manpe

Torres

BBC Sport: "The deal is subject to a medical, with reports suggesting the 23-year-old could join for the Blues for £23.5m." What sites report £26m?

Howard Nurse or Mata? Mata deal has been confirmed and Mata... well, we'll see how good he is

I'm really hoping to see the new boys + Josh have some minutes in that game.

Isn't it 28m €? 28m £ is quite a lot and more than reported

He's about the same height and weight as me Makes me feel proud, representing the small killas (matas) out there

I usually don't do ratings, but I'm bored atm. Oh, and well done BlueLion Hilario - 7.5 Bosingwa - 7 Alex - 4 Terry - 5 Cole - 6 Mikel - 6.5 Lampard - 5 Ramires - 7.5 Kalou - 1 Anelka - 6.5 Torres - 5 Malouda - 5.5 Ivanovic - 6 Drogba - 3

Agreed, Hilario made no mistakes, and that is rare for a stand-in goalkeeper who rarely gets game time. His ball distribution was good as well. And the moment I saw the cross to that open dude (Odemwingie?), I was shaking my head "goal FFFUUUU-" but then I saw it being stopped on the line by Hilario and I was confident of 3 points from there on... He also caught the ball which meant we had the possession and time to calm down, a shittier goalie might have awkwardly scrambled it into goal or made a panic in the box.

Voted Ramires... did plenty of dirty work which I noticed. Was between him and Hilario. Is there a similar topic on Stoke game or did I miss it?

Jesus Navas next? :eyebrows:

It is one of the most exciting signings of recent times... I think it even beats Torres in that respect. And he won't have huge expectations and record price tag hovering over him like a dark cloud

YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!11SHIFT+1 finally a quality signing, hopefully we won't have to be disappointed

they play different positions, cannot be compared... but they both contribute in their positions what they need to

I wouldn't be surprised if Benayoun is ignored, McEachran is ignored, Lampard plays 90 and Kalou starts

It gets on my tits a bit when asked about creativity he goes "no, no... you have to separate the 2 halves". I hope in his mind he's thinking otherwise and he's giving that media bullshit just so not to criticize his players too much... But even in the second halves there wasn't enough of it, definitely not enough to play "attractive attacking football with flair" like he said he wants to.

A goalkeeper? Yeah, that will add some much needed flair on the bench

Actually he played ~5-6 minutes against Stoke

good stuff I am a fan of intelligent players

that was just AVB patching up his mistake sooner rather than later

No, I didn't say they were never suited... I said it benefited us when they were still sharp, but it has gradually started to fade and now it looks, to my eyes, forced and unimaginative. Also didn't we play variations of 4-4-2 quite often in 2009/2010? Lampard was of course much sharper back then, but it isn't only down to him. I just don't see much width anymore apart from our full-backs.

Ok, fair enough... it's because he's a left-footed left winger, these type of wingers don't look to cut inside but rather cross and make play happen for others from their side. I feel that having an inside-cutting winger in form of Sturridge and a pure winger in form of Mata will give the team more dimensions on flanks, than rather just cutting inside or beating a man and crossing with a weaker foot. Malouda type of player isn't bad in itself, but he's just past his peak and slowly diminishing in pace and skill...

So all that talk and you came to the same conclusion as I did. It's not a coincidence that AVB is looking to add to the squad for it to be more fluent in 4-3-3 and that we are not connecting anymore as we used to back when our players were at their peak.

I actually have watched a few games with them and I don't consider them pure wingers. Yes Neymar plays on the left fairly similarly to as how Messi plays on the right and Götze has license to move pretty much anywhere in attacking third. I agree with the other names you mentioned, I'm just not as sure with those 2... despite that both of them would benefit us greatly even if they are or are not PURE wingers. It's a question on how limited or how free their instructions are... Messi starts his play on the right but will very often move in central position, that's why I consider him an all-round forward just like Neymar. But we clearly aren't getting any of those players so it's a pointless discussion lol I do feel Mata would fit in our team perfectly, whenever I've seen him play I've never had the feeling that he's a snail-paced wanker (a sub-position of a winger ) like certain members of our current team

Exactly my point in short

I am not a tactical expert by far, but maybe, just MAYBE 4-3-3 doesn't suit our set of players? 4-3-3 needs specific type of players and I think we lack them. Yes, we were killing with 4-3-3 when we had some creativity and explosiveness back in the days, but I don't think this formation has benefited us much in the past few years (except for the year before last, but I don't remember if we played only 4-3-3, I think we had some 4-4-2 going on?). Maybe we shouldn't be so stubborn at our formation and change our team accordingly... if we don't have wingers (let's face it, we don't), then it's nonsense to play 4-3-3... Unless AVB gets players to play in that system, which the likes of Mata and Modric are, Sturridge still has to prove himself as a winger in EPL. I just feel with the current set of players 4-3-3 is forced upon the team... it shows in that some players are unable to hold their position and certain areas just don't click with each other.. for example we have players making runs, but nobody passing there. We have players passing into zones, but nobody running there... these kind of geling problems make a big difference.