46 yr old Russian male seeking coach for short term fun - OTT [R]

That is why we have Rooney and Kagawa.

 

I would give Rooney to you but Kagawa has been as effective as Ashley Young.

 

I will take that as a complement to Rooney and thus accept your answer fully and completely.

I do wonder where Kagawa plays when he returns. You'd probably prefer him on the wing to Young.

 

I prefer even Powell on the LW after he went through two defenders and ran 5 yards with the ball, way more than Young has done all season.
It is like playing with 10 men for 60 mins and then SAF saying okay I think that is enough level playing, now we press an advantage with equal no of guys on pitch.

I know Rooney is a match winner, quality player, inconsistent frustrating but quality player, though if I had the chance of replacing Rooney with two extremely good ball carriers/dribblers I would, my stance is known.

 

I can respect that.

 

So Sneijder has been frozen out of Inter's team, they want to slash his wages drastically or sell him, will probably end in Russia with 6 m wages, still a one season wonder and will remain at that I guess.

 

I think a lot of teams we have struggled against in the league have been underestimated by many fans (and fergie to some extend) if I'm honest. They have all been teams with either very good managers, or very good managers combined with a team adjusting to a new style. Plus we've hit each of them just as they are in a good run of form.

The only one I'm really pissed about is the QPR performance today.

 

Lets see from memory, they lost away to Norwich and we lost away, both did not create anything but Norwich on a resurgence but still. Struggled Villa away, they did too, the same Villa side was spanked 5-0 by City (at home), QPR they were lucky to win and we scraped. We outplayed Stoke but that was when RVP was still in form, they drew I think against them. Any other?

 

Both teams lack quality across the xi; we have better strikers so we score a few more though.

 

And Pato is injured again.

 

Something like that, specially midfield and wings, Chamberlain getting a hard education.

 

Not just midfield and wings is it. You can't even combine both teams and come up with a team that should dominate.

Still, from Wenger's perspective, 4th spot should still be achievable.

 

^^^

You can't combine any 2 teams in this league not involving City and create something that would dominate.

 

Chelsea two options(Mata, Hazard) plus RVP and Nani would take alot of pressure off even a sub standard midfield.

 

Given City's travails in Europe, even that would be a stretch.

I think this is going to stay the case until Mourinho, or Pep or someone else forces the other teams to step up.

 

The midfield and defense would still be sub-standard.

 

Carrick Mikel, ask them to sit deep and cover, I am not unhappy with our defense Smalling Evans Rafael is good, nothing great but good, a couple of years together and it has potential to be great.

 

Disagree.

----------------RVP
----Rooney----------------Nani
---------Cazorla----Kagawa
--------------Carrick
Evra--------------------------Sagna
---------Evans-----Smalling
--------------De Gea

would blitz the prem.

Forget about it if I could use Chelsea players...

 

This.

A Carrick/Mikel sitting pair would be disastrous in top games. They would need much, much more defensive help for the flanks than either combined team could give.

 

Add De Gea, fine keeper, hate keeper rotation. Shows how many flaws Chelsea have, they went for Zidane Pavones strategy, how the results could be different.

 

That is a nothing midfield, Cazorla has done nothing since the novelty factor ran out and teams starting to press, only good game since Tottenham with a man down, lots of space.

Neither of them is a midfielder, it is essential a 514, 513 if you count Evra.

 

I'm not saying it would be defensively strong, but if the team closed down aggressively high up the pitch and focused on attacking , I don't think many(or any) teams in the prem would be able to contain that.

 

Only because the prem is so weak right now. Some big assumptions with that team. Certain players still have question marks over them for one reason or another.

 

I think Carrick will get isolated and will be picked on, there will be too much space between him and other midfielders. I think we were talking about a team that could challenge in Europe, I would take my chance with two wingers/playmakers that we SHOULD have bought and decided Ashley Young is a better option (in one instance).

 

Ultimately, the problems for the top teams boil down to a couple of things -
A. Lack of identity. None of them have a formation/tactics/identity that they play consistently and are comfortable with.
B. Weak midfields. Even a peak Benitez Liverpool midfield of Alonso-Mascherano-Gerrard would absolutely destroy any of the clubs' midfields. None of the teams has a single player who is top percentile in both directions.

More than Falcao, I would rather have Vidal not joining any other team in the league. We couldn't handle Essien very well when he actually had a top percentile team, now it would just be a massacre.