Blue Armour

Yep....its been a problem ever since AVB's sacking. And while its not an excuse for Torres, its no wonder the guy has been below par with the kind of service he's getting... The positives now are that we've taken a step forward in fixing our issues in central midfield, and we now have a striker(s) that are not 100% dependent on a quality pass to create chances

Yep...maybe not quite the same as Ronaldo, Rooney (that younger Rooney), and Tevez but a potentially deadly front-line. Personally enjoy competing against a team like United in the league...City for all their squad strength don't really seem to have the bottle to convincingly take hold of the league.

As much as I would like to see him start more often,.... fully agree with this point. I don't think Mourinho is going to allow him to just slot into the starting 11 too soon. Especially due to the lack of match fitness from pre-season

Switch Torres and Drogba in your statement and I think you'll be right..Mourinho's clearly looking to deploy Torres as the second striker because he knows he can't score for himself.

Probably its because he doesn't want to attract any buyers until the window ends..

And the problem continues...

No doubt about it..even if Lampard was more than aware of the possibility, this was the City's doing. Pellegrini and his mind games..yuck..

Drogba may not be what he used to be...but I still love how the other players like Brana and Terry get fired up when he steps onto the pitch.

I hesitate to even ask..but was his shot which was saved by the keeper's out-stretched foot our best attempt at goal in the game?

Hmm...might be a good idea to invest in a backup striker... Cavani doesn't seem a bad choice does it now...?

2 years ago I would have said you lost it...when he arrived here I was one of his biggest detractors, and absolutely hated it when he started games over Drogba. But after the Benitez season and the last one, I can see that Torres' poor record is not entirely his fault. Service has indeed been appalling. Granted he doesn't have the same fitness and the man has missed plenty of guilt-edged chances during his time here, but that's typical of any forward who hasn't settled into a good run of form or games for that matter..he really is a confidence player. The change from being labelled as top 2 or top 3 in the world to almost championship level flop is not easy for any player to take. And yes, it would be better for him to pack off to another team though I suspect Mourinho rates him for his work ethic (yes I think he actually does) and wants to use him as a utility player.

City have steadily becoming a thorn in the backside...I hope we wipe them out this season.

This.

Its probably part of their marketing strategy...they know the world cup is the time when a lot of mainstream/neutral fans watch... They then pick the brightest talents from the tournament and probably attract a pack of neutral fans along with it,...no wonder their fan-base is huge.

Don't think so...but just imagine how it would sound: "Captain Cahill"..we could make a new banner

That's not really an apt compasion...we got Costa and Drogba for Eto'o and Ba would be more like it. Better off yes, but that you can't make comparisons to how it would have been with Lukaku...I think this sale was more of a case of Chelsea trying to balance its books

Don't want to pick needles from a haystack...but the winning goal did come from a Torres shot that was saved...

Man of the match performance...wasn't just any pre-season game for him

In the second half he does that incredible one touch reverse pass to send Costa through, and then later on he struggles to get his head onto Ake's great cross in front of a goal...quite an enigmatic player (although I think a lot of fans have already made up their mind on what kind of player he is)

Even in the first half, when he really didn't have much end product...was really happy to see his hold-up play...haven't seen seen that kind of hold-up play since Drogba's time here and now even he's back. The club is going all out to fix the cracks...

True..but there was a sharp decline in quality of the squads of the traditional big 4 (United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool) since 2010. Its not that their opposition became tougher in the league,... its that they became more level with their opposition. This has in turn made the league more competitive I think this season, (if all the rumored transfers go through), will make a direction change towards what we used to see in 2004-2009, with better performances in the knockout rounds of the CL.

Of course not, but teams like Chelsea, United and Arsenal face tougher and similar-level opposition on a more regular basis in the league, when say compared to Madrid, Bayern or Barcelona. Plus you have the crazy fixture pile-up. That's why squads of PL teams tend to be quite worn out when you reach the knockout rounds of the CL competition.

FYI, I know that City and NYCFC share the same owners, and are technically "sister" clubs. And that doesn't have anything to with what I was stating in my post.

Still not the same as putting on a city jersey.