From a Chelsea perspective it is a positive thing no doubt but I just find it stupid as Mata is definitely better than some of the attacking midfielders who did get selected
Well, only Silva plays a similar role to Mata and I think they're pretty well matched if you ask me. The rest of their midfielders (excluding the untouchable ones) either play deeper (Beñat, who will warm the bench anyways) or will be deployed out wide (Navas and possibly Cazorla).
//Edit - Just so we're clear here, personally I'd make some space for Mata, but at the end of the day it's Del Bosque's choice.
No it wasnt, it was pretty obvious the system wasn't working. If anything the whole big man thing was with alex and anelka, which was after lampard was dropped.
Sections of the media portrayed it as being the big man, because for some reason Lampard was deemed untouchable for club and country and dropping him was unthinkable.
Can someone please tell me how Mata is not good enough for the Spanish squad? 4 goals and 6 assists in the last 5 games. World-class player who would get into the team of any other country easily
The Alex and Anelka thing is someone looking bad which may have not been his fault. Of course Lampard can be dropped if he merits the drop like now
Been MOTM in every game since he come back so **** it, works in our favour. Just need the English lads to retire now and i'll be happy.
Given what happened to malouda, you may well be correct that it was someone else. But im just saving AVB was entitled to drop lampard, and wasnt really out of order doing so, and yet was vilified for it. Like i said before, many things that AVB did make mistakes on, on and off the pitch. But he did very little wrong with Lampard.
You might see that Carl re Lmaprd, not many others do. Why else is he still playing a role for England that we both know isn't his best position. And look how Mikel gets slammed for Lampard's mistakes.
Most fans like now would accept Lampard being dropped if it benefits the team but it didn't back then. I agree he does not suit the role for both club and country but against the smaller sides he will still do a very good job.
Looks like I was wrong. Cole has been charged by FA
He will get a fine. Nothing more.
.... and a future regista: Oscar. It's easy to be skeptical: he's Brazilian, diminuitive and full of flair.
I don't get these "charges". They're just so plucked from the air at random (to me anyway). Should change to a format of weeks and fines instead of match bans.
I could get you the rule book, but you'd be bored after 5 minutes. Think the reason its not done in weeks is because of way we play games, and the international calendar. One player banned for a week might not miss a game, another could miss 3.
Looks like I was wrong. Cole has been charged by FA
He will get a fine. Nothing more.
£15,000 i would guess. I'd be amazed if it was higher than Ferdinand's whose fine was set at the higher level. And it wasnt deemed a racist tweet. Same way Terry's charge wasnt. The distinctions are very important, though they are completely lost on the media.A fine was never in doubt, it will be the amount which will interest me. They believe 45k is fare for a racist re-tweet so this should in theory be less.
I totally disagree with you on this statement. I can name a lot of diminutive players who have been brilliant regista's- the best example being Gianni Rivera. Who was the archetypal Regista. And he was a tiny player and full of flair.