Jase

My point is that Griezmann wasn't brought up and trained to be a striker to begin with. He only became one at Atletico Madrid and even then I doubt his ability to lead the line on his own. Would rather us get a specialized striker, someone who has been playing and training as one since their youth days.

He plays as a striker but I don't really consider him to be a natural one. Only at Atletico Madrid he became one because Simeone converted him and I think he works better with a strike partner upfront rather than one striker system we play.

Some players may want to leave after Friday's incident. So, Reddish-Blue is suggesting we could perhaps raid clubs like PSG for some of their players.

BS rumours from the English media as always. Costa might be a pain in the arse with his behaviour but I doubt the club are going to pull the plug on him. Not now anyway. If anything, we should get a quality striker in to create competition for the No.1 spot.

Griezmann doesn't fit our current way of playing at the moment. He's not strong enough to lead the line on his own and he certainly won't be a winger like we/Mourinho want in the wide positions. He'll likely end up going down the same road as Salah, Cuadrado, Schurrle etc if we get him. If we want to get a winger, then get a proper one. If we want to get a striker, then get an out-and-out striker. Enough with the square pegs in round holes. We've wasted so much money in recent years doing that.

Depends on what you're looking for. They are both different players - one is a wide attacking player and the other is a striker.

That Mario Gaspar goal... :worship:

Credit to the fella though. He has always been consistent...off the pitch. Always speaks well in press conferences, interviews etc but never really backs it up with his performances.

Oh jolly. Now Mourinho has his excuse if people question why he hasn't used Loftus-Cheek more often.

To be fair, while Costa doesn't help himself with the antics on the pitch, he's not entirely at fault for his lack of goals in 2015. Remember the first half of last season? We were playing extremely well and creating tons of chances in every game and Costa got on the scoresheet in almost all of them. But since January, we started to become more pragmatic, create less chances and the goals have invariably dried up, not just from Costa but also some of the other players. No strikers would be able to score if the team doesn't create chances on a regular basis.

Coutinho does have some talent but I have not seen him put in any kind of consistent performances, even for a short of period of time. He has also yet to dominate teams in a manner that some of the best attacking midfielders do. At the moment, he's going between - have quiet games and do nothing and have quiet games and score some long range stunners. He's too inconsistent to justify the hype and praise he's getting. If he only reacts well when the pressure is not on him, then maybe he is really not that good.

It's not so much about Ancelotti and the work he did at Real Madrid but more to the point of how managers manage the squad when there's injuries. Every squad has them. You can't use that as an excuse, not with Real Madrid. They still have quality players even with some players out injured. Think Ronaldo isn't scoring (only 3 goals in last 8 league games; has scored in just 4 of 11 league matches) has more gotta do with Benitez not getting the best out of him than his buddies missing. That is because of Navas, who has bailed them out so many times this season. Even the lesser sides have found it easy to create chances against Benitez's Madrid. And even if Pepe, Varane etc aren't leaders, I would still expect them to take responsibility. They are far too experienced - especially Pepe - not to stand up and be counted when the going gets tough.

Is Coutinho even being rated highly around the world? Only the pundits in England seem to think he's great - when he's not - just because of those once in a blue moon wonder goals he score. Will say the same about El Shaarawy too. All the hype and expectation appear to have died down after the first few years and that's not to mention, he's now out on loan at Monaco.

Hernandez. Higuain. Who's next? There's no point in getting the best strikers out there or even those 2 names mentioned above if we can't even create goalscoring chances to begin with. Our main problem is creating goalscoring opportunities, not the strikers not scoring enough goals. You only have to look back at the first half of last season. We created chances like there's no tomorrow and Costa, Remy and others were banging in the goals for fun. But since we started creating less opportunities, the goals have also dried up.

Those reasons can only go so far when you consider this Real Madrid side is not much of a difference to the one Ancelotti managed last season. He had injury problems too but he managed the squad well and not put players in positions they aren't comfortable. Benitez isn't even getting Ronaldo to score by the way. And if Ramos isn't there to provide leadership, then someone else should. Someone should be taking the responsibility and pull the team together, not go in their shells and hide from their jobs. I agree but then this is La Liga and every points dropped is crucial. And Benitez's league record isn't great and one would find it hard to think Real can claw back that 6-point deficit if they lose to Barcelona. He could do with being less rigid and more flexible with his tactics because I don't think the players are really comfortable with them at the moment.

Typical English media, isn't it? We are trying to back the manager in a bad moment but they are trying to 'sack' him by writing rumours every single day. And if we sack him, they will then moan about us not giving managers a chance and being too trigger happy when things go wrong. His teams play decent football but cannot defend to save their lives.

That is true but their squad depth isn't exactly bad (I mean they had Varane to replace Ramos) and there is no reason for them to totally lose control of the game after Ramos went off, especially considering they were well on top for the first 30 minutes or so. Losing to Sevilla isn't such a big deal but when you fall 3 points behind Barcelona ahead of the El Clasico because of that, then it becomes something big. Lose that as well and they are practically 7 points behind them already. It also doesn't help that Madrid had already contrived to drop points against Sporting Gijon and Malaga and some of their performances have been far convincing this season.

Yikes!

No, they did not. They were just unlucky. Created so many chances but failed to put them away.

Beware Jose...

Norwich have been inconsistent this season but on a whole, they are a decent side and Alex Neil seems like someone who knows what he's doing. They'll be tough to beat. Even City struggled against them recently.

Pardew is a proper wind up merchant.

Welcome to the Premier League, Jurgen. This isn't the Bundesliga.

Real Madrid lost? Oh dear. 3 points behind Barcelona going into the El Clasico after the international break. Could be a defining game for Benitez.