From my profile, you will see I am a Barça fan but I absolutely love the Premier League. Hands down, it's the most exciting - if technically deficient - league in the world. But I think that the league is suffering from losing some of it's great technical and exciting players because they get kicked out of the game.
Since Christmas, rumours have once again been rife here that Hazard will move to Real Madrid. As a Barça fan I obviously wouldn't want that, but could you blame him? The man just gets kicked about for 90 minutes. If opposition managers only seek to intimidate and hurt your skilful players, they will just leave.
I was amazed by the number of people who questioned the referee last night but Hazard was fouled a number of times and the referee had just warned the United players - yet Ander Herrera was still stupid enough to make a foul straight from that free kick. You have to question football players' intelligence really don't you?
Then there was Rojo. People were blaming Costa but Rojo had been winding him up all night. A niggle here, step on the foot there - and as I said, some not so intelligent football players - Costa in this case - can't help reacting. But Rojo's stamp was deliberate and cowardly. Having already cut Hazard to the floor - to follow up with a stamp merits further punishment.
There were other incidents too that showed that Mourinho's side were not interested in the ball last night but merely to stop the Chelsea players - a two footed lunge which was also worthy of a red, and hack at Moses from behind by Young which obviously hurt the Chelsea player. Man Utd were just barbaric - are these really the tactics of a big club?
Mourinho may once have been a great coach and tactician but for the last seven or eight years, his tactics have descended into those of a playground bully. When he believes his teams are inferior or being outfought, he sends them out to maim. That is not football. The league should clamp down on it.
Stop this or lose the best players
posted on 14/3/17
comment by Abe Lackmann (U21076)
posted 36 minutes ago
What do you expect from utd fans? When Chelsea kicked Ronaldo around the pitch they had the exact opposite opinions to the opinions they had last night
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You must be joking - we didn't need to, Cole would merely put him in his back pocket at the start of the game and hand him back over to Fergie at the final whistle!
posted on 14/3/17
comment by Mr Chelsea. (U3579)
posted 22 minutes ago
Fergie would be turning in his grave at last night's cynical roughhouse tactics
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posted on 14/3/17
Cole had Ronaldo's number to be fair right from day dot
posted on 14/3/17
I refer to it as the Mourinho effect. Fans of the team he manages are all of a sudden blind to his thughousery shiittactics. Which is a surprise considering they vilified him for it at other clubs.
posted on 14/3/17
comment by Abe Lackmann (U21076)
posted 40 minutes ago
What do you expect from utd fans? When Chelsea kicked Ronaldo around the pitch they had the exact opposite opinions to the opinions they had last night
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I am not having a go at United - they have been on the receiving end too for many years. It's just a tactic that is accepted in England. As one comment said, we have "hatchet men" here but the referees protect the flair players more. We want to see these players play not on a heap on the floor. I am a Barça fan and may not like Ronaldo but his talent is undeniable. You pay money to watch these players. If it were any other team, they would not fill a large stadium playing such dire football, but United is probably the most supported team in the world and can get away with it. For how long the fans put up with it is another matter.
posted on 14/3/17
comment by Abe Lackmann (U21076)
posted 1 hour, 8 minutes ago
What do you expect from utd fans? When Chelsea kicked Ronaldo around the pitch they had the exact opposite opinions to the opinions they had last night
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Don't ever remember us kicking ronaldo around, infact when utd had ronaldo for the majority of that time we were the better team out of the two.
posted on 14/3/17
Ronaldo was made to look ordinary by Cole, each and every time.
posted on 14/3/17
Disagree with regards to Costa, he was looking for it more than Rojo had started it in my opinion.
When it comes to Hazard, it's just an annoying thing about this league. Bale used to get kicked silly when he played for us, and then people used to have a go at him when he dived even though half the time he was trying to jump out the way of a horrendous challenge .
What Chelsea really need though, is a Vieira or Keane type player to protect Hazard. Somebody who takes the hit and sacrifices a yellow and even sometimes potentially a red to ensure his player gets better protected. The English game isn't going to change anytime soon.
posted on 14/3/17
Spot on OP. The Premier league will lose those few quality players if not given the protection. This league is inferior as it is. Ironically, Jose made the same noises about Hazard whilst managing Chelsea.
posted on 15/3/17
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