Village Idiot

On the bench, obviously

Never captain a defender. NEVER.

I haven't watched the game, but somehow Walker fetched me 3 bonus points, won't complain like.

Do agree with that, problem with that set up though is it lacks width and defensively a bit fragile so big teams could get some joy from it. It was never really used against Madrid or a CL big hitter though to find out i suppose, also with Neymar now its a bit difficult to use the same set up. I much prefer a proper forward as our LW, that's why I liked that we bought Neymar (as a player type, before you go "no shit" with me ). With so many midfielder types we lacked bite against teams that defended deep (which is the majority of teams that play against us nowadays).

Man, it's always the same with Cesc as #9. He keeps putting some great through balls... for our #9 to pick.

Our best football last year was played with Busquets/Xavi/Iniesta/Cesc in a 4-4-2ish with Alba filling up the LW role. Vilanova got ill right after that and we never were the same team after it.

No. He always seems to start the season strongly (he's been doing well so far too), and disappear as the season goes on. It doesn't help that he's often played outside of his favored position, but he doesn't impose himself in games as he should.

Neymar not starting yet. Understandable since his fitness still looks way off.

Costa's on fire. Seems Falcao leaving has unleashed him as a force inside the box, since Villa tends to fall back more and drop into the channels.

Messi out, I'm intrigued to see how we do with Neymar as the theoretical main man.

As for emulating goals I always tried to chip them in a la Romario It rarely worked out...

Bale is in Spain already actually. Been photographed in Marbella.

One of our wingers these years has been Pedro, though, whose workrate is enormous. Any variation of 433 demands a lot from the wingers.

Özil never had the engine or workrate to work effectively in the wing. He progressively got better at it under Mourinho, but it'd still be a waste to play him there.

You aren't.

Cani = "Chav" in Spanish. That's why I never could take him seriously as a player, as good as he is, it's a really unfortunate nickname to pick.

Suso had a good game against Getafe today, hadn't realized he was on loan at Almería.

5k at Getafe - Almería They are such a joke, should start playing closed doors games and save themselves the bother.

Giuseppe Signori was my favorite Italian player when I was young. Never won a trophy.

That says they've reached an agreement with the player, pending conclusion of talks with Spurs. The article says "in a matter of days", so it's not completely done yet. Next week I suppose.

Froggy's accruing some massive karma in this thread like

That first season with us, man, pity he was such a party-loving lazyarse.

:smitten:

Loved Cantona as a kid, like. Impossible not to. Particularly after that Nike ad.