Henry Mears - Comments

Have a look at Jores Okore, he is a cheap, young central defender.

Watched Django last night, great film.

Christoph Waltz was brilliant.

He told Sky Sports News that he would take full responsibility if they go down and if anyone should leave then it would be him.

That's insane.

Probably.

When your team are on the receiving end of refereeing decisions like some of those it's infuriating.

Would be interesting to see published results.

Thanks for clearing that up, what would I do without you??

Rematch at the O2.

Press conference live on Sky Sports News.

As do most teams.

Ashley Cole didn't slate our club and the fans supposed lack of passion.

Great news

Daniel Sturridge seems to have settled in well...

Can we have him back and you take T*rres instead??

Would Alex Ferguson be accepted as Liverpool manager...

Cheers Hammer they look great

I'm sure Rafa Benitez is a nice guy if you meet him face to face, but nothing in his past should really endear him to Chelsea fans. He's questioned the "passion" of our fanbase in the past, and that alone puts him in a situation where the fans are already right to dislike him. He wasn't some teenage kid in the spotlight for the first time, he was a seasoned professional who had been dealing with the media for years. He's also had several incidents with completely nonsensical rants about opposing managers. Where Roberto Di Matteo was all class and composure with the press, we've hired a guy that has gone off before on a five minute rant about the special treatment other managers receive.

Tactically speaking, I've never been a fan of Rafa Benitez either. He's always been a very organized manager, something that the man deserves credit and respect for. He's not very flexible though, and like Andre Villas-Boas before him, he tends to try too hard to fit players into roles instead of designing a system to maximize the talent he has available. This pattern can clearly be seen by looking at his transfer record at Liverpool. He was in charge for six seasons, easily long enough to adapt his system to some of his available players. Still, he averaged thirteen signings per year as he attempted to find players that fit his system as opposed to adapting his system to fit the available (and talented) players.

This problem was still clearly evident when he was in charge at Inter. He took over a side that Jose Mourinho had looking unstoppable, and turned them into a mid-table side in a very mediocre Serie A. He did this in a matter of months. What was most disturbing about it was his insistence on playing the same 4-2-3-1 he always does, despite the fact that his personnel were seemingly very poorly suited for it. Again with Rafa Benitez, the system was put in place without consideration of the players, and his very public insistence on a massive January overhaul was the main reason he was sacked only months into his reign.

There is also the question of his resume, and his qualification for this job. The official Chelsea website laid out a glowing read about his past, but frankly it's a lot of fluff. He did some fantastic things in Spain around the turn of the century, but there haven't been a lot of notable achievements since landing at Liverpool. Yes, he guided the team to an FA Cup and Champions League in his six seasons in charge but the man he's replaced won Chelsea the same two trophies in about ten weeks.

He didn't have the spending power that our previous managers had, but he still managed to spend £226 million in his time at the Liverpool. That's enough money that he should have manged more than a single season where they legitimately challenged for a domestic title, especially given that he inherited a squad with several core players already in place. He didn't though, finishing with under seventy points in half of his seasons in charge (and twice finishing outside of the top four).

Hi,

If possible, could I get these kits done please??

Many thanks.

Style: SS
Name: MEARS
Number: 5
Club: CHELSEA
Home OR Away: HOME
What year of kits: 2012/13

Style: SS
Name: MEARS
Number: 5
Club: ENGLAND
Home OR Away: HOME
What year of kits: 2012/13

The Dictator.

Shit.

Agreed

I have a massive problem with that.

You can't expect Ryan Bertrand to do an attacking midfielders job when he is an average left-back at best. Marko Marin has returned from an injury and would benefit greatly with a decent run of games. I have no doubts whatsoever that Marko Marin is a much better attacking midfielder than Ryan Bertrand.

He was also signed because he is a good young player and was relatively cheap at £8,000,000.

Our bench was weak today, granted, however...

- The managers' reluctance to changes things during games is killing us.
- He continues to start Torres (except for today) and then brings on Demba Ba with ten minutes remaining and with no chance to have an impact.
- Like for like substitutions (since his appointment) when we are chasing games.
- Ryan Bertrand continues to be picked ahead of Marko Marin on a regular basis.
- No plan B, just 4-2-3-1 every single game even though we have clearly struggled to defend with it recently.

While the players should take some of the responsibility, managers' should be able to pick up on these things and he's failing to do so, and it's costing us.

He'll blame the lack of depth or tiredness probably.

How much longer can this joke of a situation continue??

Let Rafa go and give the reigns to Steve Holland for the remainder of the season, I'm fed up.

**BREAKING NEWS - Chelsea sack Rafa Benitez**

I'm entitled to dream.

Sixteen goals already this season, ridiculous!!

Super Frank Lampard, time and time again...

One shot on target at Newcastle. This isn't going to end well...