Papillon

Haha this game is quite comical so far! Guzan with an assist and Bacuna scoring with a header after shooting himself

They shouldn't be so down about this situation though, they received compensation and finished higher last season with Chris Hughton compared to the year with Lambert. They are also on level points with us this season in 12th, with 15 games left to play.

Giving my two cents about this saga, although I don't have any information about it at all: Norwich don't play this guy at all, he has a measly 418 minutes on the pitch this season. They know we want him, but at the same time we are direct competitors on level points and they don't want us to utilize him. Saying that, they surely want 1.5 - 2M for a 31 year old who's not getting games and that's just going to rot on the bench whilst collecting his wages the next year. They know we have a game tonight and we won't be able to use him for that game, but I wouldn't be very surprised if we signed him tomorrow or Friday. That way they keep us from getting the player tonight (and all the other games we didn't get to play him in January), as well as seeing us paying over the odds for him. Basically, it's better for Norwich to sell him to us on the 31st instead of the 1st of January, when we will pay exactly the same or more for him no matter what. I think that if Lambert wants him and if we are ready to pay 2M or whatever it is, then it's 99% certain we will get him. It's negotiation 101. We want something they have but don't want, it's the perfect setup to squeeze some money out of Villa.

We paid 18M for Darren Bent, and Sunderland covered in some clauses should he be very successful. 18M at the time for a player that just scored 24 goals in one PL season with Sunderland was a fair market price if you ask me. Signings are always gambles, even with Mata, Torres, Van Persie, Özil and the lot, so it's pretty lame to attack the signing now when virtually everyone went ballistic when it happened back in 2010/11. The curious case of Darren Bent probably has many explanations, one of them being Paul Lambert and total ignorance for the talents he had on the bench. We have been through this discussion numerous times, so let's not get into it again, but my opinion is that Bent wrecked his career not only by accepting his situation and just sitting there, but also because Lambert decided never to play him again. It's not like we have scored tons of goals since Bent was left out of the team, and we lack a finisher in front of goal. We don't know if Benteke and Bent could have given us a new dimension up front, they never got the right amount of games to prove it. Ryan Bertrand is a very good player for us and a very good loan signing by Paul Lambert. The difference from this signing and everyone else he got in is that this player is someone everyone knows about, a player most teams beneath the European places would love to have in their squad. The most important difference is of course that we don't own the player and he doesn't come from months of scouting the world, so it's still zero points for Lambert's regular transfer/scouting strategy and one point for getting in "proven" Premier League quality. We have scored 69 goals since Lambert took over this club, 69 goals in 60 games. In 2007/2008 we scored 71 goals in 38 games, whilst letting in 51. Last year we let in 69 goals and when Lambert managed Norwich in 11/12 they let in 66. That's 135 goals in two seasons with two similar teams. This year we are on course for 50 blank, which isn't bad, but at the obvious cost of not scoring at all. We have a measly 22 goals in 22 games, don't have to find the calculator to find the average. I dream of the days when we can actually manage to score 15-20 or so goals more than we let in... Perhaps playing Darren Bent from the get-go and consolidating the midfield would have been a better idea than signing a lot of unworthy semi-professionals. If you get rid of player at 50k and bring in five players at 10k, as well as sign-on and transfer fees, it doesn't do us much good when none of those players are actually contributing on the pitch...

Different clubs, different strategies, different players, multiple setups and cohesion between players. The funny thing Con, is that you base everything on analysis of what has happened before. You think you can solve every single puzzle based on statistics. It obviously doesn't happen this way, you can never predict how a certain individual will fit into a system or how he is going to perform with new players. Well, sure you can with players like Ronaldo, Van Persie and the real great ones, but a certain player doesn't always have to fit his former label. The modern day is all about adapting to individual games. You mention Bayern München as the pinnacle, which they certainly are, but that does not mean you have to play like them to beat them. Trying to beat the best at their own game is virtually the recipe to failure. The best teams develop their own game, like Dortmund when they are at their best. They utilize an enormous amount of pressure when they lose the ball, similar to what Barcelona did (and still do I would say) when everyone were at the top of their game. I remember Internazionale beating Barcelona when they defended their way to Champions League glory, exactly the same as Chelsea against Bayern München. David Moyes will not play the same way as Alex Ferguson, the modern game at the top, top level has evolved away from using straight up and down wingers like we all know. Now they want wingers who are exceptional on the ball and can score goals, run inside and shoot and/or penetrate with through-balls. The obvious conundrum here is Wayne Rooney and everyone is saying he commands the position behind the striker and that he will always steal that role from every other offensive midfielder. Not necessarily. The main problem for United has been creating chances through the middle, they are like last in the table from creating chances from the middle of the park. Why do you think Rooney goes deep when you have that in mind? Because he has to create the chances himself and for Van Persie. Rooney has 9 goals this season in roughly 16 league games, which is certainly not bad, but he did finish with 27 and 26 goals only two and four seasons ago. He seems to create more assists as well when he is not scoring that many, but only 6 and 8 when he delivered those tallies I just mentioned. My theory is that when Juan Mata comes in with his sublime eye for a pass, like Özil, it will make Rooney much more adventurous in terms of running through defensive units and scoring more goals. Then you have Van Persie as well, but it's all about different options and these two don't always play together because of injuries. When all are fit, Van Persie will certainly play up top and Rooney will stay behind him. That doesn't mean Mata has to sit on the bench, but he would most likely be put in a wider role. He can also sit deeper against a poor opposition, with Januzaj and Valencia playing alongside Rooney and Van Persie up top. That leaves room for Mata to dictate alongside any of Carrick, Jones, Fletcher or Fellaini. Valencia will do the dirty-work in defense to cover for Mata's lack of defensive fibers. On top of this, Rooney might develop into a midfielder in the next two years. Who knows? We know the disagreement Fergie and Rooney had over this question, but over time you never know what happens and Fergie is pretty insistent about this transformation in his book. Looking at Arsenal you wouldn't know how they operated together seeing all these attacking players on the pitch at the same time, but it works for the most part. A setup can easily be changed in a week and new players certainly dictate just that. Arsenal can in any game field Rosicky, Ramsey, Cazorla, Özil and Walcott as well as Giroud up top. Then they have Arteta, Wilshere and Flamini in the pack as well, numerous options. Cazorla hasn't excelled like last season since Özil came in to steal his thunder, but he is only two games behind in terms of playing-time and both played in their last two games resulting in victories. That's what it's all about. Options. And different tactics for each game. You can't put Mata in a bracket and say that's that. For the first time in his career he has certain world-class strikers in front of him (at least when they play, I am not talking about Welbeck ) and they will thrive from his passes IMO.

Come on, how can you say that. Dæhli is a big talent, but he is so incredibly slow and lacks physique completely. Rated higher than Januzaj and will probably becoma a better player? If so was the case, wouldn't United keep Dæhli and kick Januzaj out of the team? That makes no sense! Januzaj has established himself at United at 18, shows an incredible maturity at his age and has good tempo/drive in his game. Just watch Dæhli when he gets to play away from home against a better team where he has to contribute defensively, he won't touch the ball for 90 minutes.

How come buying a world-class Spanish international is a panic buy stinking of desperation? He is 25 years old, he has never had problems with injuries and in the two last seasons he has delivered 18 goals and 34 assists from his position. United don't have a midfielder capable of scoring that many goals, let alone assisting like he does. Rooney/Van Persie need better distribution from midfield and now they will get it, no matter if Rooney is playing off the striker, as a striker or wide left. Smart players play well together, it might even re-charge Kagawa to play at a higher level when called upon. Mata also takes free-kicks and corners. His assists every other game in the Premier League, who knows what happens when he gets better strikers in front of him instead of Torres/Eto'o/Lukaku/Ba. I don't think they overpaid for him, 37M for a 25 year old from a direct competitor. Özil cost 42.5M and he is the same age, he scores less goals and doesn't participate at all in defensive duties IMO. Still the price is OK with him since he has that outstanding touch for picking a pass at the right time, just like Mata. I would put his price at around 40M, given it's from Chelsea, in the middle of the season etc, so 37M seems just fine. If buying Juan Mata is a desperate move, then I wish our club make panic signings every single window! You know, since it means buying a really good player in a position you totally need to fill. Kagawa being more or less the same position does not mean they have filled it, since he obviously is struggling in this league.

Enough United and enough Mata, that belongs in another forum, but it's quite humorous that a few people are writing off Mata as a panic buy and similar to what they have.... when we play Weimann and Gabby out of position every single week. I would go as far as saying we are ruining Weimann's development the way we are turning him into an ineffective winger with no emphasis on his striking ability. The more he plays out there the less we will develop that poaching ability, something I guess he wants to do in terms of his career. He is basically just running, fighting, sprinting and defending every time each team counter on each other. He has only scored two goals this season Andreas, one of them being that counter hail mary-headed flick-run-shoot goal against City. The last one of course came last weekend against Liverpool, but I guess 1500 minutes and 2 goals is hardly what he wanted before this season.

It's so clever when people use the word panic about signing Juan Mata, then go on to say he is world-class. I agree about the latter, he is world-class and will create a lot of chances for the other players. It will let Januzaj roam more freely, and also put him on the bench when he needs a rest. More importantly, it will raise the obvious lack of spirit at Old Trafford. The same goes for us; we need a few new faces to raise spirits for the fans and the players. Do you not think Rooney and Van Persie like the fact that they will be supplied by Juan Mata and then score lots more goals and win more games? How does that not solve a problem? What about Benteke, he would love to get some supply from a new midfielder now that we have seen that Tonev et al struggle to even pass the ball to one of our players. It raises our spirits, as fans will always have high hopes for a new player, a bit like that feeling after Luna scored against Arsenal. We all thought we had a star signing on our hands, although it turned out he was lacking most basic ability to be a dependent defender. I don't know if we will bring in Hoolahan or someone else who can string a few passes together, but it would be very nice to get that hope up.

At least have the decency to spell his name correctly. Martin O'Neill gave us one hell of a ride, we challenged (as far as possible) the teams competing for 4th and we scored a lot of goals. To be even close to winning anything you need the level of investment he got - and then some. It's pretty easy to criticize in retrospect, few people were complaining when we scored above 70 goals in the league one year! In his prime MON was lightyears ahead of Lambert, a level the current guy probably never will reach IMO.

Really? Their present stature is 7th in the table and out of all domestic cups. Man Utd are a step behind Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City and are competing directly with Tottenham, Liverpool, Everton, Newcastle for the top talent the big guns don't want. Liverpool are a great example of a club that stalled fast. It can happen. After dominating the 1980s, not won the Premier League. Man Utd is not going to win the league any time soon. Just not got the quality without a £200 million spend starting with the defence and even then it won't be a one season job. Wow how deluded are you sir!? It's like you don't have a middle view of things, it's either black or white. Heaven or hell. Out of all the cups? Well there are just two, they just stumbled out on penalties in the semi-final, it's not like they lost in the first game to Halifax Town. They are still in the Champions League after a very solid group stage and they have a favorable fixture coming up against Olympiacos I think it was, who knows what will happen. They are not favorites or anything, but I guess Chelsea, Liverpool, Internazionale and Porto weren't either the last 10 years. In an ongoing league they are 7th after 22 games, after changing their manager and also sustaining a lot of injuries to their best players at the same time. The league is extremely tight, they are exactly 6 points behind Liverpool and they have lots of games to correct that standing. They also play Liverpool at Old Trafford. Van Persie, Rooney and Mata all available together in the coming weeks as well potential newcomers within the next five days. The period after Ferguson would always lead to problems, for every manager in the world. Besides, did Ferguson win every single year? Not at all, they had several years where they didn't have a chance of winning the title. Chelsea finished 6th two years ago; are they out of it now? Of course not, they have the financial stability to make corrections - exactly like United are doing now when huge players are coming to the end of their careers. Servants like Ferdinand and Vidic, as well as Carrick and Evra are reaching a certain age and they will be replaced by good players. Not with Ashley Westwood and Kevin Nolan, but with top international players. Competing directly with Newcaste and Everton for players the top clubs don't want? Are you serious? They just signed Juan Mata for 37M! They are linked with players like Arturo Vidal and Toni Kroos at the moment, not Leon Osman and Gary Medel. Of course they would struggle with Man City/Chelsea in terms of signing players, just like they would have five years ago due to the insane wages those clubs can afford to pay. But don't kid yourself, United are a world-wide institution, Newcastle and Everton are not. The difference between Liverpool and United is that United have a lot of money to spend on players to rise again, the system is intact, the revenue will stay extremely strong for many years and so on. If Moyes still sucks in two years they will sack him and they will bring in a new character to correct it. United and the league will benefit from them not winning everything this season, it makes it more interesting and most likely leads to huge talent coming into this league instead of shipping them out. I'd much rather have Bale, Modric, Ronaldo et al in this league instead of seeing them abroad, no doubt will United buy talent we all want to see every weekend. You just don't respect the game like you should. You probably advocated the fact that we were bigger than Liverpool four - five years ago when we finished in front of them and they got something like 8th, saying we would compete at their level for the foreseeable future and snatch players they really would have liked to sign. It doesn't work like that, the history and the tradition is huge at Anfield and it didn't take them long to overtake us again. We finishing 5th and them finishing 10th next season would still see them attract bigger and better players every day of the week. United will of course not win the league this season, they wouldn't do it with Fergie onboard either. Reaching 4th is very reachable, they have Cardiff, Stoke, Fulham in the next three weeks. Things will even itself out quickly, especially as their best players will return up front. The last part of the season is always the hardest, and the other clubs just don't have the numbers. At least not Everton and Liverpool, they rely on the same players every single week and they will tire. Johnson and Lucas are out for months, two vital players in their not so skilled team. It will be interesting to see them against Everton on Tuesday, one of the teams will either lose three or two points (both) and then United will be just 2-3 back if they beat Cardiff. With 15 games remaining. If you are so tough, go to the bookies and bet on United finishing 7th come May. I sure as hell wouldn't do it. I have huge respect for Man Utd and what they have done the last 20 years. I have huge respect for Arsenal and not least Arsene Wenger who has sustained a lot of pressure for not competing in the league. People were writing off United last season but they won by over ten points. All down to Van Persie some say, but it doesn't work that way. Suarez is better than Van Persie and Liverpool will never win the league. After one game this season I am pretty sure guys like you decided to write off Arsenal completely, now that they are in front you are suddenly attacking the weakest of the bunch again. The poison here is Man City and Chelsea. I have to admire Man City for the way they are playing at the moment, they are just sublime in every single game, scoring tons of goals. However, both those clubs are built on unfair financial advantages and the other top teams really have to step up a gear. United can compete financially because they are built on success and it doesn't taste so bitter when they spend 40M on one player. Seeing Chelsea buy Matic for 20M after releasing him a few years ago is obnoxious, the same with Willian when they just snapped him up in front of Liverpool and Spurs. It's like they just wanted to avoid making them sign players, in the beginning Mourinho didn't even know where to play him. Also seeing Man City getting sponsored basically by their own owner to pump up revenue is pretty sickening, they suddenly quadrupled the going rate for such a club acquiring sponsorships. Liverpool were 7th last season, Arsenal 4th, Chelsea were 6th two years ago - Liverpool 8th, City were 3rd in 10/11 even with their incredible squad. Predicting United will go 7th and stay there for the future is naive, just wait and see. It's like saying Tiger Woods will rot this year because he played woefully in the first tournament of the year - he'll probably end up winning the Masters in April. United are in a transitional season and they will return, no team will win every single season.

Hmm. Really? 294 league games - 150 goals - 78 assists since 2006/2007. 17 goals in 29 FA Cup games and 33 goals in 82 Champions League games. 38 goals in 88 International games. He has won 5x Premier League trophies, 1x FA Cup as well as 1x Champions League. Has scored >10 in all of his seasons with United, well he has 9 goals this season and 16 left to play. I wouldn't say he way off having a great career, and he just turned 28.

Apart from being a proven Premier League-player? 34 assists in two seasons? 17 goals in the same time? Kagawa is a very good player, but he hasn't lived up to the expectations because of many reasons. I see Arsenal-fans are saying the same, that this won't solve anything and that United will still struggle. I disagree, when you sign world-class players you become better. Mata is better than Kagawa, and who knows, they might play well together. A new defensive midfielder (in this window) and they will go from a pretty dull team to an insane team.

There is a reason why fans write messages on computers, whilst real professionals manage and operate football clubs. They will never sack Moyes this season or in the summer. Emulating Ferguson in the short-run was always going to be impossible. The board at United of course knew that Mourinho would do extremely well the first season if he took over, much better than Moyes in all likelihood, but this was not a short-term prospect. In the long run I even think this bad season will benefit Moyes and the club. It brings expectations a bit down, especially when United have a squad in need of change whilst Man City probably have the best squad the league has ever seen. They wouldn't have won the league this season no matter what, not even with Fergie (or Mourinho). United are six points behind Liverpool. Six points, 16 remaining games and now they will have Van Persie, Rooney and possibly Juan Mata available within a few games. Would you bet against them snatching 4th in front of Liverpool and Tottenham? I wouldn't. Liverpool now miss Lucas and Johnson for a period of time, their squad is way too weak to cope with those injuries. We have seen it time and time again, if your squad is not up to it you won't reach the promised land. United still have Liverpool at home at Old Trafford, and their next nine games are: Cardiff (h), Stoke (a), Fulham (h), Arsenal (a), Crystal Palace (a), WBA (a), Liverpool (h), West Ham (a) and then Aston Villa (h). Except for Arsenal away (where they always have a good day it seems) they will take a lot of points in the immediate future. They of course play Everton (a) and Man City (h), but they are done with both Chelsea and Tottenham. Liverpool have to play every single one of the best teams, and although five of them are at home they haven't exactly excelled against them in the past. It's going to be a very interesting run towards May both at the top and at the bottom. I think Man City will take it in front of Chelsea, then Arsenal will finish yet again without a trophy which is no surprise. I think United will snatch 4th, but it's going to be tight with one of Liverpool or Tottenham. None of these teams have Europe to think about, but United have Juan Mata available for every game since he is not able to play in the Champions League. That's a big (well, probably not big) if, since he isn't even signed. I also see that Carrick is out for a month whilst typing this, that can trigger a new singing for United the next week.

Solskjær is pretty much showing exactly what I felt he was going to do. Being a good manager in Norway is easy, especially when you have the money to sign virtually every good player in the league. The problem arises when you take your Premier League club down to the bottom of the league and sign three Norwegians who aren't remotely good enough for this league. Dæhli has very high potential ability, but he is way too young to make an impact this year. Wolff Eikrem - Very limited. Can pass the ball around 5 yards from side to side, but lacks everything else in terms of adventure and killer instinct. No pace, afraid to do mistakes. Dæhli - Extremely talented, but Cardiff is never the club for such a player. Would have thrived at Arsenal or United, but at Cardiff he is never going to develop his primary technical ability. Berget - Are you kidding me, signing this guy as well? He is way off Premier League-level and will never reach it. I wish Solskjær all the best, but none of these signings are what he needed and I think his naive "passing"-attempt will fail because poor players lose games when they try to dominate games. I am not saying he should take the Lambert-approach by letting the other team do everything, but I feel they will let in a whole lot of goals on the counter because they have too many over midfield.

That was way bitter from Wenger. The talk about letting United sign Mata to make them better against Chelsea's opponents makes absolutely no sense. Sure they have games against Arsenal (away) and City (home) in a month or so - but what about the next six years Mata will still be in his prime and will play Chelsea home and away? Stupid thing to say, just when Wenger had the upper-hand in the league he fell down to his former grieving. It would be very funny if Mata curled in a free-kick in the 90th minute at the Emirates

In your opinion. I wouldn't include Bacuna in that list at all. I would bring on Westwood though. Although he isn't good enough for a club with any aspirations, he can pass the ball decently. Too limited of course, but many of his kind in this league. But I agree with the rest though, not only are many of these players not Premier League-standard, I struggle to see how they would even cope with the Championship. It's even humorous to see players like Sylla and Tonev on the pitch, their tactical knowledge is just incredibly low.

Doesn't make any sense this potential deal, which looks likely given all the attention and messages in the media. I wouldn't be too surprised if Mourinho came out tomorrow and said everything was off and that he would never sell to a competitor. Juan Mata is a very good player, even world-class on his day which is quite often. A good indication is reading the message boards over at Chelsea and even Liverpool, the former don't want to lose him let alone to United - and the latter are pissed off at Chelsea for making United a contender again (which is ironic since Liverpool are a measly 6 points above a team still to field Van Persie and Rooney together at a consistent basis this season). Chelsea don't need the money!? I don't know the rules and the Fair Play stuff, but again, it makes no sense for Abramovich to sell this player to United. Also, United like Chelsea were two years ago, are not where they are supposed to be. Right about now a top player would choose City/Chelsea (I think) before United if they were given the same wages. The squad doesn't look as sexy as City/Bayern/Real Madrid/Barca at all, but a player of Mata's calibre will certainly make other players raise their eyes in the summer when given the choice. Another thing; what does this signal to Rooney? I am pretty sure Rooney would stay if they bring in Mata and then look to strengthen with other high-calibre players in the summer. If, and it's a big if, they bring in someone like Arturo Vidal to harass players in the middle they would look just as formidable at City going forward - who wants to leave something like that? Januzaj - Carrick - Vidal - Rooney - Mata - Van Persie - Kagawa - et al. Moyes must feel like he broke into the Editor on FM and gave United a whole lot of cash and a sugar daddy. It's the only way they can compete of course, I don't blame them if they spend 200M the next three windows. They have created the biggest force out of their own success, then unprecedented influx of cash from UAE and Russia change the game completely in a matter of months/years.

Yeah I really think so too. I don't think Man Utd would use much energy to get in a 30 year old centre half who isn't proven in the Premier League. Sure he is at Bayern München and won everything last season, obviously a great player, but I think he could/would struggle a bit more in the Premier League over 38 games where you get so many aerial battles as well as races against speedy attackers. I am not going to stereotype too much, but Brazilian stoppers have the tendency to do a bit too much with the ball, that doesn't work over here. They can't afford to let him use 6-12 months to acclimatize like they did with Vidic. I am sure Moyes would take on a player like Phil Jagielka (31 years old) on a two year contract if he got him really cheap, but that would be a totally different scenario - and most likely lower wages. United need to get in a replacement for Nemanja Vidic in the summer, but in Jonny Evans and Phil Jones they have a very, very solid defensive player and one who is already very good as well as possessing a huge potential ability. Phil Jones is only 21 years old and he has been around for "ages" already, just imagine what he can be at 25+. We have seen Jones getting some stick and he has a reputation of being a bit overcharged at times, but remember he is even younger than Nathan Baker.

To be honest, I cannot see a single reason why he would want to play for Chelsea! 1. He is at biggest club in the world (at least for him no doubt), playing under a manager that gives him total support and freedom on the pitch 2. Real Madrid is firmly in the pack for the title this year, he is top-scorer in both Primera Division and the Champions League 3. He just won the Ballon d'Or playing for Real Madrid 4. He hasn't won the Champions League for them thus far, something I am pretty sure he wants to accomplish before he retires 5. Chelsea are an inferior team and Mourinho would clearly put lots more restraints on his style compared to Ancelotti 6. Why would he suddenly go back on his word of never playing for another club than Manchester United in England? 7. Why would he move from Spain to England, when he has already been to England and said he wanted to go "home" to Spain/Iberia? Oh, and he would cost like 150M and demand wages of 500k a week to move anywhere, not even Abramovich would pull that off lightly. People could mention money as motivation to leave, but trust me, he earns insane amounts of money already and I don't think he would make decisions like that based on 100k a week.

I would say Carew's reputation is quite strong in Norway, after a little dip a few years ago when he obviously got the headlines for a few dodgy stunts. He went a bit over the top with Louis Vuitton shoulder bags and featured in crappy movies abroad, but after that surpassed he has given a quite good impression of himself. Easily the best striker out of Norway the last decades, even surpassing Solskjær in terms of importance to the setup and tactics in my opinion. He has made several smart investments over the years and now he is basically living the dream with money to spare for everything he wants to do, either if it's traveling the world or just playing golf here in Oslo. I met him on the golf course in the summer, and although I am not the guy to annoy him with taking pictures and stuff, we talked for a few seconds and he laughed when I told him to replace the injured Benteke. He was clearly not happy with what was going on at the Villa and he didn't have much faith in Lambert, although I doubt he stays in touch with anyone linked with what's going on at Villa Park. In interviews and on TV he strikes me as a very real and relatively humble person, never trying to be something he is not - unlike John Arne Riise who is a ginger phony who probably phones newspapers whenever he buys a new car or goes on vacation to get publicity (and then cries about it later when somebody's ridiculing him). Carew plays Taylor Made Lethal-golfballs by the way, I know since I saw his slice and showed him where his ball went when he came looking for it in the deep stuff

I hate the fact that every newspaper has a comments section at the bottom, and I hate that certain TV-channels have Twitter-feeds at the bottom before and after every game. For the most part these are unintelligent and irrational people commenting only in the favor of their own club/standpoint and you always see the typical one-sided hate towards the other. It gets old very quickly, we know Liverpool-fans hate United-fans and vice versa. If Suarez dives it's a penalty, if Rooney does exactly the same it's a criminal act. What's the basis? There is never a discussion, there is never common sense or value in terms of information when you read this tripe. If Liverpool goes for a player he is bound to be world-class, if United buys the same player instead then he of course is not. If I want to hear the opinion of a Liverpool-fan after a controversial decision, I would go down to the pub and listen to these people voice their "truths". It annoys me when pundits are talking about a penalty when one of them mentions something like "This guy from Twitter says it's 100% a penalty, so people are obviously not agreeing with the referee" and then it's suddenly 50/50. It never is, it's just fans of a certain club not being able to see the difference from black and white - and most of these tweets are probably from 14 year olds anyway. I don't want to read an article about some dangerous battle going on in Syria, when suddenly a long post from an uneducated, unemployed, semi-racist hobby politician is given room on the side of the article. Of course I have the option to NOT read that drivel, but we all know our eyes are drawn in that direction anyway. Smart, educated and rational people don't often comment on things such as sports or politics. They don't have the urge, need, time or reason to do so, because they know it won't lead to anything satisfactory or valuable. Two opposing comments will always lead to the infamous "post on poster" and "**** you". Twitter will always give abuse for the reasons mentioned above, and it allow idiots to write words like "n-igger" and "f-aggot" towards black people and homosexuals, basically because it's the only way to instantly "win" against people being instantly offended in the worst way. Can anyone stop it? Not at all, not if they don't secure information about an individual in a more direct way or refrain from people using sites anonymously. That won't help much either, because if you see people commenting with their Facebook-accounts under newspaper articles you always see the same set of people writing the same garbage. 50 year olds with too much time on their hand and a Facebook-account, always addressing their hate for certain political parties and celebrities, uneducated 30 year olds with an obvious inferiority complexes using their voice to comment on rich people spending their money the wrong way - and fat/lazy women commenting on "dangerous" diets and thin women, blogs, commercials and other things that pressure them to actually realize that they are overweight and far from what they could have been. Argh!

The windows are OK in my opinion, because the ability to sign a player during the entire season would just create an insane string of lies from the media. They would constantly create false stories and eventually hope for fans from all clubs around the league. It also creates some stability for clubs like ours to hold on to their best players when they are doing well. It would have sucked if some big club came in for Benteke last season in March with an offer we couldn't refuse, then we would replace him all panicky with some expensive player just because we had to.

Being physical isn't only about benching 200 pounds and weighing in at the same as Alan Shearer though. It's about battle and daring to go for every ball even though you might be tackled to the floor by Nemanja Vidic or John Terry. Peter Crouch is 8 cm taller and weighs 8 kilos less than Helenius, but he has made it to some degree because he isn't afraid to go up for headers or compete for a ball. Crouch is the most extreme example of course, but I bet there's a lot of insanely good strikers on 180+ cm and <85 kg out there. Putting on a few pounds of muscle will of course help him a lot because of balance and pure strength in duels with strong defenders, but the most important part is to learn the tempo and dare to use your body, it's not like he is underweight given his 83 kg. Besides, he is a striker and he is supposed to get into positions to score goals. Wingers and attacking midfielders are much more accustomed to heavy tackles and they are generally given a hard time compared to strikers looking for room to score, and you see that the ones that dare are the ones that succeed. However, if you aren't creating space for yourself, if you are constantly tackled out of the game and always finding yourself close to the defender another factor might come in. The fact that he just isn't good enough for this level at the present moment - and that's why he isn't getting any games whatsoever. He isn't particularly young either, it's not like he is some 18 year old talent with five years to learn from others before being relied upon. He is two years older than Romelu Lukaku for example, and the fact that he isn't fit or mentally strong enough should have been an important parameter before we signed him.

Well we have 6 wins in 22 games thus far, including two lucky wins against Arsenal (first day of the season where everything can happen) and Man City, so it would be some feat wouldn't it? However, there are a lot of crummy teams in the league this season so everything can happen.