He's been your best player after Suarez. Unlucky.

I thought he was rubbish, no?

You think he's rubbish?

Thats your opinion then

Lucas and Henderson 4-4-2?

Maybe he'll be able to shake it off by next weekend.

This is why we shouldn't have sold Meireles or at least kept Aquilani

We've still got a good number of players who can play in the middle.

Shelvey and Spearing don't count as good.

Lucas, Henderson, even Maxi and Downing can play there.

why do people put shelvey down so easily?
He is 19 and a player with a lot of talent, who should be supported!
He came on for the U21's the other night and comfortably made rodwell look ordinary and the BS rate him at £20m+

Maxi and Downing are not central midfielders and shouldn't be played there, Shelvey might well turn out to be a good player but at this moment in time he is nowhere near as good as Adam or Meireles.

I'm so frustrated that we had a team with excellent cover for every position and the ballsed it up in the last 30mins of the window.

I'm so frustrated that we had a team with excellent cover for every position and the ballsed it up in the last 30mins of the window.
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Oh god. Can you get any more spoilt? Look at where you were last year and look where you are now. Selling one player who might not have even featured for you is not gna undo all the work Queen Benny has done so far

It's Stoke who usually don't go through the middle. Have a little more faith in players. Spearing did well for few games last season while others were out.

Didi Haman..

Agree.

Meireles was a match winner. We will miss his goals and goal assists. He said he will soon reveal reasons behind his departure. He said it was not only him within the club behind that.

I blame the owner, Comoli and Kenny for this. How could they sell two creative midfielders in Aqulinai (loan) and Raul. They are both match winners.

Also, Chelsea were so desperate in the last day to buy a midfielder. We could have easily asked for more instead of only 15m. Stupid decision. They should learn from Spurs chairman. He is a greedy owner and so stubborn. Three times now we have allowed Chelsea and our players to force their moves. Levy was so firm with Chelsea and Modric that he is not for sale. He also managed to get 12m for Crouch. Also, he got 7m for Palacios who is rubbish. They robbed Stoke. Arsenal and Tottenham are the best for getting the best deals especially when selling while we are the worst.

How about:

Reina
Johno - Carra - Agger - Enrique
Lucas - Hendo
Downing/Suarez - Kuyt - Bellamy/Downing
Suarez/Carroll

It's not that I don't think Spearing did well or that he tries hard but if our central midfield is Spearing, Lucas and Henderson then we're going to struggle with creativity. Meireles/Aquilani gave us that different option that having Spearing/Shelvey as back up players don't and I think that letting both of them go is going to turn out to be a big mistake.

Meireles didn't even play in the middle for us last season under Kenny and I don't think he'd have played there AGAINST STOKE if he was still here!

Didi Hamann? He did doe didn't he doe? Apparently I have no bed o.0 (U5172)
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I get what you're saying but last season Meireles failed to show any sign of creativity in some matches. He isn't a creative midfielder but I do agree with you on Aquilani though.

I can't believe some people are actually complaining. Yes, we could have done with keeping Meireles but if he doesn't want to be here then what's the point? Our team is so much better now.

This is why we shouldn't have sold Meireles or at least kept Aquilani
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Yep Aquilani would've so important to us this year, but he wanted to go so we accepted it as we still had Meireles, but now with him gone as well, and Gerrard injured I knew we'd look a bit bare there all of a sudden.

But no others knew better lol. All it would take was an injury from Adam or Lucas to expose it. Now we shall have to rely on Shelvey who is a good prospect but not quite ready.

It's not that I don't think Spearing did well or that he tries hard but if our central midfield is Spearing, Lucas and Henderson then we're going to struggle with creativity. Meireles/Aquilani gave us that different option that having Spearing/Shelvey as back up players don't and I think that letting both of them go is going to turn out to be a big mistake.
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Agreed. You can get by with one going, but not both who were quality players, especially Aquilani.

If they botht wanted to go then we should've eyed up another creative midfielder to fill the gap. Adam is good but is not the quality of Aquilani. It was certainly Kennys biggest mistake so far.

comment by Andy Carroll's Ponytail (U1217) posted 1 minute ago

I can't believe some people are actually complaining. Yes, we could have done with keeping Meireles but if he doesn't want to be here then what's the point? Our team is so much better now.
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Our team is better than last season but not better than on 30th Aug 2011.

Also, I don't agree with if someone wants to leave then let him go. If next time we allow Suarez to leave just because he wanted to go to Spain or Chelsea then we will never win anything.

We've lost one player who wasn't going to be a starter very often. I would have liked to have kept him, but we still have a great squad. And we can always get someone in January if necessary.

Meireles failed to show any sign of creativity in some matches.
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Agreed but I trust him more than I do Shelvey or Spearing to create chances and get goals. He was involved in both the Arsenal goals.

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Our team is better than last season but not better than on 30th Aug 2011.
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This is exactly the point, yes of course we're much better than we were in January but we almost had a perfect transfer window and I think we've been forced into a sale we didn't have to make. The wage bill is down, our squad is an appropriate size, I just don't see why we couldn't have kept one of them.

I can only assume it wasn't an option to keep either but I know if we'd have kept Meireles I would've been 100% happy with our transfer window, as it is our main weakness has been exposed with Adam's injury. That's fairly typical of football really

We don't even know how long he will be out, he could be back for Stoke. If not then we'll just have to play Lucas and Henderson, simple.