EPL Season

originally posted by .sasha:
Yes, Madrid wins UCL next year or the year after that. It seems inevitable. But what steps is Jose taking to take his defense to the next level?
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Probably buying Vermaelen to pair with Pepe so he can move Ramos back out right.

Or maybe Badstuber.
 
originally posted by VLM:

Fuck him. I say keep him and ride him all season until he breaks, then let him sign with someone next summer with a bum ankle.
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i like this bored sometimes.

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originally posted by .sasha:
They can have Badstuber. I'll take the kid from Ajax instead.
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we'll see what happens. somehow, the vertonghen to spuds deal has always seemed like a smokescreen for something very different that's going on in the background to me.

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i suspect that lewandowski has a far lower sticker price than van persie. given i'd support a straight swap anyway, this shit need not end badly.

whether or not it will is equally difficult to discern.

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It's a straight swap(*), but what happens behind the striker is no longer equivalent. Wilshire is a wonderful player but he is not the man for the job. I think if RvP goes then the M'Vila thing no longer makes sense, you need a more forward player. But when you have Chelsea stealing guys like Marin, there isn't much hope.

(*) I am suddenly reminded of "our Germans are better than their Germans" from The Right Stuff. Substitute Poles for Germans.
 
originally posted by .sasha:
It's a straight swap(*), but what happens behind the striker is no longer equivalent. Wilshire is a wonderful player but he is not the man for the job. I think if RvP goes then the M'Vila thing no longer makes sense, you need a more forward player. But when you have Chelsea stealing guys like Marin, there isn't much hope.
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actually, part of my thinking was that i think lewandowski would make a perfect foil for rosicky -- better actually than rvp.

(*) I am suddenly reminded of "our Germans are better than their Germans" from The Right Stuff. Substitute Poles for Germans.
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ah podolski. i consoled myself watching germany in the euros by thinking, "at least we didn't buy thomas müller."

sometimes you have to cling to the small things.

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originally posted by fatboy:
i suspect that lewandowski has a far lower sticker price than van persie. given i'd support a straight swap anyway, this shit need not end badly.

whether or not it will is equally difficult to discern.

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Speaking of swaps, how about a straight swap for Balotelli?

I still think that M'Vila makes sense as we need a firm base so we can use Arteta further up the pitch. M'Vila is more of a straight Makalele than Song who wants to be box-to-box.

As for the #10, it could be Wilshire, it could be Ramsey, it could be Ox. Personally, I really don't want to see us signing another little midfielder this summer unless he is the second coming of Iniesta.

Since this is Enlgish football, there will be a lot of talk about who the next captain will be. I'd love to see Song as captain, but my guess is Vermaelen. Thoughts?

How about something totally off the wall like signing Pato on season long loan with an option to buy. His career looks to have stalled, but I'm pretty sure he could make EPL defenders look like clods if he is fit and playing in our system.
 
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by fatboy:
"at least we didn't buy thomas müller."
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What ?!
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i take it you didn't watch germany too closely in the euros?

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I take it you didn't watch every single Bayern and Germany game for the past two years - leagues, cups, international, friendly, unfriendly, jeebus, wives and girlfriends fashion contests. etc. ?
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by fatboy:
"at least we didn't buy thomas müller."
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What ?!
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i take it you didn't watch germany too closely in the euros?

fb.
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I take it you didn't watch every single Bayern and Germany game for the past two years - leagues, cups, international, friendly, unfriendly, jeebus, wives and girlfriends fashion contests. etc. ?
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nope. but based on watching the past year, i think i can articulate a problem with thos m's current game plan. unless, of course, your idea of an attacking midfielder, is: sit on the wing, vaguely control, and return pass, then jazz it up with a few embarrassing infield forays.

it has gotten so bad recently for both club and country that you can see his colleagues actively trying to avoid passing to him, if only to avoid the clunky control and return...

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originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by fatboy:
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by fatboy:
"at least we didn't buy thomas müller."
Click to expand...

What ?!
Click to expand...

i take it you didn't watch germany too closely in the euros?

fb.
Click to expand...

I take it you didn't watch every single Bayern and Germany game for the past two years - leagues, cups, international, friendly, unfriendly, jeebus, wives and girlfriends fashion contests. etc. ?
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nope. but based on watching the past year, i think i can articulate a problem with thos m's current game plan. unless, of course, your idea of an attacking midfielder, is: sit on the wing, vaguely control, and return pass, then jazz it up with a few embarrassing infield forays.

it has gotten so bad recently for both club and country that you can see his colleagues actively trying to avoid passing to him, if only to avoid the clunky control and return...

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Well, what do you expect me to say, that M has lived up to his potential thus far? Of course not, and your opinion is one supported by the popular majority, but since when have you been one to toe the Wine Spectator line?

Few things come to mind, so in no particular order.

If I may use a dearly familiar example of Walcott, where Theo is a glass half empty, Thomas is certainly a glass half full. Since taking a midnight trek to a monastery apparently helps one's international football form on account of superstition, one needs to go no further than Muller to find a perfect talisman or the X-factor, whatever you'd like to call it. He will disappear once in a while, and he will confuse his teammates, but he will confuse the opposition a hell of a lot more, and when he reappears it sure is at the right time, and I don't know anyone more determined, in a Rummenigge-Bierhoff sort of way - a lost art, may I point out, despite a generally improved and more aesthetically pleasing style at both club and country.

His style is unorthodox and can be borderline clumsy, but incredibly effective. It's not atypical for him to be face first in the mud after an assist. He overcommits but he does so to beat very good coverage.

The one-touch football brought about by Klinsmann and successfully adapted by Jogi requires a reactiveness, a vision of the field (eyes in back of head inclusive) and an unselfishness that very few but Muller have. It's a very different vision from one demanded of a playmaker, and I am not trying to sell him as one. We don't need to go back as far as 2010; what about the game against Denmark, the last game that Muller started? You say he sat on the wing and returned the ball immediately, but that was precisely due to his understanding of the offensive scheme, and at no point and in no place was Germany as effective and had such ridiculous team speed as they did on the right side against Denmark. This would not have worked without him, as the two subsequent games demonstrated.

If anything, he is almost naively dedicated to this (nearly) one-touch football, but so am I as a follower. He does suffer from this at the moment, but I think he is right, I don't see any other way of winning these days, especially for the club.

Consider this. Bayern was a much better team without Robben, in the first half of the year. By the end of November, I really thought they had a chance, and for about 5 minutes in May I thought they were going to win despite Robben. My favourite game of the season, club or country, was easily the first leg against Manchester City in the group stage. They showed that one could hold the ball, permanently, while attacking and not shooting unless a great chance presented itself. And they showed that one does not need to be Barca to do that. Their passes weren't short and quick like Barca's; they were medium length, incisive, but continuous nevertheless, moving the team gradually upfield in an almost american football first-down manner, with the forwards not holding the ball in a traditional sense but playing it back to a different attacking channel. It was beautiful, man, and Muller was brilliant there, reading every play like it was the freaking Matrix.

What's next, the Monkey telling me again Lahm is too small to be a world class full back ?
 
originally posted by .sasha:

what about the game against Denmark, the last game that Muller started? You say he sat on the wing and returned the ball immediately, but that was precisely due to his understanding of the offensive scheme, and at no point and in no place was Germany as effective and had such ridiculous team speed as they did on the right side against Denmark. This would not have worked without him, as the two subsequent games demonstrated.
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muller was terrible against denmark. awful. it got so that schweinsteiger, ozil and khedira would do anything to avoid passing to him (because of the clunky return that was so telegraphed to the defense that they could set their watches by it). his "best" game was against italy, after coming on as sub. it was still seriously poor.

right now,it looks like the dude has serious problems with his head to me. maybe its something that dropping robben into a large hole would help with. if so, add it to the long list of reasons for doing just that.

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speaking of problems in the head, are you sure we should be excluding Bastian from that conversation, or is it too early to tell after a very long and strange year?
 
originally posted by .sasha:
speaking of problems in the head, are you sure we should be excluding Bastian from that conversation, or is it too early to tell after a very long and strange year?
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i think he looked pretty mentally shot at the euros too. it was less a six feet high neon sign than t.m. though.

funnily enough, lahm had an excellent tournament.

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