Davvo

True enough, not many people have one at 14. Blogs and Twitter accounts on the other hand.

Rooney can't play De Guzman's game, not even close, no discipline to play deep and he'll quite rightly want to be in the box as much as possible. As for Mata, he doesn't sweat enough for the Sneijder role in that set up. If that's his plan, then I'm on board 100%. As for Holland, they were perfectly set up to beat teams who liked to keep the ball and push players forward.

Exactly, they are on a plate.

Cracking read that. Jack the clip guy is everything that's wrong with this country

Here's hoping. I don't know why, I just think the ego of the manager is enough to have seen how well that system smashed Spain, to think he can replicate it again. In reality, they quickly became predictable. If he tries to shoehorn Van Persie, Rooney, Di maria, and Mata in to any formation you can think of, they will hopefully struggle, especially with what's currrently behind.

To some extent , but i think what's good about the squad we're putting together is the options. Sterling/Markovic can play at the tip or upfront in a two. Lallana/Coutinho, can play tip or edge. Whilst I'm not sure you'd call a diamond compact with all 4 of those in it, I think you could play 3, and certainly 2.

Think Van Gaal's going to look to him to be his Robben in that Dutch system. I just don't think that suits the squad though, unless he's looking to offload Mata or Rooney and replace them with a decent centre mid. I know he's just made Rooney captain, but it wouldn't surprise me. Rooney doesn't suit that withdrawn role (Sneijder in World Cup), and to be honest I don't think Mata's got the work rate for it. Hopefully this will f*** them up royally and start either a) continually changing tactics from Van Gaal, or b) some mutiny involving Rooney and/or others. I'd agree Schneiderlin and Lovren equivalents are what they need, but so is a Di Maria, they need a quick man upfront to play Van Gaal's system.

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Even by their pre-historic, bigoted standards, that's some statement is that. Not the sexist or homophobic ones no, just the racist stuff, which wasn't really racist, just letting off steam, in a way other cultures might take wrongly. It makes it sound like he's more bothered that the reports implied all the messages printed as examples today, were sent by him, when only some of them were. Given all of them were disgraceful, you'd think he wasn't in much of a position to be pedantic really.

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Indeed, it was like putting a pair of octogenarian's in charge of the music at an 18th Birthday. Real lack of energy and forward momentum in midfield, which improved with the introduction of Allen. Surprising selection really, especially given the opposition. Still, 3 points in the bag, Lallana, Markovic and Moreno to come.

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More likely we're waiting for loads of things to unravel. I think Bony may well be a fallback option, but who knows.

A body language expert, would tell you he's distraught at not getting the job when BR did. 'One day, sweet Liverbird', he's quietly whispering.

If we really are in for the likes of Cavani, Reus etc, then it's quite plausible we need some more movement at the top end of the market first (barca/real/psg etc). Possibly even the CL qualifiers to be done. Unlikely we're the first choice destination for most of the very top players.

Stan Boardman is on the transfer committee.

Evenif that report is true, itsurely must be inclusive of wages, perhaps to circumvent some tax.

BT Sport 1.

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I think it was more a request than a mandate, and was apparently because single colour kits look better on TV.

The STD's will go down a storm in the student unions for sure.

No flawed logic here, I think you'd perhaps need to account for the number of appearances/minutes they took to accumulate those goals no ? That was my point, they totalled the same but over a considerably higher number of minutes played, so not comparable at all.

Which would be nice if we could actually play all 3 of them in place of Suarez, but we probably wouldn't get away with 13 men.