dee25

Was initially onboard with this, but the more it seems like it might actually happen the more choked up I feel. I don't want to see Mata in a Utd shirt. I don't want to see him scoring goals for them and celebrating with their fans in front of the Stretford end while they sing his name. It's like having to live next door from your ex-spouse and their new lover. It's a sickening thought and enough to make you want to gauge your eyes out. We'd not only be handing them a talented footballer with an exquisite first touch and an amazing beard, but we'd also be giving them a genuine lovely human being and practically the nicest footballer in the game.

I thought the reported figure was 37-40 mill not 32m?

I wonder if the club already have a replacement in mind? Apparently Dante just confirmed that he's in talks with Utd. If they can sign him, Mata and William Carvalho from sporting, then they're actually not looking so bad.

There are a couple of issues I have here and I'm still trying make sense of it, so it might be a bit disjointed. I think there are both pluses & minuses to Oscar's presence in this team. He is extremely vital to our defensive stability and he's a significant factor to why we've been incredibly rock solid recently, but my worry is that Oscar's contributions to our defensive structure might be papering over the cracks. The fact that the team's defensive organization is so dependant on an attacking midfielder is really not something that I think should lauded or celebrated. To me, that doesn't signify a method that's sustainable or something that's a long term solution. I'm actually very interested to see what the team would look like next season because right now I think Mourinho is just doing whatever he can to get this team competitive in the league again. I suspect we'll see a lot of changes next season and possibly, a change in Oscar's role.

Wow. Utd are in trouble. That's so poor.

I love Luiz and I can see that he's trying very hard. But god, he's actually insane. Like..... actually insane. Plays like drunken sailor.

ok, ok. So the plan is to lure them into a false sense of security by starting slowly and allowing them some possession? Brilliant, Mourinho!

Lord. This team just scores goals like it's nothing.

I think the bolded part is arguable. There are a variation of ways a team can be great tactically. City under Pellegrini are brilliant offensively. Make no mistake. Their awareness of space, first touch and passing sequences, the way they constantly change their direction of play, their combinations, movement and overlapping runs......that's all tactics and Pellegrini's teams tend to be very intelligent in the way they attack. Defensive solidity is a crucial factor in the game, but at the end day of the day what wins you games is dependant on how many times you get the ball into the net. City really don't have to work as hard as we do to win games.

I said at half time that the most important thing is that we didn't concede a goal. That, to me, is the difference between our performances of late.....we're a lot more in control of games now & better adapt at coping with pressure from the opponent. So I feel we're making huge improvements. Also very impressed with Torres, he was pretty much shit for the majority of the game but at the very least, he worked hard, kept going till the end and reaped the rewards from that effort. It would have been nice to see him applaud the away fans, who are continuously so supportive of him & chant his name every time but hats off to Hazard (and the others) for thanking the fans. Pretty much agree. In all honesty, the passing worries me & it's not just a problem that pertains only to the double pivot.....the whole team's passing is very sloppy & below the standards of a top team. But I think you might be expecting too much. It's a gradual process, we've improved on our ball recovery & our defensive organization, yes we need to improve on our attack but it's all a process. This is the first time since Carlo's last season that we're actually looking to finish the season with the same manager. The important thing now is that the team is looking like a solid unit, players understand what their roles and responsibilities are & there's actually a viable structure. Those things need to be in place in order to play the kind of stylistic football that gets results. I feel we're moving in the right direction The club now needs to do its own part by making funds available to Mourinho & giving him control over transfers so he can bring in the right players.

Holy shit, Luiz. Calm down.

Hazard. Just take a bow. Knew that was going in before it even hit the net.

In games like these, players who keep possession well are needed, i.e Mikel, Mata, Eto'o, players who can play short, simple passes and get the team into a passing rhythm. Right now there's very little fluidity to this game. The important thing though, is that we haven't conceded.

I think that's the position he'll end up playing. He seems really poor, defensively though....

Well he defends well when he's up for it, it's just that Toure is a lazy player against lesser opposition. Matic is quality though. Believe me if we can manage to sign him for 25 million, that would be a big, big steal.

Very true. Also worth noting that the league being more open this season has allowed us more room for error. No one has run away with it just yet, which has sort of allowed us space to drop points and yet still be within touching distance from the top. That wasn't the case last season. Really good points.

An enjoyable game. 1st half wasn't bad at all. Created a few chances & one very good chance that Eto'o squandered. I wouldn't have gone with Ramires on the wings, but I'm sure Mourinho has his reasons for choosing that line-up. Also thought he brought on Lewis Baker at exactly the right time. He's 17, right? That's the way to blood in youngsters imo, gradually give them minutes/opportunities until they get to a stage where they can begin to compete for a spot. Mikel, I thought was excellent and he was the standout player for me. Apart from the goal, he made some good passes (i.e his pass for the Eto'o chance), moved the ball quickly (or quicker than he usually does) broke up play well, and his covering was excellent. Dare I say, a complete performance from him? On to the next. Isn't it always is with Torres? It's a wonder how he keeps getting denied goals by 'remarkable goalkeeping.'

Wow. 2 goals for Mikel this season! Prolific.

That, just then was a very promising counter attack situation. Willian had so much space to run, can't believe we didn't make the most of it.

We'll have to agree to disagree, I see little difference between a fan who is pushing for Luiz to play in defence over Cahill & a fan who is championing for Mata in the no. 10 pos. over Oscar. I do agree that how the team plays as a whole is important, but no matter how great the team looks with Oscar, if few chances are being created then we'll find it difficult to win matches which was exactly our situation up until these recent games. As for your last point, I'm not exactly briefed on this Mata/Oscar movement going on here so I might be wrong, but aren't the people who are calling for the team to be built around Mata a small (but vocal) minority? Also you're saying POTY award as if the awards scored the 20 goals for Mata and made the 35 assists. If people are focusing on those awards, then it's because his achievements (that put him in the running for them) were just that remarkable. To be shortlisted for the premier league POTY is no small feat at all. You might see those accomplishments as old news & only relevant to last season, but for others, it still carries weight and shows what Mata is capable of. I guess I don't get what the big fuss is about, people can be faithful supporters of the club and still hold the belief that Mata would be better for us in the no. 10 than Oscar. Oscar was fantastic earlier on in the season but then trailed off somewhere between Oct/Nov and he's only now getting back into good form. So it's not like he's been consistently putting in top notch performances since August. Now if Oscar continues on this trajectory of good form & come the end of the season people still aren't convinced by him in no.10 then that's when it becomes a problem.

Whenever I see Oscar play, it just seems like he plays more like a central midfielder than a no.10 but he really, really impressed me against Soton. His work rate is always excellent but a more underrated aspect of his game is his movement. He has a great awareness of space. Those balls Hazard played to him - one of which resulted in the penalty dive & the other that resulted in his goal - were fantastic but it wouldn't have been possible if Oscar didn't make the run. None of our other attacking mids, except for Schurrle, make those kind of runs which is a big issue particularly when we have to break down lesser opp. Sure he was coming on as a sub so maybe Mourinho gave him specific instructions to get in behind the centre backs, but he made a very similar run for his goal against Hull in the 1st game of the season, think it was Kevin that played him in. I think when we're building an attack, he needs to be given more freedom of movement & he needs to be the one receiving the final pass rather than supplying the final pass himself, if that makes any sense. So I really hope to see him work more in tandem with Hazard and see more combination plays between the both of them. If we had a creative passer in central midfield, someone from deep who could pick out his runs, I think we would see Oscar excel even more.

For the love of god, woman. If you're going to post a gif of a chick in a bikini then do it right and make sure she doesn't have a size A cup. I'm sure the fellows would agree. Being blinded by fanboying? Who gets to decide who is blinded by it and who isn't, you? What constitutes being blinded by fanboyism? Please tell me so I know. I don't want to blinded by fanboyism.

Well I wasn't exactly referring to you specifically, Barbara. Just commenting generally on the irony of this fanboy business. So spare me the melodrama. Please. If I have something to say about a point you specifically mentioned then believe me I have no reservations in responding directly to you. Secondly, so you finally gave Cahill some recognition after four months into the season..... :woo: Break out the champagne!

I think the point is that some use terms like "Mata fanboys" as an easy way to discredit opinions that are different from theirs. It's just lazy & ends up only provoking people. I agree that Mourinho has given Mata chances but I also think he made up his mind about Mata long before he gave him those chances. How much minutes has Mata actually played compared to Oscar? It won't be surprising to me if it's a lot less. The way I see it, Oscar fits in with Mourinho's system and that kind of makes it easier for him to perform better than Mata and also makes it inevitable that Mata will fail in this system. If people still prefer Mata in the no.10 role over Oscar even though the former has been average then its because we generally tend to create more chances when Mata plays in that role. Mourinho has shown that he's justified in persisting with Oscar but some forget that up until recently, we hadn’t at all looked impressive for a stretch of games. Before the Soton match, there was very little we could use as evidence that Oscar does make the team better (other than maybe our league position). Before these recent games, Oscar had still yet to register 1 assist in the league even though he’s started the majority of the games this season. Lampard has created more chances from central midfield than Oscar has in the no. 10 position. Mata also has created more chances than Oscar despite playing less minutes and playing out of position. It's not hard to see why people would prefer him in the no. 10. Now it’s easy to make a clear case that Oscar makes the team better but people forget that there was a while where, match after match, we very much struggled to create chances and were relying mainly on goalkeeping errors. IMO, the way some people prefer Mata to Oscar is no different from how some prefer Luiz over Cahill, Azpi over Iva, Mikel over Lampard etc. A lot of these people who are making “Mata fanboy” accusations are the same people who have argued for Luiz to be played over Cahill when a case can be made that Cahill has been better than Luiz. Funny how they don't see that as "fanboying".

This? https://vine.co/v/hVjtav3D6bu He seems more defeated than anything. I can understand your annoyance, but think you're completely overreacting. We've had players in the past who've done a lot worse than that. Besides, even when he's frustrated Mata's still so loveable!