yellow jumper

wilmots is clueless.

wilmots is clueless. de rossi been good. forgot he existed.

sound. if it's simply about being right i'll leave it there. i don't know, i just didn't find the comparison particularly helpful/convincing.

"do the best we can to stay in the competition" just about sums him up.

better than any of the teams they've had since, not just the current one. degrees of very good/great. but the later teams had alonso, busquets, pique, alba added to many of those names. or replacing likes of marchena, puyol, capdevilla, torres, senna.

balance not quite right. they need to commit more to their forwards and less to their undoubtedly brilliant ball players. tiki taka makes more sense when you have attacking references like messi, ronaldinho, eto'o, henry, suarez, neymar or whoever. which is why i think 2008 with villa/torres as strikers still their best team, even though it probably didn't have as many good players overall as 2010, 2012.

spain's 2008 side still their best incarnation.

personally i think that argument is a bit simplistic, and i don't think my challenging it should be automatically regarded as a defence of FSG. the realities of these two clubs are just completely different. and even if attitude is a difference it is it's intertwined with a hundred other things. like the fact they've been controlled by the same family for decades. and one of the most powerful dynasties in italy. ie. the same one that's been implicated in the scandals as well as the successes. and in this recent period in a league where standards and finances have been falling all around them.

no one knows. but he says he has final word, as rodgers did (and clear he got his own way in some of our business). unlikely either of them were in dark re: budgets etc.

no one wanting to take responsibility when everyone has it.

yeah, if you're going to use them as an example of how to do it, probably better to look at the years when they were climbing... even then hard to draw straight lines between serie a/ juve in those years and the premier league/liverpool.

sure. and the bottom line is they've been successful working like that. i just think some of the analysis of them (as a way of bashing us) is pretty superficial.

you're seeing more and more in international football the link between a national standard and investment in coaching and success in that arena. it's where the real gap exists for brazil now.

probably points to them selling pogba though.

vai se foder dunga

i've seen dahoud three or four times. and on the basis of that hype is OTT. apparently outstanding against juve in CL though. i'd say he's more or less where can was when he arrived. the player he reminds me a little of (in style), btw, is kroos.

desperate to get wilshere fit also. see rooney being an issue when england have less of ball, but was contributing plenty yesterday. dier a massive plus, best of that Spurs lot for me. think he'll help whoever he plays with. vardy pace might have worked later on, but thought sturridge more likely to help team with touch, intelligence when clear Kane struggling.

usual issues with end product, but lallana looks an international quality footballer in many of the aspects English footballers often struggle. he'll probably get dropped for vardy

rooney played fairly well, deeper, so some credit for that. odd to take him off, when we've seen him stay on no matter what previously. subs were poor. also half time took the wind out of them.

whether it's provoked or not, there's a reason it follows england.

This content is not viewable to guests.

yes. was DoF at st. etienne when payet was there. matuidi also.

he's said he doesn't want to leave bayern. bayern have made it pretty clear they want to sell. anything more than that is speculation.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.