Magic Lamps

azpi is not that technically apt for a Spaniard...maybe we should buy carvajal

what has happened to our players now? well it was easier to score that one demba

what shit is demba ba capable of?

and wo shall be in midfield now? Oscar?

Has Mata ever performed against some decent defenders? Against Bayern, Juve, City, Barca , Atletico he has been shit all game.

this is not even a contest. Simply not good enough from everyone. Against a top defence like City's Hazard, Mata, oscar, Ramires, Ba are simply not good enough as attacking options.

Iva simply lost agüero and the finish was easy for him. Now we are gonna get thrashed, they will counter us to death

not

thats it

lol.lucky not to be 2 or 3 down. This is waaay to open. We do not look like scoring at all. They always get 9 players behind the ball every time, cos we lack any kind of pace to break them down. They can simply populate the penalty area cos they know there is no danger from Ramries or mikel with shots.

Our probllem is we have one player less in the middle. this would be no problem if Mata could defend. Real madrid and BAyern play the only working 4-2-3-1 of all tpclubs. They got either of modric, özil, müller or kroos as no.10. all of them defend waaaaaaaaaaay better than mata

No we can't win this. I hoped we could, but they are far too big, strong and past for our midget team. We are so vulnerable through the middle with only mikel and ramires there.

more worried over the LB spot

exactly

A midfield of ake, Rami and Mikel would get hammered. It offers no creativity and no linkup. The attackers would either hang in the air or would have to drop back leaving no one up front. Lamps is a brilliant passer, finisher and experienced leader, ake is nothing of that. I doubt Ake is even better at defending and intercepting than Lamps. You base that on a game against a clueless Kazan side, where Lamps played CAM. I bet if he had played DM he would have made at least as many interceptions and tackles as Ake. If we stick with 4-2-3-1 i would also not play Lamps, but there is no way ake would play for me in that game no matter what formation

Mata is useless most of the game against City, no matter what position he plays. The good thing about him is even, in a game where he is subdued he only needs one brilliant pass to change the game. Ake is about the same size as Oscar and will do fuck all against Yaya. Lamps still is good enough for us in a 4-3-3 where he can play his best position. Ake is a CB. Surely Lamps is better than ake in general Of course he is better than ake in CM. Lamps is much better suited to that tole. Lamps performance against Kazan was also better than Akes. I did not see Ake intercepting or tackling that well, acutallay, Akes performance was average at best. Lamps is better technical, the better passer and finisher. A midfield of Mikel, Ramires, Ake would have no creativity at alll. Lamps's long balls will be instrumental in such a game. I know Lamps is aging, should not play every game, esp not every big game but there is no way, s.o. like Ake with less than 10 professional games should start this knd of game

Do you really prefer Ake over Lampard in a game againt ManCity? Your hatred for Lampard really must be deeply personal.

The game is won in the middle of the pitch. Games against City always are. Ramires and Mikel are not enough against 4 city mids, we need three men there hence 4-3-3 and Lamps is still the man for a that.

the others are nobrainers, but these two are the interesting ones. I'd say it is to early to say goodbye to Ivan, he is probably our most solid CB right now. JT's decline has come so early and rapidly, it would be an extreme blow for us to lose both of them within a year and would pressurize us to replace them both. We also would be short of cover in the RB spot. It is right he has cost us this sseason on multiple occasions, esp in big games, but we still need him. We are unlikely to sell Cole, he has just renewed his contract. Also highly improbable is a substantial offer. This guy is 31 and has one year contract. If he goes in summer it'll be 8m or so. He has almost no market value. I also see Luke shaw coming in but only as early as next season, so why not keep both with Ryan Bertrand being backup for Cole and afterwards Shaw? Also there is Patrick van Aanholt... All in all, shedding out 6 first team players out of our anyway paperthin squad requires buys. We cannot simply make up for it with recalling our Youth players as back ups. they will only develop when they get playing time regularly, that is why we need, older, more experienced back-ups who do not rely on that too much, which we will have to buy.

But there is a minimum of strength required when u want to rob s.o. like Yaya Toure. Height is secondary. Oscar looks like 60kg and he is an outstanding weakling. There is no way he can be defensively efficient against Barry, Rodwell or Toure

Robbie might never have been the best coach, but he was supported avidly by the players and the fans. He had deserved his chance to take over here and it was right to hand him a contact. We were not oving less forward then under Benitez. We recorded an impressive win at White Hart Line and completely dominated utd until the ref killed us. Rafa has done as many things wrong as di Matteo, he also lost against ManCity, against small teams like Southampton and most importantly he lost us at least two cups, too. When Robbie left we were still in touch with utd, now we are 15 points behind them. We will most certainly go out of the FA Cup tomorrow two, EL and top4 are in the balance. So at best, Rafa can achieve a solid minimum. Under Robbie we always could do sth special.

so why Oscar then? In order to win the midfield battle we have to be up to it physically and playing midgets in midfield won't help that cause. Lamps at least has enough strength to hold up Barry or Yaya not to get robbed every time. Our maestros esp Mata and Oscar are so fuckin useless against City. we need strength, pace and simple, direct play. Lamps's long balls, Ba's holdup, Ramires stamina&pace and maybe Hazards trickery will do

We lost the midfield battle cos we only have 2cms on the field against City's 4 (Nasri and Milner are mids no wingers). City is one of the teams we should line up with a 3 man midfield. ---------------Cech Cesar---Luiz----iva----anyone whos fit -------------Mikel-------------- -------Ramy-----Lamps----- Mata-------------------Hazard- ------------Ba/nando---------- big worry is also who plays left back. Paulo will have problems, even with Milner.

what is with Todd Kane btw.? His loan spell at Bburn has not been that successful with his contract with us running out in summer.

I do not despise it, but IMO it is much worse than most people, esp Germans think and this season's success of Dortmund and Bayern has only been a fluke. But that has nothing to do with my opinion on Sebastian Jung. He is an ok, young fullback, but there some better, cheaper and option for that position, also in the Bundesliga. He is defo no Chelsea material.