OneMoSalah

Quite frankly I think it should mainly be made up of Atletico Madrid players due to the great year they had and most of their players had. Guys like Courtois, Felipe Luis, Godin, Miranda, and Costa surely have to be in it? They were huge for them. Their back 5 was probably the best in the whole of Europe last year to be fair.

Thank god you said that and not me, was about to type every fucking swearword under the sun there.

If Schalke are in anyway similar to Di Matteo's Chelsea team we should beat them. We couldn't defend to save our lives before he got sacked and Schalke nearly blew a 3 goal lead the other day against Wolfsburg. Jose will have had a look at that and probably sussed them out and if they are like that and we do play like the first half vs West Brom it could get messy. When everyones playing 110% with a purpose instead of half heartedly like the previous game against Schalke then theres no reason why we should lose this, Di Matteo in charge of them or not.

We play like we did first half against West Brom and they have no chance. None at all.

Hardly injury prone. He will recover. In Germany they have a winter break too so he will definitely get an extra bit of time on top of whatever he needs to recover as well which could help him a lot. Barca can't sign Reus in the summer due to a transfer ban and Real surely will struggle to comply with the FFP rules anyway without having to go buy Reus so I'd imagine they'd need another big sell before even considering buying Reus, even if it is just for 20M euros or whatever.

Hes only 22, theres still a lot of room for him to grow. Also 20 goals in 35 games on the international stage is very very impressive no matter how old you are but hes 22, so it makes it even more impressive. We are coming up to the busier bits of the season, he will get more games.

Khedira doesn't make sense for Bayern to be honest, hes not exactly a direct replacement for Schweinsteiger or Lahm who are much more rounded players than he is and they don't even use Javi Martinez as a box to box midfielder anymore as well as having Thiago, a few promising youngsters and Sebastian Rode so I'm a bit baffled to why he would go there or why Pep would want him.

If we can get someone who roughly scores a goal every game (more or less) to come be our third choice striker for something like 6-8 million euros then I think its fair to say hats off to Jose and the board again. He is a goal scorer, he might have been playing in Croatia but he is clearly a goal scorer and sometimes having someone who doesn't do much else other than score goals is not the worst thing to have in your squad. I mean if it was between a guy from Croatia with 72 goals in 97 games and Patrick Bamford, well no offence to Bamford but I know who I would rather have as third choice.

Really this makes no sense so if you could explain that would be useful. Anyway heres my 2 cents on Reus and his next move. For sure Real Madrid, Bayern, City, United, Arsenal and ourselves are linked with him but surely as a player he has to consider football wise: 1) Where is he gonna be a first team regular so he can continue to be picked for German national team 2) Will he be able to play Champions League football at his next club 3) Which coach does he feel is going to improve him the most I think at Real and Bayern he will struggle to be a regular which could jeopardize his national team place, sure he is a brilliant footballer but look at Podolski at Arsenal. Something like 100 caps but has been told he won't get picked if he doesn't play regularly. Even at Arsenal they have got Walcott, Ox, Podolski Sanchez, Cazorla and Ozil who all play in that band of 3 so unless they offloaded someone I doubt they would consider him as a priority. Realistically ourselves, City and United don't have the competition or strength in those attacking areas that Real and Bayern have so he'd have more chance starting here over Willian, Schurrle or Salah or at one of the Manchester clubs over one of Milner, Nasri and Navas at City or Valencia, Januzaj and Mata at United than at Bayern - where they have got Muller, Robben, Ribery, Shaqiri and Gotze - and Real Madrid - where they have got Ronaldo, Bale, Isco, Jese and James. All the clubs linked with him will play Champions League bar United who I don't feel will play Champions League next year which could have a bearing on his decision although Di Maria made a big high profile move there without them being in the Champions League so who knows? I think its fair to say Mourinho, Guardiola and Ancelotti are better coaches than Pellegrini, van Gaal and Wenger too so if he wants to improve he'd probably like to work under Jose, Pep or Carlo more than Pellegrini, van Gaal or Wenger (although no disrespect they are good coaches but not at that level that the other 3 are) but really who knows what move he will make and how he really will decide it. I hope he comes here though.

They are in the same ball park, both are holding midfield players. Sure Matic might be a better player than Mikel but they are both similar players. The point is teams that want to win league championships and compete in 2 or 3 other competitions as well need a strong squad with players who play in similar positions but of varied quality (example: Salah, Schurrle, Ake, Mikel, Zouma, Remy in comparison to Willian, Hazard, Cesc, Matic, Cahill, Costa). You can't have a squad of 23 world class players or 23 great players where everyone would walk into every team and keep everyone happy. It doesn't work. I mean we couldn't even keep De Bruyne, Mata, Hazard, Willian, Schurrle and Oscar all happy, seeing as they would of all gotten regular games in most teams in the Champions League except for Real, Barca and Bayern. You need reliable players who can step in for others if they get injured/need a rest and can do a job. Maybe Schurrle isn't Hazard or Salah isn't Willian but you'd imagine if they were needed they could do a decent enough job. Having a man like Mikel who has won everything at Chelsea and has played in various big games is worth keeping around if he's content to be a squad player, because who says we won't get injuries???

'They figure out he's shit and then he gets benched -then they sacked?' So are you now indicating in the slightest that Mikel has gotten managers sacked? I mean cmon, talk about ridiculous posts. I mean sure people can complain about things like his lack of ambition while passing and that but to say something like that is daft. Also 8 managers of different philosophies and playing styles had constantly been picking Mikel up until 2013 on a regular basis since he joined the club so I can't exactly see how we are still debating whether he's ever been good enough or not. His appearances under a variation of coaches, who collectively have won near enough every trophy in club football prove he is good enough at one of the biggest clubs in the world. Ex-players like Michael Ballack, said on Sky Sports in a game we played in Europe at some point last season we should have been playing Mikel in the game because hes a good and very important player. I can't see Jose setting up with a Ramires-Cesc midfield duo. It would be too easy for teams like Man City or even Man United to come in and use bigger powerful athletic players and overrun us in there. Matic gives our pivot that physicality part against the bigger players like Toure, Fernando, Fellaini etc. He's said in an interview Mikel and Matic are similar players and I believe that if Matic gets injured Mikel will come in. Also the bit in bold, why would he replace Matic if he doesn't need to? You want your better players playing so if he can keep Matic playing every game theres no need to sub him off. Also if you're protecting a lead why sub one holding midfield on for another ahead of subbing on a holding player for an attacking midfield player? Subbing Mikel on for Matic, instead of Oscar/Willian/Cesc or whoever to protect a lead would one of the stupidest things you could do, imagine Jose did that 'to protect a lead' honestly what would you think? I'd certainly be wondering what was going on in his head. Questioning his ambition, I kind of agree but he's someone who owes this club a lot. Managers have constantly played him and helped him develop and grow into a better player than what we got when he first arrived despite people constantly criticizing him. Maybe he feels he owes Chelsea or maybe he doesn't mind not being a regular at a huge club but he doesn't kick up a fuss about it either way which I think is worth a bit of respect given the power modern day footballers have over their clubs these days.

Just hope I don't have to go into work this weekend to set up so I can see the game.. international football is ok but its all about club football.

Even if they loan him without getting anything that would be fine. Inter lack pace and actual wingers as they use wingbacks, Serie A is a league which is slower and more tactical but look at the difference in the Gervinho of Arsenal to the Gervinho of Roma. Could be good for him.

Ramires is a substitute for Cesc's role, not a direct one but if he comes on its usually for Oscar/Willian and plays in Cesc's position while Cesc goes #10 and Oscar/Willian/whoever didn't go off goes right. Matic's replacement if he gets injured surely has to be Mikel. Hes the only other holder in our squad other than Ake who is still young and inexperienced.

I think the boys lucky Mourinho seems to be a big fan of his. He will definitely be recalled if nothing changes, Jose's first press conference back he mentioned his name along with Lukaku and De Bruyne as players coming in without having to invest money or whatever he put it as and he's the only one still here. Also to trust him against Liverpool? Sure we had a Champions League game but he could have played Gary Cahill with Ivanovic, I don't think a center back who would be playing in a very low block for one match, isn't able to play 2 big games in the same week. Hes obviously someone Jose rates and wanted to show he would give youth a chance if there good enough no matter who the opposition was.

Perhaps but I think when Robbie got Torres scoring towards the end of the season as well as stopping us conceding goals a bit more it might have prompted Roman to consider him a bit more than he would of originally done before Munich but I doubt he went to Robbie saying that 'he has to play Torres' if he wants the job. I really think he wanted us to go out and try win a second Champions League and be the first club to do it in 2 successive seasons in how ever many years more than anything. He was sacked after we were on the brink of going out of the Champions League. I think that plays a much bigger role than some may expect, we didn't play a striker yes but crashing out in a group with Juventus, Shakhtar and Nordsjaelland is bad enough but as the holders of the trophy that really was a bit embarrassing and is more of a factor to consider before you go to sack somebody than if he played Torres or not. The Super Cup was probably another moment that left Roman with a bit of a sour taste but if the stories true Robbie wanted Chelsea to get Falcao in the summer and he didn't and the man tore us apart... Anyway I don't want to get much into this as I would have done closer to the time because we have Mourinho and he is the best coach we could have and Costa > Sturridge/Torres/whoever else

Or Mikel and then the next thing will be someone saying Thiago Alcantara is better than Fabregas and so on and so forth.

The fact we got 12M for him when he had 6 months on his contract and was playing pretty shit (after a good six months where he had performed admirably well on the wing) kind of justified selling him and put out a message either he'd done something that made Di Matteo not want to give him a regular role. I mean Robbie wasn't the greatest manager but he was hardly stupid was he? If he could get the same performances out of him that Andre did, he would have played him, wouldn't he? Sturridge's poor injury record this last while is weird but I mean he says it could possibly be down to something genetic but its probably something to do with Rodgers' coaching techniques or Hodgson's coaching techniques and their training schedules too. Perhaps rushing him back too soon or something. The same was said of David Moyes with RvP last season. Rushing him back, pushing him too hard too soon.

Man shags who he wants.

If we sell a right back then it would make sense to get him but we won't sell Azpi or Ivanovic so it won't happen. United were after him under Ferguson and quite frankly I think he could go there in the summer which would be a shame because hes a good player, who I thought was immense against us last night for England, keeping Anya quiet after he originally got the better of him in the first 25 minutes.

Why would Mourinho sell him to Arsenal? I mean selling Mata to United was different because look at where they finished and what sort of level they are at but letting Cech goto Arsenal, really? Can't see it. Mourinho wouldn't loan them Demba Ba last season and quite frankly I doubt he would even sell them a fucking yoghurt, never mind Petr Cech.

Just picked the players he wanted? He promoted several young guys (Pedro, Busquets, Roberto, Montoya, Bartra) in his spell in charge and built the team around Messi where as before it had been built around Ronaldinho. He hardly came in to a team that needed changing as I imagine he could of gotten a few years out of Deco and Eto'o and other guys he sold but he sold them and turned Barcelona into the team they were. Hes started to make Bayern his own too, Alaba and Lahm playing inside as central players as opposed to fullbacks like previously. Mourinho winning the treble with Inter is just as good an achievement as any of Pep's though in my eyes. Inter were an old side and needed rebuilding but he managed to bring the best out of players that many thought had past it helped with the arrivals of Sniejder, Eto'o and also Milito (who wasn't a spring chicken, he was 30 or 31 when he got him). He got them players running through walls for him whereas Pep built a team that played a different brand of football to anyone which was good to watch (until they got boring and far too intense on ball circulation in their own half) but they are achievements that are equal in my eyes because both were difficult to do obviously.

Of course they aren't going to be a football superpower, I mean cmon, a football superpower should be a country that has a good league and has a top international team that competes for international trophies. To be honest not many countries are actually able to just get a load of players and all of a sudden become a footballing superpower. It takes time and a long term plan. Germany revamped all their youth policies and what they did to develop players that however many years ago and the last 8 years or so they've started to really come to the fore as a top top top international team confirmed by the fact they became world champions in Brazil and were constantly in finals/semi finals since 2000. Spain as well always were well prepared to be a football superpower due to the way they viewed the game, that they got everybody from a young age comfortable with a general philosophy based on ball retention and that they have a B team league and stuff so there reserve players are getting more meaningful game experience and they won 2 Euros and a World Cup in 12 years.

If I were English right now, I'd be confused as to why they don't play like that in World Cups and European Championships, with the similar sort of energy and aggression they have along with the inventiveness they showed at times tonight. I mean sure England aren't favorites to win any sort of major tournaments, lets be realistic but they don't play anything like that tonight in tournaments. The World Cup you can say was a bit different but I wasn't really impressed at all in a footballing sense it just seemed like the same as usual, relying on talented individuals to make the difference as opposed to the philosophy making the difference. England are always going to be at the tournaments so they should be looking to try and go further than they normally do, in the same way that we are looking to try get to tournaments. PS. Sterling's non existent attempt to tackle Andy Robertson for the Scotland goal is just crazy. He tackles him then Robertson doesn't get that one-two to get into the box never mind the goal. Small details. Although it was a friendly and England still won...

Not a football nation? Most of our starting 11 play in England, either in the premier league or the championship.... Some of the Celtic guys have more Champions League experience between them than some of the England squad to be fair. It's hardly like we are San Marino for fuck sakes.