Slam Dunk

If we're going to play the long ball at every opportunity, Lukaku HAS to be on the pitch.

Come on, 45 minutes left! :cfc:

Fellaini is bossing this midfield.

Sturridge pisses me off no-end. Bosingwa has the ball on the right side, and he stands in the middle of the box. He's supposed to be the right winger.

Thanks for your clairvoyance. You must be a whizz in the bookies. People are getting bogged down in formations too much, for a while now, our players have never had a set formation. There's a lot of drifting and movement all over the pitch. The players on the pitch are important, not the formation on the team sheet.

What are we supposed to do? Look forward to our team playing? Madness!

Read it again, I didn't comment on his ability, did I? Just gave you the reason why he's playing. Disagree, different types of players. Have to say I prefer Ivan at RB than at CB however.

Oh and for everyone complaining about Bosingwa, he is being played because he is an attacking full back, and with a relatively narrow midfield and with Sturridge and Mata constantly cutting inside, we have no natural width on the right without him.

I'd prefer that as well. But Malouda plays = constant moaning on the forum...Malouda gets dropped for Lampard = constant moaning on the forum. Can't win.

Malouda dropped for Lamps, I thought everybody would be happy... ...Obviously not.

Not that I don't put anything past this board of ours, but i'd be extremely surprised if AVB wasn't in charge next season.

Which is why we've bought in a young manager who is here for the long-term to rebuild the squad, to prevent this pattern repeating itself.

Bit of a contradiction, considering we haven't even given AVB his first chance (a full season) yet.

After this, I have honestly given up hope for English football. The FA are a shambles. Give the armband to Parker or Hart, Fabio, but there's only one England Captain.

That would've happened in a perfect world. But the world isn't perfect, now, is it? Hazard always said he was going to leave in the summer, he strikes me as a man of his word. He feels he owes something to Lille. He has no preference to which team he joins, (Us/Arsenal/Utd/City/Madrid and even Liverpool and Spurs, unlikely as the last two may be) and therefore would want to assess his options before he makes a decision. He would want to know where he was guaranteed a ) a starting role and b ) CL football. Why would Lille sell now in January, when they know they could still get the £33m or even more guaranteed in the summer by sparking a bidding war, whilst not running the risk of the player losing concentration on proving why he is worth €40m. In theory, but it's not guaranteed to happen.

City do need a new winger though (no i'm not joking). I heard that they were also interested in Jovetic as well...

That's what I was driving at, the signs are there. We just have to be patient.

Ha yeah i've just seen the edit you made. However, I think Bertrand would've got a chance with Pereira here (with Cole out), simply because of the fact we have no orthodox left wingers. Oh and going on to the subject of left wingers... I wouldn't consider Mata world class. Not yet, anyway. On the form that the team is in, I don't consider any of our players world class. Some have the potential to reach that accolade however.

No, Pereira was intended to be a like-for-like replacement for Zhirkov. However, just like Zhirkov, Pereira would've pushed Bertrand down the pecking order at LB anyway.

Pereira was a proposed replacement for Zhirkov. Disagree. He's not ready, and to be honest, I have my doubts about him ever reaching our first team.

I'm sure i've said this all before, but, I think we, as fans, need to be rational. We did have a fantastic team in their prime for a good number of years, and what with the lack of consistency at the club (constant changing of managers/staff), we haven't been able to gradually release the older players/buy younger ones, and therefore the 'transition' of the squad, if you like, has been delayed somewhat. Whether, you blame Roman, the board, the media, it doesn't matter, AVB has inherited an ageing squad and is trying to bring in a new footballing philosophy. The problem lies in the fact that some of these players are simply not suitable to the way he wants us to play. He is a new manager at the club, and like any new manager, he needs to assess what he has got before he can change it. It's not his (AVB's) fault for the majority, i'm sure he would've loved to have brought in a striker like Falcao with him but couldn't as he had Torres to deal with. He would have loved to sign Hazard/Moura etc in this window, but unfortunately, it's not as simple as waving money at the situation. The rebuilding of the squad is underway, it was always going to be a lengthy process. Thankfully, I see hope in the fact that AVB is in control of targets, unlike Carlo, who was merely a 'coach' (and that's not Carlo's fault by the way, it's the way he managed at Milan he and was perfectly happy with it). We know the board have their targets (De Bruyne/Willian etc) and AVB has his (Meireles). If he believes that there is a player that suits his philosophy (that he has studied his whole career), who are we to question it? If you look at Man Utd and the way SAF deals with his squad, you can see why he is so successful. He constantly buys/sells and refreshes the squad year in/year out. Do you know why he is able to do that? Because the club has stability, and that's precisely my point. We finally have the potential to have some stability at our club, don't lose sight of that fact. You have to endure this phase if you want success in the long run.

Ahem. I believe a Mr. Patrick Bamford would disagree with you, sir.

Much improved second half compared to how badly we were outplayed in the first. I think a draw at a team on the rise, who play brilliant football, with a solid work ethic, and a great support is a good result, but hey, i'm an optimist.

Looks like we've changed to a 4-2-3-1.

Everyone in need of a laugh, put Sky Sports 2 on. Some guy has handcuffed himself to the goalpost during play. Amazing.