#2024

I loved Vidal at Juve. Something about how he made his name in Serie A (though I presume he was decent at Leverkusen), was part of an outstanding midfield that dominated the division, was equally aggressive and technical, took fantastic penalties and was from Chile…made him seem…almost mythical to me. Like he was a hark back to the 90s when Italian teams had all the best players over there. Juve’s stripes add to that, for me

His moves to Bayern and now Barca have burst that bubble and now he’s just another UCL-level midfielder (i.e. very good but unremarkable).

1 Like
#2025

Is this the weekend football thread? Sunderland are losing their opening game of the season at home in league one and it definitely isn’t at all funny

#2026

to a team managed by Lee Bowyer

#2027

I was thinking about starting a weekend one.

I think this thread is big enough.

#2028

yeah go for it

#2029
#2030

Much much MUCH rather have him over Morata.

He’d fit right in at Chelsea.

Morata has looked okay in the last couple of games to be fair to him, but I don’t think there’s any way that confidence issue can be patched up. Some of those misses from last season were quite breathtaking.

#2031

Honestly, I guess Real knew what they were doing with Morata. I rarely watched him play but his stats off the bench for them seemed impressive, and he’s fairly technically gifted, but he was coming on against teams that were finished and tapping a few in. If they thought he could lead the line they wouldn’t have got rid of him

Glad United up with Lukaku instead – especially as Real were quoting us £90m for Morata, rather than the £60m they sold him to you for. Lukaku’s far from perfect, but his game is improving, and you can’t question his drive and mentality

1 Like
#2032

I agree with all of that.

I really want him to prove his doubters wrong, but every impression I get of him is Torres when he lost his mojo, and at that young an age it’s a bit of a worry.

1 Like
#2033

Lukaku’s such a weird one. I’ll be in a pub or something with a Utd match on in the background and he’ll have had, like, 4 touches in the box, mis-control everything, get a great chance and sky it, etc. Then we’ll move pubs or whatever and by the time we get to the next one he’ll have scored a perfect hat-trick or something. If he can get to his top form and stay there he’ll be basically unstoppable.

#2034

He has a lot of flaws in his game, which I initially thought put major questions about whether he could play for a top club. But at the same time, he’s maybe the most driven forward we’ve had since Ronaldo. He’ll keep working, keep learning, keep improving. His build up play was supposedly terrible, but it’s got way better. When everyone else has given up on the pitch, he’s giving his everything. You can coach a player to improve his skills, but you can’t teach a player that kind of determination

5 Likes
#2035

Quite bored of your jaded faux macho schtick

Any reason to put ‘fat’ in there? Didn’t think so

4 Likes
#2036

This. I bloody love him.

1 Like
#2037

Great dog
Performance eerily reminiscent of Man U defence in the CL final 2009

4 Likes
#2038

Dont watch him week in week out, but his first touches are (currently) more often terrible than good. But so much positives wrt to game intelligence.
Hope he does well

#2040

2000 odd replies and this is your only contribution, but I’m already bored of you. Good work.

1 Like
#2041

This is not getting enough likes on either the dog front or the CL final burn front.

Man Utd!

#2042

#2043

We’re drafting in some absolutely random Brazilian in to play whenever Fernandinho’s serving one of his ten suspensions next season. Honestly think the Jorginho signing’s one of the biggest window doings we’ve endured in modern times.

#2044

was about to say that Robinho was the last bit of business that went wrong for city, but then I remembered Mangala. I also believe that you parted with money, however small the fee, for Caballero and Bravo.

For context, I had about an hour long discussion with a fellow Chelsea fan today about how much of a disgrace the whole de Bruyne thing was.