The fans campaign to get the board to see sense over offering him a contact extension will , in my opinion, have been well worth all the effort. I see him as Chelsea's Ryan Giggs! OK , he missed a penalty yesterday, but their keeper played out of his wits! His goal made up for it though and was a cracker! OK--he has a lot to thank Sir Isaac Newton for, who, if he hadnt invented gravity, would have seen the ball flying way out of the ground and off into space, but he did a full 90 minutes! Frank Lampard -SUPERSTAR!
Think that was going in with or without gravity !!! Incredible strike from the veteran. Loved the way De Bruyne let fly a couple of times as well, he gives it a fair old whack , and got a glimpse of Schurrle having a crack as well. Suspect the goals will come from all over the shop this season. Maybe we don"t need a striker ?????
CP The hunt for a striker is something I dont think is vital! OK -if Rooney came at a reasonable price I'd be happy, but as you say we have goalscorers in every position , except GK! With Jose in the seat I see the rennaiscence of Nando anyway and with Lukaku backing him up we'll be logging up lots of goals!
Nando looked like he had gone back to the dark dark days on Sunday, if" The Happy One" cant get him playing well, there is no hope.
Super Frankie should just be a very nice addition to play around 20 matches + substitutions. IMO you need only Ramires as one holding midfielder in the vast majority of matches. Must say that any 4 from Hazard,Van Gynkel, De Bruyn, Mata, Oscar and Schurlle looks sumptuous, also thought Torres is simply loving playing as an unselfish striker linking up the play for these guys. Not so sure a "typical" center forward will complement the real force you have which is those 6. If I had to have one gripe on Sunday it would be how Mr.Mourinho so happily seemed to settle for the 2-0, job done which although not even slightly threatening did bring Hull more into the game then they needed to be. Whilst you have no better than Bertrand you must stick with Cole but he, as is only natural, has not the forward presence of old, Ivanovic, I will hope for you is not in the first 11 as Azpicuelta will be the future at right back and offers much more going forward now. I have daily discussions with my Chelsea mate of 35 years and normally we are totally aligned but I simply do not see what you will get from bringing Rooney to the party, is he beeter than the 6 Magnificos? - I'd say categorically no. Is he a striker? - Again I'd say categorically no. Is he beeter than Ba? - Well yeas, but then everyone can see for themselves this guy is not a Top 10 player. I still stand by my prediction that you finish just behind Man City in a titanic struggle and that both Man U and Arsenal dont make Top 4. The main reason for you not finishing Top of the pile is actaully your pitch, it looks as though its anytime soon ready to cut up and will be a real hinderance. If I were you guys, I'd be looking to spending the money on a fantastic new pitch worthy of the talent you have and urging Mr. Mou to be a tad more adventurous.
Mourinho didn't sit back - the team did. He wanted them to play more but he realised they were too tired.
Believe what you want - I'm not here to play mind games. You know as well as everybody else that Mourinho's No.1 goal is to win matches and that he has a propensity to shut the shop at 2-0, 1-0 depending on the opposition. From what I saw - admittedly only on TV - he was more than happy to let Hull come on in the knowledge that you could proffesionally do the job. Now maybe I'm clouded from his past and those of you that will state it any different at Real Madrid need to speak to a few season ticket holders, or maybe he will not take this team to the heights they could get to. My take and my take only from someone who loves football - The only difference between Mou and Rafa is that Mou can change the game better with substitutions when required. Both start with great starting 11s (as Rafa did with you last year apart from QPR!), They set thier teams up the same and both can quite happily shut up shop. Maybe that's why they hate each other, their basically the same!!
The biggest difference is their man management IMO. Players would 'die' for Jose during his spells at Chelsea and Inter in particular.
Before all the Lampard lovers who deny it to their wives or husbands, significant others and bloke down the pub, I am not criticising the man himself. Lamps' free kick wasn't the greatest....shock horror....it was very very good but not unstoppable, the keeper had a great chance to get to it. He did get the little pinkie to brush against it, four more inches and it could of be a fabulous save. The ball when it went in a good two feet (maybe 60-70 cms) from the post and as shown by the glove brush low enough to reach. I myself probably couldn't of kicked it or saved it, but that doesn't matter as I have claws and would of burst the ball and then carried it around in my teeth while swimming. Bearsonally I thought our first goal far better crafted.
Oh definitely - the most impressive move was that move on the right of the box which led to a Lamps shot being saved though. That's was incredible football. If that had been a goal it would have rivalled that goal against Bolton in 09/10 for the move and team play.
