LDN Blue

Can I just say, this has been quite an interesting & civilised debate.. Nice to see TC is capable of it

Of course the radical approach isn't wise, no-one here is suggesting that should be adopted. The examples I chose were intentional, they were 1 youth-promoted player alongside the senior players. Solanke is too raw right now to lead the line.. But it's much easier to allow RLC & Boga exposure in our first team because they'll be surrounded by senior players. 8 minutes for a lad, in a dead rubber match, where we were always on top, is just embarrassing. Particularly when Mourinho's expressly mentioned these guys all season.

Lol that bench.

No, no you misunderstand. When Hansen said that about United, they proved him wrong and won it with kids. That's my point. We should trust them to play big games, like Wilson for United, Sterling at Liverpool, Barkley at Everton etc.

Well it was, when Fergie did it with the youngsters including Beckham, Neville x2, Butt etc. The point is, it's not about using all the kids at once. It's that, there's no point in saying "once we've won [insert trophy]". That sort of timeline is a simple cop-out because it's always the excuse for the season after. Using youth is a risk, but it's worth taking sometimes.

If that was true, we would've seen such results in 2006/07. It's a cop-out to say "this season is far too crucial", it's harder to retain a trophy than it is to win it on the one-off. I mentioned it yesterday, but do you recall this?

Well I don't see the problem then. If player Y is in better form than player X, you're quite rightly going to play the former. And that's not even happening here, people have been very vocal in the last 12-months regarding Cahill's flaws & it's only now they're so highlighted that more people have realised the issue.

Even then we still need cover. Since Ivanovic doubles as a right back now, we'll need an additional centre back. Christensen isn't quite ready yet.. A cheap squad player wouldn't be the worst idea?

Done mate.

Silva and Blanc seem to be at war generally though,

He seemed to be talking about bringing through the guys who would be there in the next 10 years. It seems he's implying that Lampard would hinder the progress of building this 'nucleus'

Pfft, and some people envy footballers :ph34r2:

Yea, I don't see a problem to be honest. He's right, Costa is learning and most of his yellows aren't actually that hard to understand, if he was an opposing striker I'm sure we'd be saying that sounds about right. I don't think he's going to accumulate as many in the second half of the season. It's okay to be aggressive, but there's margins to what extent..

It's almost the perfect fixture from a marketing/commercial perspective. Funny that..

We're definitely in a better position to play PSG this year than we were last. The importance of Matic will never be more in-focus than this 2-legged fixture! We have to get the balance right on this one.. Yes our squad is better, but PSG have also matured so we shouldn't downplay their importance in this. Mourinho will have his tactical genius on this from today I think, but he needs to play Luis imo. PSG's attack isn't something to be underestimated, Cahill will need to be as professional as we know he can be.. No risky play, just stick to your strengths!

That's a true point, I guess it's not for us to pick and choose which youth players are playing. In fact, Aké getting more time is encouraging because he's played more under Mourinho than most of our youth team players. I think Derby is going to be quite important, for us on here, to see whether Mourinho is going to come good or not. He's given Christensen and Ake their runs out, so let's see if Boga, Brown, Loftus-Cheek or Solanke get into this one!

No, no . He was talking about Lampard going because of Mourinho's vision for the next 10-years.

To be fair though, he was speaking in context for the 'next 10 years,' so they should be mentioned. We just know it's not coming to fruition at the moment..

But he didn't say Baker, Boga and Solanke.. He said 'or'. Let's not make excuses for the sake of it, one of those guys could have featured. It's Shrewsbury ffs. If Van Gaal has enough faith to use Wilson v Liverpool surely its not that hard to use one of those 3 v Shrewsbury?! And I'm sorry but the Sporting (I assume you meant) thing is a cop out. That game was won as soon as it was 2-0. In a dead rubber, even 2-1 is safe. Roberto Martinez played a very youthful side in his last EL game and they lost, but he said it was invaluable for those kids to learn from that. Is it really so bad if we lose a dead rubber for the sake of making these academy boys into men? Can't cotton wool them forever, remember a certain Alan Hansen saying 'You can't win it with kids' about a certain class of '99?

Isn't it weird how that's more reassuring? What a shame lmao

Of course, but that's not what I mean. If the club is aware talent isn't being used, whether at the fault of player or club, then they should recall them and find an alternative club. That could be a club a step down or just another style of play. From what it looked, Everton really wanted Atsu but are yet to use him.. I believe he was being used a lot more last season

McEachran at Vitesse really takes the cake for me..

Yep. What it does is just confuse everyone, the anticipation for RLC getting minutes midweek was incredible. He even let the kid do the presser, I don't understand why. I still, albeit slightly ignorantly, believe Mourinho does want to use these kids.. But he seems too afraid?

Work-rate is good 'n' all if you've got the end quality on top of it. Rooney, is a player who is actually that player. I think he's still just an average footballer, but because he actually works hard enough on the pitch and delivers with goals and assists he's vastly superior at the moment than most players in his position. He's definitely a Mourinho kind of player, though I am glad we didn't sign him lmao. It just gives perspective. You can be average, have a good work rate, and still be a vital part of your squad.. But you can't just be average and have a good work rate.. That's not enough for a club fighting for 4 trophies.