Lookling at past Mou teams

He always had a playmaker (call it a #10) and a defensive specialist (call it a #6):

Maniche + Costinha and Deco
Essien and Lampard
Cambiasso and Sneijder

Ozil is the number 10 for Madrid now. But who's the 6? Nobody near the quality of the guys mentioned above on our roster. Breaking the norm a bit for Mou in the midfield.... probably why he wanted to keep Lass so badly in case the new experiment was failing.

I dont see the link, most of those guys are way out of lass league and were key players.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:I dont see the link, most of those guys are way out of lass league and were key players.

ur just a hater. haters cannot see the quality of lass. but perhaps its understandable due to being more inconsistent than any of the mentioned above in sport's post.

and how can u not see the link? lass is the essien cambiasso. inferior probably to essien but not to cambiasso.

My point is that Khedira/Alonso/Sahin are not the typical defensive mids Mou puts next to his playmaker. He usually puts a big time defensive mid next to his playmaker. We lack that on our team. In case our team struggles defensively in the midfield, we really have no other option than Lass. Khedira and Alonso are ok defensively... but not elite. Sahin is not a defensive player to begin with, although he's decent.

Mou has actually built a team with no defensive enforcer in the midfield for the first time in his career.

He is going to use Pepe or even Ramos lol, so no worries.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:He is going to use Pepe, so no worries.

If his lack of a true defensive midfielder scenario fails, Pepe is not a regular solution. He's like a 5th defender. He is very poor at the midfield linkup and passing duties.

Just interesting to me why he insisted on keeping Lass. It was a backup in case his new midfield failed.... he would've been able to return to his old model. Now, he lost that option.

sportsczy wrote:My point is that Khedira/Alonso/Sahin are not the typical defensive mids Mou puts next to his playmaker. He usually puts a big time defensive mid next to his playmaker. We lack that on our team. In case our team struggles defensively in the midfield, we really have no other option than Lass. Khedira and Alonso are ok defensively... but not elite. Sahin is not a defensive player to begin with, although he's decent.

Mou has actually built a team with no defensive enforcer in the midfield for the first time in his career.

And this is why i am worried as f*** about life after lass leaves. khedira and co. are okay. "okay" isn't a substitute for elite and we need elite in defensive midfield even if that elite be inconsistent.

sportsczy wrote:

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:He is going to use Pepe, so no worries.

If his lack of a true defensive midfielder scenario fails, Pepe is not a regular solution. He's like a 5th defender. He is very poor at the midfield linkup and passing duties.

Just interesting to me why he insisted on keeping Lass. It was a backup in case his new midfield failed.... he would've been able to return to his old model. Now, he lost that option.

Damn man ur on a roll. ur reading my mind... except i didnt think the bolded...

nah mou is obsessed with having large squads. lass offers something else, sure, but if he was so worried about having an enforcer, he would be signing one.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:nah mou is obsessed with having large squads. lass offers something else, sure, but if he was so worried about having an enforcer, he would be signing one.

lass is staying from the looks of current situation. we still havent budged from our evaluation of lass and neither has lass with his salary demands to other clubs. tis why mou isnt concerned.

Doesn't have to be a pure DM. Could be a B2B that has the defensive skills of a pure DM.

We can always buy one if it becomes really necessary.

Turok_TTZ wrote:

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:nah mou is obsessed with having large squads. lass offers something else, sure, but if he was so worried about having an enforcer, he would be signing one.

lass is staying from the looks of current situation. we still havent budged from our evaluation of lass and neither has lass with his salary demands to other clubs. tis why mou isnt concerned.

so just because nothing changed in the last two days since we announced he isnt going on loan, you think he is staying? you are jumping to conclusions a little too fast. how would you know if our valuation of the player has changed?

sportsczy wrote:Doesn't have to be a pure DM. Could be a B2B that has the defensive skills of a pure DM.

We can always buy one if it becomes really necessary.

yeah..... How many fit the profile of the bolded thats elite/WC?

i know of none that are available, such is rare me thinks. dont mention essien dude is injury prone.

and people think pure dm is becoming irrelevant... makelele needs a successor to remove all doubt.
All i can think of to replace lass is Sven "the vacuum" Bender.....

Man City has a bunch of DMs... maybe we can sign buy one of theirs.

Flamini may not be the worse option either.

sportsczy wrote:Man City has a bunch of DMs... maybe we can sign buy one of theirs.

Flamini may not be the worse option either.

at city? like who? please keep flamini away.

mourinho still has gago to emulate cambiasso lol

Got you thinking there hey sportsczy??

Flamini: box to box mad man = fail

My pick for the destroyer is Yaya Toure, he is one of the best in the world, barring Essien who is now injured.

I believe Keita is on the market?

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

Turok_TTZ wrote:

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:nah mou is obsessed with having large squads. lass offers something else, sure, but if he was so worried about having an enforcer, he would be signing one.

lass is staying from the looks of current situation. we still havent budged from our evaluation of lass and neither has lass with his salary demands to other clubs. tis why mou isnt concerned.

so just because nothing changed in the last two days since we announced he isnt going on loan, you think he is staying? you are jumping to conclusions a little too fast. how would you know if our valuation of the player has changed?

I probably am jumping to conclusions, doesnt mean im not wrong (until proven wrong). we will see as this summer unfolds. this is my assessment of the situation between lass and madrid. i still think mou wants him to stay even though the bs lass has done.

lololol this coming from the same guy who thought aguero was coming right after july 1st. wasnt that also jumping to conclusions?

Giovanni10 wrote:Got you thinking there hey sportsczy??

Flamini: box to box mad man = fail

My pick for the destroyer is Yaya Toure, he is one of the best in the world, barring Essien who is now injured.

I believe Keita is on the market?

A pure dm thats elite. former farca player though...
Completely forgot about this guy.

i wud like it if yaya comes to replace lass.

St_Nick09_of_Goal wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Man City has a bunch of DMs... maybe we can sign buy one of theirs.

Flamini may not be the worse option either.

at city? like who? please keep flamini away.

mourinho still has gago to emulate cambiasso lol

Gago will pull a hamstring in practice before he plays a single minute lol.

Keep in mind i'm talking about an emergency defensive mid that plays very little BUT has big club experience. Man City has Gareth Barry who is getting older and is one tough sob. He would do the job.

Flamini is a bit of a biatch and limited skillwise. But he is a good defender with a high work rate.

You can't have all kids to cover your defense on the bench. Need some experience, which we have at CB (Carvalho) and corner defense (Arbeloa). We don't have that in the midfield.

Yaya is an impossibility. Fantastic player. Would never, and should never, accept the bench.

cambiasso was b2b during mou time... statistics speaks for themselves, 8 goals under mou 2nd season

sportsczy wrote:Yaya is an impossibility. Fantastic player. Would never, and should never, accept the bench.

Why would he have to accept the bench if he were the only specialist in the team to fill one particular position? midfield 3 of [Xabi, Yaya, Sahin] would be immense. but its all hypothetical anyway.

Giovanni10 wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Yaya is an impossibility. Fantastic player. Would never, and should never, accept the bench.

Why would he have to accept the bench if he were the only specialist in the team to fill one particular position? midfield 3 of [Xabi, Yaya, Sahin] would be immense. but its all hypothetical anyway.

Then you bench Khedira and Di Maria? For Yaya, i would. But that's not going to happen.

omarish wrote:cambiasso was b2b during mou time... statistics speaks for themselves, 8 goals under mou 2nd season

currently, our Cambiasso type player is Khedira.. only difference is that when Cambiasso attacks it is through the middle, when khedira attacks he tends to drift to the right.

Gago was good in 2007 and had a great game last night. He's always an option yeah? But again, Lass is definitely better defensively than Gago.

Again... I'm not talking just pure DM. Just a very good defensive mid. He could be a B2B or a pure DM. Doesn't matter.

In any case, Mou doesn't seem worried about it, since he has asked for another striker... we probably shouldn't either.