the_eristic

Call me old fashioned but I prefer centre backs to be strong,good in the air,good positionaly and strong in the tackle. Yes Vlaar can play out of the back but in all the areas I mentioned he is rather poor especially his positional sense and in the air. Infact he is atrcious in the air. Maybe a bit too harsh but he needs to improve his ability to deal with crosses coming into our box. It is no coincidence our record on conceding from set pieces but as many have said that part of his game might improve this season when he has a better CB beside him? We've been unmitigated rubbish at defending set pieces for ages, well before Vlaar was brought in. It has to be something in the coaching (or lack thereof).

With the attacking options they're bringing in, might Sigurdsson be available? There have been a few rumours about him being unsettled, clubs having bid for him and so on.

If you carry the 1, you get Jesper Gronkjaer.

Let's leave the fiction in the Film thread... I know there's no chance, the idea is to hurl out whatever mad thing comes to mind because it's twitter bollocks. Rationalization optional. For example: twit implies it's a signing that would be viewed as important, that has some degree of notability. Kiyotake, while notable on here due to his thread about JulieB, probably wouldn't be one to catch the average non-VT eye, meaning we have to think a bit bigger. We know the policy is to sign young players with potential, so index all promising "big" names under ~23. We know we won't be offering huge wages, so exclude players at big $$$ clubs. We know we'd need to have some draw, most likely the quality of the league and PL's "project", so probably can exclude the better German, Spanish, Italian clubs. It's Villa, so exclude Brazil in its entirety. Now we start looking for dodgy ways to make positive connections. The national buddies line of reasoning is very helpful here. We have, for instance, Benteke, who is Belgian. However, many of the Belgian "names" are already at bigger clubs and/or would demand a larger fee than most believe we'd pay, so perhaps unlikely. We have, however, brought in two well-regarded Danish prospects this window. Hmmmm, yes, yes, it quickly becomes obvious, plain as day. Who is under 23, is widely considered to have great potential and would be viewed as a major buy for us, plays in a league with less prestige, would be on lowish wages, isn't Brazilian and is, in fact, Danish? Voilà, Christian Eriksen.

Finally, a little mystery! Let's have some proper wild speculation! Christian Eriksen.

Very interesting (and I think probably quite good) choice. Now I might be able to start following the show again. Matt Smith was absolutely unwatchable for me, will never forgive him for depriving me of Karen Gillan's hotness.

Should do the whole thing, just drop "Benteke" right in. http://youtu.be/sYrK464nIeY

Words cannot adequately express how much I hate that phrase, and we're going to hear it 12000 times this season, aren't we?

Watching Deathstalker. This may actually be too bad to be bad movie good.

Currently watching Dumplings on Netflix. Will be recommending to unsuspecting friends and relatives.

Weimann was looking for the space and drawing the defenders whereas Benteke/Gabby turned to go for the rebound (if the keeper had saved it) IMO I think it's more Andi making an effort to open up the goal for Ron and get back onside. You can see him watching the ball, he predicts what's coming and busts a gut to get out of the way.

They are reasonably good fun as party games, extremely fun if you play against tryhards and kick their asses with Jigglypuff, Mr Game & Watch, Ice Climbers and other "silly" characters.

How long do these run? I'm 6'7"/201cm, pretty much nothing is ever long enough and they don't seem to offer tall sizes, but given how tall Helenius is, maybe an XL would cut it? I'd really like to get a Helenius home shirt, but you can't walk into a store and try on football shirts over here.

I never really got the impression that Hutton was a dick or apathetic or anything, just not particularly good. Not generally super-terrible, either, but on wages too big for a backup. I can't imagine not being upset at seeing the club you're with relegated, unless you happened to be playing for QPR.

Wonder if we have a buyback. Always thought he had technical potential, but just couldn't get his head sorted, poor decisions on and off the pitch. Dunno if the Championship is the right league for him, probably needs to be somewhere where he won't get trampled to death every match. Too bad British footballers don't really go abroad anymore, he'd probably be ok in Italy, Spain, etc.

Almost any striker would do well to better Benteke's output last year, but I think he's capable of at least matching it. Would expect Gabby to stay in the same region, just seems to be about what his output is when he's having a solid year. Andi is the one I really hope to see step it up. Don't know if it'll happen if he stays stuck out wide, though. throw in maybe 5 goals for Helenius and hoping 5-8 goals from midfield as think Tonev and Bacuna will add a goalscoring threat from there. though maybe wrong but wasnt KEA only midfielder to score last season in league unless Zog counts as midfield Holman got one.

Almost any striker would do well to better Benteke's output last year, but I think he's capable of at least matching it. Would expect Gabby to stay in the same region, just seems to be about what his output is when he's having a solid year. Andi is the one I really hope to see step it up. Don't know if it'll happen if he stays stuck out wide, though.

I agree that he's raw, but I think giving him the #9 shirt means we'll see quite a bit more than people expect. You don't just leave your #9 on the bench regula... oh, wait.

Any highlights yet?

I wondered the same thing recently, so I GS'd them in FM12. They bad. Real bad.

> 18 marking > 17 positioning *revving intensifies* Gotta get him a tutor to work on that anticipation, though, or he'll never quite make GOAT status.

I would put the PA a touch higher, like 169-174, because of his "completeness" he needs to have meaningful allocations in a wider variety of stats than most strikers. The more important question is what his Controversy, Loyalty, et cetera should be!

Solid player. Only signed for Inter in January, though, which makes you wonder, and not quite sure where he would fit into the side. Usually plays CM/DM, reliable passer, taller than most of our other midfield options and can hit the occasional screamer, but that's about it. Don't know if he's hard-working enough to make it in England and/or be of real interest to Lambert.

They'll wait till the last minute and lowball. Even if they've sold Bale for 75m, they'll wait till the last minute and lowball.

Laudrup, Pirlo, Zidane, Xavi, Rui Costa, Valderrama, Ronald Koeman, et al: eat your hearts out.