Reaver180

Good luck from me too. I've put a tenner on you, so don't disappoint me

They didn't roll over, they were simply outplayed and mainly thanks to Ronaldo who got 1 goal and 3 assists. Villa did not commit many particular mistakes, all the goals were the result of great attacks by Manchester United. I am curious though just how good they are if they have to play without Ronaldo for an extended period of time.

Thanks for the welcome, everybody. I still remain unconvinced with regards to Mikel, but he certainly has time to improve. Ribery and Toni are doing wonderful, and have become our best players. Toni is right now one of the best strikers around and I don't see a better winger than Ribery bar Ronaldo. They certainly have proven their worth. Bayern is doing very fine right now, we are in the cup final, the UEFA quarter final and lead the Bundesliga with 7 points. Actually our only weakness is that we are sometimes a bit lazy and arrogant when we play against small teams. Today we drew with Nürnberg and two weeks ago we lost to the worst team of the league, Cottbus. With a bit more effort and concentration we could have been over 10 points ahead by now. Anyway, we have a very good chance to win all 3 trophies still. I very much look forward to CL action next year again. The UEFA Cup is really not the place for a team like us, but after the last season we deserved it.

Just watching their game against Aston Villa. They are absolutely frightening. Your boys will have to push hard to get 3 points in your game against them. The title is theirs to lose.

He is the best natural German striker since Klinsmann IMO. For 2 years he is living up to his hype. He was the top scorer in the last Bundesliga season and Germany's player of the year. This season he is just 1 goal behind Luca Toni despite having missed for about 5 games at the start of the season due to injury. He has 24 goals in 26 competitive games this season. You will have to spend a lot if you want him though. Half the Serie A is after him as well as Real. He will probably stay another year though to give his club a nice sum when he leaves at the end of next season.

First of all, hello. I've joined this forum a long time ago (when Chelsea played against Bayern Munich in the CL). Obviously I was and still am a Bayern fan and am pretty neutral with regards to your club. My interest was rekindled when you signed Michael Ballack and I have since followed his progress at Chelsea and with that the games of your team more closely. Many people here see Chelsea and Abramovich as the death of football due to the fact that you are now able to buy any player while other, historically more successful clubs can't match that. Personally I see it quite differently. I believe that your emergence into the top level of European clubs (I know that you were a decent team before, but not on that level) can prove to be the impetus for the established sides to manage their clubs more efficiently and to improve their quality wherever possible. The developments in the Premier League seem to support that. Manchester United has accepted your challenge and now matches your spending levels. The Premier League has gotten better year for year. I hope that this lesson will also be learnt by the clubs back here in Germany (At Bayern we had to after our miserable last season.) so that one day we can also have multiple successful clubs in the CL knock out rounds again. Now on to some of my observations having seen most of your games this season and read most of the threads here: - You seem kind of obsessed with wingers and a 4-3-3 system. Nobody can argue that it has brought you ample of success under Mourinho, but don't you think that with the current players a 4-4-2 would be the best option? I have often heard the claim that certain players can't play in certain positions and can't maximise their strengths. Well, top class players just have to overcome and adjust. As I see it your best formation would be: ------------------Cech Belleti-------Terry------Carvalho-------A.Cole J.Cole-----Ballack----- Essien--------Lampard -----------Drogba-----Kalou/Anelka Now some of it might seem exotic like Lampard in the left midfield, but think about it: Lampard is reasonably mobile, has a precise pass/cross and a high amount of footballing intelligence and vision. I remember a game where he picked out Ballack from the left and delivered a perfect cross that Ballack slotted in. You scored many other goals that way. Another thing, Lampard likes to shoot from outside, being on the left and right footed, that means that he can cut in to the middle and then unleash shots. IMO he offers you far more there than Malouda. Joe Cole has been great for you this year and he plays his best stuff on the right. Ballack and Essien would be a very good pairing in the middle. Ballack's control, passes, headers and shots coupled with Essien's lungs and tacklings should dominate almost any opposition (A similar style to the one played in the German national team where Ballack plays with another bulldog kind of player, Frings). If you are concerned about the defensive qualities of that formation, you can replace Essien with the superb Makelele. Up front you have of course Drogba and beside him a support striker. The nice thing about this formation and set of players is that it enables you to switch from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 in an instant with J.Cole going forther forward. In essence you will have the best of both systems available. What do you think? - Your most overhyped player is Mikel. I have seen him described as a future world class player here quite often, but honestly I don't see what's suppose to be great about him. He neither excells offensively nor defensively, IMO you have a lot of better players available that can play in CM (Ballack, Makelele, Lampard, Essien) and should they all be fit, Mikel should not even be in the squad. Still, he is young and he may turn out to become a better player than he is now. One thing remains though, you paid far too much for him. - What's the latest on Shevchenko? I was really horrified to see him fall so suddenly and lose his form. Quite astounding for a player of his quality. I reckon you are not planning with him anymore? - Grant is a very weird choice for a head coach and getting rid of Mourinho for him seems even weirder. I was really unhappy when we did not make moves for him as a replacement for Hitzfeld. Klinsmann is a risky choice. So, that would be it. Comments?