Tomo

That's fair but on the flip side, he went off the boil in the second half of 12/13 when he was not only playing at number ten, he had the whole team built around him. Also he was often on the left in a 4-3-3 under AVB and was decent,so its not like he can't play in other positions.

Kenedy has got decent minutes this season tbh.

Pep may prefer creative players but don't let that fool you into thinking he will accommodate a player that is useless of the ball.His Barca team was built on Hard work and pressing.

Well may be if Dr Bruyne got the minutes Mata got (he got a lot despite the myth otherwise) may have been different. And Mata has been a shadow of his best self for nearly 3 years, I hardly imagine he will be the difference between us being toothless going forward and creating loads of chances, in fact United fans critisised his end product last season.

Messi has played under Pep, who is more demanding with his players off the ball than Jose.

First half of 13/14 him and Mata should have swapped roles in the squads. Mata was never in Joses plans, but the politics with the fan affection for Juan forced his hand in giving Mata more games than he might have otherwise.

It was purely because of what happened in the 18 months after, but right now no one will pay £12m for him purely because he can barely string two games together. He's looking every bit a new Ledley King, great when available, but how often is that actually going to be? He hasn't even returned to The Bridge as a Liverpool player and we've hosted them what 4-5 times since he left.

And Courtois, and Hazard, and Cesar

The ironic thing is the one he did bring into the first team, a number of people were waiting for a mistake so they could aggressively demand Cechs return. If KDB stayed, every bad game (or at best a few subpar games in a row) bring back Mata would be the main topic of convo on this thread.

Got a good feeling about this one weirdly. For all Tottenhams athleticism they don't have much in the way of creativity, if (and i accept that's a big if) we can defend well, we might not find it as hard to stop them scoring as we think. Also hopefully if we win we can kick on and have a decent run because all this relegation talk (even in jest) is getting incredibly tedious.

It can be done but really, why should it? This way we know the ones who do do well (i.e.Andreas and Tibo) are in on merit.

Out of the three youth players brought into the squad full time, this are the games they have got. Kenedy starts against Walsall and Norwich, comes on vs Palace, Everton, Stoke, Liverpool and Porto, decent amount of exposure for a 19 year old who has just arrived in Europe. RLC starts against Maccabi, Aston Villa and Walsall and comes off the bench against Villa, could be better but considering before this season Ruben has only featured in one game where something was riding on the result (and that was for 30 seconds) could have been a lot worse. Traore is the big disappointment so far, should have got more than two sub appearances. So in terms of how Jose has managed the youth players this season I'd give Kenedy a 8, Ruben a 6 and Traore a 3, so on average a solid 6/10.

Not even Zouma?

He just needs to work on his defensive side because despite his promising debut against Palace he was one of the players responsible for Wards winner. Attacking wise from left back he already has the ability, in fact from the limited time I've watched him he looks like a (not as good) Alves going forward, great from left back but average as a winger.

Fair enough with the rest however Mata can defiently understand, Cesc was brought in for our creativity from deep and Mata can't play in the pivot, and as average at best and awful at worst Cesc is defensively, he's still better by far than Mata in that regard. Also I think with Mata we saw the best form of his career with us in first half of 12/13, if wasn't just under Jose he lost form he was second half of that season too, and he's hardly been lighting the world up for United, in fact last season some of them critisised his end product and lack of assists, which was the main material for Mata in the Mata vs Oscar argument. Taking the emotional side out of it, getting £37m for Juan was an incredible bit of buisness, easily up there with the money we got for Svhurrle and Luiz.

Was exactly the Same with Sturridge until Costa came and eased the pain, and he wasn't sold by Jose.With Tibo and Eden, I'm not saying they aren't appreciated in general, but the smallest mistake the former made last season had a group shouting for Cechs return and Hazard even last season was often critisised for not doing enough. The only person that regularly critisises Lukaku and KDB is Paq and it felt like he was facing their legal defense teams. Kevin ill give was a mistake but sorry Mata was the right decision.

Of course, but when De Bruyne and Lukaku are getting more love and appreciation than Courtois and Hazard, two Players who have contributed great times and trophies to This club, it doesn't sit right for me.

In the air defiently he's hopeless but the other two aren't anywhere near as bad as is made out, if I had to pluck examples out of thin air, his part in Schurrles goal at The Ehtiad last year and his part in the move where Hazard had that guilt edged chance at the Same stadium this season.You're last line I can't argue with, we haven't had two top strikers here at the same time since Drogba and Anelka before they tailed off.

Liverpool also lost to Palace. This was a encouraging display, could and should have scored more, unlike the Villa game when we were still poor and won due to them being even worse and having a manager without his coaching badges. Stoke and today performance have shown real signs of recovery, were know properly if its a false dawn in 2-3 weeks,we can't judge at WHL because we can easily lose their being on top form.

Nou Camp he was a hero in both performance and effort, tbh thought he was average performance wise in Munich but great effort wise, but then again we were outplayed in Munich and grit and sheer determination got us through, sometimes it's forgotten just how much of a miracle that win was.

I understand most of the criticisms towards Jose this season but one ill never accept is criticising him for sometimes going ott in the media. I mean, all the media and outside influences are always salting us and sticking the boot in, yet many criticise the one man who defends this club uncontinally, and how many were going berserk when Rafa wouldnt even defend Ivan after Suarez bit him?

I'm not surprised by the underaprecciation of Costa, even Hazard and Courtois Dont get the credit they deserve on here (while a wankfest goes on in the threads of their national team mates who use to play for us) Yes he missed some glorious chances today, but he still scored the winner but many times Ronaldo has missed chance after chance before slotting home, no I'm not saying Costa is on his level anyone suggesting that is insane just saying people gettig their knickers in a twist on him missing chances in a game he scored the winner is ridicolous. As soon as we hit form, his goals will come.

Like Carra said, most fullbacks get moved from either winger or centre back at some point, if he can patch up on his defensive side I don't see why it can't work out. I'm not judging him conpared to the rest of the side and I'm judging him on his merits and performance, on the wing he's looked very raw, at left back going forward he has looked brilliant, sometimes moving players back isn't actually ruining them and before people mention Mikel, it wasn't actually Jose that moved him back permanently, it was Scolari.

He has actually looked a lot better at LB, his best two displays were here and vs Palace, against Everton and Liverpool he looked like rabbit caught in headlights.Sometimes wingers get moved to full back, and more often than you think it actually works.

Or we could keep Costa sign one of them and actually have some competition for the strike position?