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ponsaelius

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Everything posted by ponsaelius

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hughton#As_a_manager Somebody's added it to the honours already
  2. Aye, I'd be happy with that. Either Ferguson or Jonas on for Best. What the hell is with Ferguson though, he seems to have come from nowhere and jumped ahead of all our youngsters... Hughton has already said he rates him highly.
  3. ponsaelius

    Hatem Ben Arfa

    Nolan can't be trusted in that role in the Premier League.
  4. ponsaelius

    Hatem Ben Arfa

    Hawer man, don't be doing that.
  5. Have you seen the fucking trophy mate. The players must leave their blood on the pitch in order to bring that thing back!
  6. Ryan Taylor the new Robert. My have we fallen
  7. ponsaelius

    Hatem Ben Arfa

    Tbf we have 2 able wingers in the whole squad. Injury to either Routledge or Jonas and we're totally fudged.
  8. 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.
  9. Balotelli doesn't have good games tbh, he just does something insanely brilliant, shushes his own fans, and then just slumps around for the rest of the game giving hacky looks to everybody who comes within site of him.
  10. ponsaelius

    Hatem Ben Arfa

    I gave a FIFA review earlier in this thread.
  11. Busquets played every minute of the World Cup for Spain and he's cemented his position in the best club team in the world. Says it all tbh. I don't know if he'd be as influential at a smaller club but for the specific role he plays at Barca, he's absolutely spot on. Not the strongest, not an archetypal physical defensive midfielder - but he's got a good passing range, is deceptively skillful, keeps things simple, allows others to get on with playing the game. More importantly though he's far more disciplined than Toure, and I think that's why Pep ultimately prefered him.
  12. So if we somehow get rid of the hole we've got a player on our hands?
  13. Woo, this is like having a Depor supporting version of VI Cheers for the information, mate.
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