healthyaddiction

Depends on the formation. You need two holding midfielders in a 4231 and it is still an attacking formation. You just need two attacking fullbacks and the holding midfielders will fill in for them. In a 442 and 433 I agree, two holding midfielders is a bit of overkill.

Is there a single relevant quote in that article though? all the quote's are to do with Ibra aren't they? I'm sure we have spoken to the agent already and would have had an idea about this.

Why?

Seriously? Is that true? Not very professional if its the case.

Off-topic, Diarra was horrendous last season. He's on the decline and high wages as well. OM supporters are literally filled with glee at his departure. He didn't even seem to be trying most of the season. He looked quite good in the France friendlies this summer.

Why would you not play Cisse?

Someone has posted a video on YouTube of Dave Kitson getting clattered by Valencia, doesn't end up in the crowd but you can allow for artistic license. Have to say he does meet the criteria quite well. p.s. there is also a news article about Dave Kitson overdosing on pain killers.

Giggsing that would be a giggs. That's how much of a giggs it is.

I wonder what Van der Wiel is doing right now as Altidore is raping them from the left flank.

Nearly scores.

Some dutch reports and comments essentially confirming it from De Boer.

p.s. that's not me making a judgement on him just saying something that related to what Dave was seeing.

On YouTube there are loads of videos of all his touches in several matches. I watched a few and he was almost always very deep. Didn't seem to dive in much just positioned himself well and then distributed simply but safely.

Di Matteo Out! Lol

I'm sorry but the season ticket not arriving causes some stress and there are problems relatively frequently. Indeed these problems could have been corrected by starting the process of sending out season tickets earlier. It doesn't affect me as i'm not a season ticket holder but neesy clearly has a valid point.

At my cynical worst Tiote sold for £20m, Anita bought for £6.5m. But in all honesty I don't believe that will actually happen. Seems the most likely explanation though. I can't see Anita give up an improved contract, a starter position and CL football for a place on the bench. Tiote and him are pretty much mutually exclusive on the field. Unless we play 4-3-3 with Anita and Tiote as the defensive pivots and Cabaye as the advanced midfielder with (Debuchy) and Santon bombing up and down each flank providing the width. If that's the plan it would have been nice to even try it before the season starts. Didn't we play 4-3-3 in the last friendly?

Just because we might sign a midfielder first doesn't mean we aren't looking at buying players for other positions. We don't need to buy players in order of need (though in some respects it'd be nice). I think we've proven that whilewe may not expand our squad we do replace players when they leave. We've lost two midfielders this summer in Smith and Guthrie. Smith isn't a lossin but saves a lot of money, Guthrie is a loss that needs to be replaced but doesn't saves us much in wages. Together they can easily pay for us to bring in a quality midfielder to add depth. If you look at our midfielders currently we have two quality choices and very little else other than unproven talent. Given we have dabbled with 4-3-3 quite a bit this really leaves us lacking. Personally I think a midfielder is atleast as important as a centre half and striker.

Maldini was a naturally left footed centre half?

To be fair to him the injury he got while playing for us was from a really shitty and dangerous challenge (or so I seem to remember). It's not like he was running along and bam he was out for the year.

Not sure he'd have played tonight if a deal was close to being in place. Total speculation though.

You would think a right footed fullback would be able to play right back though wouldn't you?? It must feel more natural than playing on the wrong foot. I'm sure I read he used to be a forward at one point in his career, if so he probably likes to cut inside and shoot. Bit wreckless like, but I've done that before I think he just meant he was an attacking player because he was a right wingerat youth level until Mourinho converted him (or so I read). I actually think he is a left back and should play there but it's nice that there is some flexibility.

"At the end of last year Pardew had warned me that his intention was to make me play on the right, but that another would come in too." -DS

He captain's the Italian U21 at right back. Presumably he plays well there.

They said that houghton was from Durham the other night.