sixx

What's funny? He will clearly have to start playing deeper and he has all of the technique, vision & passing range of Modric. Modric covers a ridiculous amount of ground, probably on average 60% more than Messi does. This includes a lot of closing down and running into space, something which Messi in his thirties is probably not going to all of a sudden start doing haha. Would love to see Messi in a more relaxed playmaking role as he gets older but Modric is pretty much a box-to-box player.

He's 6'2 But still I'm very curious about the circumstances. If he doesn't think he's capable of competing with or ousting Diame from the starting XI I'm not sure he's up to it at all. Crying shame as he could develop into a monster of a midfielder.

Six defenders starting

Preferably we shouldn't be getting rid of any of Ritchie, Mbemba, Mitrovic and Merino. They're all PL quality and we need depth just as much as we need to bring in new players. Shipping out Ritchie would particularly be a travesty. Not that he's such a great winger, we should actually be looking for a replacement for him in the starting XI but he's obviously a leader in the dressing room and he's perfectly capable as a back up.

Hahahah fuck off Germany

Would rather we'd spent that kind of money on Tierney. Probably the only player in the SPL who's PL class and then some.

Live in Glasgow and seen a bit of Celtic last season and I'm far from convinced. Scoring 9 league goals for a team absolutely dominating in a trash league is poor. Did he start many games just this season gone? He scores 1 in every 2.25 games in the league since he's been at Celtic. He starts most yeah. He went through a lengthy dry spell this season as well and I'm not even sure he's the best striker at Celtic. He surely has potential but he severely needs to kick on. He should by all accounts be scoring a whole lot more.

Live in Glasgow and seen a bit of Celtic last season and I'm far from convinced. Scoring 9 league goals for a team absolutely dominating in a trash league is poor.

Fuck man. I would never, ever have thought we'd make it to a World Cup. Would have needed to be ridiculously clinical to emerge from the group stages, but still I'm ridiculously proud of the team and I can't believe this has happened. Feel very sorry for Nigeria, they have a nice team and amazing fans but Messi deserves another chance. Feel I can now enjoy the World Cup without the threat of an imminent stroke.

That was actually seriously impressive in its elaborateness

Messi Lingard innit

They bought him 8 years ago when 20m for a midfielder was still a canny bit, like. No they bought him 4 years ago. Lazar Markovic cost the same that same summer.

Can someone remind me how Real only had to pay 20 million pounds for Kroos? Was he at the end of his contract?

This is hilarious

Real Madrid sign Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin. No me neither.

Absolutely devastating :'( Full credit to the Nigerians though, they were excellent. All we can do is try and nick three points from Croatia and hope for the best. Even though we lost I am so proud of my boys, they gave their everything and very obviously couldn't deal with the heat

France at the Euros.

Gylfi is so, so good as a part of a midfield two.

So nervous. Stroke incoming any minute now.

Absolutely. Messi is the best player in history but he did very, very little in terms of running into space, closing down, making himself available and stretching Croatia's defence. And the stats back that up.

Just as suggesting that he wasn't good tonight or against Iceland because of the midfield is not up to his standards. Not really, they didn't have a midfield at all. This team is horrifically coached, and he was good against Iceland. It's a fair assessment Yep. First and foremost no gameplan and horrible tactics. When your striking options are Messi, Aguero, Dybala, Higuain, Icardi and Correa, a midfield consisting og Mascherano, Banega, Di Maria and Biglia is more than adequate. Don't really care much for this rhetoric of 'players X and Y can't gel', if you can't make this work you're a fucking shit manager and that's it.

Just as suggesting that he wasn't good tonight or against Iceland because of the midfield is not up to his standards.

Me neither. The Croats were very, very good but I'm not even sure Messi broke sweat all night. Meanwhile Modric was all over closing down, intercepting, making himself available, providing neat passing as always and even chipping in with a beautiful goal. Different players of course but it's still kind of telling.

One is taking responsibility and showing initiative at least.