Recent content by Class of 93

I miss the Ander from LVG's first season. He had 8 goals and 5 assists from 31 games, despite playing mainly as an #8. It sounds crazy now since midfield is arguably our strongest area with more pressing problems elsewhere, but getting a top quality central midfielder was a game changer back...

This is worrisome as it has a bearing on the market and conversely what we pay for Sancho. I can't see a world in which we get him for less than €120m. I think our likely focus is building in add-ons to make it more palatable, but doubt the headline figure changes. Hope we have a Ballon D'Or...

He only cares about having the ball(s).

Good point. Our injury crises that year was ridiculous. I'd argue we would have won the CL if we could put out a full strength team for our games again Milan. I think we were missing both our first choice CBs for the home leg where Kaka ran riot. And had a visibly uncomfortable Vidic who just...

2006/2007 as a lot of people have said here. A few different factors that all made it special: The sense that Chelsea had overtaken us and were now the main footballing force in England. They had Mourinho, they got Kenyon, picked off transfer targets from us and set insane records (95 points...

Selling Lukaku to me has strong parallels to selling RVN in terms of the overall team context (not in talent though as I love and rate RVN) for those who remember the summers of 2005-2006. In both cases you had pure strikers, that became the focal point of our play, and prevented us from...

Just an absolutely exquisite midfielder, and someone that will help Liverpool actually control games with the ball and not with raw pressing. It's the only signing Liverpool could make that would genuinely scare me as on all other fronts they have a pretty complete team. He also has a game that...

This ship has sailed and for good reason. Griezmann's best position is the same as Bruno and while it could be argued they are at similar levels, one is only going to get better and the other worse. Both at Atletico and France, he plays behind a front man. He's an exceptional player, just not...

Havertz will be something quite special for whoever gets him. He has two things that make him unique, particularly in the context of some major trends that have recently swept football again (pressing, transitions, movement between the lines) that are more impressive than his raw ability (which...

I think the point here is the most critical in looking back at Scholes and his legacy. Scholes by definition was an anomaly in the English game. At a time teams played a rigid 4-4-2 with banks of players, Scholes was by definition a 'between-the-lines' player. Someone who could either play...

I think there are 3 pillars to what I would expect from a high-quality manager: Delivering good results: Results haven't been great. Simple as that. There's an argument around Injuries and buying Bruno earlier, but the fact is we've lost/drawn a fair number of games against smaller teams that...

I think there's a bit of hyperbole regarding Toure here. Yes, he was an excellent midfielder in high-quality City team. Yes, he scored goals and was pretty complete. But, his outrageous 2013/2014 season seems to be carrying people away in terms of how productive he was. I just looked up his goal...

I think you mean Marcus Edwards? He's been excellent this year and is actually an interesting left-field option for the right.. (Sorry couldn't resist the pun) I think what is clear is that we need a plan B for the right-wing if we don't get Sancho. I have to disagree with the Sancho or bust...

Unless I'm forgetting, wasn't the decision to replace RVN also driven by a training ground bust-up he had with Ronaldo? No doubt that we became a better team once he left. A lot of that was also down to our ability to effectively play an ultra-fluid 4-6-0/4-4-2 for the 2006-2008 period. I think...

I don't think Lukaku has shown anything new at Inter which would fundamentally change our decision to let him go. Nobody denied that he was a decent striker with an eye for goal, and a potentially deadly combination of pace and power. Though arguably, our inability to put away weaker teams has...