Deuce

He'll get paid more there than anywhere else, by far. And he'll still get capped for Morocco.

Javi Martinez is an outstanding central midfielder. He and Schweinsteiger together are so much gusta.

That doesn't mean anything nowadays. Of course it does. Ligue 1 is still a top league and certainly was when he was playing there. Sissoko was highly-regarded by many top clubs and if we hadn't picked him up, somebody else would have.

The team standing in the way of the U.S. advancing: Ghana. Great.

Well-deserved draw against a top team. Here's to hoping Spain beats-up on Ghana this afternoon and takes France to task in a few days.

I like that Joya is not taking any shit from Pogba. Standing-up for himself all game.

Cuevas!!

I thought Nigeria could've done with a few more of the "big guns", players like Moses, Obi, Emenike, Ameobi, Uche...

What? Why? Does he have problems with regulating how much he eats?

IMO, Nigeria looked better against Spain than they did against Tahiti.

Feel exactly the same, him and Yanga-Mbiwa are a couple of the most exciting signings we've had for absolutely ages. Great couple of players we picked up. Hopefully they'll be given a chance to play here for a good long while, rather than be sold on at max value.

Spot on.

Porter's the heir apparent for the national team spot, imo. He's a talented manager.

Sissoko is a Box to Box CM, we need someone through the middle that can score and create goals. If we want Cabaye to play as a deep-lying playmaker, which he is, the obvious archetype in that role is Pirlo. I'm not saying Cabaye is Andrea Pirlo, but we could look to construct our midfield like Juventus. They of course have Pirlo sitting deep and spraying passes all around the field. He is surrounded by Marchisio and Vidal (and sometimes Pogba), box-to-box central midfielders who are adept at both attacking and defending. Sissoko is the only b-2-b central midfielder in the squad. He's good at pushing forward and making runs into the box, but not as good at coming back to defend. Which means we should be looking for another b-2-b CM who can push forward but is better at coming back to cover Cabaye. Tiote is absolutely not that player, as he can't get forward and is a liability defensively (despite what College Dropout thinks). Anita would be perfect to back-up Cabaye in that deep-lying role.

Any box-to-box CMs on the market we could realistically be in for?

Nigel Reo-Coker for Whitecaps is my favorite.

That wouldn't just be a waste of his best attributes, it would also be asking him to do something he's not very good at (bit like Pardew does with absolutely everyone). Plus, chipped passes have never worked in this team. Especially with our total lack of wingers. Cabaye needs to be the furthest midfielder forward. Anita or Sissoko should be the deepest. Tiote should be nowhere near the side. Cabaye's best attributes are his vision and passing. The deeper midfield role is perfect for him in the PL - when (as you've alluded to) we find ourselves with 2 good wide players. Bingo. We also need to find someone capable of keeping pressure off Cabaye; his vision and passing are moot if he's constantly playing defense.

Wanyama to Southampton for a cool £12.5m

Goddammit Mike.

Fuck is this, Baba? I thought we bonded on the mutual difficulty of WCQ in our respective regions.

I do love a good bit of WCQ banter though. Fucking Neil and his "England have a tough qualifying group" bullshit.

I don't even know how the conversation came up. I smell blood in the water and the flag comes out and the eagles are loosed.

You can't shorten Japan like that, man.