The Skipper

Sheva was way better than Torres. Not even a debate.

He's usually a very good member on the forum but he's just being childish atm.

I'm not ignoring it, I omitted it from my reply because I actually agree with you on that. You can continue with your childish "6/7" agenda though, doesn't faze me at all lol. Edit: In response to City's lack of wingers, you're completely forgetting Navas who is a pure winger, purer than any we have, and Zabaleta still overlaps him. We don't have our fullbacks overlapping to provide extra width because they're bad going forward - well we actually do (Ivanovic) but his impact in the final third is poor. Azpi is decent in his natural position though.

How is Khedira out of favour? He's bloody injured.

If we are already thinking about loaning him out then what was the point in signing him at all? He's definitely staying for next season.

Going by his agent's quotes, it sounds like he would accept being 2nd choice here. Good.

The only conventional winger we have is Salah, and even he drifts in when he plays on the right (him being left footed and all). Hazard likes to cuts in on his right, Schurrle does too. Willian always drifts into the middle as well. Hence why we really need overlapping fullbacks if we want to be a complete team. It isn't just City - every top side in Europe has fullbacks that can make an impact in the final third. We don't.

Maybe some did but Willian is far more talented than Moses.

Would like to see him work on his final ball and consistency in finishing... Apart from that he has shown he has the tools to be a very important member of the team.

Diego Costa's head on Torres' body. awful.

Cahill is a Brazilian #10?

The rumours are that we'd swap Lukaku for him, which I personally wouldn't mind so much especially if Lukaku doesn't want to stay here as 2nd choice striker. If that's the case Lukaku for Barkley is a good deal, and Mourinho can mould into any midfielder he wants him to be.

Cahill is shining simply because he's playing in a system that really suits his style of play. Not taking anything away from him though, he's been great.

We really need English players for FFP long term wise. JT, Cole and Lampard leaving us soon.

Of course he is, I don't even know why that's even being debated. He plays at number 10 for Everton. You don't play at number 10 for any team if your passing is on Ramires' level. Ramires' pace is obviously an asset but Barkley has a lot more finesse in his dribbling and he isn't slow either. Compare any central midfielder to Ramires when it comes to pace and Ramires will probably outpace him, so that's irrelevant IMO. He's a bit selfish but the kid is 20, still has a lot to learn. It's his biggest drawback - not knowing when to release the ball effectively - but the upside when he does learn to take wiser decisions would be tremendous. He's more intelligent on the ball than Ramires by quite a distance. A midfield trio of Fernandinho, Yaya & Javi Garcia will make it hard for any player in the middle. He was still Everton's best player if you take his whole 90 mins in consideration. if Ross came here he'd challenge for the number 10 spot as well as perhaps that spot next to Matic but again, I don't know why we're even comparing the two players because they're different players.

Better dribbler, better technique, better passer, better vision, better built. I don't even know why you're comparing the two. One is a destroyer and the other is an attacking midfielder.

Generic but how did you initially become a fan of CFC?

Yeah, they definitely will, probably in the first 2/3 days but to keep it interesting I think we should just limit to two members a month as I think four a month will make it less interesting as it goes on. But of course, see how it goes first.

And it's exactly for that reason as to why we need more than just a striker to unlock them. The striker will be as isolated as anyone if we don't stretch these teams correctly with overlapping fullbacks and off the ball movement, and then have someone on the ball who can quickly switch up the tempo and exploit the spaces that are being created by said movement. The Schurrle chance was good, but we don't do that often enough at all. What you're saying doesn't matter anyway as it's pretty evident the board & coaching staff themselves believe we need more than just a top striker. I'm pretty certain we're looking for players in those positions (CF, CM & LB) since we're being linked with them routinely now and Mourinho himself said we're a couple of clinical signings away from a complete team.

I should've said slow transition from defence to attack with regards to our main problem this season: against teams that sit deep against us, which is what that whole post was in conjunction to. I thought that was pretty obvious but never mind.

Is that the new phrase you've given to the people you "called out" earlier? Regardless. None of us are saying that a top striker won't make a difference, of course they will. If we had one this year we probably would've won the league but it would've papered over the cracks of an incomplete system. A top striker is vital but if you seriously think that it'll magically improve the fact that we're still too slow in transition from defence to attack, that we don't stretch the pitch enough, that we don't support our most creative player with off the ball movement and overlaps from players around and behind him (specifically a good attacking left back) Even Atletico Madrid who have a very similar system to us implement two naturally attacking fullbacks (Filipe & Juanfran). I still maintain a left back and a creative CM are as vital as getting a striker - that is if we want to have a complete system and team that Mourinho can fully utilise in different situations.

I like it - however I think maybe switching it up to one member every fortnight would keep things more interesting. If demand increases we can simply increase to a member per week.

The price being quotes is €25m, not £25m. I wouldn't sell him for €25m. I think we can do better than that for Luiz, especially in this crazy market. I think if we push it we can get around £30m for him. I wouldn't mind us selling him because we can do better at CM and he's a really good CB but he won't be fancied in the low block counter attacking system we're trying to implement here. He's better off in a possession based side like Barcelona or Bayern, and I think we can easily get around £30m for him from those lot.

Do you know Torres costs us £18m a year (wages + amortised transfer fee)?

Two members per month is cool, they can both have 2/3 days each to answer their questions. I feel like one every week would probably get boring after a while.