Strike

would love to give it a go but i have almost no free time now

Yes. next few games absolutely crucial. can't have Arsenal breathing down our neck in April when we face the tougher games

Our remaining games - Fulham(A) , West Ham (H), Southampton (A), Sunderland (H) , Spurs (H), Liverpool (A), Swansea (H), ManU (A), Villa (A) , Everton (H) Spurs - Liverpool (A) , Fulham ( H) , Swansea , Everton(H), Chelsea (A) , ManC(H), Wigan (A), Soton(H), Stoke (A) , Sunderland (H) Arsenal - Everton Swansea (A), Reading (H), West Brom (A), Norwich (H), Fulham (A) , ManU(H), QPR(A), Wigan (H), Newcastle (A) Regardless of Arsenal's relatively easy run-in, 5 points should be a good enough advantage to defend. also Tottenham have a tough run-in and i think 3rd should be easily achievable if we can put away the mid-table teams.

oh. still within touching distance. this weekend i hope Liverpool beat Spurs

1 point behind Spurs but more importantly FIVE points ahead of Le Arse

Spurs win. 5 point gap with ten games to go will be huge. Spurs will wobble if Gareth Bale so much as skins his knee in the park. plus we have spurs at home left. but yeah, Arsenal win will definitely be the worst result from our perspective.

Not telecasted live in India or Asia for that matter. Fox/ESPN somehow think ManU vs Norwich is a bigger deal than CFC vs WBA. i can understand the other channel showing the El Clasico though

true. we should try and snap him up ASAP. like Hazard last year

agree Cahill isn't world class but don't think there's been a direct error from him. think about it. he drops deep, which i think is the sign of a defender lacking confidence, and the mistakes are usually made by defenders around him. maybe RVP and Pogrebnyak goals should have been considered as Cahill errors but the stats don't say much do they? stats showing Cahill,Evans,Mertesacker as good defenders should be ignored

the man's point i believe is not just about Torres. we are playing a system which has seen the midfield score a lot more than the strikers. even in Drogba's golden boot season in 09-10, its worth remembering that Lampard had 22 or something in the league alone.how often have we seen the striker being used as a dummy to get the midfielders behind the opposition defence? that's also a reason why Torres has failed pathetically here...well apart from the fact that he is a shit player. its not an excuse for Torres but i think it sheds light on our striker troubles here

i don't think Napoli will charge £48mil for Cavani, which is roughly Falcao's rumoured price. they are not in the best of financial shape and will cash in on Cavani just like last season when they cashed in on Lavezzi. we should be able to get him for a not-so-hefty price

Ba=StopGap at best. fully expect us to sign another forward in the summer. While everyone's having a wankfest over Falcao, i think Cavani is the better option. He's much cheaper and his centre-forward play, as we all know after last season, is going to be a gigantic improvement from you-know-who. if we can snag him for about 25-30mil Strikers:Cavani ---Ba---Lukaku. now that's a good strike force

but if he does come here, don't you think his first priority will be to sign better players in certain positions? say CDM and ST. use of our academy will be limited then. that is my only reservation with Jose. Varane is an isolated example at Madrid. more like the exception to the rule than the rule itself. we will rebuild with him but at the cost of the current youngsters and we have a good batch of them coming through - Kalas , PvA, Romeu, Chalobah, Piazon, de bruyne, lukaku. don't think Mourinho will utilise them w/o signing big players first

Double Post.

------Cech Azpi Cahill JT Cole ---Mikel Lamps Oscar Mata Hazard -----Demba Ba Bench:Trollbull, Ivanovic, Bertrand, Marin, Ramires, Moses, Fernando Mikel >Ramires atm. while JOM hasn't been great, Ramires needs to sit one out after his shocker last week.

fair enoughwe tend to underutilise our youngsters. if aforementioned players had been nurtured and given the chance, then maybe they'd have turned out good but given the climate of the club its understandable why they're not given a chance. hopefully the next manager will edit- you seem awfully confident that Luke Shaw will turn out to be a great talent. that maybe so but if we do sign Shaw i believe we'll loan him back to Saints to develop. he needs regular gametime at the too level. something neither bertrand nor pva get.that'd be good deal imo as opposed to sign him and breed him straight away

well, atleast i brought up evidence to back my opinion. well if that's your criteria. you should be pleased with yourself.

no offense mate, but seriously we could have just avoided derailing the thread if we had just left it with agree to disagree. btw, yaya toure ran 11.5 km/90 mins in CL last season - behind only Raul Meireles, Juan Mata and Michael Carrick in the PL. this year, his distance covered stats read 10.875km/game. Only few midfielders like Claudio Marchisio, Siem de Jong have better distance to game ratio than him. evidence of his work ethic right there. source: uefa.com

Is Azpilicueta back for this game?

mate, look through the posts. you've basically made 1 point - he is lazy and used Ajax, Barca etc examples to show it. you've acknowledged that he's a good footballer but you've failed to state why you think that he's not good for the pivot. i am just voicing my opinion - even about rafa. it is my opinion that we fans shouldn't boo Rafa nor insult him until he leaves the club and let him do his job. What do you mean by 'Peace clearly shown/proven you?' - what are you on about? i will defend my opinion regardless of what Peace or anyone thinks. it's not right to boo the manager even if it is Rafa Benitez. It is affecting the player's performance on the pitch. there is no right answer. if there was a right answer - what is the point of discussion boards? we are all voicing opinions here. Now, if you have anything to add about Yaya Toure, please do.

would like to see us come out of our shell and play in this game. failed to do that against city, relying on long-balls.

stay on the Yaya Toure topic if you can. what point , other than lazy and arrogant, have you made? or are trying to make?

he's not playing DM at City now. he's playing in the 'Nasri' position like Fellaini now. rodwell/Garcia/Barry/milner Are covering the pivot. leg work criticism is unfair imo given that he was in top 3-4 in covering distances (CL) back in 09. anyway lets just agree to disagree

i disagree. at ManCity they are stocked up on CDM's - Javi Garcia, Jack Rodwell, Barry etc, so he ventures forward a lot more than a regular CDM he matches Essien physically and I think he would have thrived here at CDM here. Also, like Essien, he's a big-game player. scored against Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, United, Real Madrid this season. mostly with runs from deep. also, remember his tussle with Drogba in the 09 UCL Semi? Matched Drogba to strength