Many United fans seems to think he's uber creative. No, he's not. He's pure attacking mid with great movement and eye for a goal. He's not creative as Rooney, Nani or RVP. Heck, even Anderson is more creative than Kagawa. I think many Chelsea fans think the same way about Oscar. He has some great assets, but he's not creative enough to be a playmaker imo. However, we all know what kind of game Mou prefers. Playing Oscar who has better defensive value to the team is logical to me, if I put myself in Mourinho's shoes.
Big big win for us today and after seeing the interview from Jose after the game stating "this may take time" i think some of us need to calm our **** down a tad don't we. It seems as if some people these days change their general view on a game to game basis. The media do not help with this as they spout out bollocks like "Chelsea in crisis" and people tend to follow their opinions like sheep but the fact is we are top of the league and this is a long term vision!
Many will know i have been a massive backer of Mikel over the last 18 odd months and i couldn't watch the game as i was at work but was listening to it and the stream was about 20 seconds behind real time. Now my brother who is also Chelsea is a very shy quiet lad hence why he isn't in any Chelsea groups etc rung me whilst i was listening to the game which by the way is the first time he has ever rung me in my life not exaggerating either and started shouting "are you watching it, Mikel just scored!" Just goes to show what a great moment this is for the club and Mikel and when i just saw the goal a bit of **** came out!
And finally can we and the media now finally put to bed the whole "Mata is hated by Jose" bullcrap, as he stated in that interview Oscar does offer more in his all round game we cannot deny that and Mata has to adapt to this way of playing.
Keep the faith fellow Blues! UTC!!!!
Many will know i have been a massive backer of Mikel over the last 18 odd months and i couldn't watch the game as i was at work but was listening to it and the stream was about 20 seconds behind real time. Now my brother who is also Chelsea is a very shy quiet lad hence why he isn't in any Chelsea groups etc rung me whilst i was listening to the game which by the way is the first time he has ever rung me in my life not exaggerating either and started shouting "are you watching it, Mikel just scored!" Just goes to show what a great moment this is for the club and Mikel and when i just saw the goal a bit of **** came out!
And finally can we and the media now finally put to bed the whole "Mata is hated by Jose" bullcrap, as he stated in that interview Oscar does offer more in his all round game we cannot deny that and Mata has to adapt to this way of playing.
Keep the faith fellow Blues! UTC!!!!
Oscar has a lot more energy to him.
Why is he not creative enough? You're making him sound like Ramires or Dembele when he's not that type of player. Did you see some of the passes he made last year, some of the spontaneous moments of magic he pulled out of nowhere. He is definitely a fantastic playmaker.
Again it's all about the situation. Oscar works vs certain team, Mata works vs others.
Personally I'd like to see Mata as the 10 and Oscar in the pivot vs teams that sit back. I am partly agreeing with you here, because I think he does have the potential to play deep but that doesn't mean that it's always the best place to play him, or that he isn't also capable of playing as a 10.
TMI! XD
Lukaku also looked immense for Everton today, don't know if anyone else caught that game.
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Only saw the highlights on MOTD but looked immense as we all knew he would do. Was involved in everything positive Everton had to offer.
It isn't fair to say that Mata's career at Chelsea is finished with Jose around. As long as he is open to adapting his game, he can still have a great season. Reminds me of a certain Joe Cole in all honesty...the parallels are strikingly similar
In which case, Mata is ******. There is actually very little wrong with how Mata plays, he is who he is. If Jose thinks he doesnt fit the system, then fair enough. But then he should have sold him in the summer.
Jose is actually gambling on making Mata look like he is at fault if he doesn't adapt, and then people will say, "well Mata was great, but he didn't adapt to Jose's way" and and Mourinho will come off looking better for it.
Nothing wrong with how Mata plays. Simply put, he has to adapt his game to fit into the system. For starters, track back properly and press the ball when out of possession which he still doesn't do. All signs indicate mata is receptive to the change. When left out yesterday, Jose said Mata trained his socks off in the morning
Not sure about adapting and defensive liability as after all Ozil was one of the first name on the teamsheet at Madrid. Sneijder was one of the best players at Inter and probably only next to Milito and his work rate was poor too but still was made as the focal point of the team.
Its kind of hard to avoid playing Spanish players when you're managing Spanish team...especially when half of them are World Cup winners.
Casillas-Gate will tell you all you need to know about Jose's attitude towards Spain.
As GC pointed out a couple of pages back, with Oscar you get work-rate, pressing and running albeit a little less creativity whereas with Mata you get more creativity but he is a defensive liability. The two cancel each other out although it's clear that Oscar will be preferred in the big games unless Mata can adapt his game accordingly. I don't think Jose had a player in the mould of Oscar at Madrid?
For a club like Madrid it's not hard to sign a player like Oscar, he signed Ozil and stick with him for 3 years which shows he had no problem with playing Ozil in all big games including against Barca.
Also he could have played Alonso Khedira and Modric trio if he wanted players with good work rate. Even worse was Ronaldo has almost non existent work rate in tracking back but still he played Ozil which means almost 3 players with no defensive contribution.
Frankly Ronaldo is too good to drop. Yes his work-rate his non-existent but he more than makes up for it with his incredible attacking prowess. Not to mention that you are taking about Spain where nearly every team was inferior to Madrid by a considerable distance whereas in England this is not true at all . Hence, the focus on players with high work-rate
Played against Barca and also CL games.
Name am alternative who could have played
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'I'm very pleased to have this opportunity to say thanks for the wonderful support you've given me, not just through my illness, but down the years, going all the way back to when I was playing.
'When I was at Stamford Bridge for two games at the end of last season, you gave me a tremendous welcome and it acted as a wonderful motivation for me. It made me want to improve and gave me a lift to do as much as I could to recover.'
'When I was at Stamford Bridge for two games at the end of last season, you gave me a tremendous welcome and it acted as a wonderful motivation for me. It made me want to improve and gave me a lift to do as much as I could to recover.'
I'm pretty sure a club who paid ?85m for a player they didn't need can afford to bring in a player he wanted in 3 years. Mourinho called Ozil the best 10 in the world, he didn't replace him because he didn't want to.
To be fair, there are not many players in the mould of Oscar. High work-rate, tenacious yet incredibly gifted in attacking skill