can see pogba at citeh as toure is 100% leaving
its crazy, alonso and modric must keep their places next season so I can’t see kroos dropping deeper. Isco will be warming the bench and so would james, unless they play him wide but it’s not like they don’t have those positions covered.
di maria looks surplus to requirements
Yeah, that’s the thing, all three of these guys are basically No 10’s, James and Isco are too slow to be out wide, and Kroos’ best position is like the other two to be pulling the strings behind the strikers. I cannot fathom why a young player would go to Real Madrid. One year you’re the big star, and the next year they’ll move onto something else.
Would love to see Liverpool try to pick up one of these players. Gerrard is not going to cut it at DM…but Illaramendi might…
^
The age of the DM is coming to an end I feel, Mascherano is the last one.
As long as you have possession based teams, you will need a great DM to be the pivot. Masche is oddly more suited for a counterattacking style I think bc he doesnt have the distribution.
I can’t believe Di Maria is on his way out, hopefully he comes to the premiership
As you know Di Stefano passed away this month.
This is a video of a late 30s Di Stefano against England.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQXtIzv8MhU]
The guy clearly had immense ball skill, vision, and creativity. How do you think Messi would do against those defenders? I feel that Messi while being a great dribbler and goalscorer, hasn’t become the creative fulcrum that he can be when it comes to playing with vision and running an offense. Wonder if he will make the changes.
This is his gf at age 88. Nicely played.
Why do young players join Real? There’s a saying in football. If you didn’t play for either Real, Barca or ManUtd., hack the sack. Just get it over with and enjoy the balls.
Real has an overload of excellent players. At the same time they play 50+ games without the useless merchandise friendlies. They might crush everyone this year - will be hard for Bayern or ManCity to come close.
I understand di Maria. He is a great player, incredible value, incredibly efficient. But he has played for Real; now its time to cash in at PSG. Wish him well.
Another one: PSG will always face problems to make it big. 80% of their matches are against teams that are so much worse…competition is not as intense - you don’t have to push yourself for of the season. When you face the best, weekend after weekend, that’s when you get prepared for the big battles. This is why I potentially see a Spanish or British team win the CL; Bayern is dominating the Bundesliga too much - let’s see if Wolfsburg, Dortmund, Leverkusen can push them to the next level.
The problem with Real is the saying that echoes through any young superstar’s mind: “opportunity does not knock twice”.
So they get some interest and an offer and they go, even if they know they won’t get any games.
Careers are short and you never know if you will be better or stay uninjured for the second call from Real.
Anyone keeping up with the Man City tour? How about our boy Kelechi Ihenacho? 17 years old and out there killing it.
Watched Zelalem for the first time. He didn’t look great but he’s also really young. Wouldnt be a bad addition to the US fold.
What position does he play? Nigeria really lacks in creative playmakers…so you can hope there. He should consider going on loan though…
He’s been playing striker with Jovetic. On the U-17 world cup team, he rotated between striker and midfield. He doesn’t quite have creativity a-la David Silva and co but he makes good passing decisions and is able to hold the ball up well which is impressive given his age and the competition he’s facing.
Our last creative midfield was Okocha. Mikel was supposed to be next in line until he met Jose Mourinho and became the ultimate defensive midfielder.
For playing time, he’s better off going on loan. Man City is so hard to break into anyway. He’s not unseating Kun, Dzeko or Negredo any time soon.
FIFA VP Julio Grondona passes away.
This guy was pretty powerful at FIFA and basically the dictator of Argentina’s FA.
They’re just following their dream, most footballers undoubtedly think they are even better than they really are,
imagine if you were a mediocre investment professional and blackrock or goldmans wanted you to join them on a post MBA intake or something, you’d go for it even if you knew everyone else there would be fucking amazing, you’d tell yourself that you’d nail it anyway
Look at hleb, song et al going to barca, I’m sure they thought they’d be a success.
totslly agree on PSG, the fact that they don’t face top class opposition in their league was pretty obvious in their champions league run last year. Probably the same goes for bayern tbh
im tipping joetic to be awesome this year, the few chances he got last year he played pretty damn well and he’s really got an eye for goal.
Meg redox out long term, Kuns hamstrings snap if someone even looks at him sternly and the Chilean lizard likes to play 2 up front. Incidentally, Man U, liverpool and city will be playing 2 up front this season
Every nigerian I know hates mourinho for ruining mikel, i reckon he would have turned out shite regardless
^
Yeah, he doesn’t have particularly quick feet or the passing range required.
On a different note, it’s nice how football doesn’t really eat into your daily life at all. Just a couple of hours over the weekend when you’re out.
This season will be intense. Anyone’s game. City are City, Chelsea look impressive, Wenger means business (though I think the game has passed him by) and Liverpool will look to push on. United will take a couple of months to bed in under LVG so I doubt they’ll be in the picture.
Atletico signed Antoine in addition to Mandzukic, If they get an adequate replacement for Courtous hopefully they can maintain their position.
Man City will be as good as last year, Chelsea will be significantly stronger as they got Courtois, Luis Filipe, Diego Costa, and Cesc, Man U will be obviously a lot better, plus they don’t have the CL. Liverpool OTOH, just lost a (top 3 no hacksaw?) player and will be playing in the CL…I expect them to be lucky to finish 4th, mostly because Everton doesnt have the squad.
Yup, Chelsea look the favorites for sure.
I think Lpool will distribute the goals of Suarez though. He got around 30 right? Markovic and Lallana have ~8 each in them so if they add another attacker they should be ok.
They’ve shored up their defense in Lovren which was a problem and Can is an astute buy. They’re still in the market so it will be interesting.
Raheem Sterling - the boy is destined for big things. Crazy player and not even 20. Should be a good ride.
When is opening day?