yellow jumper

don't think manager is so interested in defensive specialism. dahoud and zielinski in wijnaldum mould, if not exactly the same; energetic, versatile, ball players.

he's very much in the moreno mould.

ha ha. willems. that'll fry a few brains.

we lost too many in too short a period under a variety of owners and managers, from alonso to gerrard, without replacing them anywhere near adequately because of lack of succession plan or money or real desire to do so. almost every departure in that period was awfully managed. the nadir being hodgson/purslow probably.

fowler was aguero good at his peak, but obviously didn't do it long enough.

we've done this already haven't we? nearly everyone's been a captain when you look at it. joe cole and christian poulsen. the important thing for rafa wasn't just that he bought well, good ages/characters but that he was also able to add it to a squad that had genuine experience with liverpool. part of our problem now is even when we've bought relatively well, we don't have a foundation of hamman, hyypia, gerrard, carragher etc.

i think we've got a relative lack of individual and collective experience of this club specifically that shows at times. lucas looks a leader, because maybe he is now, but also just because he's been here. you can't really buy that.

he was also argentina's all-time leading goalscorer until about a month ago. 54 in 77. shearer was really good though, especially pre-ACL tear. would probably be better regarded if he'd made different career choices too.

nt

yeah. looks likely he'll end up at mancs now. and will do well, most likely. just odd that it seems to be dragging a bit with figures being talked. apparently ferguson hates raiola, hence them letting pogba go first time round. but then they've signed two from him this window, so. i dunno. more than meets the eye going on at that club. ambitious and whatever, but something about this one smells a bit. or at least like buying club's much more desperate than the player.

lack of any european record/opportunity the thing that makes complete judgment of shearer difficult i think. but agree he's the one of the recent generation who got must out of his talent, most consistently.

again, beckham, opinions just hugely polarised. not many just saying he was a very good player, but not a great one.

usually for good english players there's not much between them getting massively, prematurely overhyped and then totally written off.

pogba wants spain or something. no way that the mancs are quibbling over raiola's fee when they're spunking cash in every other direction and already signed two of his players.

that's your judgment. the managers unceremoniously dumping players all over the place. doesn't look like moreno's anywhere near being one of them. you can imagine that. but you can't conceive of any reasons why the manager continues to persevere with his left back. doesn't sound very realistic to me.

like any manager that really commits full backs forwards he'll probably see pace as a prerequisite, which regardless of anything else probably counts against flannagan, as well as durability after his injury, given it's an up and down job, week in, week out. i don't know if the stats bear it out, but i imagine moreno recovers ball a lot in the opposition half. when you're philosophy is counter pressing it probably counts for a lot.

it's a choice. an understanding that you can count the amount of complete full backs in the last few decades on the fingers of one hand. and a way of seeing the role that isn't unusual and emphasises strengths that moreno clearly has or is close to having, rather than some incomprehensible oversight of his weakness. obviously. he isn't picking him for his work in our defensive third, and probably a number of the mistakes in that area will be analysed in a way that looks at a collective failure in structure or press. just as unai emery opted to promote moreno ahead of fernando navarro, an experienced and reliable defensive full back.

please... every major figure in spanish/barca football unanimous on the genius of busquets.

there's an argument he's gone from a bit underrated to a bit overrated, but still think his ability on ball is right up there. in terms of quickness of feet and thought he's streets ahead of most... maybe not quite iniesta and xavi, but in the same envelope, just playing deeper.

suppose it's about what you value, if busquets isn't the most composed and intelligent footballer in the world, he's in the top three. not going to ping it 40 yards very much or do anything eye-catching physically though.

morata isn't slow. tube his performance v bayern last season. he has been inconsistent though, and goals record not special. juve use him oddly though, often a workhorse more than the go to goalscorer.

some itk that he'd have started him at Spurs and the quotes he gave after the injury.

the german and spanish clubs working with this model aren't about 100% ownership really. it's a mixture of real stake membership and financiers.

not sure how relevant the away thing is really, newcastle's problems on the road go back to the season before last, think they've only won 4 or 5 in last two seasons. a lot of the goals he scored at home for newcastle came in a counter attack fashion. always a chance he just doesn't have the personality, but if anything his style focused at a higher level looks more suited to aways.

boyhood manc.