Phil Driver

Did nothing when he came on ,one clumsy foul, at least it was higher up the pitch than he usually is and hardly plugged the gaps for the equaliser ,also turned the other way when Jose was looking for penalty takers and I dont think Jose liked that,Lampard was still covering more distance in extra time than Mikel . When I see a sub come on fresh and especially in extra time I want to see him making a difference , I never saw it .

Pure class once again ,passing was superb and was still running hard in extra time with 10 men,started all four games under Jose now and the talk of being phased out now is forgotten untill his performances start to dip ,was that Giggs I saw come on the other night for Man Utd at 40 ? Frank is in the same bracket, a fitness freak who has had no long term injuries and retains the same enthusiasm as the day he joined.

The greeting Rammy got when he came off the pitch from Mourinho told you all you need to know ,he is our 1st choice DM now ,it even took Makelele a long time to fully understand his role and he will be great in this position for us ,this is where he will play and it will not be as static as we have been used to ,he will still break from this role when it is on ,he will attempt to win the ball higher up the pitch and he has the speed to recover his position.

Insulting people where? Proving you wrong again more like . Action areas

Yes ,how is he doing at his new club?

Yep ,just as Lampard went to America on his own accord at the end of last season , hold on a minute !!! Didnt that change?

Lets explore this action areas theory a bit more !! Does anyone not agree that Ramires covers more ground than Mikel in any match? and probably covers twice as much ground? So do these action areas actually accurately reflect somebody in action or merely where somebody is standing on the pitch? Could I go and stand in the centre of Choulou's pitch and his graphs would show my action area as being very central .

choulou .love your maps . Do they show whether someone is actually running and tackling or just standing still? Are they actually "ACTION AREAS"?

All good views chaps ,but I will sleep well knowing my view is shared by the special one . You can call me the special poster if you wish . And I am very happy that the happy one is back ,because he is getting it RIGHT . I can see these maps are appearing again ,but I fail to see that Mikel has any action areas tbh He is as active where he is ,ON THE BENCH .

Yes I will bring up "running around" as you put it again . Because running power in that position is vital ,that is why Ramires is being playerd there,he is not playing aka Makelele as Mikel has attempted to ,Ramires can attempt to win the ball higher up the pitch and recover his position and I have seen him do this several times ,during a game you will have seen and will see Ramires further forward than Lampard on occasions ,this cant happen with Mikel as once beaten he is dead as he has no running power to recover his position . Even at 35 Lampard has more running power,speed and stamina than Mikel ,hence they are our first choice pairing ,Van Ginkel maybe in the future but Mikel will never be under Jose ,for the above reasons.

Nobody can stay back aka Mikel he is unique at that for sure and yes Ramires is more advanced he has even had a few shots at goal ,something you rarely see Mikel do . And when Ramires is passed trying to intercept higher up the pitch he has the speed to recover a goal side position ,Mikel does not ,this is why he cant squeeze the play ,once he is beaten he is dead,that is why he hangs so deep ,often holding hands with JT & co ,Ramires does not do this and you may (or may not have noticed?) JT and Cahill playing higher up the pitch and us closing down higher up the pitch trying to win posession,instead of plugging Mikel self made gaps.

He is ,Jose is picking him there . He has the class to play deeper ,to think his game is only about goals is to not fully appreciate the player as Jose does. The Old Trafford selection should be answering a few questions now on what Jose sees as his best team and the fact he has started ALL three games ,all this nonsense about "Lampard should only play against teams like Hull at home" has been shown to be the rubbish it always was by Mourinho and me always good to be proven right .

JT was class at OT as good as ever ,I find it hard to understand why people want to get rid of our world class players before their time has come. Drogba should have still been at the club last season and this,big mistake by us, lets not make the same mistake with others,these special players should not be taken for granted as they are rare.

You are confusing his role with that of Mikel who does just stand in the same place almost literally,Ramires and Lampard do interchange and both have the ability to do that ,where as with Mikel as a partner we are predictable and static and easy to pick up as Mikel is static and slow and benched when are we all going to accept that after the Old Trafford selection Ramires and Lampard ARE first choice?

Sorry will use this in future as The Mak did first . I take it this is allowed seeing as it is in the icon list?

No I do not think we should be questioning Jose and ahould accept his correct decision to keep Lampard and see him as first choice ,world class players are rare and even at Chelsea we have only had Drogba,Terry,Cech,Lampard,Makelele and Cole who would come into that category and be up for the world class positional awards like FIFPRO. For sure Jose is more aware than our previous managers and posters on here .

A cunt has to show eventually on cue .

Very rare on this forum to get several very good posts in a row ,easier to win the lottery .

Fuck AVB

That is what makes Jose special . He doesnt read the rubbish on forums and picks his teams on what players do on the pitch ,anyone thinking Lampard will be rested is right ,for the league cup and some easy home games . Love having Jose back and seeing the people who write Lampard off eat their words. Like Jose first name on the sheet for me is Lampard.

Yep thats the way we wanted it ,that is the control we had ,you think Utd want a slow tempo at home? That is what we did ,Jose wanted to slow the game down . = we controlled the tempo. You really think Mikel will provide the ingenuity you are looking for? or the goals as I have yet to see one in seven years -well maybe one but that is it.

You cant have watched any Man Utd home games. They are usually a lot faster than that and they are able to push teams back and stretch them . You may have heard some people say the tempo of the game was slow ,that was due to us controlling the pace of the game and slowing it down. It was an almost perfect away performance against a top European club ,one which will be well suited to big European away games,where you want to take the sting out of the home team and fans.

Something has ,Mikel has been sussed . A DM pair that can keep Man Utd quiet and control the tempo of the game is doing a great job ,please do not expect Jose to do anything other than use Lampard and Rammy for all the big games,because it is happening ,partcularly like the way the rotate the holding role and both will push on when the situation demands ,where as Mikel is an immobile lump and cant recover his position ,if he ever ventured forward,due to a lack of stamina and running power. The penny will drop with soon with fans ,that Rammy / Lampard is and will be our first choice midfield pairing and yes you are right neither are just holders,because that is not what we require under Jose. Rammy could just as easily as Mikel just stand still and roll 100% of passes backwards/sideways if we wanted that. Ramires abillity to attempt to win the ball in the opponents half and then recover his position to get goalside is not to be ignored.

Could he be worth a go as a false number 9 as Messi is used if our strikers are not doing the biz? He could alternate with Schurlle who can also play up top ,I think it is worth a look and we could attepmt to dominate posession with this system before releasing the free man to score be it MaZaCar ,Schurlle or anyone who is unmarked and can time their run.