The only place to be

No the reason he was sent out on loan is because he earns about £70,000 p/w and QPR play in the Championship. Their finances are a mess so they needed to remove at least some of his wages from their bill, as well as getting a fee from Newcastle for the loan. Not true. It's highly likely that even if QPR got promoted these guys would either be loaned out again or sold because QPR are massively in debt. They would probably look to go a more frugal route to achieve survival rather than repeat the mistakes of before. Highly likely. As for Granero he probably could play for Cardiff, but Cardiff couldn't afford him. QPR DOUBLED his wages when he joined them so moving him on is very difficult.

Costa is Spanish.

Liverpool haven't won a title for over twenty years and have been relevant to the title race about as many times as Blackburn Rovers in that time. United's value is no guarantee of anything if they're going to spend £27 million on the likes of Fellaini.

United aren't building for the future, nor are they in a transition period. They don't have an identifiable footballing identity (80 crosses one week, trying to play through the middle with Mata and Kagawa the next), they don't have a cohesive transfer policy and they're even falling behind in the youth development side. Do you know what else used to be valuable? Myspace. But that bubble burst too.

That is perhaps the most ridiculous point I've ever heard. So player's only become better players in FIFA? Is that what you're saying? Scholes point (if you actually bothered to listen to it) is that he hasn't grown as YOU WOULD EXPECT A PLAYER TO GROW. In fact watch the video and you'll see Scholes and Neville, two players who most definitely improved as players from the age of 18 (in fact I think both also changed positions around that age, Scholes possibly a few years later).

How is age irrelevant when we're talking about a long-term investment in a player whose value is based in no small part on his potential?? Micah Richards has been unlucky with a number of injuries.

He was happy to chop and change between Coentrao and Marcelo, Lopez and Casillas and even Arbeloa and Essien to a certain extent at Madrid. We're talking about an 18 year old who is most definitely one for the future, and I would hope that Mourinho is actually looking to the future because left-back is an area we struggle at in the youth ranks still.

I wouldn't have thought he would play once in a blue moon. In fact I think he'd probably play roughly the same number of matches that he's going to end up playing this season with the added European matches and the likelihood we'd advance further in the cup competitions. He's an elite English talent at the end of the day and there's very few of them around and available. If we're not going to play him because Jose wants to play a 30 year old then that's his prerogative.

Whilst Ivanovic and Azpi might be first-choice next season, there is the question of depth. We have five players for the three attacking positions so why not three players for the two full-back positions?

He was always a panic buy for United, and in completely the wrong position. Rooney had that number 10 position sewn up. He drops into the same positions Mata likes to occupy and is far more direct which suits United's game. Mata simply shouldn't have played last night. I said it before the match but if Jose was managing that team then you'd have seen three workhorses in midfield and Welbeck and Valencia on the wings looking to counter-attack with pace. Mata is a passenger in games like that, but what was really surprising was how poor his set-pieces were. £37 million for him is almost as good a bit of business as Matic for £21 million. He needs a system built around him to get the best out of him, but he's not a good enough player to build a system around and compete for titles.

Jay Rodriguez - scores goals, works his bollocks off in a high pressing game, good on the ball, English. Loic Remy - scores goals. Not saying they're definitely better, but worth a look.

This is one of United's better performances probably.

NO REFUNDS

43 seconds.

Manchester United starting XI: De Gea; Rafael, Ferdinand, Jones, Evra; Carrick, Cleverley, Fellaini; Mata, Welbeck, Rooney Man City starting XI: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany ©, Demichelis, Clichy, Yaya Toure, Fernandinho, Nasri, Silva, Navas, Dzeko Looks like a 3 man midfield for United. Worried about Mata's lack of pace countering and his tracking back but fingers crossed.

I'll compromise - David Luiz can play in games where Mario Gomez is the striker. We could probably give our goalkeepers the day off in those matches too.

Bosingwa Bertrand Mikel Kalou Cole 34 chances 21 on target Take your pick.

The whole team defends better, but there's a reason that despite this he was dropped twice and hasn't played a match there when Cahill and Terry have been fit for about four months. Matic was only signed in January as well and in the games the two played together Luiz was very much a liability (although you can put that down to lack of playing time if you want). But yes, we've looked much better defensively when Luiz hasn't been in defence. If we were better in defence or even as solid with Luiz playing then Luiz would play. But he doesn't and I can't see Jose deciding to put him in there just because there's a misconception that he makes us in any way better as an attacking unit. He doesn't.

In the beginning of the season he was the best player in the team.

And I repeat, there's not a team I would trust Luiz to play against. Not Cardiff, not West Brom, not Newcastle. A major reason we've looked better in defence is because we dropped David Luiz. In fact every stat backs that up. Or we could just buy a striker who scores goals consistently.

If only we had a player like that in our team. Maybe if we had a player who created 83 chances (most in the premier league) then we wouldn't have that problem. He turns over the ball 1.4 times a match on average. Ozil turns it over 1.7 times a match. Hazard turns it over 2 times a match (SELL HIM!!!, it's a no brainer). Mata whilst at Chelsea turned it over 1.2 times a match. Gotze turns it over 1.1 times a match, the same as Schweinsteiger and Thiago. The funny thing about your incessant moaning, apart from the fact that when challenged you tend to retreat back into your hole faster than Eden Hazard can ruin attacks with a poor touch (apparently), is that you rarely come up with an alternative. You're all too happy to say we should take the money for Oscar but you don't say who we could actually buy instead with the £25 million that we might get for him.

The thing is if Mourinho was in charge for this game, the chances of Mata starting would be about zero. He'd pack the midfield and look for pace on the wings (Welbeck and Valencia probably) to try and hit City on the break. He'd probably be inclined to stick Jones in midfield and maybe even Cleverley to really work their socks off. But Moyes will probably play it open and get turned over by at least three goals.

Not sure if that's a problem, mainly because it isn't that true. He has improved over the course of the season but he had a drop in form before his injury which is almost certainly down to being overplayed by Everton. Since he came back from injury he's very much getting back into form and playing well.

We can play a high line with Terry and Cahill (an article in the news about it today in fact). I'm fine with Luiz in midfield but I think you're completely overestimating his impact from defence. He doesn't make us anymore incisive than Terry or Cahill. In fact I'd take John Terry's passing ability over Luiz's anyday. Luiz has not played well in defence for much of the season, whilst Cahill and Terry have been the form partnership in the league. Messing about with that for the sake of a couple of Hollywood passes that add NOTHING whatsoever is just silly, especially when you have two players in front of him who can do that. There's a very good reason why David Luiz doesn't get selected in defence by Jose and it's got nothing to do with me and a few other people being harsh on him. You might say it's his form, but I'll say it's his concentration. That's why I'm actually excited about seeing him develop as a midfielder and terrified about seeing him play in defence for us. Plus the JT situation was different. There's a LOT of other stuff associated with him that was very fresh in the memory.

I'd rather have the better defenders in the team and let Matic and a midfielder look to distribute the ball. I also think it's a misnomer to suggest that at any point have we been at a disadvantage against any team because we've had Terry and Cahill at the back passing the ball forwards. In fact JT's passing is incredibly underrated. David Luiz's passing reminds me of David Beckham's quarterbacking against Northern Ireland - pretty but ineffectual. If you want to move the ball through the lines then do it on the ground and let Matic do it. One more thing - if we're struggling to break teams down then Cahill and Terry's presence at set-pieces is a fantastic weapon. But ultimately it comes down to this - there's not an attack in the Premier League who are so inept that I would trust David Luiz in defence against them.