Bailey

Thats my worry too and the better calibre of opposition we play the more he will get exposed. Get him a good loan at a good Championship club (at the worst) and see what happens. I hope not as he sounds like a really good lad who loves the club. I think Stones has primarily jumped the queue because he can play RB as well.

Coleman, Baines and Felli are the most important 3 for me. If Mirallas plays like he has in preseason then he will be up there too. I think Felli does a lot of donkey work a lot of people dont appreciate. Everyone was saying he was shit against Valencia yet he was still breaking up the play and making incisive balls forward (ie ones through to Vic/Barkley as opposed to out wide). In a way I think that we are lucky/well managed that we have never really relied on just one person. The team is more important and in all honesty I think we could replace anyone without too much fuss (as long as we had decent funds).

If we added Heitinga to the leaving list as well then I think we would need another young CB and two central midfielders. One of the midfielders would need to come straight into the team and the other could be more for the future but able to start games if needed (or he is in form). The lad from Ajax seems to tick the CB box. Jorginho/Marrone would tick the younger progressive central midfielder and then we would need someone else to being to jump straight into the first team and preferably he could help replace some of the steel we would lose by selling Felli. I think we could cope just about at LB, especially if we moved to a back 3 to help cover any injuries to Oviedo. Thats probably around £30mil at the most which would still leave us a decent wedge to spend on any other areas that Bobby thinks we need cover in.

How poor is that squad.

Would love Wigan to win!

I dont think he is that great defensively and if you press him he isnt that good on the ball either. If I was a manager of a team I would target him because if you let him play he will do a brilliant job but if you jump all over him he doesnt seem to cope as well as a top player should.

Thought he was the best midfielder out there myself. Much better passer than people give him credit for too.

Even second half we did ok. Intensity was down and we again conceded a lazy goal (as a result of a counter attack) but plenty to take from the performance. For 70 mins it was a game we just about had the edge on and we created enough good chances and opportunities to win the game. Sadly we really did make some poor decisions, but that will come especially as the players become more aware of what is happening around them which Im sure Martinez is working on all the time. The biggest positive for me is that we defended a lot better as a team. We were more compact, there was less space between the back four and whilst Valencia weren't playing with playing at the highest tempo is was still equal to your average Premier League game.

Just watched the first half. Some of you are right pessimistic bastards! Im guessing the 2nd half is going to get much worse because I thought we were comfortably the best team. Personally, Felli has been the best player on the pitch so far. Yes he is a little bit lazy in patches but he is the one always looking to pick the ball up, make a run and try to get people on the ball. Barkley has been bright, just not making the right decisions but that will come. Oviedo and Naismith have been a handful down their wing and Stones has done very well too. Both CB's look like they have been working together a lot in the last couple of days because they look much more like a partnership. Gibson has been poor, he really hasnt got into the game. Deulofue looks an interesting character to say the least. Im hoping he is just having teething problems. Vic started off fairly anonymously but he improved as he started working harder.

Yeh we were looking at him the season before he 'announced' himself in Valencia's first team although I thought I rememberred reading somewhere that he didnt want to come to us anyway and it was the club that were pushing it!? Hopefully it will be a good game tonight Miquel and it will give both teams another decent opportunity to see what level they are at ahead of the new season. No offence but I hope you lose!

Yeh I bet they are only bringing the training comments up because of what he said in the press conference.

Wish I could stay up for this! Valencia will be a tough nut to crack so it will be interesting to see how well we compete.

Not sure Im that keen tbh. I wouldnt say I dislike it but its safe to say I have preferred our previous away kits (minus the pink one!).

Good luck Mike! For me its rats/mice. I dont mind them if I can see them and they sit there but as soon as they start moving I start hoping about like a girl and jump on whatever chair/bench/tree I can to get away!

Yeh I agree that both him and Osman should have made an effort to get closer to him. I am hoping that if it was a competitive match that both of them would have tried a bit harder. I still think the 2nd one is harsh though. I know what your saying and now that I have seen the full replay (thanks Av!) I do agree that he could have at least made Modric aware of his presence, however I think its pushing it to suggest it would have made any difference to Modric being able to play that ball comfortably. At least I am pretty happy now that we know where we need to improve with a few more pre-season games to work on it and hopefully time in the transfer market to bring in another one or two bodies (and maybe let one or two go as well). Our midfield trio and two centre backs need to start working together properly because too often against Madrid they were working against each other. Whether that be creating space for a pass, dropping in to cover, play off side or tracking runners they need to start thinking a little more about what they are doing.

I have just had a quick look back at the goals again and cant help but think your being quite harsh on Felli! There was no way Felli could have made up the same ground to get near Khedira from his starting position. If Osman had sprinted to Khedira as soon as he picked up the ball he could have tried to put in some type of challenge but he didnt, and once he thought 'oh shit' he quickened up slightly but only broke into a quick jog, whereas Felli didnt change pace at all. Heitinga was caught out and couldnt have reacted in the time but like you say Jags and Distin are on completely different wave lengths (as they are for the chance just after we hit the post and the 2nd goal). For the 2nd goal there is also no way Fellaini would have been able to close down Modric. Too far away to start with and then hampered by the ref. Unfortunately the clip I watched doesnt show quite why the move broke down and we lost possession in the first place but from then on, Modric has an easy through ball, Distin, Jags and Baines aren't working together and we let them through. Whats worse is that them 3 dont have any excuses. They have played together for long enough now and I very much doubt that anything has changed since Moyes left regarding how they defend in those types of situations. I remember them doing the same thing against Utd letting RVP through about 3 times unmarked. The other thing I have noticed with Distin in particular is that he is coming out of the line unnecessarily on a number of occasions which was more prevalent in the Juve game.

That is brilliant!

As Steve_E says thats not a ridiculously high line, you will be hard pressed to see anything different when a team is attacking. The problem as you rightly point out is that we create a 3 vs 3 situation because of our poor decision making.

I feel a bit for him because he wasnt really given the opportunity to do much. He was up against Real's best CB in Ramos and he didnt give him an inch. Kone made some sharp runs, he was looking to link up the play but when he was involved the ball to him was poor or his touch let him down. He has only played 90 mins so far and I thought his first 45 against Blackburn were promising and Im pretty sure he wouldnt be the first player to not shine in 45 mins against RM.

Yeh its not exactly like we were brilliant defensively under Moyes in his last few seasons although we always got better as the season went on.

Its pretty hard not to put your hands on someone though when there is the best part of 15-18 players in a 12 yard radius of the goal all attacking one ball. I dont know the official rule regarding it but I dont think is says you cant put your hands on another player.

I dont think he uses it to 'propel' himself, if you watch it back its more that his arms are resting on the player and the Madrid lad makes the most of it. As the commentators said during the game, Madrid were doing the exact same thing to us during the game and nothing happened.

Maybe they will play him at left back!

Yeh I think the sooner Heits moves on the better he will be. I dont think Martinez trusts him at CB and he simply isnt good enough to play just in front of the defence. I think Osman did ok in the end. Sloppy to start with and he did lose the ball unnecessary on a couple of occasions but he did improve. He definitely has a fight on his hands for a starting spot. Personally I didnt think Jela was that great. He took his goal superbly and he made some very impressive runs, but like Kone, the ball just didnt stick well enough. I also thought Fellaini did very well, especially considering who he had alongside him. I think he got caught out trying to be a little bit too positive in his runs early on but when he stayed a bit deeper he made a lot of good challenges and I dont remember him losing the ball. MOTM for me should be one of Howard, Jags or Coleman.

Doesnt surprise me!