Styles

It will have huge ramifications for the clubs finances if we miss out on Champions League football. Also the prestige of Champions League attracts quality footballers. It's embarrassing that we spend so much and struggle to finish top 4.

Wheels starting to fall off. Us finishing out the top 4 has been obvious since January. The fact the club have done nothing to halt the decline just lets you know everything you need to about the clowns in charge. Taking the Europa seriously when any other club in our position would have binned that rubbish at the first available opportunity.

Any idea how he's playing? Good form?

What happened to that guy Jucili or something like that? I saw some videos and he looked like a good midfielder, bit similar to Yaya in size and running ability.

He hasn't been starting games recently so he might be a sub for tomorrow's game.

That's because we play very disorganised football. Our team needs a LOT of coaching but the board seems intent on stopping that and prefer to throw players together and hope for the best. We never maximised the talent of players like Drogba, Essien, Ballack, Cech, Lampard, Makelele, Terry, Cole (3 league titles and 1 Champions League, they should have had more than that) and it looks like it'll be the same with the next generation.

Good interview, top man Demba.

And if that isn't clear after this season then some people will never get it. You can't expect the same 11 players to play 2x a week and not suffer loss of form, injuries, suspensions etc. Man Utd have the biggest squad in the league and won the title before the new year.

Marin is rubbish and has contributed nothing this season. Schurrle is a lot better than him so we have a stronger squad.

That I'm well aware of.

Mata is a nice guy. If I had a daughter I would offer her to him no questions asked. Just take her Juan, she's all yours mate

Definitely. Looks a good playmaker and coming from Dortmund you know he plays with intensity. That's one thing we need to move towards, a high-tempo game. I hate this slow, ponderous crap that we play.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't go for one. Almost every top team has one in their side.

I understand your wider point but just wanted to touch on this as a general point. We don't need physicality. We need good players and a manager who can coach them properly. Our play is massively disorganised (particularly in midfield) and we don't have a coordinated pressing system that all the best teams in Europe seem to do at the moment. I watched every City game in the Champions League this season because their group was very interesting. Ajax played City off the park twice this season and they don't have big and powerful players in every position. They just pressed them well and kept the ball moving. Dortmund and Madrid pressed them and forced them into errors and made them look silly. We on the other hand let City have their way and have looked inferior to them 4 times this season. We need proper coaching far more than we need physicality. That's why all this talk of players like Fellaini makes me cringe.

That's terrible. It's basically the same midfield that everyone seems to have a problem with in Ramires/Mikel. Where's Oscar? Fellaini is a decent player but he's not needed here. We need true a playmaker in midfield.

Nice kit. Better than I expected considering the marketing campaign.

Thanks. The English press are the absolute worse football journos in the world. Maybe Torres wasn't 50m after all

True. I've already seen this Schurrle transfer reported as a 50m deal (adding wages). They really hate us don't they? It makes you wonder about other figures like £32m Hazard and £25m Oscar. Even Lukaku at £18m

I can't trust figures reported by the British media at all. They don't even bother to convert € to £ and lift reports from other places and just report the same figure. £20M = €23M €17M = £20M There's clearly a difference so I don't understand why they continue to do this.

Fellaini is a good player...for Everton. Our midfield needs to get a lot better and I don't see how buying him does that. People complain about Mikel's lack of mobility but Fellaini has the same issue. He is definitely NOT the passing playmaker that we all want either so what is the point? We can do a lot better than Fellaini.

It's a sad indictment of modern football that simply winning a trophy is absolutely more important than anything else. Carry on. :tophat:

I would trade a lot of the trophies for some stability, a plan, good football, young players coming through and not wasting money on rubbish. Trophies aren't the be all and end all of football.

A 12 second clip isn't indicative of good performances against City unfortunately.

I think you've just summed up what a luxury player Mata can be against good opposition.