If you wanna sign Martinez, get rid of Lass, Altintop, Granero and Albiol, because he will take their job anyway

Di Maria is either brilliant or shit... he doesn't have a middle ground. The problem with him is that he has no right foot. None. When he goes against defenders that know what they're doing, he's forced to go right and just can't do anything with his right foot.

I have zero confidence with Di Maria against good defenders given this massive weakness.

Oh and btw, i can think of at least 10 wingers i'd prefer over Di Maria. Robben, Ribery, Hazard, Neymar, Nani, Alexis Sanchez, Villa (he plays winger now), Navas, Higuain ( ) and Benz ( )

sportsczy wrote:Di Maria is either brilliant or shit... he doesn't have a middle ground. The problem with him is that he has no right foot. None. When he goes against defenders that know what they're doing, he's forced to go right and just can't do anything with his right foot.

I have zero confidence with Di Maria against good defenders given this massive weakness.

Oh and btw, i can think of at least 10 wingers i'd prefer over Di Maria. Robben, Ribery, Hazard, Neymar, Nani, Alexis Sanchez, Villa (he plays winger now), Navas, Higuain ( ) and Benz ( )

i normally agree with czy,ill just have to do it again.My thoughts exactly.

sportsczy wrote:Di Maria is either brilliant or shit... he doesn't have a middle ground. The problem with him is that he has no right foot. None. When he goes against defenders that know what they're doing, he's forced to go right and just can't do anything with his right foot.

I have zero confidence with Di Maria against good defenders given this massive weakness.

Oh and btw, i can think of at least 10 wingers i'd prefer over Di Maria. Robben, Ribery, Hazard, Neymar, Nani, Alexis Sanchez, Villa (he plays winger now), Navas, Higuain ( ) and Benz ( )

Ganso wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Di Maria is either brilliant or shit... he doesn't have a middle ground. The problem with him is that he has no right foot. None. When he goes against defenders that know what they're doing, he's forced to go right and just can't do anything with his right foot.

I have zero confidence with Di Maria against good defenders given this massive weakness.

Oh and btw, i can think of at least 10 wingers i'd prefer over Di Maria. Robben, Ribery, Hazard, Neymar, Nani, Alexis Sanchez, Villa (he plays winger now), Navas, Higuain ( ) and Benz ( )

i normally agree with czy,ill just have to do it again.My thoughts exactly.

I think you underrate him a bit, not neccesarily as a player, but what he brings to the team.

Personally , I would not take Sachez,Villa,Nani, and possibly both Hazzard and Neymar in front of him at this particular point in time.

Di Maria has his workrate to fall back on while these guys, if and should they go on a run of bad form will be piss poor and useless with the possible exception of Sancez - who I just feel Di Maria is better than, and who we already have a much better version of - Ronaldo - on the right.

As for your comment about him being very left footed. Don't hear messi getting any complaints . But seriously, he is a very very good dribbler , if not WC- based on what I saw of him last season.

He also connects very well with Higuain.

I will maintain my position that he simply needs to tweak his decision making a bit and he would be a perfect player for us to have. It's very difficult to find a player as talented as him who is also ready and willing to be the work horse, something pretty overlooked.

That being said, I see him as more of a sub than a starter.

Messi is not extremely left footed...he can do some nasty stuff,specially passing,with his right foot.Di Maria is really the only player ive seen who cant use his weak foot for nothing.

Ganso wrote:Messi is not extremely left footed...he can do some nasty stuff,specially passing,with his right foot.Di Maria is really the only player ive seen who cant use his weak foot for nothing.

I think you're exaggerating a bit

We don't need one

well on the case of di maria as sport said he is either brilliant or sh*t, but i think he can be either very good or brilliant, if he just slowed down his game a little in certain situations and keep his head up some more cause he can really pick a pass when ready, he should also work on his right foot more and finesse shots some more(could be deadly i.e robben) and most importantly just keep it simple, he tries too hard to be a flair player most times

about the mid i think after lass and altintop leaves, we should get one dm that good at keeping possession, passing(mainly one touch) and can cover ground quickly, now when we finally make the switch to a 4-3-3 ozil will be cm

ozil- xabi- sahin

ozil- khedira- sahin

new dm/cm - coentrao - granero... etc

sportsczy wrote:Di Maria is either brilliant or shit... he doesn't have a middle ground. The problem with him is that he has no right foot. None. When he goes against defenders that know what they're doing, he's forced to go right and just can't do anything with his right foot.

I have zero confidence with Di Maria against good defenders given this massive weakness.

Oh and btw, i can think of at least 10 wingers i'd prefer over Di Maria. Robben, Ribery, Hazard, Neymar, Nani, Alexis Sanchez, Villa (he plays winger now), Navas, Higuain ( ) and Benz ( )

I agree completely.

Di Maria our most important player?

I would even take Jese over him right now.

Never knew Di Maria was this criminally underrated.

Oh well... Jose trusts him. And Jose knows all.

mtfootball wrote:Hulk
=Robben
xPedro
=Ribery
-Young
Neymar
=Villa
-Robinho
xBalotelli
-Gervinho
xSilva
-Elia
xAlexis Sanchez

x is wont come
- is not better
= is too old
so its only nerman left and if u add hazard and gotze
PS dunno hulk,dont watch him

LOL
omg at this thread
look if we sell Lass, I will be happy, he is not a benchwarmer player
we could and this may sound foreign to some promote someone like Alex or Omar from the youth team both are sound defensive mid field options who are only 18 which means given the time to grow, could become absolutely vital

Saetablanca wrote:Di Maria our most important player?

I would even take Jese over him right now.

i would take JESE over Neymar right now.....
so you know

Omar and Alex are not DMs tho, either may occupy Granero play time if he happens to leave, but you wouldnt bring any of them on the pitch if you are trying to keep the score at the end of a game.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:Omar and Alex are not DMs tho, either may occupy Granero play time if he happens to leave, but you wouldnt bring any of them on the pitch if you are trying to keep the score at the end of a game.

i think Omar is pretty much playing as a DM with Mandi, ofcourse he plays a role Sahin would play were he to pair up with Alonso
and Alex is an obvious option for DM

plus these are 18 year olds so developing them into defensive midfielders is a viable option
especially with Omar, who has a pretty strong build

Alex is not a DM dude, he is another CM, who happens to play deep. Just like Omar, who took up Fran Rico position. Another deep lying playmaker, they are like Pirlo positioning wise, but they arent DMs.

Last year we paired up Fran Rico and Alex, and now it's Omar and Alex.

If anything, they leave the CBs fairly exposed anyway, so i wouldnt rely on them if i wanted a DM, but who knows.

Turning them into DMs is a whole different, i'm not their coach, so i cant comment whether it's feasible or not.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:Alex is not a DM dude, he is another CM, who happens to play deep. Just like Omar, who took up Fran Rico position. Another deep lying playmaker, they are like Pirlo positioning wise, but they arent DMs.

Last year we paired up Fran Rico and Alex, and now it's Omar and Alex.

If anything, they leave the CBs fairly exposed anyway, so i wouldnt rely on them if i wanted a DM, but who knows.

Turning them into DMs is a whole different, i'm not their coach, so i cant comment whether it's feasible or not.

all Im saying is that they are young and would be much easier to develop into players we can actually use

If we want a DM, we should defenitly not look further then Mvila.

Javi martenez is super OVERRATED. he is poor version of khedira.

if u are looking for super world class dm/cm, then ramos lol.

M'Vila stated in the last 10 days that he will only go to a team that has plans for him to be in the starting 11... so that's that.

Javi Martinez or M'Vila can take Khedira's spot.

I think Khedira and Di Maria are bench players. Khedira just to solidify the midfield late on and Di Maria just to cause problems to their tired defenders with his dribbling.

you guys are seriously underestimating khediras influence on the pitch....

and khedira wont settle for a bench role either...

khedira is also very very good player, there is no way he is a bench player, his infulence as omar said is underrated.

Yes he can have a rotating role, but not bench role. i think mvila and him can make higuain/benz kinda rotation.

Sahin with alonso.

Again, M'Vila does not want to be a rotation player and all but said he's going to Man U very recently... we should forget him, as much as i hate to say it.

our midfield ( and team for that matter ) is a bit loaded, we have xabi, sahin, khedira, lass, granero, altintop, coentrao all competing for 2 spots really.

tbh i thought we would be playing more 4-3-3 this year but apparently not...