dumps

I think by the sale of Raul and the loan out of Essien, RDM is putting faith in Oriol. Or atleast giving him this season to prove himself because he will get game time in that double pivot at some point this season. EDIT: rumours from the Bolton forums and websites claiming they think Bolton are close to signing Oriol on loan.... And Yahoo reporting Valnecia are interested in him.

pretty sure he is a defensive midfielder. recently at everton though they have been pushing him up the pitch, so hes got a few goals. but his main poistion is just infront of the defence, and he plays it well. would be a great signing for us. and just read somewhere that he has said this will be his last season with everton...

This. Lamps is world class. his fitness is on the decline and that effects everything from effort to technique. he is still a great presence and a game changer, but his time on the pitch may and should be slowly reduced.

anyone know what formation was played last night for Belgium? am I right in thinking it was a 4-4-2??? so Hazard had some defensive duties? if so anyone got any insight on those defensive duties? if this is true then it may explain his average game as he wasnt so far up the pitch all the time....

Saying who would care about education if you were given a free ride through your sporting talents is hardly fair. people still have to atleast pass their studies. even if thats all they do, you could argue that their sport is their education as it will be their career so its improtant for them to focus on that more. and also at university in England, you get scholarships and accepted in to uni if you are really good at sport and not that academic, but if you dont pass your courses you are out. i went to uni with a guy who was really good at Judo, and he got his tuition free (which i was paying thousands of pounds for) and he failed his first year. never saw him again because he was kicked out. earlier someone was talking about NFL players being arrogant with their celebrations and stuff. i honestly believe, without stereotyping, its down to 2 things: 1. American people are very eccentric. whenever i've been there the people are very open and friendly and not afraid to talk. and 2. i think its a state of mind. NFL players need the agression, and the power. those sprints and tackles really get the testotsterone going and that mix makes that feeling of a touchdown more than just some points hence the WOOO's. Everyone sportsman needs that arrogance. the systems arent really all that different when you look at it. youth acadamies sign up the best youth from all around europe. colleges recruit all the best youth they can from around the states. both still have to go through education by law. I just think in Europe, not as many people are involved, in the USA its on a huge stage so the atmosphere can really help development. and the European possibly have better methods of training as they arent based entirely on trying to generate revenue for every game. they both have their pros and cons. but in terms of football (soccer), you've got to say Europe have taken the lead in terms of the quality produced over the USA...

can't wait for this game. Can't remember the last time I was excited about a season. Normally im satisfied watching the International games during these breaks, but I just can't wait to see the Blues out there again! This shouldn't be a diffcult game. QPR have a half decent squad on paper, but with so many new players and a really bad manager they will be nowhere near their full potential. having said that, the majority of them have just had a good 2 weeks to train with each other, but I think we should be seeing this as a easy win and anything less than a win by 2 goals should be seen as a failure (unless its a really good performance with a bit of hard luck). Mata is going to be nice and fresh. anyone know if he will play? I know he's had a 2 week rest, I dont know if rest meant he got to go home for 2 weeks (in which case id imagine he would be likely to miss the game and get some trianing under his belt before a game) or it was a rest as in missing a few training sessions which means he will probably feature. but i would like to see Oscar start this game. and Cesar. Another player i'd like to see start who will most likely NOT start... Sturridge. he ripped QPR a new one last season! I've read a few people saying Marin will be fit. I am very keen to see how he does in the league so would love to see him as a sub in the game if he is fit. roll on Saturday!!!!

i know very little about the system. but i do like it. and it increases the chances of real talent to develop. unfortunately i think its down to the British governement... im guessing setting up such sporting stages and leagues costs a lot of money, and even though we do have private schools, they probably do not have the money for it and are sparse in numbers. - just a guess. having said that, i would expect the USA to be one of the greatest soccer teams in the world due to their population and college drafting... so maybe it isnt all that good it does confuse me though. like in NFL when all the college guys get drafted in to teams. i dont understand how that all works. everythign i said may be soooo wrong. its all guess work if im honest!

This is a bit harsh. none of us know the ins and outs, but I dont understand why not just keep him as a back up player instead of banish him from the senior squad because he wouldnt leave. Chelsea gave him the contract with the wages and the length, he is in his right to refuse a move away, so if he refuses, we shouldnt banish him. at least just say "look, Flo, you know you aren't needed, we will be using you for back up because to be honest, you've lost it, pal. I haven't seen you do ANYTHING for a good season now, so just lay low, play a few league cup games, and enjoy the rest of your life." and them keep him fit so if we need him he isn't useless. just doesn't seem a very professional way to approach things. Sure, if Malouda had walked in to RDM's office and smashed him round the face with his gear, sure, go train with the under 21's. but if hes just riding out a contract they gave him... no need for it. im sure this will upset a few players as well. this wouldnt go on in FM without a couple of players wanting to chat because they are upset with the way the manger treated the player

surely thats it then because I find it hard to believe he was left out just because he wasn't needed, as mentioned before, he would be useful to cover any injuries... I wouldn't be suprised if by the time i got back from work tonight I see Malouda has gone to Lyon.

I agree. unless this means we might sell him to a place where the transfer windows are still open (though im sure the majority of them are shut now?). maybe to be sold in January? but dont you have to re register a champions league squad after january? so he cuuld have been included... strannngggeeeee.

No I don;t think we'll miss him because he never really looked good in that DM position. I understand liverpool played him as a DM, then pushed him to AMC. we seemed to play him in either DM or AMC and he never really consistently looked comfortable in them. im not even sure HE knew his best position! so technically we just lose another player competing for that double pivot role that isnt entirely comfortable with it like everyone else competing for it. he was too in consistent. as is lampard these days. More faith in Oriol would be nice. in all the games i saw him in he was pretty strong there. had the odd bad game, but doesnt everyone? If the 4-2-3-1 is going to be continued to play, Mikel and Oriol should be the 1st choice. theres a lot of talk of us now changing to a 4-3-3 which i personally feel could be our strongest formation in terms of attacking. Moses would love it. Sturridge would be affective, even if he doesnt love it. Mata/Marin/Hazard can also play wings. the only problem with the 4-3-3 there is no definite AMC role which is arguebly the best role for Mata, Hazard and Oscar... ooooh its a tough one, Im pretty sure RDM will do the right thing though. I hope. another thing, David Luiz. We have all thought about luiz playing as DM, and in all our minds we all think it would be a good move, but AVB and RDM have both not tried it, and they MUST have thought about it and they both haven't tried it, so there must be a good reason for it. but id imagine if we were desperate, that would be tried out.

is this true? im suprised nobody snapped up Drenthe. i'd have thought Everton would have taken Drenthe on straight away. he was fairly decent for them whilst on loan there. to stay on topic: i agree that we may have a smallish squad, but in terms of players who want to play every game, its quite a large squad. I don't think we should be afraid of lacking depth in terms of quality. also, we have some pretty good youngsters we could call upon, and if we needed im sure we could call on Sam, Essien and Josh to come back if needed. I'm happy with the squad size and depth and unless we have terrible luck with injuries, we should be more than fine.

The more I think about it, the more I believe this is a good move. Hopefully ramires will drop back and provide some decent passes. Marin will be back from injury and surely he'd play on the right. Mikel and ramires/romeu/lampard seems suffice. And if injuries come in I'm sure Oscar would be able to play that sitting roll, just not the defensive part....

I agree, last season he was good. he wasn't incredible, and showed clear signs that he was declining as a player (could have much to do with the tactics of AVB as well). and this season, I wouldn't say hes been that good. against Reading and Wigan, i would personally say he played as i described... i feel that when hes in the team he doesn't do much with the ball and his off the ball play just doesnt work with our current team. he does moce in space to help a player move the ball away, but this is normally a pass backwards rather than forward, and his passes are not looking good. I feel with another player sat with Mikel we would be better off. Raul did alright in that position against Newcastle. i would like to see Ramires there, with some time nad trianing, i think Oscar could be affective there. Romeu is another option as well. Likely his fitness is letting him down a bit as well, which is possibly why we see him fouling more often, simply because he cnat keep up so just takes players down, thats just an guess though. The experience nad presence of lampard is priceless though, which is why im saying there is a time and place for him at the moment, whether its a sub appearance or just playing for 60minutes. and ya, i think he should start he odd game and be more of a sub at the moment.

Don't be a piece. yes, i didn't watch it and it is bad of me to go by what others are saying but from what i read, it seems as if he played just as he has recently: not really in the game, shootings not what it was, passing is average (I haven't seen him play a successful killer ball from recently) and i've noticed he may be getting frustrated as he seems to be commiting many more irrational challenges leading to yellow cards. i wasn't saying lampard shouldn't play anymore, i was just stating RDM shouldn't be seeing him as a key player anymore. and not once did i say it was lampards fault we lost. i was just picking up on it as i think it is a change that would improve the team greatly (look at the last game vs Newcastle...) just chill out bro, just putting forward a suggestion i think would make our team better off instead of just salgging everyone off and moaning, you could have atleast responded with an arguement stating why you disagree with me...

I haven't seen the game as I was working, and i WAS going to ask for a highlight video, but dont worry... As much as i love Frank, this surely tells RDM that he should now rarely be played. maybe come on as a sub every other game and start against some of the lower tempo type teams. I Also hope this gives RDM a bit of a shake up that he needs to rotate a bit. its clear that he's decided on 1 formation and 1 starting 11 that he wants to play as much as he can. with the likes of Sturridge and Moses, he should be experimenting with some wide wingers - it wouldn't be a drastic change in terms of structure, but the way those players play will give us width and pace and completely change the style of the team. To be fair, Madrid had come off a 4-0 win before this game, and have looked good so far this season so it wasnt a suprise they were going to come out fast. and Falcao has been in great form and again, RDM should have prepared for this a bit better and not just stuck with his formula... he shouldn't be afraid to change things up to exploit the opposition. it would have been nice to win, but it's jsut a bad day on a day we could have won something. im not taking it too seriously and I just hope it was a 1 off. would have been good to read a story involving Roman storming in to Madrids dressing room at FT with a brief case with £70 million in cash in and just pointing at Falcao!

Didn't feature tonight which hints for a start against everton! I look forward to it. he deserves to start and get atleast 60mins on the pitch and everton are looking good so will be a test for him. Can't wait till next season when he links up with the likes of hazard.

most likely will be the same line up from the Newcastle game. I would like to see a Sturridge Torres Moses attacking line up in the near future. with Hazard behind torres. give mata a rest. that'll be a really nice wide attacking line up. but i doubt it'll happen this friday. Would be nice to win. and going by FM, its a nice little finacial reward as well

The main thing that caught my attention was our DM. when i heard Raul M was starting i was anxious to what hte results was going to be. he wasn't all that good towards the end of last season and he has been awful in pre season. but with Mikel in a deep lying role, he was sensational. His passing was great. there was some great long balls that lead to chances. I was impressed. and it worked. thats a good combination for bigger games where we need to have those 2 in front of the defenders because lampard just runs off up the pitch leaving Mikel alone. I can see Mata sitting getting his rest once Marin is injury free. which will give us a chance to see how he does on the pitch with Hazard. Hazard was incredible. such a joy to watch, and it cna only get better! he's still got lots to learn, it really is a bargain buy. Torres looked great once heh ad htat confidence and its great to see him getting some supply. Genuinely excited for this season, i think we could do well in all competitions this year. we've got a lot of depth now as well. looks like Sturridge is going to be off though. if he doesnt get sold in the window, i dont see him wanting to renew his contract. which is a huge shame. would have been nice to see Sturridge and Oscar playing. We have too many good attacking midfield players!? who'd have thought!? good game. good win. Geat start!

im annoyed at his apparert warning for using twitter. i can understand why players are fined and warned when just abusing others and making their clubs look bad. But Luiz did nothing wrong. so what we found out he wasn't playing in wednesdays game. I love following Luiz on twitter. hes a great personality and theres no harm in him sharing his injuries...

Might need a nickname... Azpi?

great signing! I haven't seen him play, but understand hes decent and only going to get better. great long term buy for RB. im really happy with our moves this transfer window (maybe not Moses, time will tell). now all we need is Cavani and/or Hulk for a dreamy transfer window! and to sell RM!

everyone seems to think the same thing and normally that means we are right! i dont know why hes not playing. he looks really good. even if it is on the wing. the only problem with playing sturridge on the wing means not having hazard/mata/Ramires?/Marin? on the pitch. Mata does need a rest, so i see it as a great time to give him some game time so he can prove he deserves more football. I would love to see him get some time in Torres' position, i've not seen him play as a striker recently. if he goes on a free at the end of the season i will not be happy! hopefully RDM reads this forum and gives him soem time!

If we sign him, i think i will need some convincing that he will be worth the 9million... i just feel itll be a waste of money and a waste of a player. he is decent, and can be good, but i dont think he'll be as good as our current players. i don't think he'll ever play. hes just going to one of those players you sign on FM for cover. but we dont need cover in those areas?! the only positive i can see, is a killer 4-3-3 formation. Moses Torres and Sturridge. that would be a pacey dangerous attacking line. so it would give us that option - but then this would leave no palce for the likes of mata, oscar, hazard, Marin and bertrand (sometimes) unless they play a deeper lying position, i haven't seem him play as a main striker, but if he's decent then ya, thats good cover for that position. i do fear he'll be a waste of money, hopefully im proved wrong, but he will have to win me over! ( ANYONE SEE THAT!!!!? -barca just scored a great goal. Xavi set up by iniesta,) i wont be putting him in my fantasy team though.

Sturridge anyone? he looked great when he came on and really changed the game ujp. although i rmember there being one point when he decided to shoot instead of go for an easy lay off for lampard to shoot. but sturrdige really added width and was dangerous. Hazard was just as good as sunday. if not a bit better! smashing up the prem league which is huge news for my fantasy team! 101 points Reading did look decent but their 2nd goal was gifted to them. their first goal was good and they closed down very well against the slower players and it worked for them, they just couldnt keep it up. experience will always win that one! CFC!!!!