James Rodríguez

[Atlas Lion 1,223]

Would love us to get a quality left footer on the right. Good finishing, Close control dribbler like hazard but with robben's determination to attack his marker into the 18box. Dimaria would be gold.

That will put us head and shoulders the best team in the epl and top 5 in Europe.

We have the best young GK in the world, we already have the best Defence in the league now stronger with Filipe Luis, arguably one of if not the best central midfield in the league with Matic and Cesc, the best attacking trio in the league, and one of the worlds best striker and a returning World Cup winner. We are more than ready for this season to start.

[The Skipper 20,609]

the best attacking trio in the league,

Disagree with this tbh, I think City's attacking trio are better. I'd also put our attacking trio on par with Arsenal's (and United if they manage to get Di Maria).

[DYC. 7,542]

75m euros apparently.

You obviously don't understand the transfer fee game. When it's about your own favourite team, you go with the lowest reported fee. When it's about another team, you go with the highest reported fee.

Crazy money but that's the way Real roll. They've been doing it for decades and they'll always keep doing it.

I enjoy watching James play so I hope he'll be a succes. With Kroos and James in their ranks, I'll definitely be watching more Real games than I usually do.

[cadenza666 221]

why we no close thread yet :carlo2:

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Football is mirroring the real world. The economy for the top-10 teams (the less than 1%) is so absurd and it doesn't even matter because they just get who they want. Did Barcelona with Messi and Neymar need Suarez? Not at all. Does Real Madrid need James Rodriguez. Not in the least. This kind of stuff is so bad for football because great players, players we should be seeing every single week, sit on benches and play as a subs once in a while Madrid now has Ronaldo, Bale, Isco, Alonso, Kheidera, Kroos, Rodriguez, Modric, and Di Maria for 5 positions. That is a complete and utter waste of talent. The rich just keep getting richer and football suffers.

[Fulham Broadway 17,319]

Real Madrids forward line has now cost more than Ajax have spent on transfers ......ever.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

We have the best young GK in the world, we already have the best Defence in the league now stronger with Filipe Luis, arguably one of if not the best central midfield in the league with Matic and Cesc, the best attacking trio in the league, and one of the worlds best striker and a returning World Cup winner. We are more than ready for this season to start.

I'm not saying we are not ready for the season, I was just thinking of what will make us have on par starting lineups with bayern/madrid/barca

I refuse to accept our ams that have chance finishing/chance creating problems as the best ams in the league. And dimaria is on par with hazard in creating chances/dribble style(That's why I said dimaria would tip the scales in our favour and put us on par with our former mourinho team)

Unless schurlle brings his world cup form here, we just have to pray every chance falls into only costa's feet, because from last season basis, any other am we have will miss more than they score.

As for the pivot, its on par with city. Yaya/fernadinho was still a devastating pivot last season, buying fabregas doesn't mean yaya toure wasn't arguably the best midfielder in europe last season.

And aguero is on par with costa.

We underestimate city's team too much. They're still a little better than us if we remove the defence and keeper.

I was just comparing starting lineups from midfield till strikers, of course if I include the defence, it evens out between us.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

BVB is a top team.

They will always replace well.

And juve.

Were better than them imo (pirlo is not as good as he was 2yrs ago and immobile is no lewandoski)

If we lose to them I'll be disappointed.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

DI maria to United? where's that came from? they only talk about PSG so far.

tbh i prefer Hazard-Oscar-Willian-Costa to City's front 4. Arsenal got a great attack too, imo they're second best to us. City's attacking quality comes alot from Yaya and the full backs, and except Silva i dont think any of their AM is that good. You can say the same about us and Hazard last season, but i think Willian/Oscar/Schurrle have a lot more potential than Navas/Milner/Nasri.

[Korea 734]

DI maria to United? where's that came from? they only talk about PSG so far.

tbh i prefer Hazard-Oscar-Willian-Costa to City's front 4. Arsenal got a great attack too, imo they're second best to us. City's attacking quality comes alot from Yaya and the full backs, and except Silva i dont think any of their AM is that good. You can say the same about us and Hazard last season, but i think Willian/Oscar/Schurrle have a lot more potential than Navas/Milner/Nasri.

I would rate City, arsenal than chelsea... (but it all depends on how well costa does).

[didierforever 7,349]

Views on who has the best squad going into the new season? Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and then possibly us?

Madrid hands down. But a lot depends on how the players are used.

The line up of

CR-BENZEMA-BALE

JAMES-MODRIC-KROOS

is overkill and will be DESTROYED on counters. Which means that either benzema/kroos will have to be sacrificed.

Barca have not done anything to improve their defence so don't think that on paper they have the strongest squad. Maybe, enrique won't play the PEP tiki taka or rather the tiki taka that barca played in 2008 with henry, etoo.

Bayern are obviously one of the strongest squads out their but pep's insistence on playing with tiki-taka will be their death in europe atleast. Dante-boateng shiuld not be playing a high line while badstubber might be a massive addition but it is yet to be seen how he holds up after alnost a whole season of injury. Also the sale of kroos hardly affects them. They have already bought bernat which means they now have 4 full backs (rafinha, contento, alaba, bernat) so lahm will be playing in the mid.

Psg seems one of the best squads around. With a silva-luiz Cb pairing and the possible signing of maria, they can be a real threat.

City as a squad beats us too in strength. They have a brilliant first team with managala- kompany as the CB pairing, plus a really good sub to every player. If coata gets injured for a CL semi, we play with luakaku while city play jovetic/negredo.

While all teans may have this or thay, we have a JOSE!!!

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Madrid and Barcelona got 2 of the best squads in the world on paper, followed by Bayern then City, PSG and us for me. However it isn't always the strongest team that win or go far but rather the most hard working, disciplined and often talented(not super stars) get far such as Inter, Dortmund, Atletico, Lyon and Schalke showed in the last 5-6 years in the CL.

At the start no one believed they will get far but they do anyway, and by having talented players with great managers instead full of super stars. So the manager and the tactic is just as important as the quality of players. For example we should get beaten on nearly every single position on the pitch if played against those big 3, but in reality we are likely to lose by 1-2 goal difference max, maybe even draw or win by narrow margin too.

[AndersonBLUE 819]

71 mill holy fuck

[LAM09 7,056]

Am I the only one thinking he has been bought for too much once again?

[nyikolajevics 2,700]

Am I the only one thinking he has been bought for too much once again?

Who doesn't? He was twice as expensive as Hazard.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

Who doesn't? He was twice as expensive as Hazard.

To be fair he was bought based on world cup performance, and based on the world cup he was about 2x as good as Hazard.

[LAM09 7,056]

Who doesn't? He was twice as expensive as Hazard.

I guess they bought him on his WC performances. Prices sky rocket during it!

[Special Juan 28,141]

This transfer has done my fucking head in. I've had a drink, and I still don't get it.

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

To be fair he was bought based on world cup performance, and based on the world cup he was about 2x as good as Hazard.

Yeah true but i don't think it's a very smart decision to buy a player based only on his world cup performance.

I mean what was it 5 games ?

This is something that seems to happen every WC. For some reason when a player has a great WC or a poor one, everything that player has done seems to be completely ignored and the only thing remaining is his WC performance.

Honestly it's hilarious how some people actually thing Rodriguez is better then Hazard or even as good as him.

I feel bad for this James Rodriguez lad. He's gonna be at real with a massive amount of pressure on him to perform as he did in the WC. If he doesn't perform immediately he'll just be cast aside like Isco is now. It's just ridiculous.

[nyikolajevics 2,700]

To be fair he was bought based on world cup performance, and based on the world cup he was about 2x as good as Hazard.

You're right, he was fantastic in Brazil but still... He is an outstanding player but even the 45 million that Monaco payed for him was surprising.. But 80 million... They payed 81M euros for Suarez and 94M for Ronaldo.. These two players are top ones, they have proved their quality. James is 23 and he has never played in a top three league or in the Champions League(maybe a few matches for Porto, I don't remember).

Also, if Kroos, Modric, Bale, Ronaldo and James play at the same time who would steal the show? Some of them will disappear and I haven't even mentioned Di Maria and Isco.