Uppercut
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Yeah I'm fine with Lamela, far, far too soon to write him off.
That's our best European away performance in years, Kagawa at 10 is definitely the way forward. So much better balanced than with two strikers.
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*Official* English Football Season 2013-14
- Thread starter GIMH
- Start date
That's our best European away performance in years, Kagawa at 10 is definitely the way forward. So much better balanced than with two strikers.
Furball
Evil Scotsman
Hopefully his injury is nothing trivial.
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Great performance by United yesterday. As Uppercut said best Away performance in Europe in years. (Kiev away was the last ?)
Giggs (Where do we find a younger and more consistent version of him now ?), Rooney, Valencia, Evans, Kagawa, Smalling all very good and rest were pretty decent as well.
Much vaunted Bundesliga is not all that beyond Bayern and Dortmund as expected too.
Giggs (Where do we find a younger and more consistent version of him now ?), Rooney, Valencia, Evans, Kagawa, Smalling all very good and rest were pretty decent as well.
Much vaunted Bundesliga is not all that beyond Bayern and Dortmund as expected too.
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Way to early to write him off.
He'll be a good signing once he settles but might even take a inconsistent season to do so. Same with Eriksen as i said to NUFAN a while back.
He's responsible for not changing the system though. And Buying Soldado (a box and in around striker) and then playing with Inverted wingers and 3 CM's who barely create for him.
Don't think he should be sacked yet, unless they have someone else there lined up who can be better, but his tactical rigidity was his downfall at Chelsea too. (Trying to Play the declining John Terry in a high line and Lampard as a posession retaining CM.)
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Don't think it matter what you tell the media, but how do you convince RVP to stay on the bench at the peak of his powers without going into a sulk ?
I would consider Playing Rooney left in a free role which Nani had yesterday. He's more effective than Kagawa there generally drifting in and has done it regularly in the past when we had Ronaldo.
The thing is he might go into a sulk again if that happens plus Kagawa still needs to convince in the premiership where his performances tend to be lesser than in Europe, especially when he gets less protection against more physical and high intensity teams.
Uppercut
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Since when did any decent manager ever think "well that's my best team, but I can't pick it because player X will sulk if I do".
RVP has been nowhere near "the peak of his powers" this season and in any case it's standard to put a star player on the bench after an injury when the team has been playing well without him.
RVP has been nowhere near "the peak of his powers" this season and in any case it's standard to put a star player on the bench after an injury when the team has been playing well without him.
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sledger
Spanish_Vicente
Tbf, that sort of thing does happen from time to time, though whether any decent manager would actually follow that logic is perhaps less clear cut.
Raul lasting so long at Real Madrid despite so obviously being past it is probably a good example.
Cevno
Hall of Fame Member
Almost every manager would be hesitant to leave out arguably their best player for a prolonged period. Ancelotti had to bench the in form Di Maria for Bale once he returned for example. Hernandez has come in previously for RVP, did very well and then been benched including during RVP's dry spell last season which lasted for a decent while.
One/2 game or so, shouldn't be a issue while returning from injury as you say. But beyond that it becomes a problem.
And it's not like it's abundantly clear what the best team combination is or that RVP is declining either. He has 8 goals and 2 assists in 11 starts so far this season with atleast 3 periods out stop start with niggling injuries while the team as a whole has been performing below par too.
............
Having said that Rooney needing a rest at some point might be a solution with rotation if Kagawa keeps it up, though Kagawa and him tend to link up better than RVP and Kagawa for some reason.
Or shifting Rooney left in a free role, if him sulking about it isn't a issue.
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Furball
Evil Scotsman
If Man Utd play much better football with Kagawa and Rooney as opposed to Rooney and van Persie then it's debatable that van Persie is their best player.
Doesn't surprise me that Man Utd are playing better anyway, Arsenal scored more goals after we sold him.
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Uppercut
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Who said anything about a prolonged period? I just said we should bench RVP on Sunday, even if he's fit. He's just coming back from a recurring injury and hasn't been playing that well anyway, and we've just had by far our best performance this season without him.
Then re-evaluate. Whatever happens vs. Spurs might make the next decision easy.
I'm definitely open to the idea of Rooney from the left at some stage.
superkingdave
Hall of Fame Member
So am I thinking right that city will get one of Real, Barcelona, Athletico or PSG in the last 16? (barring upsets in the last round)
Uppercut
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Yeah, but United won more trophies after we bought him.
He's definitely their best player. I'm not sure we've ever played Kagawa behind RVP. The only time I remember is the last half an hour away to Sociedad, when we were very good but missed some insanely easy chances.
Yeah I think so, not seen PSG this year but suspect they would lose to the other 3. Don't really like that you are separated from playing teams from the same country as you after the group stage.
sledger
Spanish_Vicente
I'm not in favour of it in principle either, but I must say neither am I especially keen on the prospect of seeing two teams from the same country play each other. It's not so bad when you reach the latter stages, because the sides that advance that far would have a legitimate claim to being amongst Europe's real elite clubs. But the idea of having a first round knockout game between two sides from the same country kind of seems a bit besides the point to me, as the best thing about the Champions League for me is seeing matches that you'd not get to see ordinarily.
I may be somewhat biased in my view though, since all of Arsenal's Champions League matches against other English teams have been terrible experiences. In fact, I struggle to rank them in terms of their awfulness, as they were all very grim.
I may be somewhat biased in my view though, since all of Arsenal's Champions League matches against other English teams have been terrible experiences. In fact, I struggle to rank them in terms of their awfulness, as they were all very grim.
Uppercut
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I'm with sledger, I really like seeing match-ups you don't get very often. It's not that bad, you can only get winners vs. runners up anyway, so all the other English teams can still get 5/6 possibilities.
sledger
Spanish_Vicente
Yeah, I think the prospects are fairly uninspiring wherever you come down on this issue to be honest. As you say, if you take the current approach and bar teams from the same nation drawing each other then you might get a very limited draw. But if the restrictions were removed you could end up getting all 4 English clubs playing each other at the first opportunity, and I think that's a considerably less appealing prospect.
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