The only place to be

People saying he got lucky are ignoring the fact that he took a chance. Against Sunderland, he took a chance and made a run into the area. Against Nordsjaelland he took a chance for his second and made a front post run. Scoring goals is great, but the fact that he's taking a chance and making runs or having a shot is the most important thing. Before he was ponderous and scared. I'm not saying 'he's back' but he's making some of the right noises.

Regarding the Brazil thing, first we should remember it's very, very early days. But I have three thoughts about it. 1. There's no reason a player can't play two positions in two sides. 2. If he actually moves there permanently for us, then he will obviously be doing well. In that case there's no reason he couldn't play that position for Brazil. 3. Fuck'em. We pay his wages so he'll play where we tell him. If he doesn't like that he can fuck off. Marcotti has echoed most of my points though. Weak opposition and enough mistakes to hold off on making anything permanent, but also enough good things to try him again maybe not in the Final, but possibly against Leeds and then Villa (almost the ideal learning curve).

Except for the two goals he created.

I'm already trademarking 'White Gullit'.

I don't think anyone was exceptional, but Hazard just edged it with his key contributions today. But I could've gone for Mata or a couple of others too. Luiz's role was probably the most noteworthy thing today. He's not going to replace Mikel but he could replace Ramires. On the ball he's really rather good and I actually enjoyed watching him. He adds another threat at set-pieces, more cover for the defence and he does get the ball forward quickly and accurately. What was interesting about Torres's second goal is that 3 weeks ago, he doesn't hit that shot. He dribbles it and then loses it. That's confidence. I wasn't here then, but I always thought it was a little bit misguided. He still has some positional issues to work out and he's by no means the finished article and both games were against weak opposition, but he's shown enough to earn another shot.

It does seem as though the 'David Luiz in midfield' bandwagon is starting up, and he did well against poor opposition. But it's early days. He showed some great things in possession but some of his positioning was off and he looked to struggle with the pace of the game at times, which you'd expect. But I think it's definitely an experiment we need to continue with. My MOTM was Hazard though. Seems to be getting over his mini slump.

I think you're really overdoing this 'left-foot/right-side' thing. It's very common for players to be deployed like this nowadays. Look at Hulk at Porto (under AVB), or any number of other wingers who cut in rather than trying to go on the outside of full-backs. It's great that the stats suggest he was so good, but I honestly can't count the number of times the crowd would groan when he'd either run into a blind alley or just shoot from distance when there were better options on. I don't want to notice just the bad points of his game, but it's his attitude that loses him starts. Maybe he's under too much pressure to impress or maybe he's just that selfish but I honestly don't think we'll miss him when he's gone. I don't know for certain that he'll flop at Liverpool but he's certainly going to have to buck his ideas up under Rodgers. As for the Man United game, he did well in that but they were the reserves and they literally gifted him the goals. I'm not going to go mad for Torres scoring against Nordsjaelland and I won't go overboard for Sturridge playing against Wootton and Keane. In my opinion he's not as bad as his biggest detractors suggest, and he isn't as good as his supporters with he was. He's just an average player with a lot of potential and it looks certain that he's going to leave in January for a pretty healthy price. What's slightly strange is that Nani is also going to be offloaded whilst Sinclair is sitting on the bench, suggesting those stats aren't something managers are taking much notice of.

It's not tripe though. Watch him play and tell me he isn't selfish. It's not something people have made up for fun and I'm pretty sure I haven't imagined the groans that follow a long range shot when other options are on. Comparing him to Moses is a little unfair when they play for different clubs and had to perform very different roles at those clubs. There seems to be a trend on here to post stats without acknowledging context. I'm a big fan of the 'eye test' alongside stats. Thing is, he moans about not getting a chance up front yet he's going to a team who play with one-up front and just happen to have one of the best strikers in the league. If he plays opposite Sterling they might have something but unless Sturridge becomes a team player then he won't last long there.

And the times us and City won, we were pretty strong in that area. I'm not saying you can't win like that, but with the players we have we need a person who can play that position. As for the other suggestions, Moutinho isn't what we need in my opinion and I've never really thought of Alonso as a defensive midfielder.

The problem is the coaching staff have looked at Sturridge and not seen a team player. Yes strikers need to be selfish, but he takes it to absurd lengths.

And United have been shit defensively this year. Look at where Toure's goal came from. Look at where Fellaini did all of his damage. Look at the games against Southampton, Stoke, QPR etc. to see how weak they are in that area. Look at the Champions League Final against Barcelona and see how they exploited the gap in between defence and midfield. Talk to any United fans and they'll tell you they're crying out for a player in that postion. They're very much the modern day Keegan Newcastle. They basically try to outscore you because they know they will concede goals.

Haven't been to Leeds for years (been no reason to ) but seriously tempted despite already having plans....

Personally, I'd like it if Luiz focussed on his performances first. He's been good in the last few weeks but it needs to be consistant. I'm not a massive fans of people telling interviewers that they're natural leaders - I prefer if they just make it obvious on the pitch. I never needed John Terry to tell me he was a natural leader because it was clear to see.

Realistically, it would be neither if we're serious about moving forward and competing for top honours. Danny has had chances in the team and what he has shown time and time again is that he IS NOT A TEAM PLAYER. When players disappear for a few months with injuries, their myth grows and they become the answer to all our problems. I fully expect Romeu to become the next Makelele whilst he's on the sidelines. With Danny, the idea is greater than the reality. His attitude when asked to play on the wing was shit - we don't want players like that. He didn't play for the badge or even for his teammates. He played for himself. Now maybe he'll mature at Liverpool but right now he can't do a job for us. Moses was bought as his replacement and he's been an excellent one at that. Danny also had a chance at West Brom when he had to clear cut opportunities. He missed both. I don't care if his name is Sturridge or Torres or John Smith - those are the chances that top-class strikers put away and he failed (please note I'm not judging his whole ability on that one game, but have clearly also referred to his career as a whole - I merely present it as an illustration).

Ramires, surely? I'm saying that the people on here who think Mikel is the answer at DM obviously see something that most of the people I see at matches don't. Take that as you will. Like I've commented in other threads, I've not seen a player divide opinion like him. All those matches, all those managers and still he's yet to convince a lot of people who understand the DM role and don't think he's up to it.

I like all these coaches who favoured him were sacked - not saying that was his fault but let's not pretend their judgment is infallible. Actually we were linked to Fellaini in 2010 when he was playing in the DM position at Everton. I agree and I hope that comes to pass. Busquets is younger than Mikel but so much better in almost ever regard.

Those supporters will just have to live in hope that the club does move on from a player that many educated supporters who have watched the club for many years simply don't trust.

I'm sure you're well aware that a lot of supporters think the new DM should replace Mikel. To use a term you like, there are questions over his ability to help us be an 'elite' team. Romeu will have a fairly long road back - this was a great opportunity for him to try and establish himself, but football history is littered with players who miss those opportunities through no fault of their own and never get back.

I don't happen to think he is a 'great dm' but that argument is going on elsewhere.

Who are these '2 young great DMs' you refer to? The one who has no Premier League experience and the one who is out for at least 6 months? As much as I'm all for giving Chalobah a chance there's absolutely no guarantees he'll be good enough. Sadly I think that the club won't look for a replacement for Mikel though despite the question marks over him.

Same problems Mikel has - application, workrate, defensive intelligence. Plus he's a fat cunt. Just remembered that De Jong left City for £3.5 million in the summer (but he's just done his achilles). Maybe it's worth giving Chalobah a go. It's a massive punt but he's stepped up to whatever's been asked of him. If we're honest our softly, softly approach to youth progression hasn't done much - maybe it's time we started throwing youngsters in to sink or swim.

I know a lot of your stuff is based on stats, but I'd be intrigued to know which games you're talking about in particular where you've seen Fellaini exhibit poor defensive skills. Positionally I've never seen a problem with his defensive game. Yes he can be over-aggressive at times but I tend to like that in a player. You point to the number of fouls he makes but a DM is supposed to break up the rhythm of the opposition - you became a fan in 2006 apparently so you would have seen Makelele who was a master at this. I'm not putting Fellaini in that class but players in that position will give away more fouls than almost any other player.

Could not disagree more. Having the right manager at the right time is invaluable.

The media is the sneaky little cunt in the playground who goes up to the big kid and says 'that guy over there said you smell', and then watches in glee as he goes and gives him a dead arm. The first few questions in his press conference were about comments he apparently made, and then the focus at the first match was on a few pretty shitty looking banners and print-outs that were anti-Rafa. Yes he got booed, but a lot of fans needed to get it out of their system. The few fans still chanting against him at Sunderland when we were 3-0 up really have to have a look in the mirror.

Totally agree with the first point. We do need someone who does the boring stuff and is basically, for want of a better term, a water carrier. He doesn't need to make a single assist or key pass, he just needs to keep the ball moving when we're in possession (to create spaces in the opposition) and do the right thing defensively. My contention throughout is that he doesn't do either of those well enough, especially in high pressure situations. As for the second point about us being elite with him in the team, we won the Champions League with Bertrand and Kalou on the wings and Bosingwa at right-back. There's a difference between being able to win with someone in the team, and being in the best position possible to win with someone in the team. He won't usually cause us to lose (although he certainly has in a couple of games), but he won't contribute to many tough wins in my opinion. If you're referring to our 2010 team, we were offensively strong and he had big personalities to cover for him (Ballack, Carvalho, Lamps) whilst he played a slightly different role. Now, he should be one of the big personalities helping some of the youngsters (people might forget that when this season ends, he'll be 26 and probably have almost 300 appearances in the first-term) but he isn't. I don't have the stats to back this up, but he also appears to be getting more bookings for dissent than ever when he should be getting to the stage where he can 'manage' referees. It is a tough position to get right and there are a dearth of them right now. A few years ago we had the likes of Petit, Makelele, Deschamps and arguably Vieira, Keane and Butt (more box-to-box than DMs). I would honestly swap Mikel for any one of those, or even a De Jong or Barry. What I would say about that position is that it requires intelligence, and as much as I like Mikel he ain't the sharpest tool in the box. It's fair enough saying he's one of the best around now but that isn't saying much if we're honest. We still need someone better.