ODZ

I can't believe the cheek of Mourinho. Watch the video and look at his smug face afterward. He is mental, completely out of it, I can't hate him as much as others because he's a child. Entertaining as fuck when he's not in our league.

Line up will tell us a lot about Kenny's intentions this season. Have to say I'm surprised Spearing could start, I'll be somewhat disappointed if true with us playing at home.

14 points.

I like Henderson. He wasn't amazing today, but there's a good player there, and I like his style. Moves very well, and moves the ball very well. One of those players that possession oriented teams love to have.

Gerrard could be out longer than reported, so our midfield might be thinner than we think.

City is a graveyard for talent. One minute you're the flavour of the month and they give you massive wages, a year later they spend another shitload on your competition just because they can. Soon enough you find yourself out of the team, nobody wants to buy you because of your contract and your team doesn't really care if they can't sell you so you're stuck wasting away. Only a money grabber who doesn't care about how his career turns out would sign for City. Perfect examples, Milner and Lescott. They're finished.

Not true, Meireles played on the left, Kuyt was on the right and Suarez played up front. I know that because I watched that game today. There's a huge difference between playing up front and roaming wherever you want and playing out wide in a 4-3-3 and having the responsibility of closing down your flank. Playing Suarez in that role would limit him offensively.

I agree with that completely and that brings me to Lucas. If this is Kenny's intention, and I believe that it is, this is the team: Henderson Gerrard Adam Downing Suarez Carroll Mirroring this one: Houghton McMahon Whelan Barnes Beardsley Aldridge Where is Lucas then? He'll obviously get plenty of games, but he's not going to be one of the first names in the team sheet like many expect.

Formations in pre-season mean nothing, it's all about fitness and Kenny has said it himself. We're loaded with central midfielders and we want to get rid of a few of them, while we're very light in strikers. Kenny's picked a "formation" to fit the personnel currently at the club. But the bottom line is this: Suarez, our best player, is not going to play wide in our team. There's not a chance of it happening. Kenny has never put him out wide and I believe he has no intention of doing so.

Lucas looks best when he doesn't have the ball. This sums him up perfectly.

Why are you assuming we're going to play a midfield three? Why do people automatically think we're going to play 4-3-3? Everything Kenny has done this summer suggests he's angling towards playing 4-4-2, which means a specialist defensive midfielder is much harder to accommodate. Suarez and Carroll force us into a 4-4-2. We are not going to play Suarez wide, pseudo-wide, or any of that sort. He is a striker with extraordinary playmaking skills, and he's our best player, we are not going to play him out of position to accommodate a third central midfielder IMO.

Why do people assume Kenny considers Lucas a first team regular? Because he's played in the first team ahead of Christian Poulsen last season? Or is it because he's signed two central midfielders in the summer? I'm confused.

I just can't understand how the fuck do middle class, hard working people actually vote for the Republicans. It's beyond me. They are pure evil, and serve only themselves. They're selling their own country down the river and taking advantage of the fact that their vile actions actually cause Obama to lose popularity. I can't get my head around it, are Americans this retarded?

It's always been mad.

I'm gonna go with another late bid from Everton

I'm in.

It's Tuesday too. Must be true.

Jeffren is Giovani Dos Santos II

I'm not a kid. I'm 26.

What I've noticed is that when it comes to people who live outside of the middle east and look at this conflict from afar, there is a sense that anyone who holds strong views on the subject "picks a side". From that point, one side becomes an angel and the other is the devil. Whatever happens, the "angel" is defended while the "devil" is criticized. The reality is that both sides are good and bad. Both sides are being led by leaders who are not interested in solving the issue, and they are dragging the innocent and the naive into their trap of intolerance and fear. Not all Palestinians are terrorists, very few are, I get along with them individually really well. I love a lot of things about them and their culture. They are being dragged into hatred, and support acts of terrorists through despair and fear. The same goes for the Israeli's, the government uses the naivety of its people and their love for the country to support actions which have nothing to do with benefiting the people of Israel. I can talk to an Iranian on the internet and he'll tell me he doesn't hate me or my people at all, but it is a government policy to direct hate towards Israel and the Americans and deflect attention from the wrongdoings that the Iranian government do to their own people. It's way more complicated than that. Even if I were in charge, and sometimes I wish I were, it would be difficult to earn the mutual trust that is necessary to move forward. Not impossible, but it's not a wave of a hand.

Israel is definitely going downhill morally (yeah, I know, it's already in the pits), there's no doubt about that. That law you've mentioned is absolutely outrageous and has filled me with despair about this country. It's slowly going mad with patriotism which is fed by fear and no real sense of hope. There is no optimism anymore, I remember in the 90's when I was a kid, things were tough, suicide bombers were blowing up buses but people had hope of a better future. Now? There is none. Hopeless masses go in dangerous directions, and usually they stray away from democratic principles. The true left wing, the one which is striving for peace and aggressively opposes the occupation is almost non existent and being silenced. There is genuine disdain and scorn towards people who hold left wing views like myself. Still, it doesn't mean Israel is attacking Iran. Even the idiots in charge know our limitations. The problems it would cause severely outweigh the benefits, if there are any (and there are none).

You really have no understanding of who are the decision makers in the country and what their interests are. Israel is not attacking Iran.

We're going to see a lot of 4-4-2 next season IMO, and my gut feeling is that Kenny thinks he can make Gerrard and Adam play together successfully in the middle without another DM.

Some knee jerks in this thread, positive and negative re: Aquilani and Shelvey. It's a pre season game.

The beard is ace. Leave it alone.