plamf

If there was a touch it was a pen, simple as that. The question is whether there was a touch or not because I haven't seen a clear replay yet

I've been destroying folk with Barca. I went Chelsea and got destroyed by Man City. Quite simply because our central midfield is sh*te. Our team is strange at the moment. We have a pretty decent defence, a phenomenal creative attacking midfield area, a striker who has more bad days than good then a central midfield that's just abysmal. I'm not going to be in a hurry to go us in ranked games because our central area is so poor, much like real life. To think we once had a peak Lampard, Ballack and Essien there...deary me. What was RDM thinking in spending his entire budget on the same position.... A De Rossi, Pirlo or Yaya Toure would make this side Premiership winners. I'll have another go with Chelsea just now and just give the ball to Hazard! Only there's no Drogba to head in the crosses anymore.........

You must be joking. He's a left winger and a pretty useless one.

We should have signed RVP. Then maybe tried giving Torres a shot wide left or something because he seems better outside the box and can create some chances. The team can't afford to carry a player and a 25-30 goal a season player has been lacking since 09/10. It's pretty crazy the champions league winners have a striker that scored 6 league goals last season and no backup

Dempsey is an AMC that plays almost as a false 9 for Fulham. We already have a bench full of those and he wouldn't get near the XI. We could do with a player like Tiote We should have splashed out on a De Rossi type player instead of just buying attacking players. Put Yaya Toure and De Rossi behind Hazard, Mata, Oscar and Torres and you have the best team in the world after Barca

I take it you're the forum troll

He's the holding player in a 2 man midfield and has never contributed anything going forward.

Why repeat what I have already said. My original points trounce all yours.

23 assists, 12 goals last season. /discussion

Try rereading my original post. Everything in it refutes all of your points.

Surely not. Stoke or Wigan is more his level now if that.

Don't see him starting more than 10-15 games this season. Very odd signing./

I thought he was terrible last season bar a late flurry and some crucial passes in Europe. The Lampard of old used to control games and destroy everyone in front of him. He is a ghost of his former self and is now one year older.

Have Man Utd ever had anything other than a piss easy draw? Their co-efficient is grossly inflated by the easy draws they get. Luckily now they are so bad that they don't necessarily get past the group stage Or the next one in the Europa

No, defence is never the long term solution. What you need in football is balance. Unfortunately, we have a lopsided team because we've spent £73m on the same type of player and ignored the middle of the park. And the striker area And the defence

Does anyone other than Sky Sports still believe this? Surely the Spanish have long killed this myth, and I often find the Bundesliga more enjoyable too.

Thank you! I am glad someone else has noticed the glaringly obvious! Our central midfield looks more like a mid table side and we have no backup for Torres...we certainly look brilliant in the number 10 area though!!?? The problem is, you need central midfielders to win the ball and pass it to the creative players....

Somewhat reminiscent of Bilbao twice making a fool out of Man Utd and bringing premiership teams down back to earth!!

4-0 . My worries are coming to fruition....

One thing that is very questionable is spending £73m on attacking midfielders when we already had Ramires and Mata and severely needed players to replace Lampard and Essien in central midfield. Hazard is a signing that goes without saying, Marin is a bargain and Oscar should be a quality signing too but Moses isn't going to get ahead of them. We seem to have spent our entire budget on one position

We can only play 1 striker in this formation so it isn't going to happen. We certainly need backup/competition for Torres but that would be a cheaper sort of player

One is finished and the other never had it

This is a major step up from Wigan, Reading and Newcastle and it's confirming what's blatantly obvious. We have no midfield. We basically have a galactico type attack (presuming Torres retains form) yet in the middle we have nothing.

Wigan and Reading will probably get relegated this season. Newcastle had plenty chances to get a point out of that game. It's no surprise to me to see Atletico ripping us apart

A huge worry Was seriously lacking last season. Now, we are playing a very attacking formation and look quality in the final third. But to play a 4-2-3-1 you need two very strong central midfielders. Tonight we have Mikel (never been anything more than a mediocre holding player) and Lampard (34 years old and since 09/10 hasn't been anything like the player he was). I can see this tactic definitely getting us in the top 3 or 4 in the EPL, but in Europe we might get some goings over. I can't get my head round the Victor Moses signing. We already spent our entire budget on pretty much the same position, then went and spent more on backup. We have a crazy amount of quality creative attacking midfielder types, yet we have pretty mediocre central midfielders. Worrying indeed as it's the most crucial area of the park. IMO, we should have made a 'landmark' signing in the central area and we probably could have done with two of them. It's annoying that the creative attacking areas are finally sorted yet there's such a glaring, crucial omission. It's unfortunate that Essien is finished because a box to box world class player is exactly what we need