Viper22

I've said numerous times before that I think he is our most important player too, when he plays well, we as a team play well, with the rest of the team able to express themselves. When he plays average or badly, we always seem to drop points. I don't think that's a coincidence. He was absolutely immense last night. Back to his marauding best. Goals for him are largely irrelevant because it's not his job, but it's lovely to see him winning us points directly rather than indirectly with a glorious header like last nights one. I've been going on and on about Matic since before we signed him . I truly believe that he is the best true CDM in the Premier League by a distance and is probably 4th best in the world behind Schweinsteiger, Pirlo, and De Rossi. And I reckon you could make an argument that he could be better than Pirlo and De Rosi before long, if not now.

I rate Schurrle over Willian. I'm resting him for Arsenal. Willian has the pace we need for sporting, but Schurrle has the aggressive running that'll make the arsenal defence collectively shit themselves.

----------------Courtois---------------- -Azpi------Ivan---------JT------Luis- --------Mikel--------Fabregas------- Willian--------Oscar---------Hazard ------------------Remy----------------- Subs - Cech, Zouma, Ake, Ramires, Salah, Schurrle, Costa. That's what i'd do personally, strong team (as this is a must win after our draw in the first game) with even stronger on the bench. Matic and Cahill need a rest in my mind.

I imagine that means Remy is starting, with Costa ready to come off of the bench if needed.

I respect your opinion on the 2 of them. But dear christ I could not disagree more. Ramires is capable of brilliance. That kinda suggests that Khedira isn't? Tell me you're not suggesting that. If you are, rewatch the Germany vs Brazil game from the world cup. Ramires does have a better workrate but that's it. Tbh i'm sorry but i'm not sure I can take your argument seriously if you're saying that Khedira isn't a great passer when comparing him to Ramires who is arguably the worst passer in our team. He doesn't have a creative bone in his body and has no passing ability to speak of whatsoever. I'd rather see Mikel passing the ball than Ramires. 99% of Chelsea fans will agree with me there too (maybe not on the Mikl thing, he ain't popular). You've mentioned his flashes of brilliances against Everton and Barca too, and yes, you're right, he had some great moments in those games. But that's the point; it's incredibly rare that he has those flashes of brilliance, Khedira would provide them far more frequently. And I won't even begin to compare Khedira's reliability over Ramires. Rambo gets booked in like 90% of the games he completes 90mins in, and gets sent off at least twice a season.

Decent enough arguments, and good point about Garcia. I got a bit carried away with my list I think. Capello has just done too much not to be up there for me, I'm taking the last 10 or so years into account here, as well as right now. It's kinda hard to qualify so people will always think differently. I personally rate Trapa and Lippi very highly because they both won a lot each back when Serie A was actually... you know... good. And i've always loved Louw. Feel like he's a big part of the rejuvenation of German football after their rethink about 10 years ago. Big fan of the way the Germans play football so maybe that makes me slightly biased but still, i'll stick with my opinion on him .

Ramires is kinda injured right now mate... And he's done his knee ligaments before too. It's not like Ramires doesn't get injured. Also, getting injured less doesn't make you a better player anyway. I'd rather have Khedira for 75% of the season rather than Ramires for 100% of it.

This is the bit I was focussing on getting annoyed about. Boo hoo player might have to only earn 290k a week rather than 300k a week. They'll be on the dole next. And you're right about the number of transfers, but I think it will go the other way, smaller transfer fees will increase the number of transfers I reckon. And no it does not stop ambitious owners developing their clubs. Youth set ups, training facilities etc. are outside of the FFP remit, so don't come under consideration. Would just mean clubs could no longer buy ALL ready made stars any more, they'd either have to promote from within or sign young and cheap.

Well I disagree entirely there, he usually plays at CAM for Schalke. Meyer or Boateng are often shifted out there. Play your best player in their best position and all that... I agree he would be a good LW though, and also agree about his versatility. But unfortunately we have a little guy called Eden Hazard at LW, and no offence to Draxler but he's nowhere near Hazard in ability OR potential.

You're both either massively overrating Ramires or you haven't seen Khedira play very much. He was immense at the world cup before he got injured, go back and watch the Germany vs Brazil game, he was like a man possessed. He controls games from central midfield while being a B2B type player. I have NEVER seen Ramires control a game, and nor will he ever. Ramires better than Khedira....

I must've misread that. For a second there I thought you suggested that Ramires is better than Khedira.

But Isco is creative more than anything else? His passing is excellent. As long as he goes nowhere near high balls and doesn't try to cross (his main weaknesses) then he'll be fine.

You could always just have people posting their ratings and someone could average each of them out 24 hours after the game or so?

Mourinho loved Lamps and Ash too, he let them go didn't he? And he dropped Cech. Mou will always do what is best for the team.

True, Khedira would be more of a back up for Matic, but I suggested MVG as the back up B2B, but if his injuries get the better of him or he looks poor at AC then yeah Ramires as back up would be fine.

Quick side note, you do know Isco best (and by far his most played) role is CAM yeah? How would be wasting his talents putting him in his best position?

I said roughly the same age... Oscar is 2 years and 3 months older. I'll admit I thought Oscar was younger though. But you cannot possibly suggest that Barkley is as good a number 10 as Oscar? Oscar starts for Brazil, Barkley won't start for England for the foreseeable future (rightly or wrongly, it's just a fact), with Sterling and Rooney ahead of him. I really REALLY rate Barkley, I even think he's got more potential than Sterling, and he's the best young English player out there. If we were going to sign any English player i'd like it to be him. But he is NOT good enough (yet) to be playing 10 for a team which is the best in England and one of the top 4 in Europe. He has the potential to be good enough and I wouldn't be fussed if he did sign for us, but I just think that there are other players around who are more complete players currently (e.g. Reus) and players with more potential and are better already too (e.g. Isco). Btw, as a quick note, I know Reus can't play 10, but he can play RW, so we could sign him and either drop Willian or move him to CAM instead of Oscar. Either way our team would be much stronger. Dropping Oscar for Barkley would at best keep the quality in our team the same. Barkley is great on the ball and an excellent dribbler, but with Schurrle/Willian and Hazard on the wings we already have direct dribbling AMs, we need at 10 a creative/goalscoring player, and Oscar fits that bill much better than Barkley. You can't see Isco doing Oscar's role as a 10? You obviously neglected to watch him at Malaga then mate, he was absolute quality there for them, and has been very good for Madrid when he's actually been given a chance. In conclusion though, although I think Isco would be a better signing (not to mention cheaper) and Reus is one of the top 20 players in the world even if we'd have to shift either him or Hazard to accommodate him (and if the release clause story is true then much cheaper, unbelievably), i'd be happy for us to sign Barkley instead (he's English after all which is a big plus) providing the fee is at the very max £30million.

Good point about the injuries. But we'd have to let the medical department judge whether they were too injury prone, if not then keeping Ramires instead of MVG would be an option. Good point though. Ramires is a good player. But that's it, he offers a very good work rate and decent passion but in signing Pogba you've just got a player who is Ramires 3.0. I just don't feel like we'd need him then.

Next Summer we could have Khedira (free) and Pogba (around £50M say?) in and Mikel and Ramires sold to help make funds for those 2 transfers. Means we could play Cesc-Matic-Pogba in the midfield 3 with Khedira and MVG to come off of the bench. Scary stuff .

Very good player, but currently no better than what we have (Schurrle, Oscar, Willian) and he can't play very well on the wings and has to be down the middle. Willian and Oscar are probably better than him there too so it would be kind of an odd signing.

I reckon he is capable. BUT I reckon you could get Isco for around that money (maybe less) and he's already more of a complete player than Barkley.

I agree but as has been mentioned before, where would he play? He's probably best in the no.10 role but he's not as good as Oscar there and they're roughly the same age so that'd be pointless and if we were selling Oscar to get another AM in I would prefer it to be someone world class like Reus or Isco. He couldn't play in a 2 man midfield, he's nowhere near as good as Matic or Fabregas at their respective roles, so the only viable option would be converting to a 3 man CM partnership and having him as a B2B kind of player to replace Ramires (who he is already better than). I really like the kid but for the prices being bandied around then he's nowehere near worth it. I mean we could just promote MVG, Chalobah or RLC to the first team for free....

Key thing about that for me is the goals scored and conceded. We've averaged nearly 2 goals a game and concede under 1/2 a goal a game. So average over 2 results is 2-0 and 2-1. In what way is that negative? As a side note, LOVE how United aren't regarded as good enough to make the list of beatings any more xD

This kind of logic has no place here! People are too busy attacking Lampard and Mou for logic.

Anyone fancy raising their blood pressure by reading this crock of shit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29349740 Genuine quotes from that article: "Far from implementing a true financial fair play, this rule is in fact a prohibition to invest that prevents ambitious owners to develop their clubs" - MCFC Supporters Association "The FFP ruling will restrict the incomes of players and agents, reduce transfer activity and ensure that Europe's larger clubs remain dominant" - Jean-Louis Dupont Restrict the income of players? Is he having a fucking laugh? Over in the NW of England a fat granny shagging tool is earning 300k A WEEK. How you could you EVER restrict that kind of income? He could buy the fucking country within a few years. What an absolute toss-pot. As a side note, usually get on well with City fans and extremely disappointed that they've come out supporting this bender. The FFP rulings started at the start of the 13-14 season and they had been warned well in advance about these laws coming in. Why not dispute them then? Rather than falling foul of them then crying like little bitches and trying to get out of their (very lenient) punishment. As well as that, by the time the restrictions came in they arguably had the best squad in the damn league, it's not like they NEEDED to spend all of that money, they did it just because they could. If we can break even over the last 2/3 years then they can too. Jose is right, points need to be docked, otherwise they will not stop, and if they get away with it then what the hell is the point of any club following the rules if you can disobey them and just walk away scot-free?