bluelion111

If we could keep him fit, Gundogan would be a really good fit I think.

Has anyone on here seen a lot of Lewis Baker recently? I think we need another CM in the mould of Fabregas who can dictate the play whilst ideally contributing more defensively and I remember hearing lots of good things about him, good passing range, free-kicks, two-footed etc.

Of all the top FB's I can think of off the top of my head, none were particularly big, in fact Lahm, Carlos, Cafu, Cole were/are the best of their generation despite being fairly small. Even if he thinks this is the best way to go, surely the fact that its failed every time this season has to lead to a change against Villa?

I'd be very careful when it comes to the bit I bolded as ticket touting is illegal and theres also no guarantee the tickets are even genuine, if a price seems so good to be true it probably is.

Thank you Demba.

Entire team to a man was abysmal today, especially Cahill who i don't think won a single header against their attackers.

2 positives of the Porto game for those who missed it (from my perspective): 1) Costa's hold up play was really good. Everything about him, from strength to dribbling was much improved despite virtually nothing to work with and was a lick of paint away from scoring a screamer which Casillas had no chance of getting to. Showed aggression without his usual bouts of anger and probably had his best game this season. 2) Willian played as an inside forward on the left and looked full of energy going forward and tracking back. Scored a gorgeous FK as well and looked up for the fight. Put in a gorgeous cross which I think Pedro should have thrown himself at to score.

Captaincy/vice-captaincy isn't a guaranteed starting spot though. Arteta is the overall captain at Arsenal and yet isn't in the first team for example and Lampard towards the end was often on the bench.

Partly Twitter, partly being an unemployed graduate who was on a break from job hunting.

Always looked good when he's been given past opportunities in the first team.

Congratulations to him and his family on being what I think is the 4th member of our team having another child in a fortnight. Wonder if thats what been impacting him and Fabregas to an extent off the pitch.

Zouma and Cahill need to stay together as if they are the long-term future partnership they need to play together as much as possible. Yes Zouma was at fault for Newcastle's first but aside from that he had a decent game, the second was neither defender's fault.

AVB?

Looked much better playing on the right side of the midfield, could be good for us with Matic being predominantly left footed.

Just said on Twitter: 'Sorry for any confusion, English is not my first language & I did not mean to accuse anyone of cheating. Simply to say Diego is a player who puts pressure on his opponents & who I have huge respect for.' ​Should clear that up.

Another thing I will say for him in his favour is that he seems to have a very good mentality off the field as well. Far too many young players (ours included) if you look on their Instagram you can see them with their flash cars, haircuts, clubbing etc and trying to look hard/gangsta/whatever but Kurt's gives the impression of a man who grateful for what he's earned and is humble with it. Definite future captaincy material and I'll predict he'll captain France to a World Cup at sometime in the future.

I agree he should have had more of a chance, but every manager makes the odd mistake with their squad, Ferguson let Pogba and Pique go and Wenger had Ronaldo and countless others snatched out from under his nose. Annoying to be sure but we still have a very good squad who when on song can go toe to toe with City and beat them.

Zouma, with Azpi a close second.

Whilst I was amongst those calling for him to be benched, he was really good today up against some top opposition. Saying that, I thought Fabregas actually put in one hell of a shift helping cover him.

Should have seen red today, was incredibly fortunate not to have undone a really good half's performance. I've defended him always in the past but today feels like the first time a victory of ours has been tainted.

He's injured apparently.

I'm not very good at the whole chant thing but how about to the Batman theme: Baba-Baba-Baba-Baba-Baba- RAHMAN!!!

I can't go an entire half without screaming something about Lampard arriving on the edge of the box :(

Complete fantasy football here, but part of me wishes we would somehow get Mata back to get some creativity again with Oscar playing next to Matic. United fans don't seem to value him at all yet personally he's one of my favourite players of all time.

Something else thats bothered me for a while is that our style of football has zero identity. Back in Mou's first spell our style was obvious, quick wing play with Robben/Duff/Cole supplementing the physical presence of Drogba/Lampard/Makelele/Essien etc. Now we find ourselves trying to play ultra defensive with a team full of small technicians or trying to string together 1000 passes with a back line and midfield unable to recover should the ball be lost. Putting aside the slump, even when on song we play like the defence and attack are part of different teams.