carrafan

You mean the linesman? Offside decisions like that happen every game though.

Best keeper in the world. Edit:- ok, change that to 's*** penalty'

Come on Romania!

Exactly. So you rather have Riise playing in the position that Barry does? And its really not that simple, Alonso plays a lot deeper and a lot of his passes are to his centrehalves and fullbacks which are usually 'completed'. Barry goes forward quite a bit, atleast when compared to Alonso and the pass percentages do fall as you go higher and higher up the pitch.

They dont play on the same areas of the pitch. How can you compare pass percentages?

Riise's not that bad a player

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But he's had a good amount of assists the season before last and a decent amount last season. Ok, assists are not the only barometer for proving whether a player is selfish or not, but then atleast it gives some idea. When i saw him (At Anfield was it?) he tracked back to their own goal and made a tackle to stop a perfect shooting chance for Kuyt, i think. Similarly, he did his defensive duties quite well in the 2 games i saw him play. Again, it could just be an anomaly but i speak only of whatever i've seen of him this season and a few appearances in the previous ones. He's Porto's best player and is in the right stage of his career to move outside of Portugal. His move to Barca failed partly because he was too young, so his head was probably not straight and also because he had problems with his manager. Quality wasnt in question. I'd have him here purely because of the fact that there arent many other players available for the position we want him to play and in the formation we do. And also because Porto have been kicked out of the CL, so he might want to leave to a club which offers it. We made a bid of 14 million pounds last season (apparently), so Rafa probably rates him. I'd have Quaresma at our club right now, tbh. He offers something different from what Kuyt does and would be quite useful in a lot of games and would do well under a good manager.

Still scored the same number of goals in the league as Torres though. Adebayor's a very good player.

Is right. Have quite a few good memories of him. Unfortunately, our style of game moved past what he was used to in his formative years under GH and he was too dumb to adapt. 5 million pounds seems to be a good value for him. Interestingly, Newcastle had bid 5 million for him in Jan and the club accepted only for JAR saying that he didnt want to go there.

Bendtner is quicker than Crouch and better in the air as well. But Crouch has better technique, a better touch and decent work rate. Didnt Bendtner actually have a fight with Adebayor because Nicklas never used to pass the ball and Adebayor would have none of it?

What happens if they dont work out and we lose points because of that? Does Rafa's neck get caught for not winning the league because he was looking to run a creche? And Man United dont play their 'kids' to be honest. Danny Simpson didnt play much even though Neville was injured. They preferred Hargreaves and Wes Brown (average player at best, but a lot better than putting some kid at the deep end). Rossi left because he never got a chance there and still fetched 6 million. Pique was never going to renew his contract because he wasnt getting enough games and hence was sold. Eagles is seen as a decent enough player and still rarely plays. So, if United were suspect of playing their reserves some of whom are actually quite decent and played backup squad players like O Shea, Brown, Park and Silvestre in a race for the title, there is a reason to it. Just 'giving them a chance' and seeing sounds nice but its quite risky especially for teams trying to challenge for trophies and i suppose Rafa and his staff know when a player IS ready for the first team anyway. For a youngster to do that, his performances for the stiffs have to shout out much like Owen or Gerrard. Unfortunately, none of ours currently are doing so. But we do have a few good players who look to be progressing well and will get their chance if they brush over their weak points.

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Isnt good enough with respect to what?

Suit yourself.

Why make up your own stats? Garcia scored 30 goals in 121 games in all competitions. Both Benayoun and Luis have similar scoring rates. If Garcia's goals per game was phenomenal for a midfielder and Benny's striking rate is similar, then what does it say of Yossi's striking rate? I'd say that Garcia had a huge say in us winning the champions league and Benny hasnt made that big an impact, yet, and might never do. But i also remember the abuse that Garcia got in the league for being inconsistent and trying unnecessary tricks in our own half and losing the ball. Dont get me wrong, Garcia was a pretty good player on his day but in NO way was he a legend. And for a player who has had a similar striking rate to Garcia, Benayoun is not a nomark as well. Why the unnecessary bias with respect to two of our own?

Talk about exaggeration. What the f*** are you on?

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Just as usual? With Porto kicked out of the Champions League, Quaresma might want to leave them. For 12 million he'd be a good buy and wood fit fantastically well in a 433. He'll have off days though, no question about that but he'll win you tight games against all kinds of teams. He's more than just a flat track bully. Do we need a striker if we get a winger? Not sure we do.

So Barry lets Gerrard take him up the a*** while Alonso only makes out with him after Cup victories?

It takes time for the beeb to 'understand'

Thought we leaked a lot of goals as well in Rafa's first season here. And he had the whole summer to work with. Ramos was brought in mid season, its tough to immediately plug the defence for a new manager. He did well at Seville (albeit they had a very good youth system with a lot of good players coming from there) but he's proven and i think he'll do good at WHL.

But Dortmund DID offer him a new contract early last year and he didnt want to stay. Thats why they froze him out in his last season; of course injuries helped. And you'd believe your own scout friend over Rafa's? He wanted Degen when he was at Valencia.. so he's probably been looking at him for more than 4-5 years and knows the pros and cons of this player. Ah f*** it, Degen's s****. Chico Odumbe Nakamara who plays for Lyn Oslo is just better.

Kuyt for number 7 Or Aimar.