Proper Football season 2014-2015 thread

[Psychotic]

Yeah I think we talked about it earlier in the thread. As I said then, it's not anti-Arsenal. They were two truly shocking, exciting and dramatic days so of course you're going to show those as an advertisement for your product. Arsenal just happened to be the ones getting their arses handed to them. I don't really know what their fans expect - a Stalinist revision of history where we pretend that didn't happen? May as well just abolish the month of February while you're at it.

Also EoFF's very own Loony BoB quits his job to start a Man United Twitter account: http://footballburp.com/magazine/the...itter-account/

[Loony BoB]

Wow.

[Old Manus]

Obviously BT Sport was getting in early this season belittling charliepanayi.

EDIT: Just realised I've already made this joke

[Formalhaut]

I think for Arsenal's sake, showing another team getting thrashed would calm them down abit

[Psychotic]

No other big teams did get thrashed though. Well. I guess Liverpool did beast Spurs home and away.

[DK]

smurf arsenal, horribly self entitled bunch of s, every teeny tiny bit of misery and pain they feel is utterly deserved and every effort should be made to ensure they never forget that they are the worst s in world football.

speaking of, Vincent Tan is a genius, properly shafted malky mackay over and in the sweetest way. what a great man.

desperately hoping the Super Mario deal goes through. I have no idea what Liverpool are playing at trying to ruin everything by demanding contract clauses about behaviour. Super Mario has never been one to do anything vastly over the top, at least not as far as on the football field is concerned. And they absolutely need a guy like him. Don't smurf it up, just bring back the beloved hero for us to all enjoy.

[Psychotic]

It's cool dude. Whatever we proposed (smurf knows why, just let him do what he wants) he has agreed to it. Presently airborne and going to get a medical.

[Old Manus]

Harry 'clean as a whistle' Redknapp sure knows when to jump in and make things a hundred times worse than it already is for the people he is trying to defend.

"He hasn't murdered anyone, he hasn't raped anyone and he is not a paedophile."

[Psychotic]

Don't worry, Malky is a "proper football man" so he can do whatever he wants. I still don't know what being a "proper football man" means but given that it's usually used in relation to 'arry himself or Tim Sherwood I assume it's a synonym for moron.

[Loony BoB]

I know we have 6-7 of our first choice starters injured or unable to start, but this is just embarrassing. Fletcher and Cleverley I hoped would get better under LVG. They genuinely appear to have been better under both SAF & Moyes. Mata/Rooney/RVP barely making runs, Mata barely rejoining midfield, Cleverley (mis)defending outside our box when we're supposed to be playing with five defenders... how is this happening? So, so dire. Really not sure if this 3-5-2 is going to have time to work out here, we'll be too far from top four by the time our players click at this rate.

Still, hopefully the addition of Evans, Rojo, Shaw, Rafael, Carrick, Herrera and potentially Di Maria will make things considerably more watchable. Hell, even Fellaini...

[Psychotic]

Di Maria is a world class player but surely the problem isn't in attack? You can attack as much as you want but when you have a double pivot of Fletcher and Cleverley in front of a defence containing random kids like Keane and Blackett you'll always be have a brittle core. If they get Khedira too that'll go some way to solving that problem though. The jury is out on Rojo and I'm not convinced Herrera is mobile enough to be a holding midfielder by himself.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I also think the rumoured £48-60m (depending on your source!) fee is a little steep for a wantaway player and surely the £38m Sanchez/Ozil fees are more of a benchmark? Also can't see where you'd put Di Maria in a 3-5-2 (though maybe at No. 10 with Mata making way?) which suggests to me you're going to see 3-4-3 but then that only leaves one spot in your forward line for Rooney/Mata, and that's out of position on the left. Either way, I'm assuming with Mata in the form he is in it will be him being benched, and that means a smurfton of cash will have been spent on a sub. Intriguing though.

[Old Manus]

I can't believe we've actually reached the point where £60M+ transfer fees are commonplace. It's not even like Di Maria is even that amazing. Besides, it's the defence that is League 1 standard at the moment (and I know what they look like), not Mata.

[Psychotic]

That's a bit harsh mate, Phil Jones could do well for a promotion-chasing Championship team or someone like Burnley or Crystal Palace.

[Loony BoB]

Our problem is in central midfield and on the wings, while we lack depth in defence. Read my earlier post about how good Smalling/Evans/Jones are - to summarise, it was never defence that was our problem last season, and when it was our problem, it was involving Rio/Vidic more often than Smalling/Evans/Jones.

Our problem was being unable to score more than the opposition. The creativity is a key area in our side when you look at what you're missing, along with authority in midfield. Now, Di Maria is a creative player and I'm fine with whatever we've paid for him. Why? Because of how little we've spent in the past ten seasons combined. We're spending big now because we didn't spend big back then. As for not being worth it and not being all that great, I didn't watch too much of Real Madrid last season but everyone and their uncle seems to be saying Di Maria is one of their best players, their engine, the man of the match in the final of the CL, made more assists and more key passes than any other player in La Liga last season... I'm just failing to see how he isn't considered world class here. £60m is what you pay in order to get Real Madrid's engine? So be it.

Back to our weakness, it is definitely now in the centre of the pitch. I'm still holding out hope that we'll get someone in. As for formation, not worried. Honestly? Di Maria sounds like he'll be a step up from Rooney, RVP or Mata. I am fine with any of them being benched if it means we're more likely to win. Also, Real Madrid played 4-3-3 last season with Di Maria making up one of the midfield three. No idea what that means for where he'll play at United, but I imagine that he can play in more than one formation.

EDIT: To my knowledge, Herrera is not a holding midfielder at all, Psy. He's a mobile player, box to box, but is better with someone playing behind him. He's a "#8" if that means anything to you.

[Psychotic]

Oh there's no doubt Di Maria is world class and better than anyone United has. Just that so are Ozil and Sanchez, and I'd put him in that bracket, and they didn't cost anywhere near as much. As I keep saying, United are being taken for mugs by other teams and I'm still not convinced that it's the best way to go.

Also it's funny we can say #8, #9 or #10 and know what we mean when players now have numbers in the 40's and 50's Liverpool's new signing Lazar Markovic is #50. Players used to drop down to FIrst XI numbers when they moved through the youth team ranks but now they're keeping their high ones. I kind of hate it. It seems petty but I do.