All Things Football

A thread for football discussion, not about how much you hate a fellow poster. Keep it civil or get banned (as clueeh did)!

Going to flood the shoutbox otherwise

Just thinking about Real's first XI next year and it looks pretty stunning, all they'd have to do is spend £30m on a few defenders and they'd be unbeatable on paper. The biggest thing is how they'll play together, even though Barca have got a number of top, top players, their team still seems be better than the sum of it's parts due to loads of hard word etc. Can't see Ronaldo and Kaka chasing the ball around to win it back ..

Casillas

Ramos Albiol Pepe Marcelo

Ronaldo Kaka Diarra Ribery?

Benzema Higuain

Real Madrid did this before though, had the best line up on paper, and still flopped =[

I don't really follow club football anymore, but have been following some of the transfers and stuff. Looking forward to the World Cup though, soon see if Spain can live up to what everyone is saying.

Diarra back to Portsmouth please ha

Whatever happens they'll be awesome on pro evo/fifa

The thing is jake, although they've got that 'superstar' front 6, I'd oddly enough still take Barca with Xavi Iniesta Messi etc.

I can see Barca picking up one top top player and it just assisting in making them even better.

i think real will be awful, way too many ego's too many big names will not be playing and argue, they did this before and fucked up it will be exactly the same again

Interesting to see what Fergie, Ancelotti, Rafa and Arsene will do over the summer.

Surprised at how quiet Arsene has been at the moment.

So far only thing confirmed is Valencia...

WTF IS GOING ON?

I don't know. I feel that players like kaka who want the taste of a champions league victory will be excited about the new squad and will be firing on all cillinders. Same goes for the likes of Ronaldo, Benzema and Ribery etc. Although it isn't a given that they will gel however I think the passion will be there. A very very scary prospect to play against.

I have to agree with Stalin I do prefer Barca at the moment as their football is just so fluid, perhaps my opinion will change once I see Real play.

They need to sort the defence and fast. If they don't then they won't be doing anything in the Champions League at least.

I absolutely would take Barca's line-up too, I rate Iniesta and Messi as the 2 best players in the world, and when Xavi, Messi and Iniesta are together they're the 3 best players in the world. The thing which sets Barca apart atm is they have a group of players that really want to work for each other and therefore the work ethic is unbelievable, it's so rare to find supremely talented players who battle hard, and they have about 6 of them. Very, very good management.

on another note manutd need a strike (considering benezema apparently wants to go elsewhere) i would get huntelaar if possible, and some sort of winger/midfielder sneider/silva/costa or some sort of holding midfielder like essien, yaya toure or someone i dont knowD

Surprised Arsene is quiet about transfers!? That's his trademark! He's never ever commented on potential signings!

That's true. It always just appears that they've signed someone and I'm always wondering how they keep it so quiet.

Exactly what I said when they started announcing the players they were going to buy.

One thing i've noticed over the last few years is a problem position at pretty much all clubs. Left back. Real Madrid won't play Marcelo there as he's basically a left winger now, which means Heinze? Not exactly the most productive left back you've ever seen. Barcelona have the same problem, Abidal is old and not all that great and they have no back up for him when he's injured. I'm absolutely amazing no massive club has signed Lahm from Bayern Munich, he wouldn't have even been expensive a couple of years ago. As it stands you have Clichy, Evra, Lahm and Capdevilla(never thought i'd say that) as the only world-class left backs in my opinion. I think Dani Alves, among others, is proof that a full back that is brilliant at going forward is as useful, if not more useful, than any other player on the pitch. I'm amazed there aren't more coming through, I hope it is resolved!

Gotta agree with that, as someone once said with Riquelme, you're taking the chance on having one player not do any defensive work in the hope their offensive work makes up for it.

Whereas at Milan Gattuso made up for Kaka's lack of work ethic defensively [although I always think he does put some effort in and run around etc.] I'm not so sure Diarra is upto it. Fat Frank at Chelsea can afford to roam forward because he's got Essien, Arsenal could do the same with Pires when they had Vieira etc.

Hard to say, but I'm starting to think £25m on Diarra is money wasted.

Diarra was the stand out performer all season since he joined Real. I never thought much of him but he was unbelievable for them. Looked as good as any DM i've seen.

Star player in one team [like Valencia] goes to a bigger team where he needs to step it up, and probably can't do so. He'll be asked to play as well as Essien Gattuso etc. and he just won't be able to do it.

? I just said he has been performing at that level for Real... You been watching him? I didn't rate him at portsmouth much at all, he stepped up big time. Looked a class act and outshone the rest of the team bar perhaps Robben and Higuain. He wasn't bought this summer you know. :s