youthofpoyet

A 25 year old French man playing as a DM, whom was no doubt raised on a diet of Makelele positioning and Essien recovery. I would say the reasons for joining the club are very obvious outside of the financial

Quite a lot of hyperbole on this thread - perfect warm up for a champions league game imo, Stoke play inverted wingers with a compact middle, a UCL favourite, our wide full backs caused them problems at times. The most disappointing players today; Willian & Oscar. Willian did not play a counter game well and Oscar did not take up the number 10 positions in the box (his build up play was mostly good). Ramires would have been ideal today, Clattenburg anything but ideal.

Maybe - depends on personnel to be honest. I like the u21's midfield of RLC, Alli and Ward-Prowse. RLC stands out. If we signed someone in the ilk of Matuidi and had a midfield of RLC, Matuidi and Fabregas I think RLC would most likely make an impact - lets see what the new manager does

I would most certainly say he has a chance but I can't say I'm overconfident. I was very impressed at his interview on Sky Sports this morning - I thought he conducted himself extremely well and raised some interesting points about self expression being a key element of his game. My concerns come with him as a CM in a 4231, a young player becoming a CM in this formation has to either have outstanding agility/balance or positional awareness much beyond his years (see Neves at Porto who's understanding of the game for a 18 y/o is freakishly good as was Fabregas's at Arsenal). From what i've seen of RLC neither of these characteristics come to mind so I think a CAM role might be his best bet for his outstanding attributes, I certainly think he is better than Barkley