Corner

Rafa resting both Mata and Hazard was a mistake, and it cost us the game. But what really annoys me is that the line-ups most people on here posted before the game, the line-ups they wanted to see, had an attacking midfield trio of Oscar, Moses and Marin (the exact trio that Rafa played). A lot of people saying 'we need to rotate players' etc. But after the match they're willing to say Rafa is an idiot and should be sacked. You can't get much more hypocritical than that. All of those people called it wrong, just like Rafa. The people who said we needed to field a strong 11 are the people who have the right to criticize Rafa here.

Except for scoring 5 goals and being our top scorer in the CL. So you're willing to ignore the obvious potential he has to be one of the best players in the world, because he has had a few bad games?

That's a disgraceful attitude to have.

He's so bad that he makes you angry? (I've also never seen him play).

Likely ins: - Demba Ba. Fuck yes.

His knees are fine!

He has played as a lone striker in a 4-5-1, which is basically a more conservative version of our 4-2-3-1. But one must take these things into considering I suppose.

Let's just pray that he passes the medical. I didn't think I would be this excited about this signing but the thought of 3 of Mata/Hazard/Oscar/Moses playing behind Demba Ba instead of Torres... it's just too good! PLUS: We're finally trying to get some business done in early January this time.

How I would love to see Drogba playing tonight to show that cunt Nelsen how it's done. Fucking hell I hate QPR.

May you have many interesting discussions here, enjoy!

Still think its Sprus. Especially after that long drawn-out Joao Moutinho saga. God, that was annoying.

That is very true, indeed. Torres will sulk, and Rafa will feel the wrath of Roman! Unless we miraculously buy Falcao in January, then Roman will want to see his new expensive toy on the field.

If anything is going to get the fans on Rafa's side, it's benching Torres.

Hehe. The funny thing is two family members of mine moved over to Australia a couple of days ago. It must be true!

Some nice PPMs there.

That's the thing though, I'm almost certain Rafa wouldn't play Lukaku. Considering that, I think it would be best if he stayed at West Brom. He's getting a lot of playing time, playing well and scoring. And if he keeps scoring, he's going to get hungrier and hungrier to improve, which would be great for us when he finally does return.

I doubt either of these would happen in January mate. It looks like Walcott is going to sign a new contract and we'll probably have to wait until the summer before Falcao would even think about joining us. I reckon we're in for a striker like Negredo, Bony or Remy. Someone on that level (until the summer of course).

Tello recently signed a new contract unfortunately, about a week or two ago. He has a release clause of €10 million though. He's also more of a winger. Don't think he has ever played as a lone striker.

Definitely. There is one positive though: at least we've been starting each half strongly under Rafa, so we might get a goal early on. Here's for wishful thinking!

Southampton 1-0 against Arsenal!

I don't want to ruin the discussion... but hats off to @ and @The only place to be. It's great to see a civilized debate about Lampard with both members raising interesting points. It's a breath of fresh air compared to what's been going on in this thread over the past few days. Anyway, continue!

Damn. You spoke too soon.

To be fair, considering Spain played mostly without a striker in the Euro's and when they didn't it was Torres up front, you can't really judge his based on that tournament. I'm actually delighted about this signing. It makes a lot of sense. I don't expect Negredo to be on very high wages either. Most of our team can speak Spanish so it would help a lot with communication on the pitch, which is important. I can see him grabbing a lot of goals for us.

If I could like this comment twice, I would. I'm so sick of seeing Stoke kick the shit out of their opponents. 'Bullying' in football is one thing, but Stoke really do kick the shit out of teams. It's horrible to watch. Anti-football, negative football, whatever you want to call it. And I'm sick of hearing Tony Pulis give out about diving in every interview. When Liverpool played Stoke earlier in the season, Pulis was raging in the post-match interview about Suarez diving but said nothing about Huth stamping on Suarez's chest in an off-the-ball incident.

Pure class by Van Persie.