They could easily not get 4th, how many teams are separated by a point or two, ridiculous table, everybody beating up everybody.
Why won't you want Fischer and Larsson ? Fischer seems to be someone we are linked to time and again, and a big talent so could be plausible.
How many points did each of those teams have at this stage? Anyways, talking about overall quality of 20 teams. Not the quality of the top teams only...
2007-08 was the peak of competitiveness of the Prem when all 4 teams reached the last 8 (and were only eliminated by each other) in the CL; and in the UEFA cup Everton topped a group containing Zenit while Bolton drew away at Bayern. Any of the former 4 would stroll to the league now.
How the top teams did in Europe has only a small impact in terms of the competitiveness of the league internally as a whole. Actually, top teams all falling off a bit makes the league more competitive as the bottom 10 teams have certainly improved. Looking at the bottom 5 teams in the table they have quite a bit of talent there. The difference is considerable compared to even the Derby Counties, Birmingham's of 2007/08 and even more compared to Wolves, Leicester City and other bottom 10 teams in 2003/04.
Put Rooney there instead of Nani and play a narrow 4-2-3-1 ? Though will mean quite a bit of change from our system under Fergie.
wow, isco's release clause can apparently be activated for only L17 m. we'd be mental not to do so albeit we'd still prolly lose him to city on wages.
this is a good one. Although DS would be happy. http://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...bt-as-redknapp-demands-hard-work-3307966.html
Getting Taarabt when we don't have patience for Nani would be silly. I do think that some of the Nani business is down to him wanting to be paid what he's worth. He's not half a Rooney, that's not a good reflection of his talent or his end product. I do think that if we lose Nani, as Syed has been saying, we need to replace him with 2 players. I think Young can rediscover his form, but he's a specific type of winger who was a good buy when we were a wing-dominant team with Rooney and Hernandez getting a lot of minutes as twin strikers. Given that isn't how we're playing moving forward, it makes little sense to expect the same kind of performance from Young. However, given our change, he's the guy who will suffer the most. He's got to find a new way to contribute to the team and quickly, but I think as a third or fourth choice winger, who gets starts when we rotate for rest/injury and minutes when we need to defend a lead or press an advantage, he's fine. We cannot continue to evaluate him based on his fee/salary, it isn't as though he's making Rooney money or that he cost Carroll money on the transfer. If we could move him, I'd be okay with it, but I don't see it happening. We clearly need at least 1 winger and I'd love if we kept Nani, but something's going to have to give and I'm not sure what will.
I'm not sure what to feel about Taarabt to be honest. His talent is obvious, but he's also an obvious headcase and he does try to force things on the pitch too much at times.
In the days of old, forcing things too much (on the pitch) was a good thing as far as United were concerned. HBA would be a better bet. A tad more restrained and better at using his pace/balance. Obviously also an injury and cost concern. But anyone with close to Nani's ability is going to cost us almost as much as his wage demands and certainly as much as he cost when we bought him.