capriccioso

An excellent point. All it takes to cause that defence to cack it is a big man up front. Maybe even Heskey and Crouch could give them serious trouble. A duo of a Ramires-like (in terms of pace) striker and a muscular striker would probably put 3 goals past them every game. Not to mention Valdes seriously rivals Djimi Traore in my book as the worst player to win a CL.

Also, the real Greatest Team Ever™ would surely not find it any trouble whatsoever to break down 10 men camped around their own area. Now in theory, there's many a team that can do that for 179 minutes and attack for the remaining one minute. The only reason they won the CL last year was because Real Madrid did not have that defensive discipline despite the best efforts of Mourinho; if Manchester United had played them in the semi's last season instead of Madrid we might have seen Sir Alex lift his 3rd CL title. Liverpool under the earlier years of Benitez probably would have had no trouble doing this mob, either. Pep is heralded as a revolutionary but the truth is any side that is decently built defensively will lol his 3-3-4 nonsense back to the 1930s where it belongs, and indeed, 2 already have.

All this talk of Greatest Team Ever™ fails to take into account that they've only been champions of Europe two times in 4 seasons. The original Galacticos were 3 for 6 in that aspect; and they are still miles behind Ajax and Bayern 70s with their 3 consecutive wins, not to mention Real Madrid's 5 in a row. I'd even have them behind the last team to successfully defend the European Cup, AC Milan of the late 80s. The same goes for Messi. For all his dominance he still has a lower amount of Champions League medals than Clarence Seedorf, and less domestic League honours than Zlatan Ibrahimovich.

Surprisingly low, that. I thought he was on 15 this season.

I see no problem with Kalouda. Blunts our attacking potential, but we have to gamble on Drogba rogering van Buyten et al. There is an argument for Torres in that his recent form will see him get more attention than Malouda would, and he offers far more going forward. His workrate is underrated, but as we saw at the Camp Nou, he seems to like to play his way out of trouble rather than smash it clear.

Here's an interesting read up of a thread on Redcafe. The subject is on Man City's rise to the top. http://www.redcafe.net/f7/930m-what-city-spent-reach-premiership-summit-353196/

Kalouda and Ferreira are trustworthy, at the very least. Meireles as well. Essien? I wouldn't trust him with a 5 dollar loan the way he's been playing of late.

Yes, another valid point is that he has gotten many players to play significantly better than they did for months. His team selection and change of the formation have the hallmarks of a virtuoso.

Predator is right, Lahm will be fine either way.

He's far better than any of Essien, Meireles or Malouda as midfielders. For one thing, he doesn't make a habit of gifting the ball away.

Why not:

Repped for that delicious spelling mistake

Also @ the Argentine Drogba? Immobile? Time for you to accept that most of the best players in the world are not from South America.

What about Zanetti, Cambiasso, etc?

Liverpool

Enough of the superstition, please. Drogba's voodoo magic should be more than enough to get us over the line

Suarez is a good shout for most overrated as well. 11 goals from 127 shots and a measly 3 assists from his 30 PL games.

New contract, please

Fucking hell, Seb, what a post

I'm on my phone so i can't rep you for that. also, i don't think people interpret our voice the same as they would a microphone voice. no one ever thinks its me they're hearing when they.call me.for the first time after they've met me.

I think the players won't really care either way. They know they weren't involved in the defeats.

Wow, I never interpreted the photo in that way. Looked like he was shouting at the ref or a player and was only using one hand because the other is holding his daughter. I don't mean to cause offence, but perhaps in Germany and all over Europe you take higher awareness of such things. Edit: For fucks sake, what a yobbo. He's teaching a 5, 6 year old tops things like flipping off a figure of authority? Cunt.

You forgot Roman

Mikel would walk into any team in the world except those two Spanish clubs. Ask Man United how they would dearly love a midfielder who can dictate the tempo.