Barbara

Hey, you better ring me as well! I'm traveling to my mother's house next month, I'll beg her to do the grape leaf roll thing. I'm craving it so hard!!!

I wish I had enjoyed it more than I did. I had only started supporting the team one year prior to that - or something - and when Roman came and we started signing players I wasn't impressed. I was a RM fan for many years and an Inter fan for even more years, so I was used to the constant signing of new players. I wish I had started supporting the team earlier, I still remember as if it was today I saying: I'll go with the blue team, they're the underdogs and there's something about them. the curious thing is that I don't like blue as a color - outside of football that is - and I remember being torn between Liverpool and Chelsea back then. Liverpool the most successful English team of all time or Chelsea, the charming blue team from London. And I decided for the underdog only to have the situation completely reversed a few years later. That's crazy man. But I wish I had started supporting Chelsea earlier so I could have some hindsight about a few things. Like this crazy change of having a new guy - and great guys nonetheless - signed every other day. I would be happier than a hen chick in the trash!

especially when his teacher sucks at wording sentences in the English test. I want to spank her/him for doing such a sloppy work with that question. My husband was completely right. I should be on my way to Syria and just punch the teacher on the face.

can't you see his last name on my avatar? I really needed some relaxing massage. My body still aches from all the flexing and what not. But I'm going to have to wait a couple of days for that. I don't want to make my dearest husband guilty that he can't fly across the world to give me the massage himself.

shushhhhh I have a husband around... don't mention certain things!

Ignoring Rafa Nadal completely at the moment I feel really, really, really alive. Haven't felt this alive in almost two years. So yeah, it deserves a mention

congratulations, Meera *hugs* I hope it works pretty well for you!

Spaniards... most of them have an ego. We're lucky Mata and Azpili don't.

Should is used when something is highly recommended, regardless of the level Have to is an obligation. so If I suggest you to take medicine when you have a flu, I would say you should take some Tylenol for example Have to is like a condition, or an obligation. Examples: You have to be here at most 7am otherwise you won't enter the class. You have to take care of your health if you won't want to get sick You have to decide which major to take until August 12th. Because to be honest, your teacher is wrong as far as I can say because someone can't oblige the other to think or make thinking conditional to answer. It's just a highly recommended advice. You are right. If the sentence was about something else like: Student you have to ask for my permission before you go to the bathroom OR Student you have to be quiet during the exam. Then it makes sense. but thinking before answering doesn't. I think you should be as cynical as I am when you talk to the teacher again and say something like: You have to think before elaborating the questions to the test. Or you just should?

come back safely, Nour and yes, the place isn't the same without you hope you had a great time n the village

have a nice trip then! Enjoy it! What did you watch?

hello, fave brazuca. how has your weekend been?

did the aliens in Kent abduct TC pub's mates? This place is more silent than my neighborhood now, 1:19am on a Monday... as I can hear a dog barking in the distance.

@, hello fellow Madrid fan We disagree about a lot of things, but I'm one of those people that welcomes different points of view, so we can learn something new or realize something we haven't. Well, I think Mourinho improved RM a lot. I didn't watch much this past season, but I watched nearly every RM match in the two previous seasons. You don't seem to like Xabi much, while he's the best in his position imo. Schweinsteiger is a closer second simply out of bias, because although I love Bastian, I hate Bayern and Real Madrid is my team in Spain, so I'm probably being biased. I'm not going to cover the Alonso part then as we clearly have different takes about him. I just think that a player with his quality to pass the ball short, medium and long distance and his vision of the field can afford to be static and slow. He doesn't need to run, he makes the ball run instead. But we can agree to disagree. I agree with you that a formation like 4-2-3-1 can be played in many ways - most positions allow that. I didn't have anything in mind about where I positioned the players. I think the more mobile a team is, the more effective it becomes, so if it's forming a line, a curve, a diagram, a diamond, etc, I don't care much as teams are much more volatile and versatile than that. I think Bastian is perfect as a DM that advances often towards, so you might be right in your b2b assessment. I just see him as a guy who has quality pass, whose position in the formation is in the '2' and who has great positioning and tacking skills. As I said he only comes second to Xabi in the position imo. I really dislike Busquets because he's a cunt. He dives and acts too much and I can't support a player that cheats like him... no matter how technically good he is. Mascherano is one of my fave in the original volante position, as we call in Brazil. He's a hard worker and he does his job tactically and technically as few players in the world. The thing is his work isn't the one that brights in a team like Barça but he is seriously underrated. And last but not least, I've seen Oscar playing since he was in SPCF and then in Inter and now in Chelsea. I think he suits much better the wingers than the CAM (or ACM, I suck with those positions names in English). He's playing literally #10 in our NT during CC and while I think his less than impressive matches are because he's exhausted and Scolari is blind and stupid not to spare him while he could afford it, I also think the position he plays in the team doesn't help him. I'm not literally comparing, but Fred and Torres sort of have the same role in Chelsea and Brazil as well as Neymar and Eden (I don't think Neymar really compares to anyone else but Cristiano Ronaldo, but if we're just looking for the formation and seeing him as a winger, then let's compare him to Eden). So Oscar has sort of the same kind of players around him in Brazil... and I think he played much better for Chelsea than he's been playing for Brazil. Then again having 90+ matches in less than a year does that to you. So I'd rather he to go to the flank rather than stay in the center. But it's a personal preference, not the absolute truth about where he is better. so I'll stick with him in the right side, although he's better in the left. Also, I think I forgot to mention in my previous post, and that's something important. Mazacar can play whatever way they want between LW, RW and CAM, I still believe Oscar and Eden are better in the LW and Mata in the CAM, but they can perform decently in all three (which is why I had the yellow arrows showing as much) It's late now here and to be honest, I haven't read any post prior to mine, so I missed your previous posts in the thread, but I'll check them tomorrow and then we continue to talk. always great to read thoughtful and insightful opinions like yours. Cheers.

I think right now the formation depends on who we sign in the summer. I like 4-2-3-1, but I don't think we have human material to afford it right now, so the best alternative is the boring 4-3-3 (sorry, I don't like it, although it suits us much better than 4-2-3-1) I think one of the biggest problems last season was that a 4-2-3-1 formation requires mandatory three players: DLP. If I understand well what you guys have been explaining me about English football positions this guy is absolutely essential to make the formation work. As there are four defenders and three attacking midfields that play closer to the box the players corresponding the 2 have to be the guys that own the midfield. In modern football whether is objective as Bayern or a tick taka Barcelona, the game happens in the middle field. If a team decides to play 4-2-3-1 and doesn't have at least one outstanding guy among the 2 what happens is erratic transition from defense to attack, slow movement, bigger exposure to opponent tacklers, facilitating opponent's defensive work among others. We didn't have this guy in Ramires, less alone Mikel. That alone should have been reason enough to avoid tihs formation, but as all big teams now use it with few exceptions, it feels like it's mandatory CAM playmaker: we have two great guys playing this role: Mata and Hazard. Given how amazingly Eden plays in the left flank, I'd favor Mata in the center position. We didn't have playmaking problems last season. So we're more than okay in this position. Some may suggest Oscar and even KDB here but I don't think either show their best in this position. Complete (technically) striker. Not only this guy has to know how to score, have a bit of matador in him, but he has to be committed tactically and learn how to defend. Someone like Benzema, Higuaín, Ronaldo, Romário, to name a few active and inactive players (although Romário was lazy and he wouldn't be that successful in this formation - he plays perfectly on a 4-4-2 though). This guy in addition to having great finishing, needs to know how to tackle the ball. Again, regardless of the chosen formation modern teams need defensive players to know how to pass the ball decently and attacking players have to know how to tackle and go to the defensive field when required. It's another position we had issues. I don't like Torres, Ba never proved to have adapted to Chelsea, and while we had problems with them capitalizing for the team, we also had problems with their lack of ability (Ba and Torres) and laziness (Torres) to actually offer the first combat to recover the ball or even more the effort to reduce opponents' space, putting pressure on the opponent (as this first tackle isn't enough). People say a lot about Barcelona's (boring) football that dominates midfield, has high possession and completely controls the match. But what impresses me the most about Barcelona is how effective (and while with Pep perfectly) their defense play. You see Messi, Pedro, used to see Villa tackling and going behind to recover the ball. Not only Torres and Ba were far from impressive scoring, they're down right pathetic technically and defensively. I can't see a team being competitive in a 4-2-3-1 formation if they don't have those key players which is why we failed to be competitive last season and fight for EPL title and go deeper in UCL. They don't need to be world class - as really, it's not easy to afford (not only because of money, but because of offer). But the problem is that we didn't have the DPL at all and our strikers were mediocre. The ideal for a 4-2-3-1 formation would require signings and I'd go randomly with this (the players between parenthesis are references for the position, not a viable signing): We have three amazing AM in Mazacar. I think Mata's best position is CAM while Eden's and Oscar's are LW. Eden has to play in the LW no matter what, he is our best player imo, and the best should always play where he fits better. Mata while good in both flanks, is way better when he's in the center so, we should keep him there. I favor Oscar playing as a RW because honestly if we want to keep him in the team (and I particularly want) that's where he would fit, despite not being able to shoot well with both feet. I chose Terry and Ivanovic instead of any of them + Cahill because I'm never relaxed when Cahill is playing. He's passing is terrible, his defensive skills while good, are far from world class. I believe if healthy Terry still has a season on him and I favor Ivanovic over Cahill. The truth is a guy like Thiago Silva or Varane (as both certainly aren't leaving PSG and RM) would also be welcomed. Maybe a young guy that José could work just like he did with Varane and slowly bring him to the team. Hopefully we could bring this guy as well because while good on paper, we know Terry is no boy anymore and his body isn't the same and chances are he will injure himself again and then need time to get rhythm again, and bla bla bla. I don't see KDB in the team yet, although I like him a lot. He could rotate with Oscar very often during the season, but let's say 2 years from now, I see KDB - Eden - Oscar with Mata rotating with Eden - if Mata is still in the club at all. I also promoted Luiz to the 2 because of two things: he's talented enough to develop his game (especially under Mourinho's wing) and he would like that, we would still need a DLP, but that's up to Roman and his team to provide. For the DLP position I don't know who we could actually sign. The references for me are Xabi - the best of all - and Bastian. And as a striker I just considered Cavani because of the rumors. I don't think he's that amazing, but he's good enough (although pricey). Also for this formation to work really well the players have to confuse the opponents defenders, so the yellow arrows are tactical changes between positions during the match. If a team for example decides to get a guy to 'follow' Eden in the pitch, if Eden switches positions with Oscar or Mata, it makes the rivals work to tackler harder. The blue arrows are the usual attack advances by LD, RD, DLP, CM, DM while the red arrows are the expected defensive movement (especially in a team where Mourinho is the manager) Now, without projections and working with the team we have now (considering Schrulle is already part of it) I think 4-3-3 is what could work. I know, too defensive. But I think if we don't get new signings (unlikely) or if they're young players that are to be used in the future instead of promptly, that's what Mourinho will bring to the table. While not a defensive manager per say, Mourinho is known for having very firm and effective defenses and as we had a LOT of defense problems last season, I think that's where we should begin. As season progresses and KDB gains confidence and chemistry with the team I see it changing to: In the first model Schurrle would be the most advanced while Mata and Hazard would have more advanced positions with Oscar approaching them often. The formation screams for a FW, but I refuse to have Torres in any team formation I idealize... that's why he's absent no matter what I project. But yeah, if we must move Mata to the right, keep Eden in the left and have Torres in the middle. That was what should have been done last season instead of the horrible 4-2-3-1. While Oscar doesn't excel the long passes he's better than the alternatives we had and don't remind me of Ramires as a winger because it still makes me want to hit my head in the wall. I'm too lazy to do the arrows, but the defensive and attack moves from the 4 backs and the 3 forwarders would be similar to the 4-2-3-1. The main difference is the midfield. Luiz would advance less often and Ramires would continue to play his box-to-box style while Oscar would often advance. Oscar would also be responsible to increase the pace (and quality) between defense-midfield-attack, receiving the ball preferably from Ramires - whose passing quality oscillates a lot (but normally is bad and sometimes good) and Luiz. Luiz also has better long passing than Ramires and he has a nice game vision and could help us either with long passes or simply carrying the ball and advancing towards the attack - as well as Oscar. In the second model we have de Bruyne replacing Ramires, but only in theory. For it to work defensively, KDB would be the one advancing to the attack more often while Azpilicueta would remain behind most time. It's a bit sacrificial, but Kevin's crosses are much more accurate and Azpili is very good defending. Luiz would also be more static in a defensive midfield position, protecting the defense as we say in Brazil. Oscar would continue to have freedom to go and come, as well as Kevin, and in this scenario we wouldn't really have a b2b midfield - something some people really like. But if the entire team moves in 'waves' we don't miss much a b2b like Ramires. When the team is defending both 3's will move back and when attacking both 3 are in the attacking field - with Luiz staying closer to the defense. I'm tired after so much typing and drawing. I'm never doing this again, hahaha.

They are here!

haven't seen this before Well there are many things that make you scary to me. First I was warned about you in my thread in the new members board - I was about Stingray too, but for completely different reasons. Then there's the hammer of Thor, and your scary avatar, and your seriousness, I'm always afraid of you. Now I'm normally brave - I guess - and outspoken, but not with you Mr. Alex. And the fact I'm much older than you makes it quite the accomplishment

Torres

Facebook sucks. end of story.

but I'll go further and maybe that's what wj818 meant in the first place (or not). As Mata halts Oscar's progress, Mourinho should favor Oscar over Mata in the formation (and even occasionally in the starting XI) as they both play better in the CAM position

I would pay high amount of cash for that Too bad it's Sunday, I may go to a spa tomorrow and get myself a relaxing massage

exactly that, except I wasn't trying to kiss my own butt, so my head was the opposite side. Try doing that at least 200 times (probably way more) And I was in 5 inches boots, to make it all worse I have some pictures - from the kids and the bunny (before you guys have the wrong idea) - when I'm not dying I'll post them

the kids country party! I was in the bunny's den. I flexed my body more times than humanly possible