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.

sportsczy wrote:

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.

Why do you bench di Maria?- is he not going to be considered for a wing forward position in the new formation.

Secondly, the benching of Khedira is no big loss anyway- he spent quite a few spells out last year and quite frankly we didn't miss him. Somebody send Marca an email to make a front page Yaya scandal!

Giovanni10 wrote:

sportsczy wrote:

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.

Why do you bench di Maria?- is he not going to be considered for a wing forward position in the new formation.

Secondly, the benching of Khedira is no big loss anyway- he spent quite a few spells out last year and quite frankly we didn't miss him. Somebody send Marca an email to make a front page Yaya scandal!

In a 4-3-3, i'm assuming the forwards would be CR7-Benz/Higuain-Ozil. If Neymar comes, CR7 slides to the CF. Can't play without a CF and CR7 + Ozil are unbenchable.

sportsczy wrote:

Giovanni10 wrote:

sportsczy wrote:

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.

Why do you bench di Maria?- is he not going to be considered for a wing forward position in the new formation.

Secondly, the benching of Khedira is no big loss anyway- he spent quite a few spells out last year and quite frankly we didn't miss him. Somebody send Marca an email to make a front page Yaya scandal!

In a 4-3-3, i'm assuming the forwards would be CR7-Benz/Higuain-Ozil. If Neymar comes, CR7 slides to the CF. Can't play without a CF and CR7 + Ozil are unbenchable.

But then what makes you so sure that di Maria gets a look in at the midfield 3 pf a 4-3-3 instead of the front 3. Hig, Benz, Cr7, Ozil, Maria: thats 5 players for 3 positions. I'm not really sure what Di Maria is going to do in the midfield besides pull too far wide; and what we need is a compact midfield 3.

Turok_TTZ wrote:

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?

No it wasnt. I said most of our deals will go through after July 1st, which might explain why things were going numb for a while. And right after july 1st, we signed Coentrao. he future of Aguero is still pending.

It's nothing like after 2 days of a player putting himself aside from the group, you determine he is staying because he has no offer and we didnt lower price.

obviously the staff wants lass to stay, but you sound desperate hoping he stays. we are likely to review our valuation of the player and accept a smaller bid, but things dont happen overnight.

Some here are making Lass leaving a bigger thing than it actually is.

I don't know anything about his Porto time, but:

In Chelsea Essien was a defensive B2B. He is a workhorse and is full of energy, similair to Khedira (but Essien was much better ofc). Plus, he could score, racking up to a total of 25 goals in 6 seasons. In his second and third season he scored 6 goals in both of them.

Be aware, I didn't watch so much of Mourinhos Chelsea time. I did watch a few, mostly his last season.

In the Inter time, Cambiasso was much more offensive with Mourinho. He even scored some screamers, for example against Chelsea. Like I stated before, he scored 8 goals in 1 season. Difference Cambiasso is was superior in terms of attacking and defensive compared to Khedira.

As far as I know, Mou seems to always use B2B midfielders and a playmaker. Maybe Essien was alot like a DM, however Cambiasso was not. So Khedira is not a unexplored area for him.

does that mean we are going to see alot of this?

ronaldo--benz--ozil
alonso--pepe--sahin

deezydeez wrote:does that mean we are going to see alot of this?

ronaldo--benz--ozil
alonso--pepe--sahin

Nah, I prefer Pepe as a Cb.
CR7--Benz--Di maria
Özil--Xabi--Sahin
thoughts? Özil can be in the middle of the midfield too imo.

but the idea behind this thread was to expose that we have no defensive maestro.. with lass leaving that is just one more defensive-minded midfielder gone.

ozil-xabi-sahin might be the least defensive midfield trio of all time. i really doubt we would ever line up like that with mourinho in charge. though, that would be my preference as well.

Ozil on defense is like a chicken with his head cut off. He spends too much energy with not a whole lot of results... takes a lot away from his offensive game

He' s AM or a winger. He's really not suited for CM.

deezydeez wrote:but the idea behind this thread was to expose that we have no defensive maestro.. with lass leaving that is just one more defensive-minded midfielder gone.

ozil-xabi-sahin might be the least defensive midfield trio of all time. i really doubt we would ever line up like that with mourinho in charge. though, that would be my preference as well.

Why not? 4-2-3-1 wasnt exactly based on defensive tactic as well, but it turned out fine most of the time imo..But Xabi can always drop deeper when necessary.

The xcx wrote:

deezydeez wrote:but the idea behind this thread was to expose that we have no defensive maestro.. with lass leaving that is just one more defensive-minded midfielder gone.

ozil-xabi-sahin might be the least defensive midfield trio of all time. i really doubt we would ever line up like that with mourinho in charge. though, that would be my preference as well.

Why not? 4-2-3-1 wasnt exactly based on defensive tactic as well, but it turned out fine most of the time imo..But Xabi can always drop deeper when necessary.

You always had Lass or Khedira in there. In our tough away games, we often went to a 4-3-3 with both Lass and Khedira. We put Pepe in for Lass against Barca because we didn't care about scoring goals until the 2nd halves against Barca.

Let's just hope Khedira doesn't get hurt.

#6 and # 10

i still think that until xabi retires or moves on to a different team that sahin was brought in to play alongside him and a defensive minded player be that khedira, pepe, or lass in a 4-3-3

but maybe we will see a 4-2-3-1 with sahin and xabi idk we will have to wait and see but imo be need someone a bit more defensive.

----------------------Xabi(DM)
-----------Sahin(CM)---------Ozil(AM)
Di Maria--------------Higuain----------Ronaldo


Then you have Khedira who can replace Sahin as a B2B, Kaka for Ozil and either Varane, Albiol or Pepe for Xabi.

Benz for Higgy, Callejon for either wing and when Altintop is better he can slot in anywhere pretty much.

Defense I am still unsure of.