zakhov

The beginning of the end for Cahill

Not really, some players have it, some players don't.

I was one of the members backing him post January debacle, giving him the benefit of a doubt. But to not show up in training and constantly going to the media and exposing out private messages between him and the coach, no respect for that whatsoever. He has delivered when he was here but he can't forget he was paid handsomely and given the opportunity to be the main man regardless of his form. Respect goes both ways, and if he and his agent indeed knew about their situation since January(as indicated by the club), he's got no excuse for this abhorrent behaviour.

Out of respect, he could've just chosen to say "I prefer not to compare them, they are both big clubs" or something similar. I never recalled Mata saying which club is bigger than the other when he switched over. But to each his own I guess. I don't blame him for saying that, he's new so he does need to rub his nose up his new club and their fanbase.

Doesn't make any sense. What good does it do Atleti if Costa eventually arrives there fat and unfit? Chelsea is calling him to get back to train and become fit (if he wants to be sold in top condition) FFS. If Atleti are even thinking of covering his fines (for something he's clearly in the wrong), what kind of example are they setting? What if Griezmann throws a tantrum and doesn't show up if Barca is linked? You see the same thing happening with Coutinho and Dembele, players have too much power nowadays.

Makes you think how well Malouda and Anelka acted when they were on the way out. Trained with the youngsters and didn't make a big fuss about it.

Like there was any point appealing. Perhaps some at the club realized it's a blessing in disguise. Would give more time for Cahill to prepare for his upcoming IQ Test. Maybe we should bring back Riccy Carvalho to tutor him for a week.

This. When we won the title in 2015 we had Fabregas, Matic and Oscar in midfield. Oscar was a hustle type player like Herrera and on top of that we had Willian who could cover the ground quickly as well.. Matic will always look better in a 3 man midfield. Also, just arriving at a new club will motivate him to push harder than he did when he was with us for the final 2 years..

I think most of it boils down to the fact that he didn't want to stay and play second fiddle to Bakayoko(once fit), most of us certainly wouldn't have minded keeping him for rotation like last season. But Matic was probably the one that pushed to leave once we made it clear of our intentions to sign Bakayoko. I didn't disagree about selling him but like most members here would've preferred he buggered off somewhere else. I would argue that even if we kept Matic and he somehow played against Burnley, it wouldn't have made much of a difference. Let's not forget Matic didn't fare all too well in our meltdown season of 15/16. He has definitely improved United but I'm not sure he would've had the same effect with us. Conte's system was either Matic/Kante (not enough creativity/solid) or Fabregas/Kante (more creativity/ less solid) while United can play a system that can suit Matic better with Pogba and Herrera. But I hope Roman's learned the lesson of letting the players choose their destinations. We should've sold Cech somewhere else and we certainly should've sold Matic somewhere else. If it were the other way around, these two clubs would never do the same for us.

Anelka definitely was always one of our faster strikers and still had that burst of acceleration and pace even if he was nearing the end of his prime with us. Jimbo was more a brute (albeit a different one from Drogba) but also had a way of freeing himself quickly for his abnormally powerful shots.. But Morata does remind me a lot of Atleti V1/Liverpool's Torres, the way he went for the header and his running the channels to beat the offside trap...

I recall plenty of times where he mentioned he loves the club and the fans but it's location or weather(?) that's the problem. I'll try to dig up for articles when I'm on my PC...

Should've gotten another assist as well, if only Morata had more sense to leave Christiansen's shot (which looked like it was going in)... But I still don't like his standing still routine and suddenly shifting to the right with a kick-stepover..slows down our play and allows opponents to regroup. Willian is an immense player when he's carrying the ball forward, in fact almost unstoppable when he's dribbling at pace on the counter...

The free-kick he gave straight after we scored the 2nd nearly made me lost it, and he also carded Rudiger just because his beloved Vokes was flailing around. To top it off, he didn't send the Burnley player off for a worst high challenge on Alonso. Time-keeping was also in shatters with how Burnley were time-wasting. Worst refereeing performance involving us since Clattenburg

Weren't Wigan already relegated before they even played that CS game? They won the FA Cup and got relegated in the same season if I recall and we ended up playing the EL in 2013 and won it... so not all bad eh?

Mixed feelings personally, although he was immense in two and a half seasons, his effectiveness has slowly dwindled. He seems to have never recovered from the Barnes tackle... He was decent last season but I guess his style is more suitable if we were to have a conservative approach. Him and Kante were solid but we were more of a threat with Cesc in the side. In many games I felt with him and Kante, we were relying too much on Hazard and Costa alone up top for creativity/goals because both Kante and Matic seemed redundant. I'm only worried if we don't go for another DM to replace him as we need cover for the amount of games we're playing.. We should go for Fabinho now, him and Bakayako would go together nicely and that would piss off United fans as well.. On a side note, I wouldn't like to be TheWiz right now...

Boga seems to lack the drive and penetration that Musonda has. While Boga is probably the stronger of the two and can keep possession better in close quarters, Musonda has qualities that make him more unpredictable and useful to us. He seems to be more direct as well and isn't afraid to shoot when there's half a chance.

Czech?

We used to play with our home kit and blue socks against home opposition that had white socks. I guess the club thinks its best to utilize all of our kits whenever necessary.

Considering Arsenal had more games under their belt, that was a good workout for the boys. I don't think we'll have any sort of 15/16 meltdown as long as Antonio's our coach. Players were motivated and looked up for it despite it just being a pre-season game. Tomori and Boga were standouts as far as our youth is concerned. Bats definitely will give a good kind of headache and possibly allow us to play 3-5-2 at some point. (Morata and him up top). Would've loved to see more of Baker, Pasalic and Christiansen, hopefully they got more minutes in the subsequent games.

Now I'm hoping that United gets a bad result against Celta in the EL. That would shift their focus to the Spurs game for their Top 4 battle. If anyone can do a job on Spurs, it's Jose.

The complete quote was that he couldn't guarantee Eden's or any other player's future. Too much baiting going on. Not that I'm saying there's no chance he won't go to Real but too much biting over a relatively simple answer. This happens every once in a while, more-so after Real suffer with a recent result.

Glad that Clattenburg is gone, but out of all refs I hope it isn't Mike Dean for the final.

Yeah, his finishing is still crap though, I'm not sure what the hell happened. Although he was useful defensively and our best striker on paper, I think we should give Bats a chance for the upcoming games until Diego sorts his shit out. I think most opposing teams have also figured out how to play Costa though, which is part of the problem. Starting with Bats would put them off like it did with Spurs.

Come on Antonio, you've seen what the kid can do. Apart from the goal (which he couldnt do much about), he kept Kane under control. Never "backed" away from a challenge and stood his ground.