tmonkey

Could've just kept Robben like but interesting to see how Di Maria will perform on the bigger stage. One of their biggest mistakes is getting rid of Robben. He's one of the best in the world. My favourite player. He was exceptionally selfish when at Madrid though, and his end product seems to have gotten better with Bayern (judging by the CL matchwinners this year). Remember him making similar runs down the flank for Madrid, but always following it up with a tame/wide shot and ignoring any open teammates in the process.

Your avatar Amazing. I'd love to see Inter struggle under Rafa, but only because I want to see AC Milan back at the top, where they should be.

Basically, Keane was supposed to be an accessory to Barry. When the Barry transfer fell through, Keane was surplus to requirements. Possible to expand on that? Just makes little sense to an outsider - i.e. why would signing Barry make any difference to the £20m Keane signing? Not only was the fee vastly inflated, but Keane was always unlikely to fit into the system Rafa prefers (Barry or no Barry). If the plan was to switch to 4-4-2 and have Keane as a partner to Torres, how did Rafa hope to achieve this by adding Barry to the central midfield squad whilst at the same time lacking good quality wingers (and Gerrard having proved to be ineffective in central midfield compared to playing in front of two central midfielders)? To make matters worse, he was signed iirc a short while after you got rid of Bellamy, who is pretty similar to Keane (in terms of the type of forward that he is) but twice as good and far more versatile. If Bellamy struggled in a Rafa system, what made Rafa think that spending £20m on an inferior version of Bellamy would work?

It'll never get old, will it.

It's ridiculous, isn't it. He has his flaws and it's probably right that he goes now, but the knives have been out for him for a long time and the lack of credit he gets is a bit much at times. Last year for example Liverpool were pretty close to winning the Premiership, something which Rafa has received zero credit for (and I'm not sure why). He also gets zero credit for some of his signings, like Fernando Torres who alot of people weren't sure about given the fee and after a pretty mediocre international tournament debut with Spain (anyone remember "Ashton > Torres" on this forum?). He took a gamble on Torres when seemingly other clubs weren't prepared to, that gamble paid off. Others like Mascherano, Agger, Skrtel, Reina, Xabi Alonso, Luis Garcia - it wasn't all bad in the transfer market. There have been expensive flops, certainly, but Liverpool have frequently been second best to the ManU's, Chelsea's and Arsenal's when it comes to attracting the cream of the crop from around Europe (even then, the Chelsea's and ManU's can't compete with the Real's and Barca's if they want someone). That is probably why Benitez has gone for more questionable expensive talent that other clubs weren't prepared to take a gamble on (look at Mascherano since West Ham for example) - when it pays off, like Torres did, he gets no credit, as though it's assumed the player was great anyway. When it doesn't, the knife gets stuck in. When he took Liverpool over, they were pretty much in the same boat as us (we finished 5th with a relatively poor season under Sir Bobby, Houllier scraped past us to finish 4th with a pretty s*** squad). Since then, he's won the CL, reached another CL final, won an FA Cup, challenged for the Premiership title most recently. Look where we ended up during that same period under genuinely shit/mediocre managers. Put short, he's definitely a good manager, just maybe too geared towards winning cup competitions and hasn't got as great an eye for transfers as the better managers in the sport.

I get why you dislike Shearer, but what about Beckford!!

Gerrard would be a pretty good signing for Barcelona imo, especially if the Fabregas deal doesn't go through. Would provide a different kind of threat from central midfield to what they currently have in the squad, on top of probably being well suited to the formation Barca play. With 2 central midfielders behind/alongside him, he could concentrate more on what he's good at (i.e. driving towards goal from deep and shooting from the edge of the box) instead of getting bogged down deeper in central midfield where he lacks the passing/discipline to be effective. Then again, Madrid will probably play that sort of system/formation under Mourinho, so in theory Gerrard should slot in nicely there too. Also suspect he'd fit in with Barca's style of play better than what one might reason - for some reason for England he feels the need to play like a dickhead and try lots of long balls to players who aren't making runs, so looks gash as a result. But when Liverpool have played well in the past, he's been pretty clinical in possession as the drilled movement around him has often allowed him to play a simpler, more effective pass and move game. Given that Barca have just about the best movement in club football, I'd not be suprised if he were to slot in very nicely. On that note, pretty suprised to see that Gerrard has only just turned 30 (actual birthday is today). Assumed he was 32 or something. Bit like Xavi (also 30), seems to have been around for ages.

Would Higuain work in a Mourinho system though? Great finisher, but too lightweight in other areas for the targetman role. On top of that, he has pretty regularly looked poor for Madrid in bigger, more important games - maybe that's because he's still young, but not having real pace in his locker for the type of striker that he is certainly makes life easier for the top class centrebacks. Makes sense they'd get rid for a big fee if it came along.

There's no way Inter will force a manager to stay when that manager has unequivocally stated that he no longer want to be there. Mourinho could easily make Inter crash and burn if his aim was to get the sack.

Once he starts spending the cash, Real vs Barca is just going to be ludicrous fantasy football stuff - moreso than it already is.

No James, Terry, Lampard, whoever else plays for Chelsea. No Michael Owen either. His brochure says he's a vital member of the England first team.

This is the downside of HD TV. Makes the hair under Walcott's chin look like fluffy pubes.

Great save? Looked a poor finish more like.

Rooney needed to do a Diego Milito there.

Going to go for a standard England home friendly performance. Get outplayed for most of the match by a toothless team, but score 2-3 goals easily and win comfortably.

He's had a shocking season. Wasn't the best player in the world before, but was never this bad. Seems to have lost the plot completely.

Really hope he's not on the plane, though he's bound to be.

Nicky Butt with his typical first touch there. Straight out of play.

Italy were alright though imo. Maybe the final was a bit drab, but they were decent to watch up until then. Fullbacks Grosso/Zambrotta pressing forward, some techincal ability from Camoranesi, Pirlo, Totti. Though they did have a relatively easy run.

Obvious point that has been made before, but no European side has ever won the World Cup when hosted outside of Europe (and bar Brazil '58, no South American has won it when hosted in Europe). Based on this, Brazil would be strong favourites for me. Though there's always a first time for everything.

Torres is unfit though, isn't he? Wonder who the replacement will be if he can't make it. Llorente up front with Villa might be interesting.

Was alluding to this earlier. It's better that he's not there so that his weaknesses (which for all we know are still there) aren't exposed on such a big stage, something that could destroy his confidence. We simply wouldn't be able to move him if that happened. Much rather he either continues playing well for us and so none of this is matters, or does poorly for us and gets moved on in January (probably a La Liga team) before the s*** really hits the fan (again).

Angelo Di Livio did something similar a while back, only several times better. Only player to stick with Fiorentina when they went bankrupt and were relegated to the bottom of the Italian professional divisions, and iirc played for free or extremely reduced wages as he helped Fiorentina back up. And iirc he was still an Italian international when this happened, so could easily have moved to another top flight club if he wanted, even if he was approaching the end of his career. Shame there aren't more like him.

On the face of it, it'd be pointless Barca signing him now when Xavi and Iniesta are definitely better than him at this point in time. But given how many games the utterly useless Keita featured in this year, Fabregas would be a major addition to their squad.

Milner hasn't improved that much under Villa though - his touch and passing range are slightly better, but it's not a great deal better. He's simply found a better position more suited to the type of player that he is, and has done this in a stable team under a stable manager that was already challenging for 4th spot before he got there. It's surely understandable that he'd put in better performances because he's in a better team? Regarding improvements under Villa's coaching, when he was on the wing for them he performed no differently than he did for us. The stats might be better, but again that's down to being in a better team. Ultimately, he was the same for them as he was for us, and their much hyped coaching actually didn't make much of a difference to his game.