It’s completely different. In England, it’s a real support and the best in the world. The fans are passionate about their team.
In Madrid, it’s a spectacle. They will applaud when you play good and boo when you are bad.
18
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 51
- Goals
- 7
- Assists
- 6
- Yellow cards
- 13
- Red cards
- 2
- Status
In Madrid, it’s a spectacle. They will applaud when you play good and boo when you are bad.
Casemiro, Varane, Martinez.
I'd add Bruno to that but to be honest, that's the spine really and we can't say we have a world class spine and not even come in top 4.
Hope he isn’t knackered when he comes back. ETH put it quite elegantly when he said he was the cement between the bricks.
As a medical man you surely appreciate that the spine is useless if it stops at T12! What that spine desperately needs is a world class striker at the top.
Martinez and Varane, DeGea previously also. It’s a good place to be having 2/3 world class players with potential like Antony, Rashford etc behind.
For me, top 3 tiers I'd say are:
Undisputed:
- Casemiro
- Varane
- Martinez
- Bruno Fernandes
- Rashford
- Shaw
agreed with your assessment.
Though I would add that Martial is very good if not injured.
We still don't have enough world class players. All teams winning PL/CL have at least 6-7 world class players.
We won 99' with Beckham, Scholes, Keane, Giggs, Stam, (despite aged) Schmeichel. Yorke was borderline world class and Neville/Cole/Irwin were very good.
We won 08 with VDS, Rio, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez and (despite aged) Scholes and Giggs. Carrick Hargreaves were very good.
Think Varane’s injury record prohibits him from truly having been WC for us thus far, but it’s very close.
Never feels good to see Korea get hammered like that, but it was half expected anyways.
We won the second half at least!
Has anyone asked Graeme yet for his thoughts on steady Eddie ?
Here’s a thought for him…Casemiro is a better player than Stevie Me was.
Steadie.Fecking.Eddie
Here’s a thought for him…Casemiro is a better player than Stevie Me was.
Steadie.Fecking.Eddie
Brillant player. The type of player we have needed since Roy left. So excited to see more of Casemiro.
Emperor Casemiro 
He’s ours
In what universe is Varane a bracket below Shaw?
I'd agree with most - except for Martinez. Antony has the potential to get to the top but has quite a bit to learn - so would put him as borderline world class potential
I think Lisandro is the flavour of the month. He makes up for his lack of height (no matter what you say, it will affect him in certain defensive battles) and awareness with his attitude and commitment - which we all love. But I don't think he's close to world class and would put Rashford above him on current form as well. If we got rid of 2 out of the following three, jones / lindelof / maguire and replaced them with one world class alongside Varane with Lisandro & Maguire as backups I'd be very happy.
But sticking on track with Case - he's in a class of his own at our club at the moment the way he's playing for us, and stepped it up another notch with Brazil now too
Shaw is a weird one because when you watch him on form (which he always seems to be for England at tournaments) he is clearly a world class LB, he just hasn't produced the way for us that Evra or Irwin did.
Not sure there's an LB out there you'd rather have in a knockout game save maybe Theo or Davies, and Shaw is better defensively than either, so depending on who the other team's RW is you might have him first.
Positional relativity matters here, for me. Someone like Lisandro gets a bump for being a passing left-footed LCB while Rashford drops because there's so many great LWs now that it's the star position for right-footers along with the most attacking midfield role. You can win without a world class 9 or RW, but you probably do want a world class central midfielder (can be either foot of course, just not a ton of lefties) and a world class LW like Brazil have (2 really since Neymar is also great there) and of course France.
I'd go:
World class, genuine contender for an Earth XI against the aliens: Casemiro
World class (might make the 26 against the aliens): Lisandro, Varane, Shaw
2nd tier: Eriksen, Bruno
3rd tier: Rashford,
4th tier: Dalot, Antony
and as that shows, we really do need a 9, a 4th quality CM and a 3rd CB this summer.
This guy is amazing! He has actually changed my opinion of what I want in a DM. At first I thought we need someone who can protect the back 4 and give the easy ball.
This meant us looking at players like Declan Rice for 80m but Casemiro has changed all opinion of that. He isnt just amazing at protecting the back 4, his ball playing is up there as well.
He is showing it this WC too.
This meant us looking at players like Declan Rice for 80m but Casemiro has changed all opinion of that. He isnt just amazing at protecting the back 4, his ball playing is up there as well.
He is showing it this WC too.
Amad Diallo?
More his injury concerns that let him down - but on top ability then yes probably does deserve to be up there.
He's awesome. Truly magnificent. Been said by myself and others before, but genuinely can't believe he plays for us.
I was worried he was injured, for a good minute he was just standing in the circle stretching and stuff while Brazil kept possession. My heart almost skipped a beat.
Our only world class player
He was brilliant again last night. Hell of a player.
Anyone who thinks Shaw or Rashford are anywhere near world class are kidding themselves.
Anyone who thinks Shaw or Rashford are anywhere near world class are kidding themselves.
Shaw is nowhere near world class, don't be ridiculous.
Appearing few games a season when you want your place back in the team with good performances doesn't make you world class. Putting him and Casemiro in the same bracket pretty much explains itself what it means to be world class and having potential to be world class but not having the consistency or attitude to be there. He was your average fullback who was at fault for goal with his pal Maguire every week just before the summer. 2 months of good football in 2 years(which weren't world class performances anyway) doesn't make you worls class.
Scholes wasn’t even an undisputed starter at that point while Yorke finished 11th for that year’s Ballon d’Or (only Beckham & Keane were higher than him from United). That’s some strange revisionism.
Agreed. Shaw is a laughable suggestion.
Agreed on all points. Shows you what we have with Eriksen, Bruno and him. We just need one decent forward imo. Richarlison?
Unfortunately, Richarlison is a no go, he just signed for Spurs and would cost way over what we should pay.
I hope Ten Hag identifies the right forward for his style. I kind of trust him to get the right player in.
Hopefully Gakpo if PSV don’t charge too much.
Yet another reason why one shouldn't take Souness' comments seriously. He's only deemed relevant because he's part of the old boys' club.
I just hope Casemiro can maintain this level of performance for another 2 seasons at least. We've been burnt far too often with the likes of Matic, Mata etc.
I sure hope @Yagami is watching all these games and has changed his opinion on Casemiro's press resistance abilities.
He's a lot better than I thought he was, would have been a good option with hindsight.
Plus he hates Liverpool
Would love to read his take now. Players can be press resistant without having high agility and balance, unlike in FIFA games...He took a break from the forum after realising he got it oh so wrong.
Thus guy....what a guy
- Status