bluedrake55

cech az ivanovic cahill bertrand ramires mata oscar moses hazard torres oscar likes a tackle and i can see him with his range of passing been quite effective playing deep.

steve clarke is underestimated. i think the team is missing the leadership qualities of terry and lamps.

perhaps 'fat' frank ate a loserpool player! we all know his appetite for trophies and titles!

All these discussions about the defense, midfield and forwards has got me thinking. Especially when i am slagging of the goonies about how they have not got no leaders or a real captain and good players can only get you so far! It seems to me when Lamps, JT and Cole have been out we are lacking in that department! Perhaps that is all we need is for someone to step up to the plate in the middle of that pitch! Perhaps Branslav Ivanovic can be given the captain's armband?! Only my suggestion.

the african cup is coming up and some teams will suffer. so i expect citeh to be below us!

makes a lot of sense what you are saying and it just dawned on me that perhaps the reason we are like this is down to JT and Lamps. without them we seem to have no one stepping up to the plate in terms of taking the 'captain' role!

we are kings of europe and we are there to be shot at! wouldn't have it any other way! the victory is always the sweeter when we have to work damn hard at it! so what if other teams are 'showing' us a lot of respect but come the end i can see us challenging and winning things because RDM has got the t shirt!

i last time i sat there was against boro when avram was in charge! the atmosphere was really subdued with only one drunk guy singing the flag! i suspect it was because avram played with 3 defensive midfielders against a shocking boro side and we 'just' about won 2-1!

this 'idiot' watched the match! perhaps you would like to check up the match or read any paper and you will see him ball watching as saurez scores! perhaps if you gave your opinion on where the conceded goals were at fault instead of personally slagging of your fellow fans you might know football!

if we buy Fellani to partner Ramires then i can see us conceding less. Mikel is 'slow' and it showed today because when he was going up to join (and show no composure for his goal chances) the attack he was still in the opposition's half when the ball was about to enter our penalty area! i am sure under Jose players were told to motor back into position like Ramires does! you should check up the levante and real match today and watch essien and alonso!

Mikel played well?! perhaps you should check out the pictures in the newspapers when suarez scored because you will see him ball watching! personally i think we should of buried loserpool but did not because we are not dominating that middle. the final third is fine because of the trinity are bang on form. i think we should buy Fellani to partner Ramires.

he is quite the physical player who showed his worth at wigan and is something different to the 3.

every forward can defend but the best defense is attack. hazard tracks back to help out and to make himself available. to be honest he rarely tackles. correct me if i am wrong but is this what constitute to defending? i mean he dosen't have to tackle to show he is defending! the match on wednesday against manure where Mikel played one half and then Ramires the other half highlights the contrasting style of play between these 2. personally i believe that when both play Mikel has 'seniority' and this cause Ramires to not play like he did on a wednesday! oscar with his range of passing and his love of a tackle might be the ideal partner for Ramires.

the game last wednesday where we beat manure highlighted 2 very different performances by 2 midfielders performing the same job. Ramires looked like he wanted to own that midfield! then we come to the match against the swans, when he came on the second half he looked a totally different player! it seems to me that he is giving Mikel seniority in the midfield because when hernandez had the ball he slowed down and allowed Mikel to deal with him. unfortunately he was slow to deal with him and just turned his back on hernandez who scores. perhaps i am looking into this to much but all i see is Mikel is only good enough to provide cover for Ramires!

other teams envy us for having such versatile defenders.

zola. i named my cats after him and chopper!

i blame mikel for ball watching and waddling back!

i think the defense is fine. what concerns me is the roles ramires and mikel play. ramires is doing everything from tackling and trying to link up play. he is sprinting and running to try and cover everything. in fact i expect to be shot down here because i do not see mikel doing anything in any hurry. just a ball watcher when the ball is passed by him! it will be interesting in january!

in every walk of life people are competitive. some are so competitive that they will use any mean to their advantage. spies, bullies, scientists, money, absolutely anything! this is a dog eat dog world and the goonies (as an example)can profess all they want about a fair playing field but they do have one of the best managers in the world and a massive stadium.

personally i know people deep down will know it was a dive or not! it is only their club allegience that prevents them from believing it even if video replay shows otherwise! evans tackle on torres leg did enough to unbalance and disrupt his running flow. torres could of stayed on his feet but the moment had gone and we all know if torres made the effort to stay on his feet then the ref will not award a freekick! young on the other hand delibritely ran across ivan looking for any touch to go down! video replays a good thing but maybe not for torres 6 studs on cleverly which on video replay was bad!

if we don't dominate or match them in the midfield then we might be troubled! thank god they got a crap defence!

nearly everybody is wrong! we were spoilt in having players like claude makelele and michael essien! both were beasts in their position and it allowed the flair players to go about their business and the defenders to feel safe! can anyone tell me that we have a player of that quality? we are lucky to have a very good attacking front and defence that has just papered over the cracks! of course i could be wrong!!

any offers are always considered but it dose not mean they will happen!

i can remember in the eighties when my mate told me to check out the blokes pissing through the doorway because the toilets were flooded! i think those bad times are over!

on 73 minutes mikel shepherds a donetsk player on the right who passes the ball and mikel just turns rooted to the spot and pratically walks to the play. another donetsk player shoots and cech saves. if mikel can just buzz around and tackle agressively like ramires then he would dominate the midfield more and this will put less pressure on the defence and allow more time on the ball for the others.