The only place to be

Sunderland at home. Stoke at home. Hull away. Man United away. Arsenal away. Liverpool away. Palace away. Everton away. West Ham at home. All these teams are either fighting for survival or fighting for a top four spot or even the title. Their last three games are away to Palace (under Pulis they are a tough team), away to Everton and then the last day of the season they've got West Ham who might be fighting for the Premier League lives.

6 points with 14 games left is nothing, especially with City having some tough games. It makes it tougher, but even if we went and won on Monday then I wouldn't put us as favourites. Unfortunately it's games like last night's one (and home to West Brom) that tend to decide titles. But 6 points off the top in February is certainly surmountable.

On 9 July 2014, Chelsea announced the signing of Paalić from Hajduk Split, for a fee believed to be in the region of £3 million. Upon signing, Paalić said: I am very happy because I am now a Chelsea player. Click here to view the record

The players understand exactly what he's doing. The members of this forum seem to know exactly what he's doing. The only person who doesn't is you apparently. Or to put it in a way you might understand.... I read here that some members don't not understanding what Jose is saying to the Citehs. But the Chelsea player noes what trick he is pulling and will listen in the privates to his words.

Fat Sam does realise his team is still in the relegation zone doesn't he? He did well to get his tactics spot on and limit us to just 39 attempts. Here's the thing you fat cunt, we're still in a title race. The only race you're involved in is the one between the sack and the heart attack...which one is going to get you first??

Really? It's designed to apply pressure to City and take the pressure off of our own players. Do you honestly think he tells the players that they're not good enough to win the title in the privacy of the training ground?

So Jesus Navas up against Cole....sometimes I wish it was 2010 as well, but honestly I think Navas would torment Cole. I hope I'm wrong but I think I'd go with Azpi there. Then you've got Ivanovic at right-back probably up against Silva (?) who is skilful but not likely to skin him for pace. If we can keep it tight then maybe Ivanovic's presence at set-pieces can be one of our best chances. Rami in midfield against Man City last year was a disaster, so maybe Lamps instead. Again, he's a goal threat (compared to our other options) and Matic can do a lot of his defensive work. The front three probably picks itself.

So because we didn't score a goal from a set-piece, you actually can't understand how he would be important at set-pieces? If Cech didn't need to make a save, would you fail to understand the important of a goalkeeper in a match? Ivanovic is by no means the perfect right-back but he does offer a significant threat at set-pieces. People need to factor that into their thinking when assessing him.

Not sure why there's such a fuss being made of Ivanovic. He's not ideal, but we still managed to create 39 chances which is more than enough to beat most teams. Plus people ignore his importance at set-pieces and the way he works with Cahill and Terry to create chances from corners, like the one Terry had in the first-half. Ivanovic occupies Collins and one other player giving Terry the space to have a good chance in front of goal. Maybe we can work in Matic so that we have another threat from set-pieces but at the moment, the guy who scored 8 goals last season is important to us in an attacking sense and you have to weigh that against the marginal gains you might get from playing Azpi there.

You're right about the second bit, but actually maintaining an effective pressing shape is hard and requires a lot of practice and on-field communication. Mata couldn't handle the physical side of it based on what we saw. He's just not built that way. No he'd play as an inverted right-winger...except a bit slower. Look, he's your player now. You've bought a top-class number 10 and if you want to stick him on the wing then you're free to do that. Like I said I'm sure Moyes has got pads full of tactical ideas that will make Mata work for you guys....just please don't play him on the wings against City or Arsenal. Putting Mata into the middle of a 442 stops is from being a 'simple 442'. He's not Keane, he needs to play in the final third and nothing else which means it becomes a 4312 in attack and god knows what in defence. Now that could be a classic diamond but then you're looking at your full-backs doing a lot more and maybe even Rooney dropping back to cover the holes Mata will leave. Anyway, you've got yourself a great little player and he was probably the highest profile player that Moyes could've signed. Thank fuck you didn't actually sign a proper midfielder though.

Aguero being out of this one could be massive for us. To me he's been the player of the season so far and is part of that spine of their team which makes them so strong. Not going to try to predict the team for this one (not even sure I could guess the formation, although a 433 wouldn't be surprising) but I'd love to see him stick Oscar on Toure and just let him hassle him for 90 minutes. Ultimately though, we're going up against a team who are further along in their development than us so of course we're underdogs. Not getting a result isn't going to be the reason we lose the league, nor would winning make us favourites.

Unfortunately he's not. You make it sound simple, but it requires a lot from players and Mata simply can't do it. Neither could De Bruyne based on the matches he played. Then when we actually forced turnovers Mata slowed the play down on breaks. If you're going to play with him in the team then you have to do what Benitez did and give him a completely free role, which is great when he's having a great game but creates massive gaps between midfield and attack when he doesn't. But you've got Moyes in charge so I'm sure he'll work out a gameplan that involves him....although personally I'd go with Rooney as 10. Far more productive this season (9 goals, 9 assists in 16 isn't it? Fantastic return from that position....and now you've spent £37 million on a player who can only play in that position). Really? I don't necessarily agree but that's up to you. But I'm sure I could go on redcafe and get a list of about 12 players that United actually needed to buy but couldn't (Koke, Pogba, Vidal, Herrera etc.) so had to panic buy a guy who was stuck on our bench.

It's funny how whenever you talk about United, you don't talk about Moyes. Yes you have money coming in, but so do other clubs. Ultimately the most important man is the one in that dugout - proper United supporters have known that for years.

If we get Zouma in then it's possible. Luiz is no longer first choice CB and he'd fetch a fair amount of money in which would more than cover the cost of buying Zouma and enable us to reinvest in other areas. He could find himself in a Mata-type situation where it's better to cash in then keep and a £30 million player on the bench.

What the fuck? Muzchap is a very good poster who no-one has ever accused of being a troll. In fact he posts a lot of sense..... so where the fuck you in particular get off calling him stupid and a troll is beyond me. People bite their tongues around you but I guarantee that EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of this forum shares the same opinion of you. I won't say what that opinion is, but even you should be able to work it out. Jesus, one disappointing result and everyone goes mental.

Personally I'd sell Mikel. Rami can fill in a number of positions whereas with Mikel you've got a specialist type of player, whose specialism isn't that far removed from what Matic offers. If we could actually get in a player like Kroos though, a proper playmaker in midfield.....

So instead he's built the team around Oscar and Hazard? You realise he didn't buy those two players don't you? I actually watch Chelsea's games (it's kind of a hobby) and Mata simply didn't fit the system. There's no conspiracy, Mata isn't a bad player he simply can't do the things we need him to do when we don't have the ball. Simple as that. He wants to build a team who plays a certain way. Mata can't play that way. The funny thing is I doubt many United fans understand what Moyes is trying to build at United. Oh well, if I ever get bored I can trundle over to RedCafe and see the polls that showed that you guys wanted Mourinho as manager, or read a thread about how Hazard isn't as good as Kagawa. Fucking tourists.

Actually he had an absolute shocker away to Man City last season so I'm not sure how confident I'd be about him playing well. The guy is a machine physically. He'll run all day but to say his touch can be inconsistent is an understatement. He can hit the ball superbly at times but even five yard passes with him can be an uncertain thing. Maybe his versatility could lead to him becoming a squad player but I think we need someone a bit more composed alongside Matic.

Terry gives his all. Hazard gives his all. Lamps gives his all. Willian gives his all. Just because Ramires defining virtue is his ability to run all day doesn't mean you can't be mad at hime for his more often that not shit technique. Take a few 8 year olds off their Ritalin and they'd run all day, but it doesn't mean they should play in midfield for us.

Just wasn't needed last night....in fact with the acquisition of Matic, when is he ever needed? He's such a passenger, always has been. At least when Matic came on he tried to do something to help his team win. What a novel idea huh?

One of those games. We created enough to score but it simply wasn't our night. Thought Jose made an error going with Ramires and Mikel in the middle and took to long to make the change but we're missing a quality striker still, so you're going to have games like this. The whole tempo seemed to change with Lamps and Matic coming on though so it's frustrating to think 'what if?'. Can't blame West Ham for playing the way they did because they're fighting for survival, but I get why Jose said what he did. He's building something here but we always knew it was going to be something of a transitional season, yet we're still very much in the title race. I'm sure there's a few of the usual suspects who will take this opportunity to moan about the shit they always do, but on another night we win that by 3 goals.

Does it really hurt people? He was unwanted by us. We had moved on from him with a style of football that is attractive and also gets results. He was a very nice player for us in a period when we were pretty shit but to be honest I'm not at all pained by seeing him playing for United. It was all very amicably done so I don't get why there should be any bad feeling.

Yes, because the thread is less than 24 hours old. The fact is that most of the posts after last night's game aren't about '1 good cross'. The wankfest has been going on for a while too.

In an academy that features players who are star names or full internationals in their home countries (Feruz, Musonda, Hazard, Courtois, Kalas, Omeruo, Traore) or are in receipt of massive wages already (Loftus-Cheek, Chalobah) or even featured for our first team (Baker, Ake) then a guy who was signed from Forest in an under the radar deal is a dark horse in more of our eyes. The simple fact is that he has surprised a lot of people (except you...bravo) by taking his good form at youth level into the professional ranks with nary a missed beat. Even for young superstars like McEachran or Kakuta this has been almost impossible so any player who does so with such ease would be surprising most followers of the game. Ok?

How dare you slate Van Aanholt....he had a good game for us about 4 years ago....which we lost...and conceded 4 goals in...at home. :ph34r2: I actually think you're right about the fee being closer to £20 million and probably £5 million of that is based on him being English. If you look at the rumours surrounding someone like Rodriguez then he's valued at between £15-20 million which isn't much different from Shaw without the 'English tax'. Shaw has homegrown benefits though and has played 50 games in the Premier League whilst also being 3 years younger.