capriccioso

Lol yeah we'll stick him in centre midfield alongside perennial ball loser Raul Meireles, or alongside the safest passer in the league, John Michael Nchekwube Obinna. Loads of fun that will be. Mikel and Ramires can't pass long and Meireles loses the ball for fun, as does Ramires, albeit to a lesser extent. And it'll also be a whole heap of fun when he has all the mobility of an oil tanker (and unfortunately none of the market value of an oil tanker) by the time he's in his 30s. Criticising Kalou is irrelevant. Greatest Blue ever? I disagree. He'd have to score about 400 to match Osgood. Some of the older posters might back me up here. Osgood and his mates made the modern club. I see it like this: 1. Osgood 2. Drogba 3. Lampard

Mikel isn't suited to high tempo games, either. We really do need a midfielder who can move the ball quickly. Thankfully we're really well stocked in terms of 'slow' midfielders when we need to play a slower paced game.

Yes.

Perhaps Sloth/Kojo was onto something earlier up thread. He doesn't really fit into our team, and I'm certain there will be a very fast decline by the time he's 30 and loses that speed and stamina which marks him out as a great player. I think we should look at selling him at some point in the next 3 years. We'll get a great bit of cash, we'll remove a square peg and we'll enjoy his best years. Unless we're going to change our system to fit him in, back to a 4-3-3, I don't see a long term future for him. If we do change I think we should look to sell him 5 years down the line.

The Belgians have invaded. We'll be speaking French/Flemish soon, lads. Also I'm finding the notion of Oscar on the bench to be painful. He must play, even if it costs Lampard or Ramires their spot.

Berbatov isn't half bad. I'd rate him ahead of Sturridge.

I don't think we can do with a poacher. We should be looking at strong men to sign as a striker, so if all else fails we can go back to playing like we have Drogba.

No, why sign him? He's looked decent at an average team. He'll barely be good enough to be a squad player to be used in the Capital One Cup (fuck that sounds awful) here.

Yes, unless Torres is unprecedentedly shit (again), we should not be trying to play him alongside another striker.

Ramires doesn't make a habit of losing the ball like Meireles, though.

12.5 million? Definitely worth a bid.

Like we ever loved him or believed in him at all. In an atmosphere like that, where my own fans boo me when I'm coming on, I wouldn't give a fuck about them. But he's a nice guy who never complained about that. Perhaps at Feyenoord.

He wouldn't have his shape without years of sports science, access to unimaginably good training facilities (for players in the 60s) or modern understanding of nutrition, health, better understanding of how the body works and reacts to physical situations etc. Technical ability has fallen a long way in the game, while physical ability is at an all time high. Maradona, for instance, had no problem whatsoever with the Jabluani in training and yet you had the majority of modern professionals complaining about it. The level of pure footballing ability is far lower than it should be when you consider the immense advantages modern pro's have compared to their predecessors.

I'm still a bit skeptical. Has he spoken about the Liverpool fans?

I'm not very good at 'banter'. @ and @We Hate Scouse, can tell you more about that. Every session of banter where I'm on the receiving end goes too far for me

But Drogba was rare, he had an affinity with the fans of every club he played for, to the point where one of his first clubs named a new stadium after him. Torres is Atletico true and true, I doubt he would really care about either Scouse fans or ourselves; compared with his home fans.

Yes, 1979 u-20 and 1986 World Cup. Also lost a WC final in 1990. Messi has the 2005 u-20 World Cup.

Also Maradona won 2 World Cups, Pele won 3. 1 won't cut it, no matter how 'easy to score 5 a game lol' football was in the 60s. See the Messi thread for further details as to why football in the 60s was immeasurably harder than it is today. As far as being the best of the last 20 years, he's nowhere near the level of Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho etc. Messi isn't that far off those three but he's still got a long way to go to be mentioned in the same breath as them. I can guarantee you Zidane et al wouldn't have been flummoxed by half an hour of Salomon Kalou at right back and an hour of Jose Bosingwa at centre back. And then there are the legions of defenders far better than Mess-Aldo, like Thuram, Maldini, Nesta, Canavarro, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, to name a few. Roberto Carlos is a bit of a borderline call, I think Mess-Aldo might just pip him. Keepers- Oliver Kahn was better than any player today, outfield or in goals. It takes something incredible, out of this world, for a keeper to win the Golden Ball at a World Cup, where a striker scored 8 goals.

To be the greatest player ever he'd have to score about 2000 career goals. No one will ever knock Pele off his perch.

Cole is still the best left back in the world. The split should be 2/1 for every 3 games, in favour of Ashley; gradually by January 2014 moving to 50-50, and by July 2014, Bertrand should be ready. I have to say though, Ryan is lightning quick. Deceptively quick as well, I never thought he had this much speed in him.

Same guy said he loved the Kop. Wouldn't trust his purported love for the fans- he, like 99% of all other athletes regardless of sport, is doing it for personal glory.

It would improve absolutely nothing. Oscar, Mata and Hazard are better than him. We're spending 50 million for a guy to sit on the bench.

Portugal is a 2, 3 team at best league. It's a good Scotland/Spain, basically. The day Ligue 1 or Serie A ever get caught by Portugal will be an awful day for club football.

I'm for it if we get him for peanuts. He's far too poor to be getting paid more than 50k/week; as all squad players should be.

Someone (shit) could use his skills but we don't need any more of that.