LAB

Good move for both Roma and Ash. I guess it's A.S. Roma or me in Serie A next season then!

If Luiz is not the ideal vise - captain then who is? Fred?

He knows how to handle his image. Smart on and off the pitch.

I think for some reason that City will underachieve, and MU will be better.

I actually liked past season Liverpool kits. This season's are kind of poor imo.

Move this to the jokes thread.

Bad WC for him, not all his fault imo, but whatever... more rest for him is good enough for me. Edit: to be clear -> all in the above sentence = 100% (...not 100% his...)

Saves one on one vs Messi. The only silver lining today.

Your 1 2 points are mutually exclusive. That means that if 1 is correct then 2 has no effect and vise versa. Think about it. When we will be playing with a lower table side (there were our main problems last season) that like to park it, he will eventually go forward to aid the attack, so how is this a waste of talent? If 2 is correct, and it end out being a waste of talent to have him in cm, then how will 1 be true, since he will actually be a "I'll-stay-here-in-the-midfield-while-you-guys-go-attack" kind of player? You know what i mean? Well imo there's not going to be a waste of talent situation, because i think he will be played most when we face lower table teams which means that he will be allowed to move forward and help the attacking AMs and therefore no need to worry about putting pressure on Matic since these teams will not be interested to attack with numbers.

Fab + Schurrle could be a lot of fun.

I can't wait for pre-season to get a sample of what he can do for us. Going to reach a whole new level of "weird" though with this one wearing the blue shirt.

He is all about movement. I love it. Schurrle on fire is a player you'll regret benching.

We can work with what we have, i think it's enough. We don't have to buy every single good AM that's out there.

I would replace Aguero with Sanchez anytime in that list I wouldn't mind at all to sign him, but we are packed already. If he goes to Liverpool...... . Please choose Arsenal!

http://en.protothema.gr/mourinho-with-his-family-in-the-greek-island-of-mykonos/

Surprises me how the Uruguayans welcomed him like some kind of a hero. Instead, shouldn't the normal reaction be something like "Thanks Suarez for leaving our NT without it's star striker because you thought it was a good idea to bite someone you psycho" ?!?! I wonder if they lose to Columbia, will the ppl resist to blame him?

Mourinho is perfectly capable of signing a young LB in the upcoming years. Hopefully we will be perfectly fine with Luis for some time. No need to panic MU-style for an English LB. It's a long-term investment, but a dangerous one too, because he is very young + very expensive.

Next time someone bites you at the office don't call it an assault. Be a gentleman, give the man your whole arm.

Sturridge was actually underrated a little while ago.

I think the match yesterday was an odd one. Ivory Coast were really really poor imo. They left us with tremendous amount of space to work. If you watch the match vs Columbia you will see the flaws clearly. But yeah compared to the rest of the team his pace is above team average. Not like Samaras for example. As far as compared to Mikel, they are not identical and he might be slightly better at that department (as part of his FB qualities), but i can imagine him playing more like a Mikel than a Matic type of player in a PL team.

Maniatis is consistently among the best of the team. He just finished a very good season at Olympiakos. He is good as defensive midfielder and can play right back also. This way he can help the right side effectively in a defence oriented system (like Greece's). The problem with our players is that most of them will do the job in the system we play, but they lack creativity and pace. To simplify, you can expect a MIkel type of performance from him. Edit: There is a rumour that Everton might have contacted Olympiakos. I doubt he is at their priorities but it's very possible that they have an eye on him.

Ban until the end of the year all competitions and professional help too.

This thread is overrated.

My thoughts exactly. We have adequate amount of very talented AMs. They just have to work it out more in training and try to "find" and "feel" each other more. We seemed clueless in front of goal at times while other lesser teams were practically giving us lessons on passing, 1 2s and teamwork.

He is a big liability defensively but good going forward. He may looked better today only because Christodoulopoulos played in front of him rather than Samaras who is very slow. Don't jump to early conclusions from just a couple of matches. Trust me, Holebas is the last LB you want playing for Chelsea.