The only place to be

Without googling can you name the last 4 winners of it? Personally, I can't. But I can with the World Cup, the Euros and the CL. The fact that it's every other year DURING the league season just makes it even more objectionable. For some reason Shola Ameobi isn't joining up with the Nigerian squad too. Let's not go over that rather sordid little piece of our recent history again, but suffice to say that threatening to break someone's legs isn't the only way to go about things. He has options. We all do. We aren't slaves to patriotism - it's a personal choice.

I have a problem with the ACON, but I also think Mikel is now one of the senior members of our squad and for better or worse we need him. The fact he got suspended (and the 3 game suspension was extremely light and we got lucky) doesn't help.

So Mikel is one of our senior players, but he let himself and the club down and missed 3 games through suspension. Now he's off to the African Cup of Nations to miss more games when the club needs him? Would someone either direct him to look at the badge on his chest or the employer's name on his wage slip?

Moses should be available for the game, but it does raise the point that the ACON is a stupid fucking tournament and I wonder why players like Victor and especially Mikel feel like they should go off and play in it every other year.

They'll probably want 4 top strikers - RVP, Lewandowski, Hernandez and Welbeck.

His agent has seen two other youngsters make their league debuts in the last week whilst we're selling the only other striker we currently have on the books. He's just making some noise like any agent would and I hope it actually leads to Feruz getting some playing time because he does look a little bit special.

At times he reminds me so much of Zola....and then I remember we didn't sign Franco until he was 30 and Mata has so much time to mature. What will be key to his Chelsea career will be how Oscar progresses as a deeper-lying midfielder.

He actually moves like Ruud too. He's got a laid back style (too much so sometimes) but I think he could be a bit like Chalobah where he can play in both positions, but ultimately be more of a DM.

I actually have in this thread. I didn't think he had what it took to be a midfielder, but he's demonstrated that he might. I also questioned his leadership abilities prematurely.

We have a £24 million investment who we don't trust to play in defence, yet might solve some problems in midfield. I saw your comments on his game yesterday, and I also saw the responses of a number of supporters who watched the game and quite vehemently disagreed with you. I doubt you're trolling, but just because it's an opinion doesn't mean it can't be wrong. In fact the most important point that arose from yesterday's game was whether both Mikel and Luiz can play together. There seemed to be some real problems with positioning and that seemed to coincide with Norwich pressuring us. When Mikel went off we looked a lot more comfortable so maybe we have to start looking at Luiz as our main DM and someone alongside him like Lamps or Rami.

United could be planning to move Rooney back into midfield for real. That leaves them a striker light up top.

It's almost as if he's played the position less than half-a-dozen times. He's shown enough in his games there for us to continue with the experiment. Yesterday he struggled until Mikel went off, and then he seemed to settle down. His shooting was off but it was the right conditions to test the keeper from that range, especially with the way Norwich defended. Arguing about what type of midfielder he is after 4 games in that position seems a little premature. Personally I'd be inclined to go with him in midfield against Everton too but that depends on his fitness as well as Mikel and Ramires. And I'm not sure what point you're making about him being by the opposition's corner flag, but Lampard was in a similar position when he came on too. Clearly Rafa wanted a certain amount of attacking from whoever was playing that position.

A lot will come down to what Rafa does on the right side of our team. Baines is key for them so whoever plays right-wing will be expected to track back, and we've seen that he seems to trust Moses to do that. This will also be Azpi's first big test, if he's picked to play and he's going to have to have a monster game. Midfield is a tricky one. Luiz didn't have his best game against Norwich but really improved when Mikel went off. Hopefully Rami will be back in the squad for this one.

Sturridge is a great player in theory. In practice he simply isn't that good. He's frustrating to watch and we got everything we deserved when we agreed to pay a player with less than a dozen starts £60k a week when his old club wouldn't. He's 23, he's been let go by 2 of the best 3 clubs in England and his only option is a mid-table side who have spent £70 millon on Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing in the last couple of years. I think we'll survive.

I've seen our midfield get ripped apart by a couple of good passing sides this season (Shakhtar, Juve). I haven't seen it happen in the past few weeks and again, it's an experiment that could save us millions of pounds and make us a better side.

Maybe he should've got more chances or maybe he should've impressed more in the chances he received.....the fact of the matter is we've shipped on a fringe player on a fairly expensive contract for twice what we paid for him before he had a chance to leave on a free, and we've replaced him in the squad with a guy who has been one of our best players in recent weeks. Now we just have to get back-up for Torres and it's a good transfer window.

He's new to the position and shown enough to be given more chances. I think he struggled a little more today because he was playing with Mikel for only the second time, and there was a tendency for them to cannibalise one another's space. It's not going to be instantaneous and do you know what, he's going to have bad moments. But we have looked far more solid and structured since he came into that position.

By the way, is anyone going to mention that our manager brought on a 17 year old when we were defending a one-goal lead away from home, having given another youngster his league debut in the previous game? Don't know about you but I like a coach who does that.

Other teams have more choices partly due to playing with more than one striker. We need backup but we're never going to be like United because we simply don't play with two up-top. And maybe Sturridge didn't get enough game time but the coaches have seen him for the last few years, and so have the fans which is why so few tears are being shed for a 23 year old who still surprises you when he actually passes the ball.

One bad game after two rather good ones..... In fact he was decent in the first-half, then had a poor start to the second but picked up after Mikel went off and we actually looked better from that moment on. More than anything, he looked a little tired which is understandable but the experiment with him in that position must continue.

Some people criticise both players. Torres isn't good enough but that doesn't mean Sturridge is, and I know it's just one game but that West Brom game really sticks in the mind when talking about him. Let's judge the club's actions with the striker situation at the end of next month.

He also got 30 minutes against West Brom where he had two golden opportunities and fluffed his lines. I'm happy he's going to Liverpool though, because I think he's completely wrong for their passing style and he'll be Joe Cole Mk.2, and I'm delighted we signed Moses who works his bollocks off and passes too.

He had chances but things just didn't work out. We're selling a player on an expiring (expensive) contract for double what we paid to him. This is the type of thing Arsenal fans wish their board would do.

Because in the Christmas period, the result is the most important thing. We went to a tough place and won fairly comfortably in the end. It was a good result.

United fans keep telling me that a 31 year old who has played about a dozen games in two years and is coming back from a serious knee ligament injury is going to solve their defensive problems, despite most of their defensive problems stemming from their midfield and not their defence. I disagree.