Leif

Very glad Sandro is out (I had no idea). He's very tenacious and would have caused a lot of problems. Here's hoping Dembele doesn't play either.

He's Scottish. We rarely have Scottish players. I like Scottish players. Scottish players are good. Scottish players tackle very hard. Scottish players rarely possess the technique this guy has. I just read he plays for the ROI. Scotland needs a Scottish player like him. Sign him up immediately.

I certainly hope he takes Rui Faria with him wherever he goes.

Mourinho on Pepe's criticism: "His problem is simple - he has been replaced by a 19-year old (Varane)." Mourinho on Casillas: "As long as I'm Real Madrid manager, Diego Lopez will always be first & Casillas second. Simple." Mourinho on his future: "After the elimination to Dortmund I have not decided to resign. I have planned to continue." Mourinho on Iniesta saying Casillas should be first choice etc: "Iniesta can have his opinion on Casillas, but he really ought to worry about his own team and what happens when Messi isn't there." Mourinho on López: "I prefer a keeper who is good with his feet and dominates in the air. Likewise, Casillas can say he prefers Del Bosque." Mourinho to press: "I am the boss not you and my job is to decide who plays, that's what I'm hired for." Mourinho on whether he would get a big pay-off if he is sacked: "I will take my wage until my last day in the job. I don't want a euro more."

Apparently Lopez, Essien & Modric are the only Madrid players currently firmly onside with Mourinho.

If we win this game we'll make more money than any other English team made from Europe this season including the Champions League 1: Chelsea - €40.9M 2. M.United - €39.3m 3. Arsenal - €34.5M 4. M.City- €32.4m.Last season we got €59.9m for winning the Champions League, which really, isn't all that much more I believe to a club like us. Good for us

If anyone else but Jose returns (or Hiddink... I guess I'd accept him) I'll sever my balls off and post them to wherever Roman may be. The idea of Jose returning has me more excited than when we signed Torres (which looking back on makes me cringe).

Ramires was our most important player last season. Not Mata, not Drogba (who I felt offered very little in the league.)

I think because there's always been that inkling Barcelona could buy him back from us a lot of members and fans in general have made Romeu a bit of an afterthought with the assumption he'll just be gone someday so there's no real point in warming to him and making him a permanent fixture in our side. That's my impression anyway. I have to add; I do not buy this 'he's an immobile player' comment at all which I see more often these days. I feel AVB specifically restricted how much he moved when he was here. We played a 4-3-3 which means the defensive midfielder really isn't allowed to roam all that much and thus can't display much mobility. In our current 4-2-3-1 however, I feel like he'd be like a horny dog chasing the ball for every second of the game when it's called for. The enthusiasm of Ramires with the calm-headedness of Mikel (displayed best vs. Man City last season & also Newcastle United during one of their best ever seasons). Oh, and the best understanding of the game tactically that I've seen from a player his age since the likes of... well, no one comes to mind aside from Busquets actually. I don't compare the 2 because of their Barcelona roots - I compare them only because I feel they're so similar - but it's also no coincidence that they share so many traits. He has the Golden Age of Barcelona embedded in his DNA. He's not and wasn't part of the Golden Age starting 11, but he's very much come from the Golden Age of Barcelona's teaching through La Masia and so-on in my opinion. Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Pique and so on didn't have this same understanding of the game at this young age from what I gather; only the talent. All this talk of buying a new defensive midfielder like Capoue etc. goes on but I really think it's not needed. We have one of the best (potentially) young midfielders in recent memory already at the club in Oriol. Skip to around 0:40 in this video. This is exactly what so many of us want to see from our defensive midfielder - slide tackles. Perfect slide tackles, at that. Just seconds later into the video you'd be mistaken for thinking it's David Luiz with a shaved head! He drops into the centre (almost) of defence when needed (something else our current options do not do enough) and then brings the ball out from the back with possession in mind. Now simply for viewing pleasure. He was around 20 years old in these videos here. Please, find me a single 20 year old on the continent who plays this position as well as he demonstrates below. Constantly getting the ball forward, winning the ball back, and feeling happy to receive the ball.

... This made sense before we had Mata. He tracks back lots but I couldn't see him being a winger for us due to his lack of pace & stamina which seems to have gone down since moving to Madrid for some reason, so unless he's an incredible luxury option for when we rest Mata, I don't understand this.

1 possible blessing in disguise from this injury - less chance of Barcelona using the buy-back clause which I believe will expire after next season(?).

Instead of splashing out absolute tens of millions on a striker, can't we just try snapping up Klose or Di Natale? They play like they're both 28.

If we discount personality traits, I feel like he's the closest player to Drogba I've ever seen. Obviously we don't want to always 'live in the past', but I feel like we're in need of a Complete Striker - which Cavani clearly is and Drogba clearly was for us. Cavani often has lengthy periods of being hot and cold though. Obviously it will be debated, but I genuinely believe that during his 'hot' periods, he's better than every forward in the world apart from Messi. He brings so much to the team including finishing better than most strikers on the planet. I'd pay Falcao-figures for Cavani - but not those Falcao-figures for Falcao.

HE WAS REALLY IN IKEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS CLEARLY THE BACK OF HIS HEAD! :blue scalf: :blue scalf: :blue scalf: :blue scalf:

I absolutely love it when news comes out that he's been in Ikea or gone out and bought some milk It gets me so excited.

Can I get my name changed to JuansBeard+? It just sounds sexy A.F. (Yes i'm being serious)

I WAS CONFUSED GUYS OK. I FORGOT THAT THE FACT WE SCORED, REGARDLESS IF ITS AN OWN-GOAL OR NOT, IT ADDS POSITIVELY TO OUR GD FFS

In theory, giving Mata an assist instead of a goal could, although very unlikely, make us miss out on the top 4 due to GD and that annoys me.

I'd rather Arsenal in the CL than Tottenham so hopefully that happens. 1: If Tottenham miss out on the CL, there's a higher chance of bye-bye Bale and Tottenham reverting to their former mid-table status. 2: It would just be incredibly funny to make them miss out on the CL yet again

He wasn't laying on the ground. He was brought to the ground by Rafael's foul. He couldn't fight gravity like Superman and stay up. So it was Rafael's doing which had Luiz on the ground. He probably experienced some pain so obviously grabbed his ankle as any normal human being would do, especially when it's the body part you've made your career out of. Smiling is a fine expression and should be applauded. If he knows that the opposition's player has just committed a red-card worthy foul and is about to get sent off, there's nothing wrong with expressing some sort of relief or joy, especially when you're minutes away from a huge win. I also didn't say doing whatever he's 'done' gets you a good rep. I simply said what other players do gets them a bad rep. Luiz didn't do the 'opposite' of other players; he simply did something different. Therefore it's not automatically 'good' just because what others do is 'bad'. It's just neutral depending on what you like/don't like to see in football.

Isn't this the first PL home game for Manchester United in many, many years where they've failed to score at home? Or was that record broken already and I missed it?

It's not quite as black and white as that. You know fine well that there's an always ongoing discussion in the Mikel thread. You also know there's people on here who always preach that he 'helps the defence' and 'does his role well'. Well I'm just reminding everyone that since he's been dropped, injured, whatever - Since he's been out of the team, we've gone on a consistent run of beating teams. We're consistently average with him playing. We're consistently above-average when he's where he belongs.

Rafael fouled Luiz. He got the red card he deserved for what he did. You don't give out red cards based on how much pain, if any, the other player is in; which is why so many red cards are given for small things like pulling the opposition's clothing or giving them a slight nudge when you're the last defender. You give/get a red card simply down to what was committed or intended by a player. People say it was unsporting of Luiz to smile - so should he have faked serious pain, put on a crying face and lied to us all? No. He wasn't in pain (from what we can see) and thus didn't express any fake pain like so many players would have done which gets them a bad reputation.

That we've gone on a run of games where we've won when Mikel hasn't played, where-as when he had lengthy periods of starting in the team we were dropping lots of points. Point made.