All things soccer 2014 - 15

Carling

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Apr 14, 2011
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Manu are going to struggle on defense, they were rash in letting Vidic leave.

Now they're going to have to overpay for a quality defender. No use in harassing Roma, they've already made it clear that they wont sell any of their stars. The kicker is why didn't they make a bid for Dutch defender Stefan de Vrij, he was outstanding in the WC. Instead he's going to Lazio.

Does that make sense?

http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2014/07/31/4994933/strootman-de-jong-key-to-lazio-move-de-vrij?ICID=TP_TNM_ART_5

Tuesday Aug 19, CL Qualification: Napoli vs Athletic Bilbao. This is a must watch match.
word is Man U will sign Strootman if Vidal deal doenst go thru...
 

AK-47

Armed to the tits
Mar 6, 2009
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In the 6
Thats largely a symbolic asking price, there's no way Strootman is worth $100 mill, nor would ManU ever pay that price even if he was worth it
 

Insidious Von

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Sep 12, 2007
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Symbolic or not, that's what Garcia wants and he runs the show.

Fiorentina 2 Real Madrid 1 - Mario Gomez nets the winner.
 

Carling

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Apr 14, 2011
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Insidious Von

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Strootman has already affirmed his allegiance to Roma, so Garcia isn't worried. Good signing with Rojo, that's are the sort of players ManU Reds should be signing. They might get Benatia but only if Garcia deems Romanglioli is ready for prime time. Garcia is asking for 40 million euros, and that deal is dependent on City selling Jovetic.
 

Insidious Von

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Sep 12, 2007
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Erik Lamela > Angel Di Maria

So now both Manchester clubs are in a bidding war for Di Maria - good luck with that. lol

So Erik Lamela is beginning to show his class at Spurs. Just beginning to get his career on track, Roma played him just enough to delay opposing defenses bearing down him. One of the few items Enrique got right as coach. Now after a year of adjustment he's beginning to hit his stride. If he can be consistent, Tottenham will be in the CL next year and possibly more. If Argentina had chosen Lamela and Icardi instead of Di Maria and Aguerro, Germany would be crying in their beerstiens.
 
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shogun89

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Feb 18, 2013
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Madrid are taking Manu to the cleaners with this deal. All their transfer dealings in the past 3 windows have had an aura of desperation about them and Madrid are fully exploiting that with the price tag. £75 million for Di Maria, he's a good player but that's way too much.

It doesn't help that Woodward constantly brags about how much money they have to spend either.
 

AK-47

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Mar 6, 2009
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Madrid are taking Manu to the cleaners with this deal. All their transfer dealings in the past 3 windows have had an aura of desperation about them and Madrid are fully exploiting that with the price tag. £75 million for Di Maria, he's a good player but that's way too much
Thats 75 million British pounds too, which is 124 million US dollars (or 94 million Euros)
 

Insidious Von

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How many US $ to the pound?

If that is what RM is asking for a talented but dumb player imagine what Juve is asking for Vidal?
 

Insidious Von

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Am I to carry this thread alone? Deficenti.

If Balotelli keeps his ass quiet Liverpool could win the EPL, Rodgers system suits him.

It's a huge but calculated risk on Rodgers part but he's done his homework. What "less than" Super Mario does best is hold the line and create space for his wingers. He wont score many goals but Sterling and Sturridge will. He has to perform, Conte wont give him a free pass to The Azzurri if he doesn't.

And I can't wait to watch him punish ManU again. :eyebrows:
 

saxon

Well-known member
Dec 2, 2009
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Speaking of Man U, off to a horrible start. No offence at all and a defence like a leaky bucket. They better find a way to pull things together quickly or they will find themselves out of the CL hunt again. That's something they can't afford to have happen.
 

AK-47

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Mar 6, 2009
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No idea why van Gaal insists on playing a 3-5-2 :confused:
 

Dartman

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Sep 23, 2002
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hamilton
Here we go again the decline of Toronto FC , coaches fired, asst coaches fired and Defoe heading back to QPR ,
 

shogun89

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Feb 18, 2013
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I don't usually post in this thread cuz it seems like there are not many soccer fans here, so I go to a board where after you write something, you get 10+ replies within minutes.

Anyways yeah, I think Liverpool look much more dangerous when they play the diamond formation with 2 strikers, that worked so well for them last year. Infact most of their goals this year have come when they switched to 2 strikers. Now they have Balo and Sturridge they can do that from the start every game, and Sterling seems to do much better in the middle at the tip of the diamond.

Moreno looks like a bargain at £12 mil, compared to Shaw for £30 mil, but The transfer fees of British players are always so over inflated because they're so few and far between these days.

They have 3 new defenders which seemed to jump right into the starting spots in Lovren, Manquillo, and Moreno and they all look better than our options last year already (Toure, Johnson, Flannagan) Liverpool's leaky defence cost them the league last year, but their high powered offence almost won it anyways. Now They'll lose goals without Suarez for sure, but Balo will make some of that up, and they have much more depth than last year too for all the extra games.

Still looking forward to seeing Lallana, and want to see more of Markovic.

Manu have the most expensive BPL squad ever assembled right now. It actually costs more than Man City's and Chelsea's, but a lot of them are players they don't need and panic buys etc when they have a run if bad games. Did they really need Mata for £37 mil, when Rooney, Kagawa, and even Januzai can play the number 10 role. Fellaini was another panic buy and waste of £27 mil. They paid over the odds for Di Maria, and they have a bunch of deadwood they seem to have a hard time getting rid of (why is Anderson still around?)

This transfer window they've bought 3 left backs (Shaw, Rojo, and Blind) for a combined fee of £60 million. Is that really necessary? What they really need is a solid central midfielder for ages and centre backs after losing Vidic and Ferdinand . It just seems like a very unbalanced squad.

Also, Van Persie, Rooney, Mata as a front 3 sounds great on paper, but in reality they're all pretty slow and un-incisive. You rarely ever see any 3 of them beat a man anymore. The 3-5-2 worked well for Holland mainly because they had Robben as a striker who carried them offensively most games with his extreme pace and skill. Also international football is generally played at a slower pace than the BPL, especially in he summer heat.
 

shogun89

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Wow, so Manu just signed Falcao for a 1 year loan with a £12 mil loan fee at £200,000 a week. I don't think anyone can blame the Glazers because they're throwing ridiculous amounts of money at the problem trying to short cut their way back to the top. Looks like they just want to sign every big name player they can get their hands on regardless if they need him or not.

Thing is, he's yet another slow striker and still doesn't help their central midfield or central defensive problems, but he's another big name and a signal of intent. Mata looked the likely one to get benched from this move.
 

Don Draper

Cufflinks & Cognac
Nov 24, 2009
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Speaking of Man U, off to a horrible start. No offence at all and a defence like a leaky bucket. They better find a way to pull things together quickly or they will find themselves out of the CL hunt again. That's something they can't afford to have happen.
Actually, I'm loving every minute of this Man U implosion.

Almost as much as 'Los Merengues' being up 2 - 0 and losing to Real Sociedad by a final of 4 - 2. Hee Hee.

David Zurutuza scored twice as Real Sociedad came from two goals behind to defeat visiting Real Madrid 4-2 on Sunday in a thrilling La Liga match at the Anoeta.

Madrid led through early strikes by Sergio Ramos and Gareth Bale and seemed to be cruising to their second victory in as many matches to start the league season. Instead, Sociedad stormed back with four unanswered goals.
 

Insidious Von

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Sep 12, 2007
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What a difference a decade makes for the world's greatest club. In 2004 shored up his defense by signing Vidic and Ferdinand, he had time on his side to get his formation right. Now, a decade later they get top heavy by signing Falcao. LVG gets the last laugh by hijacking Juve's bid, serves them right for not selling them Vidal. I hope they are patient with Daley Blind, son of 1988 Euro winner Dany Blind.


Roma may have gotten the last laugh by selling Benatia to Bayern for 37 million Euros and buying two defenders. One of them was Moyes target David Astori - still haven't figured why that deal fell through? it was still a little strange with the right side of their defense composed of the Greek National Team (Torosidis, Manolas) hopefully it works? Now they face their old stopper with Bayern meeting Roma in the Group of Death.
 
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