Amblève.

It's a shame Mikel is not on the bench. Mou would probably like to keep the draw.

I said that in a match thread (Soton, I think), too. Aside from 3 players we have no complete players at all in the team.

I don't put both of them in that category as none of them has played enough games in PL for now (Suarez is not even in the league anymore) on a level as high as Rooney's. But that's a subjective matter, then, as I value longevity very highly. Edit: I see you added Van Nistelrooy. Again, this is a completely subjective matter as well, but I'm high on strikers' being allround monsters and dominant in every area. Van Nistelrooy doesn't really fit the bill but I definitely could have added him to Drogs and Henry due to his goalscoring numbers alone. Guy was simply the prototypical striker for the late 90's and early 2000's.

No, it meant to say that when it comes to PL strikers only Drogba and Henry have been as good as Rooney (or better than Rooney) during Rooney's tenure in the PL from 2002 till now. Edit: It's actually 4 seasons that Rooney and Henry were in the PL at the same time, my bad.

Ehhh, I know people love to shit on Rooney but this really takes the cake for me personally. As much as Rooney has been overrated by the media and as many flaws as he has (not conditioning himself the best he could, sucking in the NT, not being clutch enough in big games) he has been one of the best players in the PL and in the world for years. To be better than Rooney Kane would not only have to keep his current streak up but reach Rooney's heights for years, which except for Drogba (and Henry if those 4 seasons that Rooney and Henry were both playing in the PL at the same time are enough for you) no other PL striker has managed to do during Rooney's professional career.

When healthy Sturridge is a better striker than Costa.

I'll leave here now. No wonder you're a cats-only person^^

It was more of a bar-room saying than an informative answer, thoug, dude. You can't really deny that

Might be the case but that was not the issue here. I just wanted a simple answer to the question in my first post instead of talking about bar-room wisdoms.

Favoritism isn't exclusively a Mou thing, though, is it? And hell, I don't watch Atletico games regularly which is why I asked about Koke, smartass

Because that's such a good indicator, JJ. I guess Oscar is performing well, too, since he's starting more or less every game?

Koke is one of those players I actually wouldn't mind. From the limited game time I've seen from him he seems like more than just a good upgrade on Oscar. That being said I don't have a clue whether Koke is a consistent performer or I have only seen his better games.

One exception to dozens of easy fixtures. And let's not pretend that that Barcelona side was top-class.

Obviously Bayern get a free pass, smfh. It's comical how easy their KO opponents have been these past 2 or 3 years.

Out of the club, you mean. I don't even think Oscar has what it takes to be an impact-sub off the bench. It's beyond me how we sold Mata and KDB while Oscar has had about 5 top-class games these last 2 seasons.

At first I thought that our PR/social media department speaking out loud was cool and partially even "the right thing" to do but now they're just beating a dead horse. It makes us look small keeping in my mind that our results lately haven't been good.

Jeez, I completely forgot about Piazon. I don't recall the last time that this happened to me.

I agree with the premise but I'm not sure we'd be able to execute our transition game offensively with Ramires in the pivot, especially if Oscar is playing as the #10.

That doesn't mean he shouldn't be criticized, does it?

How exactly do people expect Luis to go forward and help out Hazard offensively when he has to look out for Terry?

Any chance to post the link mate? I don't have a clue who Mou's son is.

Like father, like son, I guess?

Just gonna quote myself since nothing has changed.

We simply have too many one-dimensional players in our squad. Aside from Hazard, Matic and Cesar every single player that started today's game is too dependent on either the player behind, in front or next to him. Terry can't play if his partner doesn't possess above-average pace, Cahill can't play if his partner doesn't have a huge football IQ. Ivanovic needs someone to cover for him, Willian always needs someone to help him out offensively, Fabregas has no pace and is a liability defensively for our system, Costa needs the support of the guys behind him and Oscar, hell I don't even know what kinda support he doesn't need. Now compare this squad to the one we had under Mou's first time at the Bridge. Back then our midfield was probably the most versatile in the history of the PL, our back-line was a joy and our striking force in Drogba revolutionized the way we view strikers' now. With the current state of our team too many players are doing a job they ideally shouldn't be doing. Matic shouldn't be covering for him AND Fabregas, Hazard shouldn't be creating for all 3 players behind our striker, Azpilicueta shouldn't have to worry about exposing Terry and his lack of pace, Ivanovic shouldn't be our main threat on the right flank, whoever is playing with Ivanovic on the right side should be able to provide offense himself and shouldn't have to cover for Ivanovic all the time (Though, I advocate that this should be the case for the remainder of the season considering our lack of options). The lack of allrounders and two-way players is worrisome IMO. You can't have a healthy balance within our starting-11 if guys have to bail our certain teammates from the start of the game. That absolutely shouldn't be the norm.

We can't expect a player to be aware of his surroundings in a radius of 3 metres? The fuck has this come down to?!