Samdwich

3 players able to play the one CF position is too thin? Last season we had 5 strikers in our squad - Drogba, Torres, Anelka, Sturridge, Lukaku. This isn't even counting Kalou as a striker. How many of them actually got minutes at CF? Drogba and Torres. So what's the point in having 3 out and out strikers, so the third one just sits on the bench? Your dismissal of our strikers is laughable, btw. Lukaku has the best goals per minute ratio in the PL at the age of 19 and is improving at an alarming rate. At this rate he'll be very very good by the end of next season. The hoofball comment is just... dumb, really. Ba was one of the top scorers in the league before coming here, competing with RVP and Suarez. FSW has benched him out of form and utilised him badly, and he's gotten a tough ride from the fans with everyone writing him off after one bad game. Ba is a great forward and I'm confident that with a competent manager he can comfortably fire us to top 4 next season. That said, I hope that by the end of next season Lukaku is first choice.

But selling Ronaldo was also good business for Man Utd, doesn't make it beneficial to the club though.

This would be ridiculous. The fact that Dortmund are interested in him for their first team but we want to send him on loan in itself is f**king ridiculous.

Didn't get to see the game but saw the highlights, was Luiz in midfield with Lampard? Or did we have Azpi playing wide right?

I think the difference is the speed of build-up/transitions - because our build up is slow, it allows the opposition time to get back into shape. When the opponents are holding their defensive shape, our players can't really make long passes as they'll be intercepted, so they have to move closer together in order to keep the ball moving. Dortmund (and Madrid) are both very good at transitions and are known for very quick build up play, so they encounter this problem less. That said, with all of Dortmund's goals Madrid's defence were in position and Dortmund's players were relatively close together. Bayern got a lot of space because Barca play high up the pitch and dominate possession, and Bayern were good at their transitions. Barca have become accustomed to facing deep, packed defences and their play is based around having players in close proximity to each other, making triangles and quick passing. It generally takes a while. Often with a new manager the team will have an initial "bounce" and do well - eg. Sunderland under Di Canio. This is usually put down to mental factors, but it could be that there's an immediate change in style which is more suited to the team. Fergie, for example, took 4 years to win a trophy with Utd and the rest is history. We've been guilty of not giving managers enough time. I'm gonna say only Jose and Carlo got enough time to get the team playing the way they wanted, and the sackings of both were really stupid.

Dortmund are power, speed and physicality when compared to Madrid, the side famed for fast counterattacking football, whose talisman probably epitomises those traits? Also cause it's relevant to this managerial discussion: remember how 6-7 months ago when there was speculation about Pep coming to Chelsea, and half the posters on here were writing him off, saying that it is easy to do what he did with Barca? What a surprise it is that without him they're a shadow of the team that has dominated CL ties over the past 5 years.

sad to see, they were looking like they could really compete with Bayern over the next few years and then all the players leave... the most promising one to Bayern.

possibly, but he can't take players on as often in the Xavi role which is one of his greatest strengths imo.

nah Luiz is a defender, they don't buy those. We should be more worried about them buying Mikel to convert into a CB They're got Thiago and Fabregas to replace Xavi, but I've not seen either of them play the same role so they'd both need to be adapted a bit

I think it could well work with Oscar in the 4-3-3. Would be similar to the 4-2-3-1 we played under RDM - ie. with Mata and Hazard coming in off the wings and Oscar in the middle, but just a bit deeper here where, imo, he is better as he has the play ahead of him. Then once Lamps is gone we can use Ramires there. Problem is the holder, will Mikel be adequate as a single holding mid?

based on them right now, Robben easily. Incredible performance last night, both with and without the ball - something you don't associate with him.

The Bayern situation is weird, Heynckes has done so well this season but they're bringing Guardiola in anyway? Heard something about retirement, did Heynckes say that he was going to retire and then change his mind?

Incredible, well done Bayern.

I saw most of the second half. We lacked Benitez's famed "control", so what does he do to remedy it? Takes off Hazard, the player giving us most "control" by holding it up and skipping away from tackles to bring on Benayoun. What? Also I would love to see the logic behind Torres starting. He played against Fulham, he's going to play against Basel whilst Ba is fresh, and most importantly Ba is at least twice as good as him. What the f**k was he expecting?!

It is a noticeable difference, and it's why I prefer Romeu over Mikel. We all know that Mikel is slow on the ball. The point is, though, that he's still able to make good passes and it's not his lack of ability that prevents him making them. You mentioned AVB using Fernando for Porto - after a few months here when he'd tried to play Meireles there, he said something about that position (number 4 he called it?) - transitions in the PL are very fast and vertical which means that if the #4 has gone to attack, he does not have time to get back into position to cover. This is one of the main differences between the PL and other leagues - losing the ball in the PL is more risky because you're going to be caught with a ridiculously fast counterattack (two of the best counterattacking sides of the past decade have been Arsenal and Man Utd, imo). Losing it as the defensive midfielder means that you are going to face a counterattack with half of your team completely eliminated from the game and unable to help out defensively. There's a reason that Mikel's mistakes seem more costly than others'. Because if Hazard loses the ball, he's got most of the team behind him ready to prevent the counterattack. If Mikel loses the ball, depending on the angle of the pass he's likely only got the back four to cover the counterattack. And this is why I think he's told to be conservative with his passing

Gotta say Jonty here. Both teams have great attacking players but Essien with just Zico ahead of him would get overrun by Matthaus and that c**t Keane and Zidane/Iniesta dropping in to provide passing options. As CBB I would have started Essien and Redondo and put one of Zico and Bergkamp on the bench - they're both amazing players but it would balance the team more. As Jonty I'd sub Ronaldinho on for Iniesta in the first 15 mins :D

The only time Romeu was noticeably more positive in his passing than Mikel was under AVB when Mikel barely played. This season there has been no noticeable difference in their distribution except Romeu gets it into the final third faster than Mikel does.

I'm not saying that he's brilliant, but when you see him making good, positive passes when playing for Nigeria and then see him rarely attempting anything of that nature with us, you have to question the instructions he's getting. Look at the passes he used to play under Ancelotti, he would often hit it long for Anelka and Malouda (against premier league opposition), he doesn't anymore. Even this season we've seen him hit fantastic long range passes on occasion (CL game against Juve(?) springs to mind where he set Hazard free on goal with a 40-50 yard pass) so it's clear that he's got the ability to be more positive. If the manager was telling him to be more positive and he wasn't doing it, you think he'd keep his place in the team?

so because the opposition are better, he doesn't attempt more positive passes when he has time and space? makes sense.

1. Mata 2. Luiz 3. Cech 4. Hazard 5. one of the fullbacks - Azpilicueta has been a revelation but Cole is just so consistently excellent that we overlook it. Surprised to see Ramires getting so much praise, he's been very inconsistent this season.

probably because he was twice their size... He's not incapable of playing good offensive passes, he does it for Nigeria all the time and used to do it much more regularly under Ancelotti, he is just seemingly told not to.

He's definitely qualified to rebuild the Bridge...

Looks like the brazillians are going to monopolise this competition, Rambo has the last two and Oscar and Luiz are the best two from this year!

I meant in terms of your estimates regarding how much we'll cut from the wage bill, getting rid of him won't cut anything as his wages aren't currently on us.

Those still saying he's not good enough: why? He has been absolutely faultless defensively recently which is very impressive considering his age. Hasn't been a revelation going forward but we know from his time on the wing that it's not a huge weakness of his. With time I think he could be a very impressive fullback.