ParNolio7

Fantastic signing. And what a price tag. Brilliant business. Ready to win the league!

I get what you are trying to say but no one tries as hard to improve as Lukaku does. He tends to stay late after practices to do additional shooting and technical training. He watches about a million videos from great strikers around the world just to learn from their skills, etc. But good technique is just a thing that can't be learned. Either you have it or you don't. It's a gift. Lukaku's gift is not technique it's raw power. He'll always be that type of player, but you're right in saying that he should realize that more.

Just a very bad match with Chelsea. He still appears eager though whenever he gets to play. Good start at Milan could see him launched again imo. And then we'll all be saying: why the hell couldn't he do that for us???!!

It probably was. I can see why Torres wouldn't want to see his salary cut in half, but if there's any pride left in him as a football player, he should've settled for about 30% less and try to get his career going again. To rot on the bench for two years is no way to end a career for a player like Torres. But for him the loan is obviously a brilliant deal, still gets paid the same money and can try to relaunch his career. For Chelsea though, I think it's a pretty bad deal. I think we shouldn't have accepted it. Better to keep him at the club in that case, until he grows tired of sitting on the bench and who knows maybe if a few players get injured he might even come in handy every now and then. At least there would still be a reason why we're paying him in that case.

I don't see why me remark is so dumb. We are still paying his enormous wage now. We might as well breach his contract then and pay off the two years. Same principle. And I know we've been trying to sell him but maybe we've still been asking too much for him then. As I said, any price would've been good, even a symbolical pound. Just to get rid of that immense salary that's not leading to anything.

Yeah, the wage is a big problem of course. But still, any price would've been good to sell him. So total cost wise, Milan could still have made a pretty good deal. Wouldn't be surprised if Torres becomes a valuable player again in Serie A.

Don't. People have different opinions sometimes, that's why they invented forums.

Anyway, I don't get why we would agree on a loan deal for an old player like Torres. Isn't the whole idea of a loan deal that you try to improve a young prospect until he's either good enough to play for your own team or raised his value for a proper sale? So I think we should've sold him. No good reason to keep him connected with Chelsea. It's not like he's exactly the fan's favourite ...

Why is he on a hospital bed, are they trying to inject some sort of killer instinct in his blood?? (I know it's the medicals before someone makes a smug remark)

Let's hope it doesn't end the same way as for KDB. Would hate to see that happen twice. But Thorgan has his name speaking for him of course, I do believe that makes a difference, everybody would want him to succeed at Chelsea. So if he can make it in the Bundesliga, and I don't see why he wouldn't, I'm quite convinced he'll get a fair amount of chances at Chelsea. I can see him taking over Oscar's position for example in about two seasons time. How nice would this line-up be?? COSTA E. HAZARD T. HAZARD SCHÜRRLE FABREGAS MATIC

Can't believe that Atletico is beating Real by the way. Lost their best players while Real went "loco" on the transfer market again. Tell you one thing, if José ever goes, bring in Simeone!

So you open for bets? ;-)

I'd be quite happy with 30K a week tbh

Just get shivers when I see that compilation video of Eden's game last night. Great thing is he doesn't need to pretend to be the playmaker now, that role's for Fabregas. He can just dance and float all over the pitch without a care in the world

I think Courtois' major working point will be quick distribution in case of counterplay. At Atlético he's always been instructed to lie on the ground after a save and hold up play so everyone could get back into position. He shows the same tendency when playing for the Belgian NT. I'm curious to see if he can switch to fast breaks when necessary in the EPL. I hope he can because that hold up plays tends to get to my nerves sometimes

Definitely. I just think the main focus should be on defending. Attacking impulses are great but should not lead to neglecting defensive tasks. So as long as Iva can combine his runs with his defensive work, all great for me, but if not, better focus on defending first.

Definitely. Imo attacking backs only work well if you play like a 5-3-2 system where you still have plenty of defenders left to cover up the gaps and where the attacking backs are necessary to overlap the 3 midfielders. When you play 4 at the back like we do, and you have the excellent attacking wings like we do, I think all 4 defenders should just stick to defending and keeping it tight.

You cannot sell Cech before you extend Courtois' contract. You'd risk being left with none by the end of the season.

Line-up in attack & midfield was just about perfect. My only doubt there is Oscar. I'd prefer a system in which Willian could play instead of him, but you'd have a lot of wingers then of course. Maybe just give Oscar benefit of the doubt and allow him to fulfill his big potential under the wings of Fabregas & Matic. No better place to train your skills! Only flaws are in defence. We were caught out several times on our right back side. Marking was no way near tight enough in that area. I think that would improve vastly if we bring in Luis on the left, move Azpi back to right & give Ivanovic a central role again. I know that implies leaving out Cahill or Terry but in all truth I believe Cahill/Ivanovic is the best in terms of quality. But very hard to deny Terry in his role as captain and club legend of course.

Why are all these Arsenal fans crying so hard about Fabregas, he came from Barcelona last time I checked! Or did he used to play for Arsenal in some kind of distant past?? ;-)

I'll try to look for it later, I'm actually supposed to be working ;-)

Not sure about the jinxing, but never bet on your own team. If you let your heart do the betting instead of reason (stats etc.), you're bound to loose!

Make sure you look at season 2013-14 cause there will be no results yet for 2014-15 (of course)

What a silly discussion over nothing... We have two fantastic goalkeepers. If keeper A will have a bad run of performances, keeper B will step in. And the other way around. Be happy

Haha, are you not aware that "Cesc" and "Fabregas" are actually the same player, Cesc being the first name & Fabregas the surname