Rmpr

WHY JUVE, WHYYYYY? YOUR CREST WAS SO COOL!

I am looking at the media coverage from Manure x Loserpool and they all saying Liverpool lost 2 pointa and blablabla, but am I the only one who thinks United played much better?

The simple fact they are waaaay better than the majority of the teams that make the UCL every year. Plus the fact UEFA would generate more money if more bigger teams made the cut. People dont want to see Besikthas (no offense to them, its just and example) instead of a Manchester United with Ibra and Pogba. Or do you really think all those teams from Eastern Europe are better than City (for instance) who is currently out of next year competition?

They changed to 5 for next year. This year 2 clubs will still miss it. Well, thank fuck that stupid Platini is out of the picture and with him all those obscure teams that used to get in thanks to politics. To your second point, this just proves how dumb this system is. 2-3 teams can carry an entire league, even if all the other 17 teams are usually shit. And worse, english teams cant allow themselves to focus on UCL because that probably means missing out on next year's competition. Like City now, they could easily start focusing on UCL if it wasnt so hard to finish top4 in England. Anyways, it was just a sideways rant. No biggie as I am sure we will finish top 4...

Honestly, I find it pretty unfair for EPL to only have 4 spots for Champions League. Having 2 of City, United, Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea out of European football while seeing some of the trash teams that get in is ridiculoua. Should easily be 5, even if it only keeps 3 as direct locks for the group stage.

Exactly. Media making a huge deal we broke our streak but losing to Spurs away from home is totally normal, even for us with title aspirations. As long as we continue to capitalize on those "smaller" games, we dont need to win at all cost against the likes of Liverpool, City, etc. This is how Ferguson won a bunch even without the best team.

Whaaat? I mean, WTF! Mourinho was important, but way less than your little love post suggest, waaaaaaay less. You are really discrediting those teams histories. They werent founded in the 2000s you know. A lot of extremely influential people passed through Porto and Benfica before anyone ever knew Jose existed. You make as if both Benfica and Porto were nobodies and only started getting notoriety after Jose won UCL on 2004. That is 100% false!

Sevilla Barcelona Leverkusen Juventus Arsenal Monaco Real Madrid Dortmund

And what is that?

I honestly dont know what happened to him. Jose used to be masterful at building a squad. He knew exactly what type of players to get for each role and he was also amazing at making that player believe he was great at doing what he had to do. Just look how long our Chelsea squad lasted and how similar from 2010-12 Real Madrid still is. Nowadays it seems he just buys the flavour of the month without a proper plan. Ibra is good? Sign him! Pogba is available? Break the bank! Never doing so with a plan in mind.

Not disagreeing with your overall point about Pogba. However, a 3-4-3 system while defending is much more like a 5-something (usually 3-2 or 4-1), so a player like Pogba wouldnt necessarily have to work so hard since he would have back up protection (so to speak). Nowadays, formations and positions are very fluid so its hard to analyse and things usually depend on a case to case basis.

That is actually a very good point. I agree completely. The problem is Guardiola is stubborn enough to "tank" a season in order to implement his philosophy faster. Even if he doesnt have all the necessary pieces or the squad is taking longer to adapt. Atm, he is preferring to lose some games to continue his "studies and tests" (which I wouldnt agree if I were a City fan tbh). However, one cant say his tecniques, tactics and training methods are anything short of excellent. The amount of organization and variations from his teams rival the best managers ever at their prime.

The way Wenger is lucky, they will finish first and still draw Bayern Munich next round

Not true. Just ask all the other managers who got a tough slack at Barcelona before Neymar and Suarez arrived. Then, also ask any Bayern fan if they are missing Pep right now. It is easy to take advantage of a bad tide to try to prove a flawed point of view. Btw, just to be clear, I agree they are looking average and not playing very well. However, to play like Guardiola does it takes quite a lot of time. Especially if Aguero aint gonna help him. So dont go jumping into conclusions before things unfold.

Your fault caty boy. quote the whole damm thing lol

I think he meant Everton. Manure was winning and Fellaini came on to basically give out a penalty.

Oooh, since I am on my phone and I literally just had this idea. I couldnt search for photos or videos of him, so if anyone is on the PC and could help our fellow members to know more about him, Id apreciate!

Young Colombian centre-back who plays for Palmeiras in Brazil (same team as Gabriel Jesus). He has extreme potential and we really should invest in someone like him instead of trying to spend 30mi+ on any markee name. Id say around 10mi Euros would be enough to lure him away. Mina is already on the starting 11 of his national team and he just won the Brazilian League. So, despite his young age he has already achieved a lot. I dont expect anyone to know him or to believe in me. However, those who remember my times online on the forums will remember how I was the first to talk about several players way before they exploded (Neymar, Falcao, Ozil, Gabriel Jesus, etc); and I am telling you Yerry Mina will be one of the best CBs in the world. Also, although being only 21, he is ready to start for any top European club. He only needs a chance. He is way better than any CB we have (imo)... EDIT: The only downsize would be that he just finished an entire season in Brazil (our football calendar follows the yearly calendar, so offseason between December and February). So he would need a private pre-season like Pato did.

Didnt know about that. Its a shame... Its exactly what we need actually. Pjanic fits perfectly on a 3 men midfield and he is (or was) the best realistic option if we are going to offload Oscar. Payet is a necessary creative player since Hazard is a question mark and Willian isnt the kind of guy that can carry a team behind his back. Maybe there are other names that will cause the same impact. I was just throwing out names. But that we do need those two types of players, we 100% do.

Id love to see Bonucci, Pjanic, Payet and Morata. They will be expebsive, but worth the cost imo. Get rid of Ivanovic, Mikel and Oscar and Pedro. Get Cuadrado back on board and make more use of a couple of youngsters like Kallas, Baba, RLC, Kelvin, etc. Our bench doesnt need to be made of spectacular players. At least not for now...

Well, like I said before, I agree with your evaluations. I just dont think its nearly as easy to offloads those players as you think. JT, Pato and Falcao are execptions as their contracts end. However, all other players are hard to get rid off. In order to sell players of the caliber of Oscar, Fabregas, Pedro and Cahill; we would need to find a club who can afford their wages and transfer fee and, at the same time, is atractive enough for them to accept the move. They all have families, etc. Its not simple! Replacing players is complicated too. There are numerous expenses to count for: juridical, medical, traveling and housing for the first few months, agent fees, etc. Its easier to just stay with the current players imo. They already have their routine in place and so on. Not to count the fact those individuals are not too bad for bench options. I mean, which bench player in England is better than Cahill or Mikel? Apart from City, which bench midfielder is better than Oscar or Pedro? Also, Chelsea has a hard enough task by signing at least top 3-4 players. Imagine having to do that plus filling in bench options. It will only unnecessary deviate the board from its true objective... EDIT: In resume, what I am trying to say is that I believe CFC should try to first do the basic. Lets sign the key pieces we need and then use the new season to reevaluate our current squad. Who knows, maybe some of them regain form with Conte, but if they dont, they will not be first options anyways.

I was going to post real life is not FIFA, but not even on FIFA you can't sell that many high wage players in a single transfer window I mean, how do you realistic expect us to get rid of all our experienced CBs, plus several midfield options, PLUS all bench strikers within 2 months? Not that I disagree with the players you want out, but its just not going to happen. Guys like Ivanovic, Terry, Fabegras, Remy and Falcao are definite names that must leave. However, I wouldnt mind keeping the likes of Cahill, Mikel, Oscar and Pedro. Signing new players is something expensive and as long as they arent required to play every week, there is indeed space for them to offer something. The real problem we have is buying the right individuals for the right positions. Not necessarily selling that many players. For instance, if we only get rid of the players I mentioned, we could go into next season with "only" a new CB, LB/RB, CM, CAM and backup ST. So, of the 5 hypothetical transfers, 3 are expensive (CB, CM and CAM), but 2 not so much. Which is whitin realms of reality imo.

Leicester looks a lot like some of the Ferguson's teams. Specially those post 2008 sides...

Yes, but I prefer to have a mixture of wins and losses than to draw that many games. We could've been close to Southhampton or ManUtd by now... Well, not that it would ultimately make a difference, but it's sad we have 44 points after 31 matches.

Leicester and Tottenham have pretty similar dificulties on their last 8 matches. I am finally starting to fancy LCFC chances... Problem is their last 3 matches are really hard. United and us away, with Everton in between!