Dion

Dat dribbling by Torres...

Just when KDB was starting to get in the game.

Holy shit.

Gotta be careful with those passes KDB.

Lamps has to see the bench, he's not the right choice for this game. I'd go for Mata and drop Oscar deeper, he's already dropping deeper to help building the play anyways. Fitness shouldn't be an issue for Mata if he's coming in the second half.

Lamps has to see the bench, he's not the right choice for this game. I'd go for Mata and drop Oscar deeper, he's already dropping deeper to help building the play anyways. Fitness shouldn't be an issue for Mata if he's coming in the second half.

At least we are defending kinda ok-ish. But Mou has to change the team soon or we'll concede eventually.

How is that a yellow and Valencia one is not?

This was scary.

Love how he makes Casillas look like a fool. It also reminds me a bit of his wonder goal against Barça.

Totally agree. We've learned more in this game than in all other pre-season games together. If pre-season ended before we faced RM we wouldn't have realized there's still a lot of work to do before we can take on the top3 teams in the world today.

I don't know about Oscar. Brazil NT doesn't play what we would call possession style football and still Oscar performs brilliantly. More so than in a blue shirt. I think Hazard's speed would also come handy in a counter-attacking style. Mata... I have my doubts.

Ramires never ceases to amaze me. He's not very flashy and people won't talk about him often but he's such a good player. Especially when the team is playing defensively. Such a classy goal Not really surprised with the result. I hoped for a win but I think everyone knew RM were the favourites today. There's still plenty of time to fix our team, though.

Yeah, but he also went missing in other big games later on. That's why I hope that was just fatigue. Still, I've observed this pattern of playing extremely well and then going missing in some games after that even before his transfer to Chelsea, which makes me worry a bit. Even if that's something to be expected in young players, especially when they're coming to a new league, it would be another sign of talent if Oscar didn't struggle with those conditions.

I'm really looking forward to see his performances this season under Mourinho and better fitness. I'm still a bit disappointed with his performances thus far. Having seen his performances for youth teams, his debut for Sao Paulo's main team, some of Internacional's matches and most of his NT appearances, I expected more in a blue shirt, even considering his long streak of games and first EPL season. I expected him to have improved more than what I saw. I'm hoping it has to do with fatigue and playing out of position, because some years ago I would bet money that Oscar would be already making a huge impact against the best teams in the world by now.

I don't like the idea of Rooney coming. But then I like the idea of Suarez even less. Other strikers are looking very unlikely at this point. And Torres is a no-go. I don't like this situation.

Nobody is untouchable. And it's about doing what it's best for the team. Ok, Mata's best position may be CAM and he may lose a bit of effect playing from the wings, but it's all about balancing everything out. Let's just play with some hypothetical numbers to demonstrate my point. Let's say Mata's effect on the game from a CAM position equates to 90 points whereas playing as RW that would fall to 80. However, Oscar has 80 points as CAM and 50 as RW. If you play Mata at RW and Oscar at CAM, even if Mata would be better at CAM, the team will be better as a whole and also have more balance with Oscar in the middle - the opposing team will be threatened through the middle as much as on the flanks (balance) and we would perform 20 points better (actually, probably more because of balance - with Mata in the middle, the right wing would be a much less effective zone, reducing his passing options [because Oscar wouldn't get into good positions in RW or wouldn't make a run when he should] or because he would face more defenders [because Oscar wouldn't pull markers to himself from making runs and positioning well]). In the end of the day, even if you perform better in a certain position, you are only a team member, often some sacrifices are needed for the sake of team performance. I'm confident that Mourinho will choose the best option to create a winning team. ps: Sure the real world of football is a lot more complex than that, I just tried to show that having a player in a sub-optimal role for him isn't always a bad thing.

I feel KDB edges Oscar by a significant amount in the long passing department, which is one of the most important aspects of a DLP. That's why I believe he could work better. Also his long shots would come handy whenever he made runs forward. Dribbling skills never go to waste even if you are playing in the pivot. The only downside is wasting his crossing, but it would still be useful for corners and free kicks. However, I feel the best scenario would be a 4-3-3 with him and Oscar interchanging roles and operating together. Mata would play as RW, Hazard as LW plus whoever is our best striker at the time.

I think it would be better for the team to deploy him as a RW mostly. That would leave the CAM spot for Oscar or KDB, supposing we kept playing 4-2-3-1, which I'm not sure is ideal. Anyways, with KDB's return and Schurrle signing we now have so many quality options. I was thinking, maybe KDB could be the DLP we need, his long passing looks promising from all the videos I've seen. If he can provide defensive cover to some extent he could be our most versatile player, delivering good performances in double pivot (DLP) and CAM because of his passing and long shooting or as a winger because of his crossing and ability to curl the ball, he looks to have some speed in him as well, not to mention his dribbling capabilites, he's probably the best dribbler of the team if the data I gathered is true. That would give us many ways to build the team and would help rotating players a great deal. I would really love if he could become a Gerrard or Xabi Alonso for us. And we all know how much Mou relied on and liked Xabi. In addition, if he could perform that role well, we could potentially have all our best attacking players together on the pitch.

Back to Mata, people.

A real pity. I like you both and it saddens me to see petty fights over silly stuff like this, I don't even know what you guys were talking about because when I saw the direction things were taking I stopped reading. Well. Whatever.

Aren't they a beautiful couple? They're having their first fights, how cute.

That's some serious money if true. I want him to stay, but for that amount of money... I just don't know.

Yes, he was the most commited to defense between him and Paulinho. But Gustavo has some great deal of passing skills, which helps building attacks tremendously. Just watch some of his games for Bayern before they signed Martinez or even look at his passing stats, he's a beast - not only defensively sound, but also has an eye for a pass. He was the player I wanted to see the most in our NT when they changed coaches, Felipão gladly answered my prayers.

I think he's better in both defending and attacking.