The Skipper

Do you seriously believe we're going into the season performing like that? Or playing with that XI? I feel sorry for you. It's pre-season, we're nowhere near our peak yet, we've still got a couple of weeks to get there... Have faith.

You don't often see Modric make Hollywood passes that are associated with creativity. What Modric is rated for is his ability to make the team tick. Creativity is very hard to define. Some people see creativity as splitting the opposition defence up into pieces but I'd call that vision more than creativity. If you're trying to argue that Hazard doesn't have Pirlo vision then fair enough, but it's not like he's had the opportunity to fully showcase his vision yet. Hazard, when he has to make the right pass, will make that pass. He's a very good passer of the ball, and his vision (or creativity in your terms) is more than decent. Hazard's best ability though is to pick up the ball and penetrate through defences. He'd rather do that than receive the ball and spray it out ala Pirlo because he's just better at running with the ball, but that doesn't mean he has no vision (or creativity in your terms). As I've said, Hazard will make the pass when he needs to. I think you've got the wrong image of Hazard in your mind. He wasn't bought to create chances for the team. He was bought to provide pace and inject fear into the opponent with his world class close control, his ability to set the pace of the game in the attacking third, and his ability to make the right decision. His decent vision and his ability to make the right decision is why he got quite a few assists last season at Lille. To say Hazard has "no creativity" is quite absurd though. He isn't a Pirlo or Xavi yes, but that's because he's better at penetrating through players. To me it's arguable that Hazard is very creative in the way he dribbles past his opponent and in the way he expresses himself, but that's just down to what your definition of creativity is.

I hope we put out our strongest XI against these guys, we haven't had a solid XI at all over the tour yet as we've been missing players obviously. Wish there were no Euros or Olympics!

(Bare in mind I missed most of the first half) Interesting game I thought. People should stop looking at the result and actually analyse the game. I'll start with our defence. We were very solid with our regular back four, and this was promising. As soon as we tinkered with it we obviously lost that edge, as evident with the goal conceded where Luiz was out of position and the rest of the defence were quite amateurish with covering the mistake. I'm not worried about it though as it's clear that these lads didn't take the game serious, but I do hope we start our next friendly with a bit more tenacity in the defence area, I want to see bits of that never-say-die attitude our defence is well known for return. Hutch gave us a good committed performance, I'd rather him as our 3rd choice RB than Paulo. Paulo just makes the defence look rather leaky than solid. Now onto the double pivot. I thought Lampard played well, recycled possession pretty well and linked up well with the rest of the team. Lamps still has a huge role to play next season IMO. I thought Mikel was very sluggish, wasn't his usual self, he doesn't look on form at all ATM, I hope he catches on soon. RDM needs to start ramming to these lads that the season is almost here officially, and they need to start taking games more seriously. Essien again looked decent when he came on, I hope he carries on the steady improvement. He seems like a reliable squad player ATM, no need to sell him. Our forwards were dissapointing today, apart from a certain Hazard. Hazard showed today why he'll be a key player for us next season. The way he drove through the Milan defence with the ball was quite refreshing to see. It's why I want him in the hole rather than Mata, as Mata doesn't seem to have the ability to penetrate through defences like Hazard does. I'd give Mata a free roaming role on the left, that would probably be the best for our team. Marin, Lukaku and Ramires were distinctly average today I thought. Regarding Rambo, I hope this pre season has re-enlightened people as to why we can't really go into the season with Rambo as our starting RW. To me he'd be a lot more useful in the pivot as we seemed to lack a genuine ball winner there today. Torres' first game back was very indifferent, which is understandable obviously as he's just joined the squad. I want to see the intensity being picked up against our next friendly against Brighton and the game against City, which will be our ultimate test. Hopefully we'll have close to a full squad then, it's such a shame Mata and Oscar aren't here as they would give us that cutting edge we're lacking which would also automatically mean that we'd keep possession a lot better. Milan didn't play well at all, I felt we performed slightly better but we're lacking that cutting edge up front. That will change once we get a system between a front 6 of Mikel, Mata, Hazard, Oscar Ramires and Torres (my preferred front 6) working. RDM has a difficult job of marrying all these players together to play fluent, cohesive football but we'll see. If he pulls it off he'll fully justify his appointment even more. What I just want to reiterate is that I really do hope that RDM will start to tell these guys to pick up the pace, as we're not performing to a 100% at all yet. MOTM: Hazard. Edit: Spelling mistakes etc. (on the iPhone).

Started the half really well but when we took off Cole and Terry the defence really waned. Hazard looks really good as a number 10 though. He'd do damage with Mata and Oscar around.

Fair enough, but the problem with Drogba and Crespo was that we never really found a solution between them two. Crespo got disillusional with life at the Bridge, the same could happen with Cavani and Torres IMO. There's no need in us splashing the cash on a striker unless Torres is leaving, that's just my opinion though.

It is really a shame with Rossi, I think he could've worked well as an alternative for the RF position. Would've fitted in like a glove. Torres Mata - Hazard - Rossi. Shame!

In these seasons, we played quite a lot of games with 2 strikers. Not the case this season.

If JT is charged, so should AF. Simple.

Updated with Oscar in the squad.

I'd say we're creating a side that is far more direct than what many imagine, as Superblue_1986 pointed out to. The blue print has been set out by RDM and the board, but we won't fully know how the side is exactly being shaped into until we see a couple if more games. The main advantage of the 4-2-3-1 is that it's very flexible and that philosophical changes can easily be made without sacrificing too many players in the team. We can easily turn from a possesional structure into a counter attacking structure as we have quite a few pacy players. If we had let's say a team of: Torres Mata - Oscar - Hazard Ramires - Mikel We'd easily keep possession as we'd have 4 players who are very comfortable with the ball at their feet (Mata, Mikel, Oscar and Hazard) but if a counter attacking situation arrived, we'd have Torres and Ramires leading the charge but don't forget Hazard has exquisite pace too, and Oscar and Mata aren't too bad themselves. The reason why I put Ramires in the double pivot is that I believe we need a physically imposing midfield. Ramires has a slight structure but he has the heart of a lion, the stamina of a Kenyan long distance runner, and he's a fighter. He could be our ball winning midfielder, who'd then lay it off to Mikel (or Oscar who likes to drop in deep) and then make an off the ball run from deep to provide another attacking option at pace. I think we'd be okay if we didn't get Hulk. It could work, we might not even need Hulk, but it would take time for all that to come into fruition. That's why I still want Hulk, as I think he'd give us an immediate impact and also give us more tactical flexibility and squad competitiveness. When we need to bully teams, a XI containing Ramires, Hulk, Hazard and Torres who are all good at penetrating through players will help us more than if we produced the above XI. We could even mix it up and drop Mikel if we really needed to chase the result with a XI of: Torres Mata - Hazard - Hulk Oscar - Ramires Ideally we'd have no stern defensive cover from midfield but if we're chasing the game we don't really need to. The Hulk signing would still add tons to our team, but if Porto are pricing us out of it we should just pack our bags and leave. Hopefully we still get him, but the chances are getting slimmer by the day IMO.

Misleading headline, far from a done deal IMO. Nothing in the article exudes that we've actually made a bid.

Our side isn't being set up to play Tiki Taka football.

It's not that he's not greedy... He just instinctively knows which decision to make. If Oscar sees a shot on goal is the best option he'd definitely take it.

Highest I'd go for Mr. Moura is £25m, almost equivalent to the Ronaldo transfer back then when transfer inflation wasn't as high. €40m is way too much.

Everyone knew we signed Hazard, yet the club took years to announce it.

There we have it.

Bigthrobberus is probably the most ignorant forum poster I've ever seen.

Not all eastern European countries are what you think they are. You just follow the media propaganda, been brainwashed into thinking that all eastern European football fans are hooligans. That's major ignorance. You need to stop thinking that you're superior over other fans dude.

Is Schurrle really any better than Sturridge? I don't think so.

I don't think anyone can deny that Torres hasn't been decent since RDM has taken over. Can he take it back up to that next stage, match winning level on a consistent basis though? We'll see next season. 50/50 for me.

Updated with PVA going on loan to Vitesse.

To anyone who thinks Sturridge wasn't important to us last season.

Cheers for this, gonna copy it into the Sturridge thread if you don't mind.