Jype

Kagawa has never been a CM, Scholes is nearly 40 years old and simply can't play every match next season, Cleverley and Anderson are huge question marks having both spent the majority of last season in the sidelines because of injuries and Giggs is pretty much the same as Scholes. Fletcher is out with his illness for God knows how long and no one knows if he will ever return to playing full time professional football, have you seen pictures of him recently? The man looks a shadow of his former self. Are you really telling me they don't have a problem in central midfield? Every United fan I know are desperately hoping they go after a top class CM instead of another winger or a striker. Most of them think that if they buy Lucas then Nani is on his way out. While Moura is a brilliant player they would all love to have, that wouldn't really solve their problems and they still need that new central midfielder. At least for the first few seasons I wouldn't be concerned if they got Moura to replace Nani because that's hardly an upgrade at the moment. Lucas will probably be better than Nani in the future when he has time to develop but not yet.

Apparently Tim Cahill has left Everton for New York Red Bulls. Big loss for Everton, a great player and a true club legend. Can't blame him though. Last couple of years of his career and in a lower league he can now relax a bit and focus on making money. And let's be honest, who in their right mind wouldn't prefer living in New York to Liverpool? (no offense to our evertonian lad Shogun )

We simply can't buy every talented player out there and certainly not for €40m.

Why take Mata because he's certainly not going to play in the first round because of the olympics?

Three Chelsea players is a must have for the first round because we have two games and every other decent team have only one. Of course many of us are going to have three Chelsea lads every round, but a double fixture is still a nice bonus. I'm going with Hazard, Marin and Torres. Interesting to see how much Swansea's new midfielder Michu will cost. Last year in the La Liga he scored 15 goals for Rayo Vallecano and not a single one of those was a penalty. If he can score even half that amount in the PL, anything less than 7,0 will be an absolute bargain. But he doesn't score much. His words, not mine.

Another late kick-off. PSG match was a decent timing for me because on holiday I stay up till around 4am anyway so it wasn't a problem, but 3:55 kick-off is bad. Oh well, can't complain too much because this is the last of these late night matches and the rest of pre-season is a little more humane, not to mention when the season actually starts and all the games are played on perfect timings for us Europeans. Enjoy while it lasts, our friends from America, Australia and Asia.

Since when has 10-12m been pocket change, are you mad? If we could get even close to that amount I would consider it to be very good business and while I understand that a fully fit Essien would be worth a shitload more than 10-12m, we also have to see the other side of the coin and realize that keeping him is a high risk too. What I mean by that is that if he injures his knee again for the fourth time, it would be over for him. He is under contract till 2015 and it would be very expensive to keep a player with such high wages and not get any sort of return for the money. By selling him we would not only make a decent amount of money from the transfer fee, we would also get him off the payroll and that's what I'm more concerned about if he stayed at the club and failed. If he continues to impress in pre-season, I wouldn't be against keeping him either.

Marin, Cole and Ramires on after half-time for Kakuta, Ferreira and Mikel.

Very strong starting lineup for PSG. Apart from their first choice goalkeeper Sirigu that's nearly the best they could do without Zlatan and Silva. Hopefully we'll be starting with a strong side too.

Joined.

Here you go. Screenshot taken from my 16:10 monitor (1920x1200).

Lukaku De Bruyne - Hazard - Ramires Lampard - Essien Cole - Cahill - Hutchinson - Ivanovic Cech Hoping to see something like this. Blackman, Chalobah, JT, Luiz, Ferreira, Josh, Mikel, Marin, Malouda and Piazon for second half.

@TheRealAC3: I am what I am!!! Winnerrr!!!! Hahahahahahah, 11 to me 0 for you!!! yfrog.com/h7i4jsoj This has potential to get ugly. I like it.

I thought it was Ramires' goal that took us to the final?

Is that a diamond with wingers or a narrower one with central midfielders? United are stacked in the winger department so no way they're going to play with the latter one and the first one would be torn to pieces by any decent opposition. At least the games would be entertaining to watch when both sides would score goals for fun. One possibility of course is that they're is planning to buy Van Persie to play on the wings but that wouldn't be very wise, now would it? I don't believe old red nose is going to make too drastic changes to their formation because it has worked brilliantly before and they were so close to winning the league even last season. If he decides to go after another striker instead of a top class central midfielder then he really has lost it and that is of course what I'm hoping for. And as for Mata. he didn't play CM under AVB, always left wing and a couple of times at CAM around the time AVB got sacked and was desperate enough to try something else rather than the 4-3-3. And even if he did play there once or twice, playing in central midfield in a 4-3-3 is very much different to playing in a two man midfield where defending is also crucial. I don't think I've come across a single person suggesting Mata to play in central midfield of Di Matteo's 4-2-3-1. But again, if United were to play their new star man Kagawa in a position he's not familiar with, I wouldn't complain. Can't believe I took the time to come up with these posts about United's possible formations because I really don't give a flying fuck about what happens to that club. Regarding Van Persie, Arsenal have left him out of their squad to the Asia tour. A deal close to being agreed?

Kagawa has never before played CM and I don't think he ever will. That would be like us playing Mata or Hazard at CM and would you honestly want that?

Their 4-4-1-1 is basically the same as 4-2-3-1, just a different way of describing the formation. One striker up front, one player behind him, two wingers who play mostly on the opposition half in an attacking role and then two midfielders. If they bought Van Persie to play as their front man and Rooney behind him, then their latest arrival Kagawa will be very unhappy. And if Shinji were to be a starting player they can only have one striker starting and that is undoubtedly going to be Rooney.

Ferguson officially confirming a bid must mean they're in advanced talks over the transfer, right? Surely the old red nose has finally lost the plot? Why would they need Van Rapist when they already have Rooney, Hernandez and Welbeck and are most likely going to play a 4-2-3-1 formation similar to ours, with Rooney playing up front most of the time and Kagawa playing behind him? In my opinion the only club who should be looking to buy RvP is Juventus, who are in desperate need of a top class stiker and they can't afford to be too picky about his injury record and age because there really aren't that many options around for them. Clubs like Manchester United should avoid signing of this kind like the plague.

Great to see he has recovered from the meningitis faster than expected. Surely they wouldn't risk playing him if he wasn't 100% fit?

This world is fucked up.

Perhaps a little off-topic discussing this in De Bruyne's thread, but here goes anyway. Kakuta was signed when he was 16 and he had massive potential at the time, definitely one of the hottest prospects in world football. Sadly for us not all of these signings work out the way we want them and Kakuta's development has stalled, reasons for which Chelsea are partly responsible and then some unexpected twists and turns. Our club has mistreated him with limiting his playing time to only reserve and youth games for too long and then we have sent him on pointless loans a bunch of times now. He has also suffered some injuries which have affected his development as a player. Obviously the potential is still there to be found and many people forget he's only 21 years old because he has been hyped to become a world beater since around 2006 and the expectations have always been huge, but something needs to happen and fast. It's decision-making time now regarding Kakuta. Either we place our trust in him and try to help his development any way we can by at least giving him a proper chance to prove his worth or we cut our losses now and sell him to some second-rate club where he could end up playing for the rest of his career or alternatively he could thrive with being given a chance to play every week and become the player he has always been expected to become. I just hope we'll make a choice we don't end up regretting later on...

I agree he's better in the middle but that doesn't mean he couldn't do a job out wide too and I don't see his pace as a problem. Primarily he should be used as a CM to get the best out of his passing abilities and vision as well as that mean shot of his. Granted his shooting was way off against Seattle but usually it's better and I think he was just under a lot of pressure to impress RDM with some wondergoal when he saw all the other new players and Lukaku scoring in the first half. Hopefully he gets more chances during pre-season and if Di Matteo thinks he's not ready to take a place in the squad then a loan it is, and I'm sure De Bruyne himself would have no problem with that as long as the club he would go to actually used him and not just sit on the bench which he could do at Chelsea too.

Much better kick-off time now, only 2:00am instead of 4:30. I have no problems staying up till 4 when the match ends but Seattle match was way too late even for me and I am still tired as hell from watching it. Doesn't matter though, at least we'll now understand better what the Asians and the Australians have to go through to watch our beloved Chelsea every week. Massive respect to them. :blue scalf: Who will be back from holiday for this one, or are all them lazy bastards who played in the Euros still sitting on a beach somewhere?

That looks hazardous.

You can stalk it from my profile.