KonohasOrangeFlash

Not in United and City's as I have stated above. He really is on the decline. United have some decent young CB's.

I understand this can be annoying for some of you. However this is truly damn exciting. Falcao can definitely put us in that United/City bracket (as long as our defence gets back to some form of Solidness).

Lack of ambition.

A loan with an option to buy would actually be a better deal from our point of view.

Rightfully so. He looked pretty good under AVB. Seems capable of playing a passing game. He was trained at La Masia after all. He has good potential.

Yeah, he's more of a hipster than a thug

The only way to explain it is we're freeing up space for Oscar to play in the pivots. I hope it's not true though as I think he is much better playing as an AM. Other alternative and the one I prefer is a switch to 4-3-3.

Source? Good to hear nonetheless.

Meireles is not much more than decent. Barely good enough for a top side in the EPL but it appears he is more than good enough for your club.

I think the sale of Meireles is a true act of planning for the future. We are acting early to free up space for technical players. The likes of Oscar, McEacrhan and KDB. I can't help but feel we are laying the foundations for Guardiola. We could have a Technical midfield like -------------Romeu---------- ---Oscar----------Josh/KDB- Getting rid of Essien and Meireles seems like a step in the right direction. However the club may have gotten too excited and let him go too early. We should have kept one of Meireles/Essien.

Unless he is trying to get fired he will shift Rambo back into CM. We'd be very light in midfield if Ramires didn't play as a CM. Also Perhaps we will switch back to 4-3-3 now. Selling Meireles is odd indeed. However it frees up space for McEachran and KDB next season. We're going to be very technical. We could perhaps even have this next season with a certain Mr Guardiola in charge. ---------Ramires/Romeu----- ------Oscar---------Josh/KDB--

Decent fee. Could be better though, won't lie.

Not really. Ramires is shifted into the midfield and Romeu plays more. As I have stated time and time again Essien can be recalled from Loan any time.

He hasn't been better this year. Ronaldo has been better.

The deal is basically done. Nice that we are getting rid of some players and truly building a young and hungry team. Romeu can shine now.

I'm horrible at determining the shape/formation of a team with what I see on the field. I rely on what the team sheet says. However that appears very defensive to have Bertrand play that way.

I'm beginning to get a good feeling that it's a matter of when we'll buy him not if. It's either January or next summer.

Wasn't Bertrand playing on the left? We were playing 4-2-3-1 so how is it possible to have a midfield three of Bertrand-Mikel-Meireles?

Your point? They are good players and more than capable of playing there to give Mata a rest. Same goes for Hazard. I know he has played a crazy amount of consecutive minutes at Lille but an odd rest here and there will do him good.

Hazard, Oscar, Marin, Moses, Sturridge and sometimes Bertrand.

You are completely and utterly overrating Meireles. A player, until some recent decent performances, we have criticised heavily.

A Burnout of a player cannot simply be avoided with one rest period. It's a start but that player will need to be rested occasionally throughout the season. We have the capacity to do that now with the depth we have. However having the capacity and actually doing it are two different things.

We are getting rid of Meireles not Messi...

We are completely covered in terms of numbers in the double pivots. Yes, there is a lack of world class quality there but really, was Meireles really even that good apart from a few good performances? Players who can play in the Pivots: Romeu, Ramires, Mikel, Lampard, Oscar, Luiz, Essien (recalled), Josh (recalled). That's 8 players. Of course not all of those are perfectly suited to play there but they are there if we need them for a few games or so. This is the condition of a loan. Any loaned player can be recalled by paying a fee.