Castiel

I have a feeling they'll be using him as a CB in that 352 system they're using with Shaw as the wingback. Who knows what's going over there?

Given the chance, Varane would beat out one of Terry or Cahill for a starting place. He really is that good. He's outrageously good. For some reason Ancelotti favours Pepe and Ramos despite him being better than both, I can only guess that this is because of politics. Mourinho showed faith in him and he was an absolute monster. The problem is Terry and Cahill have both been formidable for us, I don't really want to change it. But Varane as the successor to Terry is the best we could possibly do at the moment.

These qualifiers will be a pain in the ass for them early on. They've got Everton away in the league next. Hopefully they'll have a nice hangover, as one of Liverpool or City will be dropping points.

Just switched it on at the half time break, Arsenal been any good?

I don't think he saw it, I don't even think he knew where it was when it fell to Arfield. Box was packed and he didn't react at all until it was too late. Took him completely by surprise. It was just a rare defensive lapse from us. Someone (Oscar I believe) slipped at a really unfortunate moment to compound it, when he could have blocked the pass.

He's too good to sit on our bench and we can't be swapping keepers around like that. It's not a good practice, nor is it good for the players and Jose wouldn't indulge it. It's the right long term decision, hopefully Cech gets to go to a great club. Best keeper we ever had. Can we make Courtois wear the helmet? I can't get used to seeing a GK with hair.

City wouldn't sell to us and he's got nothing on Varane. I think he's got potential but I doubt he'll end up in the world class bracket, whereas Varane should. Since we've been consistently linked various CB's all summer, I'm quietly hoping Mourinho wants to get Varane out of a deal sending Cech to Madrid. We look short a man in central defence. Terry has back problems and usually has time out, he's also getting older. Ivanovich is currently covering two positions and Zouma is very much a prospect. Terry also has to hang up his boots eventually. Marca reported Varane, Di Maria and Benzema missed training yesterday so I have a little suspicion. Hope to f**k he doesn't go to United even though they're in dire need of a CB. We obviously need a backup striker more, but it won't happen until we can get rid of Torres which seems impossible.

I actually think he didn't intend for us to drop the intensity so much in the second half. He didn't seem to change the shape or make any defensive substitutions until Willian and Mikel at around 80mins. We just got a bit complacent after the break which I think he'll be working on, though being the first game the players probably aren't up to 100% yet either. I could be wrong but I suspect he'll want them to be more ruthless until we switch into closing it out, especially considering City can score 100 goals in a season. That first half was the best I've seen us play in years. Cannot wait for Leicester at the Bridge.

I agree with the general sentiment, he didn't do anything wrong but he didn't stand out either. It's hard to figure out exactly what his best role in the team is meant to be. He should get a good run of games for the moment so hopefully he flourishes in that midfield 3. He seemed to work well with Fabregas and Matic, wonderful balance in there and he can pass much better than Ramires.

Liverpool's defending is comic.

Lucky goons. Hopefully City drop points though.

Never underestimate Arsenal's capacity to bottle it.

Not a bad strike either.

Brilliant start. Somehow managed to top Moyes.

United look really weak, it's a shame Swansea probably won't take advantage of it though. If they miss out on top 4 again this season their finances will take a real hit, not to mention their UEFA coefficient - they could be a pot 3 team by next season.

United: De Gea; Jones, Smalling, Blackett; Lingard, Fletcher, Herrera, Young; Mata; Rooney ©, Hernandez Swansea: Fabianski, Rangel, Amat, Williams ©, Taylor, Ki, Shelvey, Dyer, Sigurdsson, Routledge, Bony

Because Schwarzer is good backup. He was great for us last season when Cech dislocated his shoulder (Liverpool away). But both Cech and Courtois are too good to be on anyone's bench, we have to lose one.

You never know with that club. It's a circus obsessed with the next big thing. They sold a 25 year old Robben for 22m and Sneijder for 15m. They sold us Makelele for 16m. At least they got some good money for Ozil, and seem to be holding out for a big fee for Di Maria. I can see them parting with Khedira for cheap though.

Interested to see how Barca make that forward 3 work. If they can figure out a way to accommodate them all it'd be some attacking line.

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Looks like they might be going for Reus now. Sergi Domínguez @FutbolSergi "Breaking from Cadena Cope: Atletico Madrid have made an offer for Marco Reus." Jonas Giæver @CheGiaevara Follow What Cadena COPE are writing here is that Borussia have asked €27m of Atlético for Reus. €17m to be paid now, €10m to be paid in January. 12:02 AM - 15 Aug 2014

Indeed, and we also buy these players in bulk. That profit does add up. We wouldn't be taking this approach if it wasn't in our favour, and we've already seen some big hits with KDB, Lukaku, Courtois etc. Very occasionally we'll end up signing a future world class talent (like Courtois), the rest of the time we're basically a youth player agency.

The thing with Oscar is he hasn't been in any kind of good form for a long time now. When he was in form he wasn't better than Mata. He had that one great performance against Juventus which comes to mind, but I've never seen him replicate that since. By which I mean a game where he utterly dominates and wins matches on his own. By contrast, Mata had scores of absolutely outstanding performances to his record, whilst boasting a complete set of offensive and creative tools in his arsenal. He had great set piece delivery, creativity, shooting, movement, passing range and link up play - all qualities Oscar can't seem to compete with. Perhaps most importantly, Mata had presence on the pitch. How many times did he completely change the game for us? That game at WHL springs to mind, Spurs score two in quick succession in the second half and have us on the ropes. Enter Mata and utter domination - completely transforming our attack, pulling the strings and orchestrating the offence to drive us to victory. I've never seen Oscar come close to producing the same sort of effect; and as people have pointed out, Fabregas was doing the same for Arsenal at the same age. Mata even had comparable close control, he weaved through defenders twice his size (like Toure and Kompany) and had a talent for ghosting into pockets of space to shoot, even in packed boxes. He was the sort of player I'd be happy to make concessions for, have some solid CM's behind him like Matic to compensate for his defensive frailties. He practically carried our team offensively through his two seasons here and was a shining example on the pitch. He fought for the team and put his heart and soul into his game to the point of dragging us to victory even when his team-mates were being hopeless. Not to downplay his weaknesses, I certainly saw Mourinho's point. He was close to useless out of possession. In our 2012 CL run he was anonymous against both Barca and Bayern (except vital set pieces) - he required the ball to be effective whereas Oscar has excellent play off the ball, to his credit. But Oscar doesn't play defence splitting passes, he doesn't dictate play, he doesn't post impressive goal/assist tallies and he certainly doesn't have the kind of influence over games that Mata had. He's very good at pressing and footwork in tight spaces, he runs his heart out and gets all over the pitch. But for me, what he does bring to the table doesn't come close to outweighing what a Mata or a Silva brings to that position. At the moment I think Mourinho bet on the wrong horse, I think that's why he bought Fabregas. Though Fabregas/Modric can play deeper which is also what he wanted, more control over games. Regardless, when Mata left all the creativity was sucked out of our side, save Hazard who then had too much to do on his own. I realise the Oscar v. Mata debate has been done to death, but we need to remember that Mourinho did play a zero sum game here. He sold Mata to accommodate Oscar, and I still believe that was the wrong call. I'm not sure what to make of Oscar. He's young so I'm not writing him off by any stretch, but he certainly needs to turn it around soon. People talk about his potential, but I'm struggling to buy into the vision of his glorious future. It's now at the point where this vaunted potential is almost ethereal, a matter of blind faith. Compare it to someone like Hazard's potential; you can see him make his outrageous mazy runs or demonstrate his vision and passing range, and you can conceive of the idea of him hitting the heights of the very best wingers/AM's in the world. But with Oscar? I don't see anything to suggest he could hit the heights of a Mata, or a Silva - much less a Zidane or any other truly great AM. I want nothing more than for him to prove me wrong, but I just don't see the tools there to make him a world-class No.10.

What happened to Spudulike? Is he still around?

I'm with the line of reasoning that rules are rules, provided this is the standard punishment for UEFA (I have a feeling this has happened before and they didn't kick out the offender). But I also agree with this. Why was he allowed on to begin with? Even on the bench? As I understand it you have to submit your squad sheets to UEFA and he should have been rejected then and there. Unless they played him when he wasn't even named on the team sheet?