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agreed. alonso is a good technical player - nice find by the board

heh ^^ disagree on Pedro... still have to show his face in away matches and/or tough matches. dropping our best player, Costa, at this time can only be because he's being sold or is sold already. When you drop a player because of bad attitude, or other disciplinary reasons, only the club suffers. Get the player in different ways: schedule training at an earlier time (just for strikers) and if he's late, get him where it hurts... money. That's the best way to handle players.

Interesting comments on this thread: Fabregas in for better passing when Matic provided a wonderful assist to hazard all alone to botch it. Not a word about Hazard who has been a huge disappointment in the first half. I hope he wakes the fuck up and start taking on players. Both Matic and Kante played well enough - it's a tough game against competent midfielders in their domain. We just need to do better when in possession and put it back in the net - we won't get many opportunities to do so.

Reckon Bats has Not been impressing conte in training. That's the only explanation for this kind of treatment. He has also not been impressing anyone in the few minutes he's got, so he should be working hard in practice to get more minutes - perhaps he's been lazy? gotta assume the guys who watch him daily see something, that I, who barely seen him play, don't.

not for this amount of money. 60m and 3rd highest wages in the world for the terrible player people here claim he is - sounds like a done deal. Although I do think he is a good player, he has indeed stagnated and has not been developing the way I (and I assume the club) expected. So, if the numbers are correct, he needs to go... good for the club and excellent for him. Concerning replacements, we do not need a world class replacement, after all Oscar was a "terrible player," so anyone would do. Just don't go for big names, and grab a promising player at a fair price. Regardless of Oscar's failure to deliver, the idea - of investing in promising young players - is sound as there is really no other alternative. Once a player is considered world class, he immediately becomes extremely hard to sign, not to mention expensive.

could be taxes - higher taxes in frace.

playing at his normal... not doing anything special, given his ability and technique. That amazing goal (against city) showcased his overall superior technique and ball control; how long did it take for him to control the football at full sprint? how far was the football from him while he sprinted towards city goal? Did he show too much of the football at any time during that run?

I'm trying to think of a defender, now or before, as technical (or more) than Luiz is. I mean, not discussing other attributes, just his incredible technique which I find extremely odd for a CB.

heh think he's a pretty good player actually at about the same level of Moses. Alonso is very technical while moses relies more on his physicality (pace and power). Very good setup for a team if you have both...

Costa for me. They just couldn't handle costa runs at all pedro had ups and downs while hazard was mostly subdued. Liked both matic and kante who kept us together when our wingers went missing in first half.

Yes! Very different type of player... far more attacking minded than either William or Oscar. Though Oscar has changed and regressed so much that I am not even sure about his characteristics any more: he needs to rediscover it possibly away from chelsea. Luan is an attacking player, the so called false 9 who likes and thrives roaming around the pitch. No he's not a top 5 player like Neymar is, but he's got some very interesting qualities that could make him become an important player for us: he's nimble, mobile and yet not that easy to take down; he's got a very nice first touch and tight control of the football along with pretty good dribbling skills, which makes him an excellent possession type of player; on top of that he scores plenty of goals esp for someone who has to roam around so much also performing defensive duties. It's all a matter of price, but he's a very interesting promising player and certainly worthy of a move. Not sure which one I'd go for though: gremio has another player, a very technical holding mid whom we spoke of during the olympics (Wallace). Get both! Even though I am a Gremio supporter, I've not been following the brasileiro much. Watched them at the olympics and libertadores though.

quite on the contrary: as a person I've heard really great things of him during the olympics... a class act. Still it has nothing to do with football, agents, or PR. There is nothing irrational about my dislike of him as a player: I have very clear in my mind the things he doesn't do and I wish he did (quite a few).

Perhaps but in my view I am the non-believer and others are the ones speculating - believing words at face value when a lot if at stake. Does he employ an agent? Isn't part of his agent's job help with what he say or not to the press? Is this speculation or I am basing my opinion on something I know agents are involved in? Does he run everything he says by the club also? I don't know but he might. Wouldn't surprise me. Have you ever refrained yourself from saying something about your employer or employer's customer, just because it wasn't proper even if true? Happens all the fucking time. @CHOULO19 are you kidding me?! his agent won't ever stop chatting with the press.

No, he couldn't and he wouldn't and that was exactly my point before: this is just PR

Yeah my original point wasn't even so much about greed, but merely how lack of ambition is not healthy in the extremely competitive business of professional football and at the highest level at that. Concerning my aggressiveness, perhaps I've been able to "keep some of that aggression in my late life" - ironic.

you see you are linking being greedy with being bad or unprofessional and I think it could be exactly the other way around. He may be a good person, help others (I also think he does), and in order to do that (having that in the back of his mind) he chooses money over playing time. (not going into the technical aspects as we've been there before a few thousand times :))

fair enough no the other top teams are not exclusively comprised of demanding superstars, neither do they have any player as passive and comfortable as mikel. That's where we mostly disagree: I think mikel is very greedy. I think he only cares about money and that's the only reason he's stayed. Now if you believe player love clubs, I'm not going to stop you. I do not base my judgment on what they say whatsoever. Most of it is very well thought out, often with the blessing of the club and most certainly input from their agent. What is he supposed to say? I wish I could play more, but no other club will give me 75K a week, so I rather sit on the bench or not even that, than play in a smaller club for far lower wages - have you seriously ever heard a player say anything like this?

yeah I got that and disagree. So, even if you say that being nice, say Kante seems nice, and professional does not equate to aggression and competitiveness, can you imagine Kante displaying the same willingness to stay at the club - were he in the same situation as Mikel is or has been? Or JT a few years ago when he was still a top player. These top player are VERY competitive - they will not settle for anything less than an important role. BTW, I'm fairly certain Mikel has been told to leave and I am not sure he will (before his contract runs out).

well it's a matter of opinion, but you said "his attitude has always been top notch" and then at the same time you say that he is nice and mellow, but wish he weren't (had retained some of the lost aggression). Well, for me, the way for him to be better player would be to change his attitude. So, all this praising his attitude for not being competitive and collecting his fat paycheck at the end of the month is just crazy talk. (btw I do not think the attitude is the sole problem here - just don't agree with praising a non competitive attitude in a very competitive profession)

'yes we will take Luiz back for about the same absurd money if ,and only if, you will listen to our offer for verrati in Jan....' one can hope

never did, but like his attitude and the fact he *has been* proving me wrong makes this all the sweeter.

interesting... IMO you contradicted yourself in the post above. I have a hard time imagining any (like you call) 'major player' having mikel's attitude towards playing time and role: being a nice mellow guy who's not competitive (even within the squad) automatically makes him not good enough for a top club. Football is nothing but competition: you compete to get playing time; for better agent and contract; you compete for possession; you compete for yards (with and without possession), and once your are big enough you compete for media attention too. In terms of attitude alone, and keeping within Nigeria NT, I respect Moses' attitude a lot more than Mikel's. Moses does his thing quiet and keeps on improving. Has obviously been hitting the gym and bulking up. He's now back as a starter at the right time in his career and I sure respect that. Note that not respecting the player has nothing to do with respecting the human being. I've actually found that most of the absolute top players are rarely nice guys or even respectful human beings - they are just that good at kicking a fucking ball and that's pretty much all there is to it.

heh I realized that on the train, but sarcasm rarely comes through in this media. Still, then I would just:s/Disagree/Agree (for vi nerds only)

Disagree a good defense closing in quickly, blocking shots or angles, and keeping attackers off balance will always improve the 'luck' of the gk. did not have a prob with his perfs before and think he's been playing at a good level all along. The team overall is improving which improves individual perfs too. he's a great young gk and we are lucky to have him.

big fellas like him need to be fit otherwise they will lose mobility. Looks a hell lot fitter this season, as does other players as well. Makes me wonder what the fuck did they do last season, or rather not do.