Daniel1980

Yep, unless something changed recently, Barcelona will be still allowed to sell players. I remember reading on BBC Sport about that back in April or May.

He can. Barca can sell but can't buy.

People say he started following TC and Luis too. What a troll. Mind games at their finest.

I prefer Hazard on the wing. He has less people to beat there. Playing him through the middle would make it easier to defend against him. Besides, if we play Oscar and Willian on the wings, most of our attacking threat would be through the centre where Hazard and Fabregas are. We would be very predictable and narrow.

People who watched the match seem to think he was terrible though. Just a few comments about Oscar's performance: Either way, I hope it's not the beginning of Oscar's annual winter slump. If his form is poor, he should be benched. We have options: 1) Hazard-Fabregas-Willian 2) Hazard-Fabregas/Willian-Ramires 3) Hazard-Fabregas/Willian-Remy Or the good old 4-3-3.

Any win would do. We need to start winning again. Though a convincing win is more than welcome.

I wouldn't call someone who failed to score 4 penalties last season a good penalty taker. I wouldn't want him to take PKs for us when we have players who take PKs better.

Costa is a poor PK taker. I'm pretty sure he isn't even our second choice penalty taker. When Hazard didn't play, Fabregas took the penalty against Sporting even though Costa was on the pitch and was hungry for his first CL goal. That's pretty telling.

He did link up very well with Eden and Cesc. We looked dangerous on the left wing with three of them interchanging. But it's blatantly obvious defensively he's far worse than Azpi, especially 1 vs 1. It would have been okay if we had fast CBs who could cover if he makes mistakes. But we don't have fast CBs. Azpi was missed.

Yeah, I don't disagree that it's easier to find a creative #10 rather than a creative CM, but we have what we have. I don't think we'll be buying a CAM. If we do buy an attacking player, a right winger should be the priority.

Yeah, Matic's English is passable, but I don't really think he's captain material. Seems a bit shy and awkward.

As I said, I'm not a fan of Mikel and I don't like the pivot Matic-Mikel. It's too rigid and one-dimensional. But I like Cesc at #10 more. Eden links up very well with him. For example, the last 3 matches Cesc played #10 next to Eden, Eden scored 2 goals from Cesc's passes and Cesc scored 1 goal from Eden's pass. That's what I want to see. Ideally, we would need an upgrade on Mikel for that, though.

He was very poor today, tbh. At times I thought even Mikel was better. Maybe he's just tired.

Had the same thought. A bit too obvious.

After 2009, he played higher up the pitch all the time for Arsenal. That's when he started scoring goals. When he played a deep-lying playmaker like he does for us, he barely scored any goals for Arsenal too - only assisted a lot. He plays #10 for us only occasionally. He scored against Stoke just the previous match he played #10. As long as he plays in the pivot most of the time, don't expect him to score many goals for us.

Yeah, always thought so. Fabregas is the best CM we have to partner Matic, but he's also our best #10 to partner Eden. A bit of a dilemma.

They were. So glad Eden scored away and scored such a needed goal. Pure class.

A draw away against a Top 4 side isn't that bad compared to City's home draw against one of the worst teams in the PL.

Pretty much everyone was rubbish bar Hazard and Fabregas. Dammit, it was a clear penalty.

When Mikel plays, Oscar is usually dropped. Not enough creativity with both of them in the midfield.

This is Andre's chance. Now don't fuck it up, Andre.

There's no definitely about it for United fans. Quite a few of them dropped him in favour of Sanchez or Silva. Actually, they pick JT and Fabregas-Matic more consistently than they pick Hazard. In all fairness, there are quite a few great attacking players to choose from and Hazard's stats aren't that convincing to make him an indisputable pick over Sanchez or Silva, while world-class defenders and CMs are in relatively short supply. There's no better DM in the PL than Matic, and there's no better CM in the PL than Fabregas. JT has been a rock. Hazard has been amazing, but has he been better than Sanchez this season? I think yes, but it's probably arguable for non-Chelsea fans. At least they're unbiased enough not to pick Di Maria.

Seriously. This. It's been half a season already.

This is funny, but I just took a look at redcafe and saw their Team of the Season thread. Practically everyone chose the pivot Matic-Fabregas, Hazard in attack and JT in defence. I guess even United fans can recognize how brilliant they've been.

LOL. Hardly surprising with Galliani.