Samdwich

Of course it doesn't. What it does show, though, is that he is a more defensive/cautious/reactive manager than the likes of Carlo and Hiddink who looked to take the game to the opposition in the vast majority of games. Yes, Hiddink was the first to completely nullify Barca with disciplined defending, but he did that against possibly the greatest team ever, not this Manure squad...

I love Jose as much as the next guy, but you surely can't tell me that the way we set up at OT wasn't defensive/negative? Bringing on Mikel for Schurrle and Azpilicueta for Hazard at the end of the game when we're level is pretty negative. The way we killed off the game against Hull in the second half was also quite typical of Jose - effective, but really crap to watch. Ancelotti and Hiddink (best two we've had in between Jose's spells) didn't do that, and both delivered results. Also you called Guardiola and Wenger weak managers... heh.

Barca Juve City Napoli Would be hilarious, and despite getting rid of the clown Mancini I would be surprised if City got through that. Dortmund being in pot 3 is mental though. As well as the above group, we could end up with something like: Real PSG Dortmund Celtic two groups like that would be crazy.

Except he wasn't... He was injured for the first couple of games, then was fit and sat on the bench for a long run of games before being injured for Juventus - where he should have started. He got over that injury pretty quickly iirc.

That was fairly poor from us. Same issues as last season when a team presses us in midfield (Villa's midfield did this very well). Ramires' passing has impressed me a lot these past two games, he looks so much better on the ball, but I felt that Lamps was the weak link in the midfield, particularly in the first half when he kept trying to pass it 40 yards to Ba and losing possession.

Surprised at this thread - I thought his link-up play was very good last night, had some great touches that I can't see Lukaku/Ba being able to play.

I'm told that Sky Sports is free this weekend, not sure if that means you'll be able to get it through freeview?

Spanish papers have been on about Luiz to Barca for weeks, often coming out with sh*t like "Luiz is prepared to take a wage cut to join Barcelona" etc. f**king papers are constantly unsettling players for Barca and Madrid. Bastids.

I've seen a lot about Essien being in good form in pre-season so I was looking forward to seeing him yesterday against Milan (first pre-season game I've watched this year) and I was surprised but Mikel just looked better than him in every department... better defensively, played with more intensity (!!! Mikel playing with more intensity than Bison) and better on the ball. Will be interesting to see how both do under Jose once the season starts. Maybe he can coax Mikel into being more positive and quicker to act when going forward. Anyway, what I've said may be construed as a positive for Mikel so I better get out of here.

Agree with bjd about him getting slightly unfair treatment from fans at the moment. It's probably confounded by his decision to fast. (I've been told that you aren't supposed to fast if it hinders your work? Or are "allowed" not to.) Think we'll see a marked improvement once the season begins.

We said the same thing about Drogba and Torres back in 2010

It's because there are more Manure fans in London than in Manchester.

I thought this was the torres thread?! Bloody hell, so many threads confuse me!!!

Selling Bale would make these players a lot more reluctant to go to Spurs. Also there's the "Torres effect" - ie. teams will know that Spurs have a fat wad of cash to spend and will hold them over a barrel in negotiations like Newcastle did to Liverpool. With Levy at the head, that will just mean that the money isn't reinvested.

They still think Vidic is the best CB in the league and, more importantly, feel that they can rely on him when he's made 25 PL appearances in the past 2 seasons. They also overrate Camelface. I met a manure "fan" (from Bournemouth...) who was telling me that Rafael is the best RB in the league, and that he should start for Brazil ahead of Alves.

from that thread: manure fans

That's where his best form was last season, under RDM in November. Sounds like Oscar will be the central attacker - Mourinho names Hazard, KDB, Schurrle, Moses etc. as right footers who can play on the left but doesn't mention Oscar. Probably makes it easier for us to switch to a 4-3-3 too as Oscar is probably the most suited of our AMs to playing in a midfield 3.

Song is decent defensively when he doesn't abandon his defensive duties. In his last season at Arsenal there was a massive creative void in AM and he took on more and more creative responsibility (see RVP's volleyed goals from Song balls over the top), abandoning his defensive duties in the process. As for Khedira: good player, but not who we need. He's basically a more powerful, slower Ramires. Don't see any demand for him in our squad at all.

Yup, exactly. People wondered why English players were very good for their clubs but didn't produce at the WC and it's because we lacked the balance that their clubs had with the less direct players behind them.

I don't think he's too direct generally, but he's certainly too direct for the role he's supposed to play in our system, imo. His directness did help us in some games last season, and even more so the season before (he just loves Barca), but it did more to hamper our build up as, quite often, he'd be over-ambitious and lose the ball instead of passing it 10 yards and continuing the build-up. I remember being really frustrated with him at the start of the season in particular when he had 69% pass completion vs QPR - absolutely shocking for someone that's supposed to be dictating play. Agree that he has a big role to play next season, but I don't think he should be starting in our "best XI".

I have seen many people putting him in their projected first XI for next season. Whilst I think he has a role to play, I think we should pick and choose the games, I don't think he should be an automatic starter as he just doesn't fit into the system. Imo the problem is that he's too direct and impatient, always going for the spectacular. As such he doesn't dictate play, which is what we need to control games effectively. Same problem as Gerrard really, as well as many many English players - they all just want to go straight for goal and the 60 yard passes to the 5'6" forward instead of keeping it simple. Scholes and Carrick seem to be the exceptions to this

I don't think there's any way that we'd get Rooney and play him as anything other than a number 9 save for exceptional circumstances. He's a great number 9 but has had to play number 10 at Manure due to lack of good players. We also have better number 10s (Mata and Hazard, Oscar will be better soon too). If we get him, he'll excel as a lone striker - probably a perfect fit for our system tbh as he is technical enough to get involved in neat exchanges with our AMs, bulky enough to hold players off and likes to drop deep as a forward which would create space against packed defences.

I agree that they struggle to get the top talent, not because of lack of pull but because they don't have the budget - Glazers don't care about football, they care about profit/turnover. They care about football to the extent that they want Manure to keep their domestic dominance and keep the income up. Fergie has done well for them - without spending too much*, they've still won consistently. Look at last season's title winning squad - they aren't great, but they won. This will be harder without old rednose and they do need to spend, particularly with us and City improving. I don't think the Glazers see it this way, though. £40m+ on Fabregas means £40m + wages less profit for their pockets. Will be interesting to see what will happen if, as I expect, they lose their vicegrip on the league. Will the Glazers then invest to regain dominance, or will they squeeze some profit out and sell while the value is still high. I reckon the latter. *Their recent spending has been underplayed - paying £18m for dross like Young and Jones etc. It always has been unfortunately, mate. We didn't lose Jimmy Greaves all those years ago because he wanted to leave now, did we?

The passing ability in that midfield trio (Carrick-Fabregas-Kagawa) would be incredible. Would risk being overrun by physical/energetic midfields though and I just can't see Moyes doing that

Hold the press guys. Stop. That video... is... it's old. That means you have to stop watching/enjoying it right this second. It's old.