 |
| Torres finally has his head in the game |
All week the papers have been warning London about severe weather warnings were imminent. They failed to mention the elusive storm, otherwise known as El Nino, would make its way from the capital to Germany.
To celebrate his 100th game in a blue shirt, Fernando Torres has only gone and bagged himself a brace, continuing his fine form in Europe. Not only is it 5 goals in his last 5 Champions League matches, but he has equaled his Champions League goal tally from a certain other club near Stanley Park.
For anyone concerned that Torres would not be able to maintain the fine form he found against the mighty Swindon and then in the glamorous locale of Seven Sisters, you must have been pleasantly surprised. Or if you’re cynical and find joy in nothing - bemoan the fact that he could have had a hat trick after hitting the woodwork and creating vast amounts of space for Eden Hazard to go skipping through Schalke’s defence and straight to goal. You miserable sods -- I know you’ve gone for option 2.
Torres and Hazard weren’t the only one impressing in Germany. Petr Cech was forced into a number of fantastic saves which are too often taken for granted. With the number of first team players missing from Schalke’s squad, Cech should have been able to have read the first half of Ferguson’s book and had a good gossip with Terry about it by the time the game ended. However, Julian Draxler made sure his audition for Mourinho was effective to continue rumours of interest through January at least.
Azpilicueta was a surprise inclusion in place of Ashley Cole. Bertrand seemed to have done enough against Cardiff to earn another start however he seems to be engaged in some form of table football match with Cole. Not a euphemism. Either way Mourinho has been masterminding these lineups and substitutions with ease -- almost erasing the memory of some particularly poor ‘tactical’ moves last season. Almost. I’m not still bitter.
Like those glorious substitutions on Saturday, Mourinho felt confident kicking it old school and completely shutting up shop once and bringing on not only our goal scoring defensive midfielder, but carefree centre back to protect Terry and Cahill even further. Of course protect may be a little too casual when Luiz hears he’s being brought on as a midfielder. Although told he was covering defence, he heard at the first second, run into the opposition half and fire at will. It’s pretty much the same DL, not to worry those curls of yours.
As a bonus to tonight’s game, Jose Mourinho was not a participant in any form of musical chairs. It appeared the only team that happened to be wasting time appeared to be those under his control, and since they were, he was a lot less frustrated by it than he was on the weekend. A situation he could have controlled so much better by simply deploying Hazard to deal with the time wasters on Saturday - he’s had experience with such things before.
It seems the ‘crisis’ imparted on Chelsea by Basel’s win at Stamford Bridge may have been a very early kick up the arse that could amount to trouble for another club or two. Watch this space.
A fantastic performance for a special day. #MHBAWA
jb xx
No comments:
Post a Comment