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He was shit as right back as well.

Done well tonight like. His best performance in 12 months.

Any reason you don't throw Bale in now for Vini?

Dani Alves at least is still fit and professional. Marcelo looks retired Wouldn't survive even as #10 in the Brazilian league. Dani is 5 years older as well

Marcelo is so past it Really enjoy seeing him though. Done ok tonight as well after he came on. Won a header or two.

Thought Real looked better as soon as they made some changes. Kroos and Casemiro in midfield works against poorer teams, but against good teams they're too lethargic together. Valverde and Camavinga provides some more dynamic. And with Rodrygo they actually have a winger as well and some more width.

Maybe, but the lack of effort from Kante tonight has been staggering. Has misplayed couple of very easy passes.

Never seen Kante this poor/average. Usually he runs onto that pass or recovers quickly. Just stood there watching together with Loftus-Cheek.

Weren't you the one saying we should go for Pino rather than Raphinha?

Was going to say the same. Thought he was far shorter than that.

Imagine what he could do with proper footballers next to him.

Kaka, ma man, you need to start reading properly. I just suggested that you need a mix of both, you're the one insinuating we should only try and sign bunch of wingers from France and hope one blossoms into a fantastic footballer. If we want to compete soon we can't be applying the model you are suggesting. We need to buy established players as well. A mix of both in other words. I have no insight into clubs finances and the way they bend rules to sign players. That being said, I doubt they'd pay £75m for one player unless they began selling parts of their squad which has been rumoured. So in that regard you are right, however, doesn't take away the fact that many clubs would be interested in Raphinha even at that price. I mean, Ben White went for £50m last season no? And we bought Chris Wood for a like a billion.

If only it was that easy all clubs would be doing it. For every Raphinha there's 10 failures. Not true at all. He's been rumoured for a while to top clubs and the relegation clause came to notice now in the last 2 months or so. Aren't many better right wingers than him. Been dominant for Brazil in the national side for the few games he has played and he has had great success individually at four clubs in a row now.

If we want to compete we need a mix of experienced players and new ones. Signing Raphinha would be far beyond this club. Even for £75m. There's a reason Bayern, Barcelona etc wants him. Walks into most clubs starting XI.

Paqueta can play many positions. For the national side he has been used as a winger, striker, box to box and second striker. His playing style is not similar to Coutinho at all. Paqueta is a bit more technical and brute force, while Coutinho is the classic #10 with creativity and flair. Paqueta is far from a luxury player as his work rate is unbelievable, or at least for the national side. Seen him only once or twice for Lyon so no idea how he plays there.

That would be fantastic for Ghana. Find their team a bit underwhelming, but those two are good enough to make that group more interesting. The way Uruguay have been playing under their new manager they might actually win that group. Once again an interesting side. Fascinating how that small country keeps producing good players. Godin might be getting on a bit, but still have Araujo, Gimenez at the back and then Betancur, Valverde in midfield and Suarez, Cavani, Nunez, Gomez up top.

No he didn't sit on the Barca bench for the past two seasons, he was injured for half of the last season and half he played for Barcelona. 200k a week is nothing if we want to compete in the Premier League. At some point we need to start spending that money if our ambitions are the CL. I'm not saying we definitely should be going for him. But if we want to succeed we need to bring in a mix of young and experienced.

Happy enough to take his money and sit on Barcas bench for the last 2 years and not the personality we will sign? Coutinho has always been a very good character. Never heard anyone say anything bad about his personality. Also, the two years prior to moving to Villa he played for Bayern (where he was mostly used off the bench if I remember it correctly but still scored 11 goals that season). After that he missed over 8 months due to a knee injury. He did look lost for Barcelona at times, but he was at the club during a period of shambles. The Coutinho at Aston Villa is once again one of the best players in the league. I probably would prefer other players over him, but saying no to Coutinho if the owners want to splash the cash would be quite insane. Coutinho Bruno Joelinton in midfield would be dreamy.

Doesn't seem like that. FIFA adjusted the schedule to fit with the most profitable TV times. So on november 21st. Senegal v Netherlands is the first game and then England plays Iran before the grand opening ceremony with Qatar playing Ecuador. https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/6a616c6cf19bc57a/original/FWC-2022-Match-Schedule.pdf

Boring group for Brazil. Had both the Swiss and Serbia in the last World Cup and Cameroon prior to that. Also a difficult group in the sense Brazil should be beating them all, but a draw against any wouldn't be a total shock. Weird that Senegal v Netherlands will be the opener of the World Cup apparently.

Exactly the type of group I'm hoping for Brazil. Problem is if you mess it up and then have to play someone like France in the last 16 already.

No team from same confederation except for UEFA teams where 2 UEFA sides can be in the same.

But it would require more than one or two shockers for Qatar and people would honestly question the integrity of the game if there are obvious shockers in favour of Qatar repeatedly at this WC.

Quite difficult with VAR. With that being said, their team has been doing alright as of late and in an easy group they might stand a small chance of going through. Give them a group like USA/Mexico, Tunisia and Ecuador and I can see them not completely embarassing themselves tbf.