Strike

yeah. height maybe a part of the game but the way it's been used around here, we should go out and sign Carroll, Crouch and Pogrebnyak as our front three

we may have "MAZACAR" (not really comfortable with that name) but they have a much more direct Wayne-Persie who can finish half-chances. this is a weird game as over the years, both teams have come in with a slightly defensive formation and kept things tight waiting to nick the odd goal but this time both teams have a struggling defence. that's why rooney and van persie scare me. they are gonna get spaces by pushing wide and once they put away a chance, it'll be hard for us to get back

yeah. unbelievable but its listed 6'2'' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Sturridge http://soccernet.espn.go.com/player/_/id/85291/daniel-sturridge?cc=4716 http://www.goal.com/en/people/england/15696/daniel-sturridge

not sure i agree. Cahill is definitely not average. in fact among Cahill, Terry and Luiz i would say Cahill is the better defender, Luiz makes a ton of mistakes. forget the tottenham game, that was an excusable situation - he got blindsided by lennon's cross/shot but luiz hasn't been great so far this season. gervinho equaliser? maybe it was both terry and luiz but lunge on Walters, playing his way out of trouble and losing the ball against Newcastle. He always has this tendency to commit fouls. Admittedly he has matured and become much better now because in his first season at the club he gave away a fair few cheap penalties but still he's not great yet. Terry - where do i even begin. he has been shockingly bad this season. gervinho equaliser - he was way too deep then and even in the Norwich game for the Holt equaliser. terible against Shakhtar, Juve. He has had his troubles with quick little forwards but he was very good against physical forwards up until last season but Struggled against Holt physically earlier this year. among the 3, cahill is the more reliable centre-back. he is not a beast but he is certainly not average. keeps line and rarely loses his head. i can only remember the pogrebnyak header where he lost his man but that was so far out and it was a brilliant header by that giant.

Read above, mate. i didn't say that defending is 11 men behind the ball and you are actually making the same point i made in a previous post. tomorrow is not the day to start sturridge in attack

not this game. i said he deserves a stint up front. this game may not be the right game to start it. maybe bring him on in the second half.

defending setpieces is one thing and heading is another. his headers against wolves norwich leicester city etc were free headers. he's not like drogba. how many times did we see cech lump the ball up earlier this season only to see torres lose the aerial challenge. that's why cech is taking short goal-kicks now. against reading especially, it was unbelievable that we kept losing the ball as soon as cech dumped it long and defending setpieces is not even a remotely viable excuse to support torres

sturridge actually deserves a stint in the centre-forward role. torres has been average at best so far. he has had a lot of chances and has simply refused to pull the trigger at times. that shows his confidence. i don't know what you are onto when you say extra height because torres is not exactly a great header of the ball and as for defensive responsibilities? do u think we will play 11 men behind the ball again?

but in contrast to previous seasons, united are playing much narrower this time around. the crosses coming in are mostly from the full- backs or when van persie or rooney drift wide into the channels. ferguson has hardly played wingers. he is using welbeck rooney rvp kagawa carrick and cleverly in attack. only valencia is true out and out winger. we might have a chance to win the midfield battle and put united to the sword on sunday. their defence has been paper thin without vidic jones and smalling. evra and rio are absolute jokes. the only worry is that if rooney or van persie get the kind of space spurs got last week, they will bury us. van persie in particular has the ability to finish even half-chances. so, if cahill and luiz can keep them quiet, we will win this sunday, easy

we knew going into the season with hazard mata and oscar that the defensive onus will be on the 6 guys behind them. so far i think we've handled it brilliantly. it's not wise to read too much into the tottenham game because their play is based on spreading the ball wide. what happens then is that with mikel and ramires being stuck in the middle, they have space on the wings. they can dump crosses in. we saw that in the Arsenal game as well ....lots of crosses from jenkinson, chamberlain gibbs etc. now if we give added defensive responsibilities to the 3 amigos, we will be pinned back and will be chasing the ball around like last season this system is fine. our passing is getting better and we will only improve.. results like shakhtar and atletico are just minor hiccups.

is this for real? or just the usual bogus? CFC groups on twitter and facebook are spreading it around saying it's "official"

what a pointless poll. anyway, the CWC would give us the tag of "World Champions". That opportunity doesn't come by often

yeah. the hazard incidents are different. his close control is too good. the refs just don't see that. maybe the rreputation we are building for diving is hurting us. last week suarez was taken for a spin by a norwich defender and he didn't get a penalty. classic case of the shepherd crying wolf. we are not as bad as suarez but still ivanovic and luiz made some pretty horrendous dives this year

Well that is just ridiculous but tbf our players dive more than other teams around except maybe liverpool.. ivanovic, luiz, torres have embarassed the club already this year

now a 1-0 win over Shakhtar in 2 weeks will do us just fine. we will top the group and i think juve will do a good job on shakhtar on the last day.

nah. you don't know the situation. it wasn't aired live here so i was watching the repeat at 4 in the morning. at HT i just checked the result and got over it

what a drab match. i stopped watching at HT

probably didn't need to play the wildcard in the end. although, my team ran on Rooney's 14 points

couldn't catch the game

Bale out :lol2:

yep. my confidence just shot up.. i think we'll win comfortably now

what a start to the weekend! thank you Mrs Bale!

yeah, he has that in his locker. He is a good long range passer.

ashley cole has a variety of crosses up his sleeve. plus he shapes his crosses in which is always dangerous. remember arsenal away 2 years ago? 2 goals from low ash cole crosses. last season, i remember sturridge's equaliser at white hart lane crossed by cole and lampard's winner against wolves, crossed by cole. cole is much more intelligent in comparison to ivanovic and that's why he is such an effective crosser. he looks for the cutback as well unlike ivan. this year he hasnt played a lot of crosses though. but he did play 2 beautiful crosses in the game against QPR.

overlooking your outburst, all you are doing is accusing me of assumptions when you are blatantly making assumptions about me making assumpions. let me break it down. firstly i didn't say he lunges in all the time.i said you won't see Cahill doing that. i didn't say that because he dribbled his way out of trouble he won't be taken seriously. those are 2 different points. the only point you made is passion. personality, commitment, ability to inspire are just other phrases you've used and you are overlooking the obvious points here. you can't deny david luiz is goofy. he has admitted it himself. he is not taken seriously simply because he is the joker in the squad. he is a hot head. there are enough examples to say he is a hot head, challenge from the back on rooney at the bridge, clumsy penalties given away to Fulham, QPR, shirt pull as last man on Ba away at Newcastle last season - early in the game and oh yeah, jon walters this year. but he is getting better, admittedly also, on the field of play passion could turn into a negative point. he is often carried away by the situation and gets in the face of the opponents. (against newcastle last season)hardly ideal for a captain. he has to communicate and calm down his team-mates, a job which cahill is more suited to due to his professional nature. also, have you seen luiz interviews? not a captain in the making. Passion is the ONLY plus point to luiz becoming captain. so if u have any other point to add to that, please do.