TaylorJ_01

If Routledge performs then we have a chance. Perch at centre-back though, jesus christ.

If you are joking I'm going to be happy then tear out your eyes.

Could be our Geovanni. Although we have pace on the wings for him to play with, a target man to play off, and a decent passer in the centre who might help his game even more. Can't see Guthrie starting ahead of nolan though... but yeah it's maybe not too bad. I think I would jizz if we got this boy. Really exciting player. hughton had the ball's to drop butt, despite being club captain last season, so he might do the same with nolan I dunno, Nolan has stats to back him up. Possibly, Rout Barton Nolan Jonas Ben Arfa Carroll

Could be our Geovanni. Although we have pace on the wings for him to play with, a target man to play off, and a decent passer in the centre who might help his game even more. Can't see Guthrie starting ahead of nolan though... but yeah it's maybe not too bad. I think I would jizz if we got this boy. Really exciting player.

Anyone think he may be... too good for us? There's only so much you can create when nobody in attack is moving? He'd have to play really far up for it to work, maybe second striker.

QBG you cunt!

Pretty close. Bid accepted, he came and visited the training ground according Allardyce. I see no reason why he would lie. Not sure what went wrong though. Allardyce. Probably realised he'd be ball-watching the entire time.

That's a good observation. I think that works in a 4-5-1 system with two holding midfielders. Madrid did that past season with the Diarra/Alonso pairing, for example. I presume ManU also tries that with Fletcher/Carrick but Carrick had a rather bad season. One of the reasons Liverpool bombed so badly, imho, is how they replaced Alonso with Aquilani (who plays further up the pitch) and then played Mascherano/Lucas as holding mids. Not a ounce of creativity there. That's a great example of my point actually. Cheers. If you have two players (Lucas and Mascherano) at the heart of the pitch you are really going to struggle to get any attacks going. One problem would be the attacking 'creative' midfielder dropping back to start off attacks, leaving an imbalance further up the pitch. For example Gerrard dropping deep and Torres getting crowded out. Teams with an effective DM, say Chelsea, can allow the attacking players to stay up the pitch so when the ball gets to them they have more bite to the attack. I've always thought this was how Lampard is so effective for Chelsea, Essien can successfully play it out from the back and let Lampard focus on attack. Much like Busquets ----> Xavi/Iniesta ----> Messi/Ibra/Villa/Pedro. Agree with everything you've said tbh. That's the reason I don't see why Inter would be so interested in Masch as a Cambiasso - Masherano midfield partnership has the potential to split the team in two. Both are great defensively but neither can be the link between defence and attack, the strain it would place on Sneijder would really hold them back imo. Thiago Motta is not as good defensively as Mascherano but he's definitely a better footballer (Barcelona schooling) and he compliments Cambiasso well, he's no worldbeater but he slots into the team perfectly. If they're going to replace Motta they'd be better off with for example Banega or Schweinsteiger, players who fall into the defensive midfielder category but have a lot more to their game in a creative playmaker sense. Exactly, agreed. Plus, you could create triangles making it very easy to keep possession in the middle with the creative DM (say Schweinsteiger) playing the ball and pushing up; Defence Attack Schweinsteiger Cambiasso Cambiasso Sneijder Schweinsteiger Sneijder It's so simple. It will be harder to do this with Mascherano or the likes though. Sneijder doesn't seem like the kind of player who would enjoy dropping deep. Will be interesting to see how they set up. A lot of pressure on them as they are European Champions now.

It gives you heart that a player like Modric was able to fit in the premiership pretty well. I thought he'd get horribly bullied. Hopefully, if he comes, Ben Arfa will be the same.

Routledge and Barton set to start, Jonas on the bench. Hopefully he'll get a bit of game time. Biggest game of his career tbh.

Think it's pretty clear by where he ended up what motivated him. No one can tell me that was the best club to offer him a contract. Oh yeah I forgot he went to Qatar

Can see it now, the van so full of Ginster's pastys he cannit fit any booze in. If he appears with a Black Eye you know Barton wasn't too pleased with the outcome. 'Here Ben, gan carry ma white lightning like, cheers' scottish?! that's how it reads like Lived in Scotland for too long, can't do a toon accent unfortunately

Can see it now, the van so full of Ginster's pastys he cannit fit any booze in. If he appears with a Black Eye you know Barton wasn't too pleased with the outcome. 'Here Ben, gan carry ma white lightning like, cheers'

There's some youth there but we're struggling with the talent bit. Got a young centre back (Rochela 20) who has won trophies with Spain's youngsters and a potentially decent centre midfielder in Juan Dominguez (20). Adrian(22) has played and scored for Spain's U20's and U21's and scored against Barca in the league a couple of seasons ago but lacks consistancy and like half our squad, picks up more than his fair share of injuries. Not sure if 23 still counts as young but if so, Guardado is one of our best players. He's a Mexican International, pretty quick and gets involved in set pieces. He should play the 2nd half tonight. Some of our loan signings are quite young and half decent. Ruben Perez is 21 and looks pretty comfortable on the ball in the centre of midfield but only seen him for 45 mins against Cardiff last weekend. Urreta (20) is supposed to be a very good left winger but looked pretty pants against Cardiff. Michel (22) is an attacking midfielder on loan from Valencia and looks like he could be a very good player in time. The loanees will all probably start tonight. Yeah, Guardado looks to be a good player, hope he plays. Can't say I've seen much/any of the others (apart from Michel, but he isn't yours). Cheers for the info

It's the same in football manager when you try and offload your pish players in a transfer. I always get this "Here's £4mil + Ameobi" "We'll just take the £4mil thanks" "Alright £6mil + Ameobi" "Mate, f*** off with Ameobi, he's f***ing gash" And so on.

I'm starting to sound racist the amount I say this, but it's another case of African footballer syndrome. I've watched him regularily when he was still in Norway, he is more than good enough for a mid-table Prem team, and he is a quality, quality finisher. Is he at Molde on loan at the moment? I thought I heard it somewhere.

I'm excited and scared.

That's a good observation. I think that works in a 4-5-1 system with two holding midfielders. Madrid did that past season with the Diarra/Alonso pairing, for example. I presume ManU also tries that with Fletcher/Carrick but Carrick had a rather bad season. One of the reasons Liverpool bombed so badly, imho, is how they replaced Alonso with Aquilani (who plays further up the pitch) and then played Mascherano/Lucas as holding mids. Not a ounce of creativity there. That's a great example of my point actually. Cheers. If you have two players (Lucas and Mascherano) at the heart of the pitch you are really going to struggle to get any attacks going. One problem would be the attacking 'creative' midfielder dropping back to start off attacks, leaving an imbalance further up the pitch. For example Gerrard dropping deep and Torres getting crowded out. Teams with an effective DM, say Chelsea, can allow the attacking players to stay up the pitch so when the ball gets to them they have more bite to the attack. I've always thought this was how Lampard is so effective for Chelsea, Essien can successfully play it out from the back and let Lampard focus on attack. Much like Busquets ----> Xavi/Iniesta ----> Messi/Ibra/Villa/Pedro.

Defensive midfielders are always a strange part of football. The name would suggest you need someone strong, hard-working and athletic to chase the ball down and protect the back four. In reality, these guys are right at the point where most attacks tend to start. A good pass from a defensive midfielder can really make a counter-attack very dangerous. I tend to prefer players with a bit of vision and a good passing range. The deep-lying playmaker is criminally underused in modern football. Players with decent passing to go along with their physical dominance really flourish in any environment (Essien is a fairly good example).

I'm starting to sound racist the amount I say this, but it's another case of African footballer syndrome.

We'll see who'll be captain this season and for how long. Hughton still could have brought Butt back. In the 08/09 season he was played for almost every game despite looking not up to the job. And yes, Owen was "only" dropped for one game. That was also Hughton's last game as caretaker caretaker manager. It amazes me that people use the dropping of Butt as ammunition for Hughton. Only a complete imbecile would have had him in the starting lineup regularly. Shearer and Kinnear both had him in their starting lineups week in week out. Hughton was the first manager who dropped Butt since Allardyce. Shearer and Kinnear were complete imbeciles. Is everyone a complete imbecile other than you and Drogba?

Surely we could loan him out with a recall clause? If we can't even afford to do that it suggests he's going to be filling up a spot on the bench. If so we should definitely stitch up his arsehole as previously suggested.

'Disturbingly poor' He's definitely a good impact player at the moment. Not sure if he will be any more than that.

Cheers mate Deportivo got any surprises in store in terms of youth talent?

:colo: How did they make such a glaring error? It's even in caps at the start of the article