The Skipper

You see, that's a big chance. If the team had the right mentality instead of playing for a draw, Mata would've got to that ball. I'm ashamed.

We should throw on Torres, he might have fire in his belly, which is exactly what we need.

Look at that half arsed cross from Ramires. Like I said, it's like we don't want to win.

Are we playing like a team that wants the three points? Not at all.

This is like a training match, we're not taking this serious. The game is there for the taking, it's really, really pissing me off how we're not taking advantage of that fact.

Poor pass from Mata to Lampard.

Don't bank on Howard Webb giving us any penalties today, he doesn't even want to award us basic fouls.

Do we even want to win the game or...?

I feel it might take a United goal for us to take the game by the scrap, which is stupid really.

We really, really are missing Hazard. Moses needs to step up.

We're playing within ourselves, like we're playing for a point? Why, I don't know.

We're giving United too much respect.

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Hazard and Oscar can easily become as hard working as Ribery & Muller, they just need a manager to instill that hard working spirit into them. And Modric is hardworking - he's just reluctant to put in the tackle as you mentioned before but that doesn't mean he doesn't work hard for his team. We need protection in the pivot yes, but not to an extent where we need two defensive minded players. If you pair someone like Mikel with Modric then you have a nicely balanced pivot.

Well he's in the Kompany/Vidic/Terry mould so I think he'd fit perfectly. He's a beast, really like the CB partnership he and Howedes have going on at Schalke, it's superb.

Is he a leader on and off the pitch? Yes or no? People assume Luiz isn't a serious guy because he's a "happy" character. Is Luiz a joker in serious moments? Does Luiz hide away when our backs are against the wall? Does he shy away from responsibility? These are the sort of questions we should be asking about the captaincy, not whether one is "too much of a joker" on his twitter because he calls people geezers and sticks his tongue out in photos. That doesn't effect his ability to lead/inspire football players on the pitch.

No, I don't agree with your first point, simply because I'm a firm believer of defensive cohesion as a team. We shouldn't solely be relying on the pivot to do the majority of the defensive work, it needs to be a collective thing. It's what Bayern do so effectively for example. Besides, ask yourself this - if we are facing teams like QPR, Southampton and other mid table teams - do we really need as much protection in the pivot? I don't think so - I'd rather us take the initiative and someone like Modric in your team would provide you that. You make valid points regarding Modric's situation at Tottenham but surely you can't say he's an awful CM even if you don't like him? As I mentioned above - having someone like Modric against the lesser teams would be so beneficial to the team it's unreal, in my honest opinion. Having someone who's as proficient as Modric is in his passing or driving forward the ball from deeper positions is priceless - it's what Luiz has sort of been doing for us. We obviously disagree on the matter though so we'll just leave it there.

But the thing is though, Modric played at CM in the PL for years and performed excellently, a lot of people mutually agreed he was the best CM in the PL. He wasn't playing at CAM. I don't see why a team consisting of someone like Mikel who compliments Modric quite well, whilst still having Oscar, Mata and Hazard in front of them won't work. The notion that Modric needs to be in a 3 man midfield and be the most advanced midfielder in that is invalid IMO simply because he played with a more forward thinking midfielder (VDV) for years at Spurs. His two of his three best performances in Real shirt have come in their pivot. People are acting like playing Modric in the pivot is like playing a striker there. He does have a decent defensive game, he got away with playing next to the likes of Parker and Palacios for years at Spurs whilst having someone like VDV in front of him - tell me, how does that work if Modric isn't decent in his defensive work? We're reliant on our pivot yes but one of the problems we've had this season is the distribution out of the pivot, and if we're aiming to become the dynamic team that we want to be then having a player like Modric who alleviates the pressure and keeps possession is vital. We don't have anything like that in our pivot right now, so signing Modric would be a brilliant signing in my opinion.

Are people forgetting that Modric thrived as a DLP in the PL? He didn't play as a CAM when he was playing with Tottenham. He played next to Scott Parker in midfield and had VDV in front of him. This guy was hands down alongside Yaya Toure the best midfielder in the PL over the last couple of seasons and people are now saying he isn't good enough? What are people looking for when it comes to improving our pivot? Is it not a link between our defence to attack? That's exactly what Modric excels at - linking up play effectively to his forward players, being a threat outside the box with his decent long shot, holding on to the ball, creating that pass before the assist etc... there's a lot of upsides to Modric's game. I can't genuinely believe anyone with any footballing IQ would call Modric "awful". Yeah he's not as excellent defensively but you don't always need extra defensive cover in your pivot at all times. You don't need two overly defensive players in your pivot. The majority of teams we play against sit deep and allow us to have the ball - if you have someone like Modric in your team when you're allowed to have the ball your team is guaranteed to play a lot better. Modric would still be an outstanding signing if the fee wasn't too high IMO, he fits the bill exactly. He didn't play CAM against Dortmund in the second leg. He had Ozil in front of him and then Kaka - he played in the pivot and was one of Madrid's best players. Xabi sacrificed his role as the ball distributor and gave it Modric simply because he's the more dynamic ball distributor - exactly what Real needed as they were down by three goals and Borussia sat deep trying to counter - doesn't that sound familiar? Teams do this against us ALL the time, they give our pivot too much space/time because our main offensive threat are the three behind the striker - Modric would completely change that as teams would be forced to come press him and thus creating more space for those in front of him - and you wouldn't even have to be scared about Luka losing the ball as he's excellent at holding onto it. Modric would add SO much to this team. More so than Xabi would - but Xabi would still be a great signing if we could get him for a good price as he's an excellent ball distributor himself. I prefer Modric because he's more dynamic and because we've got dynamic players such as Hazard, Mata and Oscar infront of our pivot he'd fit in a lot better.

He hasn't played in a deeper role in midfield that often. He's often been deployed out wide or even behind the striker... I did say that he's playing with poorer players and I did say that I'm not defending Marin's poor season here, but what I'm trying to get across is that KDB wouldn't have developed as well as he has at Werder if he stayed here this season. I'd rather have him as a starting player than him playing that squad role, it's done wonders for him. He's ready now to challenge the first team squad for next season - not sure we'd be saying the same if he stayed here.

Hmm. I think that's a bit unfair to say. I'm not really defending Marin but... 1. If KDB didn't go out on loan, he wouldn't have developed as nicely as opposed to him staying here... 2. KDB has played a lot more than Marin, granted with poorer players but still - if you look at the goal+assists ratio's then it isn't that impressive. KDB isn't really that much of a stats player anyway but yeah.

Did he really say that ...

Are we still building our squad up from the ground up though? I don't think we are anymore. We've now established a nucleus for the following seasons to come: Oscar, Mata, Hazard, Ramires & Luiz. With the likes of Courtois, Lukaku, KDB, Chalobah etc. coming through as well, we've got great potential as a squad - what we need now is a manager that can bring these players to the next level, and I honestly think there isn't a better man than Mourinho out there to do that for us. Mourinho was our last long term manager (he was here for 3 seasons which is very long term for us). He could've easily stayed for another season or two had it not been for the off field shenanigans with Roman. Roman's changed. He now wants to build a team that can sustain itself for many years to come rather than the instant glory he craved for earlier - we've won the holy grail now anyway. Mourinho's been everywhere and accomplished most of what he wanted to do. He's changed too. I honestly think Mourinho will stay with us for at least 3/4 years if everything goes well.

Why is Higuain way better? Because he scores more goals or...? For us, Dzeko would be a much better fit than Higuain, simply because he leads the line better than Higuain does.