₦airaland Forum

Dhelake: Stop all this rubbish talk, Jese was never a starter, he only starts when Ronaldo is not playing, not even when Di Maria is not playing, ADM played 34 out of 38 league games starting 27, You don't watch Madrid play, if you do, you would realise there is no way Jese will bench Di Maria

Thank you so much. I was beginning to wonder how Jesse benched Di Maria. The same Di Maria who was very instrumental to Madrid all through las season. I was going to do a detail analysis of their games once I got home. But there's no need now.

PietroRico: if you really watched madrid last season you would not be asking the 1st question.
Jese kept himm glued to the bench until he got a long lay injury lay off. T or F.

I see no reason why vidal won't bench khedira.
He can tackle just as good as khedira can and scores lots of goals.

you are contradicting yourself.

*** Who's Jesse? A footballer or a ball boy? So if you were asked to mention the guys who won Madrid the trophies and those who pulled them from huge points deficit back to title contenders, you will mention Jesse? I begi.

*** Vidal will bench Khedira,, that one that is being offered for sale? You didn't remember Modric and Xabi are Madrid midfielders?

*** How did I contradict myself? Di Maria £47 million price tag has nothing to do with United's interest. The argument is not about who should be bought. I only mentioned what I think their market value should be.

Without United interest, Vidal's market value shouldn't have been so high.

PietroRico: You don start again with this flawed logic
The same logic that's making boateng look like the best thing to ever happen to defending.
Was the ucl final the only match played by real madrid last season?
Don't let a late season surge in form deceive you.
He is not worth 40m

Who mentioned Boateng? Lol

Look up Di Maria stats and form in whoscored. I watch Madrid a lot. Di Maria is a one man killer. Such players are rear to find. He opens up opponents easily with his speeding runs between players.

PietroRico: yea right.
2 years of being in and out of the madrid team is worth 47m and vidal who is comfortably among the top 3 box to box midfielder in the world isn't.

* How is Di Maria in and out of Madrid team when he plays all their big matches?

* Will Vidal command. A regular shirt in Madrid? Who can he even bench?

* Vidal, box to box midfielder. Well he has not proven it in the UCL.

PietroRico: If u were woodward and you had just 47m to spend, you would choose to spend in on dimaria instead, right.

I will choose Vidal only because that's where we need to fill most. But Vidal shouldn't be more than £30m.

Remember the last UCL final. The only Madrid player who did not give up and had life in his game. He single handledly propelled Madrid to fight on. I have seen him done it many times.

Enyeama stood between the net and Di Maria humiliating us. When we went to Madrid for the UCL fixture, it was Di Maria troubling us the most. He does it often, mostly in big games. I will always put my money on him. His counter attacking strength and skills is magnificent. He can break a defender's waist, ask Puyol.



*** 2014 UCL final. Official MOTM.

Di Maria is worth £47m. It's Vidal who doesn't worth £47. My take.


Based on what Di Maria has been playing in the last two years or more.

SetrakusRa: Di Maria too expensive?? Same people who bought a certain flop (David Luiz) £50M

Luiz is not a flop. Although Mourinho had a big laugh in that transfer. Mourinho knowns his way in the transfer market.

Aug 7, 2014 11:21:00
Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has ruled out a move for Real Madrid star Angel Di Maria, indicating that the Argentina international is "too expensive" for his club.

The winger is continually being linked with a move away from Madrid this summer and PSG as well as Manchester United have been closely monitoring his situation at the Champions League holders.

Nevertheless, Paris Saint-Germain have now made it clear that the former Benfica star is no longer an option for them.

"As for Di Maria, it is true that we have held talk with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez," Al-Khelaifi said at a press conference.

"But he is too expensive for us. We have stopped negotiations."

PSG have already secured the services of David Luiz from Chelsea for a fee of €50 million this summer, while they have also signed Serge Aurier on loan until the end of the season.

The Parisians were hit with a €60m fine for breaching Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations, while their Champions League squad will be reduced to 21 players for 2014-15 as well.

Of PSG's fine, €40m will be returned to the club if they comply with the measures set by the Club Financial Control Body (CFCB), but the sanction has had a significant impact on their spending so far this summer.

Head coach Laurent Blanc has said on more than one occasion that they are unable to buy the players they want following the FFP penalty and they have now been forced to pull out of the race to sign Di Maria as well.

The 26-year-old has a contract with Real Madrid until June 2018 and an offer in excess of €60 million could be needed to lure him away from the Santiago Bernabeu side.
http://www.goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2014/08/07/5016140/breaking-news-psg-pull-out-of-di-maria-discussion?ICID=HP_BN_1

^
Baines= set plays

Alves= He has Messi who converts anything. He also takes corner kicks.



Pirlo assists = 42, Xavi 66. (Set play inclusive)

Gerald has 166 assist? Then Xavi and Pirlo can't ever get close to that, even after salt and pepper have been filtered out.

coogar: by the time you strip down the stats by looking at the minutes played, open play assists & goals excluding penalties, i won't be surprised xavi/pirlo would be better per minute.

scholes is far superior to any midfielder in the premier league. i would even take cesc fabregas before lampard & gerrard. i just saw a list of the top 20 assist makers in the history of premier league and.........

ashley young is 17th on that chart! the same ashley young that many fans here have condemned as a damaged good!






explain how scholes lost to lampard.

* Lampard and Gerald are way too far ahead for Pirlo and Xavi to catch up. They may catch Gerald on assist thou.

* Young has many assist, but he has never played as number 2. One reason Val's assists may have dropped. I think it was only Val's first season he didn't play many matches as a number 2.

coogar: elampiro has always been poor reading statistics. he had F in general mathematics in SSCE.

scholes had 120 open play assists, lampard had 115 open play assists and lampard played 11,000 more league minutes than scholes.

elampiro still thinks lampard is better?

lampard scored 129 league goals(excluding penalties), scholes scored 106 league goals(excluding penalties) but lampard played 11,000 more minutes than scholes....

elampiro still thinks lampard is better?

Lol.

I never said Lampard is better. But what do you have to say about Lamaprd and Gerald stats which are far superior than Xavi's and Pirlo's.

In Euro 2012, Paul Schols was played in the wing to accommodate both Gerald and Lampard in midfield. In a previous argument, we were told that because Gerald was played on the wing to accommodate Lampard in midfield in the world cup, it meant Lampard was the better player.


Ukwu!!!

PietroRico: He's obviously trolling

That was a good troll. Sebi an by goals and assist na dem dey determine who play pass?

Nihilist: No way.

My Chart was generated this year.
Lampard had just around a 100 career premier league assists

Your stats are totally wrong

* When I saw this post, I knew it would cause a war, then I looked up and I saw two pages were running already.

* This is the kind of argument that flaws the laid down criteria of determine players performance on this thread. Scholes is a greater midfielder than Lampard. However, based on stat, Scholes lost to Lampard. From Coogar's stat, it obvious Lampard had more assists from open play. I was shocked to see Scholes having more assists from set play.

* Another reason relying on goals and assist stat is flawed- Xavi's stats.

* There is a debate going on. Xavi is said to be the greatest midfielder ever. On trophies, yes. On goals, assists, chances created- mba.

Aug 6, 2014 09:25:00

The Chile coach has insisted the main reason the 27-year-old has not left Juventus for Old Trafford yet is due to the new manager's concerns over his recovery from knee surgery

Louis van Gaal is holding up Manchester United's purchase of Arturo Vidal due to concerns over the Juventus star's right knee, according to Chile coach Jorge Sampaoli.

The 27-year-old underwent surgery in May in the hope of fixing a persistent meniscus injury once and for all, with his fitness subsequently hampered during the World Cup.

Goal understands Vidal met with his agent and senior officials in July to discuss the possibility of a transfer to Old Trafford and Sampaoli says the reason no transfer has been completed is down to Van Gaal.

"Manchester United want Vidal, but Van Gaal has some doubts," Sampaoli told El Mercurio.

"Right now the great obstacle to his $80 million [£47m] transfer from Juventus to Manchester United is over the improvement of Arturo's knee.

"Vidal set a great example at the World Cup in Brazil by playing when he wasn't in perfect shape."

United have been chasing Vidal for much of the summer, with Juventus chief executive Giuseppe Marotta adamant the Chile star would only be sold if he expressed a desire to leave Turin.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2014/08/06/5012136/van-gaal-holding-up-vidals-manchester-united-move-sampaoli?CMPID=FBINT=140806_vidalvangaal

coogar: so his age is the reason he charged like that in the box to make a tackle? blackett has more football intelligence than phil jones.

phil jones = white version of micah richards.
all power - no brains, no panache, no football brain.

Blackett ko bedshit ni.

So it seems because he plays on the side. It's harder to read the game in the middle. It could easily be concluded Evra has more football brain than Vidic and Fedinand.

Anyway, until Blackett takes out Ribbery/Arjen Robben in a UCL knockout fixture as Jones did. Jones took out both at Old Trafford and went to the Alianz Arena to silence Ribery.

coogar: you know i used to think jones would become jaap stam when he first arrived. fergie actually compared him to duncan edwards. i thought he had potential then......& i still do but only as a rugby player for my local pub.

Don't forget Jones is 21 and he has never been used regularly as a centre back. When used regularly, Jones could become one of the best CB in the world. May be same with Smalling.

SailorXY: that's why there is room for improvement as we all agree

Taking this tournament in isolation, Jones and his back men have been world class. Jones was praised to high heavens after the Madrid game. Even Cannavaro, Ramos, Pepe, Pique, etc are sometimes made to look like novice.

Howeve, Jones tackle which resulted in the penalty was senseless. There was no single threat from that point. On the overall play, there is a room for improvement as you said. These are young defenders who haven't been given opportunity to play as regular central backs for the club and at top le level. This is their learning curve.

These Liverpool forwards are some of the best fluid forward assembled by a team. They create the highest number of chances in the EPL, if not the whole of Europe. The number of clear cut chances created for Suarez and Sturridge were so high when compared to other clubs. It was a final we played against them, and it was never going to be a walk over. Let's not forget, they hammered us at OT last season, it could easily have been five nil. I think that was the match Vidic was made to look like a pupil and he was sent off.

These are not good report going into the season. Too bad considering it's against an EPL team. Gaal and Giggs should bring heads together to proffer a solution. That Liverpool front line is becoming a terror to face. Remembber last season at OT, and in many several of their matches.

"It's nice for the fans in the USA and also at home that we beat Liverpool," he said at his post-match press conference.

"I think we gave a lot of pleasure to the fans and that's very important. Of course, it's better to win than to lose in pre-season but the most important game is against Swansea City. That's the one we have to win."

After a quiet first half at the Sun Life Stadium, Rooney sparked United's comeback with a neat left-volley, his fifth goal of the tour, and was later named player of the tournament.

"He's always a winner," van Gaal said. "I think he deserved to win the award because he made a lot of assists and scored goals. But we also defended well - there are a lot of defenders who could also have been the most valuable player of this tournament.

"For Rooney, the goal was very important. It was a wonderful goal. You see the attack and what he did to push

the ball under the legs of the goalkeeper and also in the corner. It was also a great cross from Chicharito."

Rooney was captain for the night but van Gaal, who has also given the armband to Tom Cleverley and Darren Fletcher on the tour, said he had intended to share it around.

"I'm always looking for opportunities to give players the captain's armband," he said. "Today, Rooney played 90 minutes for the first time. Fletcher has already done it twice and therefore he [Rooney] was the captain. Cleverley also played 90 minutes."

Antonio Valencia came off early in the first half and van Gaal revealed it was the result of United's demanding training schedule in the States.

"Valencia had a feeling in his leg," the boss said. "I had told him before the game that you have to listen to your body. The accumulation of tiredness in this tournament is high.

"All the players want to play but you have to be clever and he was clever to step out. When you're feeling something in your leg, you have to pay attention to it."

On Danny Welbeck, who came off against Real Madrid, van Gaal added: "His reaction today was good, but it's wise we didn't play him."

http://www.manutd.com/en/Tour-2014/Tour2014News/2014/Aug/louis-van-gaal-icc-final-reaction.aspx?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=ManUtd&pageNo=2

It looks like Gaal is confident of his defenders.

RuuDie: @ elampiro

clearly you don't know a thing about Rooney's ability to bring a ball under control!

From game 1 to game 4, he did well. I don't know of game 5.

* Wayne Rooney won Player of he tournament.

* I heard from some quarters that Nani was really poor and Chicharito was poor. Both recommended to ask for a leave for their own good.

* Tournament low: We lost two players from starting X1 to injury. Although Welbeck will be a reserve striker. Valencia is a big loss considering he has been well trained for the RW role. Between Valencia and Welbeck, there is so much energy, work rate, speed and athleticism that will be missed. That aspect of their game complement the other lads.

JayKayMaybachz: On potential new signings, van
Gaal said: "I cannot say anything fresh about
players. That you can understand. When I
say something it raises the price, so it’s not
nice."
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/van-gaal-drops-rooney-captain-3992363

Good.

On the other hand, I don't think we should sell any player now. Any news about two fat ladies-ando88?

Ayagayagayagayo hei, Ayagayagayagao

Is this the return of good things? I want to believe so. I didn't watch the match. I should see the whole of it later.

At about 1.20am, I checked comments, I saw Coogar wrote Chicha missed, Jones did something bad, and the general comments weren't encouraging. I checked facebook, Gerald had scored a penalty in the 13th minute. Against the first EPL club and we were losing, I felt it wasn't a good sign. I decided it wasn't wise to sacrifice my sleep.

Ruddie and Coogar, two anti Rooney ran the show on the page. Thank God we won. Otherwise, the blame would have fallen solely on him as usual, particularly as he was the captain today. Good Gaal gave him 90mins.

However, on a more serious note, Rooney should be our Arjen Robben. His ball control, first touch have all retuned fully, so what's the excuse not to play like Robben? But I still trust him. His ability to score from outside the box as against Roma is one thing standing him out in the EPL. I believe that will help him again in the EPL.

Look at the way Coogar praised Young like he gave a Gareth Bale performance. Coogar hypes better than the sports press who he wants to hype, and he destroys those he doesn't favour.

Next against Valencia at Old Trafford.

Dadehmola: Then what has he been doing?

May be this could help a little.
..........

Antonio Valencia

Valencia : 7
Provided the width required for the team and was always available out wide much like Luke Shaw. More aimless drilled crosses as the end product. Won the penalty for United’s second.


Vs Roma
Valencia: Assuming Louis van Gaal does operate with 3-5-2 this season then Valencia could be a regular starter. His power, pace and strength make him the perfect wing back, although his final ball will need to improve. Only having a half to impress meant Valencia done nothing of note but runners like him are essential to any team and van Gaal will definitely be impressed by his work rate.


Vs Inter
Antonio Valencia 8/10: Always provided an outlet down the right hand side, and didn't allow any form of threat from Inter's left flank. Harshly booked in the 15th minute after challenge on Dodo. 


Vs Madrid
Antonio Valencia 7/10: The Ecuadorian yet again always provided an outlet wide on the right-hand side of the pitch, despite not seeing much of the ball. His consistency continues.

...............



In my assessment, Val was our 2nd best against Madrid. Against Inter he was biting the most until late in the first half. Against Madrid, Rooney decided to pitch tent on the left side with Young thereby greatly favoured that angle with our moves.

Dadehmola: Then what has he been doing?

If you saw Netherland at the world cup, you should understand what their wingbacks were doing.

PietroRico: I hear he is still in the business of stamping defenders with his attempted crosses

Lol.

Not so much, and he doesn't cross too often.

SailorXY: wing back, switch back, full back, ding bat, etc hmmm

ok I don't seem to read anything positive about Valencia's contributions in this preseason despite having enough game time. for those who see the games (elampiro, coogar, coded01, afrodoc, etc) abeg how he dey perform?

Valencia is doing very fine just as he should. He has been involved in many of the build up and his defensive duty has been very good. In the last match, he did very well even though he didn't score. Moreover, in the last match, the arrangement of the defence and attack meant we were stronger on the left.

Ukwu!!!

Carrick has never played between Vidic and Ferdi. Never. What formation will that be when the full backs overlaps? 3-0-1-6?

Even if that were to happen, the wing back won't still exist because neither Val nor Rafael would function as a CM. And neither Young nor Evra. So the shape is lost in the flank to accommodate the wing back role, and the midfield too thin. I.e, the flanks are not free, the midfield is starved, only the attack overloaded. Is that the wing back system? No.

* You cannot have full backs starting a match and still have wing backs.
.................

*** According to BBC, wing backs are employed in a defence of three central defenders. And the wing back are naturally to supply all the width in the team. SAF did not play like this.

There are many more credible websites which clearly defined wing back, full back and clearly distinguished between full backs and wing backs, also wingers. Association football, BBC, etc.

I don't want to bring in too many things into this argument. But it's very clear.

Nihilist: Elampiro positions are very fluid in football.

Infact, I would argue that contrary to what people think, united actual line up in a tweaked version of 343 based on the Rmadrid game I watched

Mata to me seems to function more as a false 9 under Van Gaal than a pure 10, and Rooney and Welbeck actually play wide.

Off the ball, Welbeck and Rooney were pressing the Madrid fullbacks, and operated mainly like inverted wingers.

The 1st goal in particular highlights this fact is the way Madrid's right back was lured in, so Young could ghost in and score.

Tactical flexibility means players can switch responsibilities on the fly.

* When Mata functions as false 9, this is what you have. See pic.

* In every formation, there's fluidity. Gaal new this before he said he was playing a different system. He said he will play 3-4-1-2 and 4-3-3. He said he's focusing on 3-4-1-2 'cos the boys are used to 4-3-3 already. Are we saying Val doesn't know what he's saying?