CHOULO19

No. Even their president said that we have not made any contact and that it's all rumors. It's just that fans believe the rumors they want to believe.

Every political change in the modern history of Egypt has come with the direct help from the army. From And El Naser to El Sadat to Mubarak...even Mubarak was not removed until the army gave the word. So this by no means something new or special. The western media and political leaders are just making it out to be something absurd because it is a huge "Fuck You" to the US plans in the region. I really get what you are saying mate but the Egyptian army is a different case. The army did not remove Morsi because they wanted to, they removed him because the majority of the people have spoken on the streets. They saved a lot of lives by preventing Morsi from starting civil war. Morsi was driving the country to its death. Too sleepy right now to explain how bad the situation was but I'm sure you'll find a lot of stuff online if you want.

Exactly. We play a system with only one striker, we can't have five in our squad. As much as people don't want to hear it, it is unlikely that we will sign another striker this window..

You have to understand that in Egypt, the army has always had A LOT of power. No change can happen if they are against it. It's been this way for a very long time. But they are not a political party nor will any of the generals be part of any governments. The army stepped in because Morsi was inevitably leaving but he stubbornly decided that he won't leave peacefully. He has a few million supporters in Egypt and the army was just saving the country a lot of blood spill by removing Morsi. The decisions on the plan of how to get out of this mess to a new elections was not made by the army but by the leaders of the political powers including some of Morsi's allies as well as the Muslim and Cristian religious leaders in the country. What the army did was incredibly smart and very responsible and has saved the country from a lot of trouble.

Great analysis @, but I think those graphs tell us a bit more. What I notice from the pictures is the lack of defensive runs, interceptions , and generally lack of presence of Mata and Hazard in our own half. Which would imply that they rarely tracked back to defend (I'd love to compare this to a chart about Moses if you have access to one by any chance but even when you compare it to Oscar you can see what I mean). Another thing I notice is that the red areas where they have touched the ball is much much more around the box than around the halfway line meaning that those two did not drop off too often to receive the ball (this is what I meant the other day when I said that passing takes two parties: the passer and the receiver). And I personally think that these two problems are bigger than the absence of a DPL in our team or our striker problems. This is what is "missing" from our midfield, imo: the closeness of our lines and our midfield working together as a team. Under RDM, we literally defended with only 4-5 players and our defending started at the edge of our own penalty box! Benitez managed to improve on this by moving the block deeper and making some adjustments like having only one of the fullbacks attack at once and we even saw Hazard tracking back more often (but still not enough and not near what Jose will probably request of him). He realized that Mata could not do this and gave him a different role as a second striker to free him of some defensive duties. Concerning the "slowness" of our pivot, while some of it is indeed down to the technical abilities of the players playing there, I think the larger part is due to the huge spaces between the lines of our 4-2-3-1. Under RDM, not only was there no one dropping to receive the ball from the pivot, but we completely lacked any sort of offensive system. Our whole attack plan at times seemed to be "give the ball to Hazard and Mata" and while that worked some time at the start of the season (aided by the fact that we had so many people in attack and out of position), we could not rely on individual brilliance forever and at times, Juan and Eden just ran out of ideas (the game against Liverpool comes to mind) which is evident by the drop in form and results towards the end of Robbies time here. Again Rafa tried to fix this by creating triangles between the CB's, pivot and fullbacks to get the ball out of defense; he also tried to rely on Luiz's dribbling and passing ability to get the ball to the offense (but we still lacked any real effective system and still heavily relied on individual abilities once the ball got to the offense.) But this was only a small step in the right direction*. The consequences of all this is that the team often looked unorganized and dismantled, and the pivot was often left isolated and exposed. Every single one of our players who played in the pivot this season has come under insane criticism and even players who we know have the technical ability of great passers like Lampard have been accused of slowing down our attacks. But it is easy to criticize two isolated players who are often under pressure up against 4-5 opposition midfielders. But the problem, imo, is elsewhere; without denying that we do have some issues in the pivot. Now, I think you are right that a lot of this is down to management mistakes, but I also think that the players themselves must share some of the blame. I don't wish to come across as cynical and unappreciative, but you already covered the parts about praising our young attacking midfielders and I agree with most of it. But I also think that what is best for them is that they not only receive praise, but also criticism as well so they can grow and develop as players. And atm, there are a few areas in the game of our young AMs that they NEED to work on if they are to reach the next level as players. *: This is why I think that the work that Rafa done here was crucial to 'pave the way' for the work Jose needs to do. I wrote an article about this a couple of months ago explaining this more, but I wrote it before we won the EL and secured a CL spot so I was absolutely slated for it even though most people were saying the exact same thing less than a month later PS: This came out way too long, sorry..

I like "Grey's Anatomy"

A minority? There were over 20 million people in the streets today! Not denying that Morsi has a lot of supporters (no where near the number of his opponents, though) but it's not about numbers, anyone can get a few million 'blind' followers in a country like Egypt in the name of Allah and Islam. It's about the best interest of the Egyptian nation, the Egyptian society, and the entire Arab world. Because when Egypt leads, the rest of the Arab world is very likely to follow. What is important here is that today is the first nail in the coffin of the rule of Muslim extremist over the region. It is a nail in the coffin of civil war, not just in Egypt but the entire area and most importantly it is a triumph of freedom.

The Egyptian people have done it! They've managed to make an actual change, to make their voices heard. What a truly great nation. They give me hope in an otherwise hopeless Arab world :')

From Twitter: If you kill yourself it's suicideIf you kill someone it's homicideIf you haven't won the Premier League for 20 years it's Merseyside. LMAO

But can he be as effective coming off the bench? I think the best we can do for him is how Benitez utilized him as a squad player. He can start the easier games and be effective in terms of scoring.

Brilliant again Barbara. I have a few points I'd like to add. I'll write a reply later.

I am extremely methodical at everything I do, even at small trivial tasks. So if I am, for example, watering some plants, I have to count to a random number in my head so that all the plants I'm watering get that random time of water or a multiple of it. Yes, I realize how weird that is..

Hello. If you want your member tittle changed, just put a request in this thread, and an admin will change it for you when they see it.

Getting here to play with reserves and go on loans would only ruin him like it has ruined many players before him. The best thing for him would be to stay in Portugal for at least a couple of seasons.

There is absolutely no room for him here. Our name is often thrown around in these kind of situation to raise the price and add interest.

He will be coaching with U21s next season according to Dermot Drummy.

I hope that's a good thing

Hahahaha only you, Tom, will have a GIF like that! I don't even want to know what is happening in there.. Hello there, Mrs. Speelman I've heard some lovely stuff about you. You've chosen a very unique husband, so you must be very unique yourself, if I may say so

I don't talk to myself (at least not out loud) but I do act out entire (sometimes long) hypothetical scenarios often involving a lot of people, all in my head

Hahaha So how does your wife feel about you talking about your "oral skills" and thing online?

I eat tomatoes like regular people eat apples.

Well there's your problem..

Welcome Tom. Join the discussions!

Didn't we just sell a Bruma the other day? Never heard of him, but being nicknamed "The New Ronaldo" is never a good thing..

You look different than in the pics Rmpr posted.