JDY

Upfront of course. Would represent a different option than the likes of Ba who would offer a more direct, or physical approach.

Who said anything about him playing as a holdup forward?

Yes. He said he will go back when his contract expires in 2014. Wouldn't be surprised if City cash in at the end of the season though. If anyone is signed as a 'stop gap' until Lukaku is ready, it should be David Villa.

Top-drawer performance. Excellent. Everyone was on the edge of their seat whenever he got the ball.

Quiet for the majority of the game earlier, but came to life in the second half when Hunt and Arnautovic came on (for some reason Schaaf plays defensive midfielders on the wing). Two great balls to Arnautovic (one truly world class ball), but the Austrian missed both chances. Defence a shambles again, think of William Gallas, then times it by 10. That's how bad they are at the back. Certainly not dull to watch though.

Schneidlerlin is already great. Been saying this so much on here

I doubt it. There's a member on here that does match compilations though. Bremen are at home to Furth later today, they've only won once in 23 games. Hopefully he plays well, in such good form at the moment. Shame the team as a whole isn't as good.

My no.1 pick would be Sebastian Rode of Frankfurt. All action midfielder, excellent energy, variation in his passing and understands his tactical role. More than capable defensively. James McCarthy of Wigan is also severely underrated and a better option than the likes of Benat. As for Mikel's position, there are numerous players that would be considered an upgrade. Morgan Schneiderlin/Lars Bender/Maxime Gonalons are all better players, and more suited to this system.

Just giving him the no.8 would indicate he has a big part to play at the club.

Should be back at Madrid next season. IIRC they have a buy-back clause of around £5m

PFA Player's Player of the Year - Bale FWA Footballer of the Year - Carrick, loved a bit too much in the media Premier League Player of the Season - Suarez PFA Young Player of the Year - Shaw/Nastasic/Lukaku

Which ones do the players vote for?

I bet this guy is happy

Think he meant Luke Shaw? Lol

That's the problem though, why bring back Lukaku if we just get another top quality forward, thus limiting Romelu's chances in the team. I would rather him spend one more season on loan to truly breakthrough. Regular minutes > In and out of the team at Chelsea

Fair enough. His role is more box-to-box IMO.

He doesn't, and hasn't got the vision or passing range to be one. A deep lying playmaker dictates play from deeper, Dembele utilizes his dribbling to drag opponents out of position and provide the pass, his chance creation heatmap shows that nearly all of chances created is deep in the opposition half. All I was saying is that it isn't a must to have a playmaker alongside Mikel. I would prefer a dynamic runner like Sebastian Rode, or an all round machine like Lars Bender..

A deep lying playmaker isn't essential. I get the feeling a lot of people want a Xabi Alonso-esque player in the pivot but you can benefit from different types of players in there, ones without the playmaking capabilities. A player who can hold the ball and link the play from midfield to attack is needed, if they can provide defence splitting passes then that's a bonus. Dembele for Spurs isn't the most creative of players, and has been criticised in the past for being indecisive in the final third. But this season he has improved in that aspect, and his ability to retain the ball even if there are 100 players on him is incredible. Him and Sandro probably make up the best pivot in the league at the moment.

They probably thought he could help out in defence with a few clearances As for Ba, I thought this was his worst game for us. He did well in the build up to the second goal though, but was subbed after.

Luiz in the second half was world class. Like a man possessed. But I agree with your post.

I think most people are aware of his qualities, only seen a handful of people suggesting he's a bad player.

The worst thing was the chant 'You don't know what you're doing' when Lampard was replaced. With Lampard and Ramires in there both naturally like to get forward. Atleast with Mikel on we had one screening the defence and it free'd Ramires to bomb forward.

To be fair Torres did more in 10 minutes than Ba did in 80. (Still awful though!)

Agreed. It seems the club is really fixated on building for the future, to the extent where we've just stockpiled a lot of promising young players (regardless of position) without any clear plan of how to use/develop them. We've started to do a good job with loans though.

If anything it would be ideal if one of our attacking midfielder's was adept as a forward, not the other way around. I don't know how good Moses is upfront.