Goal; Casillas is elite. Dudek is a solid, experienced back-up option.
Central defense; Pepe is simply awesome, but his latest injury niggle is likely to have influenced our decision to pay Racing an extra 1M€ for them to transfer Garay's registration rights to us for this season. Pepe has to make far more appearences this season compared to the 19/38 he put up last year in the league; quality wise and performance wise he is outstanding. Canna is going to be 35 in September so we'll have to use him sparingly. It took him a whole season to adapt but I thought he was quite good for the most part last year, especially in the key moments. Heinze's best performances for us thus far have come in central defense, but like Pepe, injuries have limited him to half the games. Garay is a welcome addition and I like the fact we reinforced this position domestically as he is familiar with the league. Metzelder was solid in the EUROS but he's the German Woodgate. Garay and Metze are adequate but they could suffer against the elite, so hopefully two from Pepe, Canna and Heinze will be available at all times.
Fullbacks; I'd say that contrary to what is often obscured in his greatness, Sergio Ramos was better in 06/07. I want a significant improvement from him this year, especially offensively he needs to become much more decisive. He also needs to improve his single biggest weakness defensively - covering his man on the blind side, and I'd also like to see him considerably trim down his 20 bookings (17 yellow + 3 red) from last year. Salgado is a liability as his pace has gone which results in sheer recklessnes, so we're lacking a bit here but a solution could be M.Torres as Ramos' back-up. I'd like to see Marcelo confirm his development from last year that saw him take a sizeable leap in quality, especially defensively. Of course, there's room for improvement, certainly offensively with his skillset you feel there's much more to come from him in that regard. M.Torres is reliable defensively but a non-factor offensively, so we're lucky Ramos is dependable in terms of availability.
Central midfield; Diarra and Gago + the two canteneros DLR and Javi Garcia. Solid backbone with plenty of bite. I gave Diarra a lot of stick for his early season performances last year, but like 06/07, he improved tremendously down the stretch. His first touch, passing and general awareness is of a high standard at the moment and I'd like to see him play a full great season, not just for six months. Our best performances last season have been with Gago in the team and that's because of the silent subtle touch he brings to our football. Now with Sneijder out, Gago's organization is the DNA in our build-up...come back from Beijing in one piece, please.
Playmakers; Guti.HAZ, Wesley Sneijder and Rafael Van Der Vaart. Despite Guti leading the league in assists last year I feel he doesn't contribute enough on a weekly basis. I am not expecting much from VdV because he needs to adapt - although having said that, he's got a good set-piece and a vicious shot so a few assists plus some goals can be considered as short-term success and much-welcomed productivity. It's a huge shame that Sneijder's out, I felt he was going to be a gamebreaker for us this year. Still, we should have him available for the business end of the season so it'll be interesting to see if VdV capitalizes on this chance.
Wingers; Our most important area tactically. The simple fact of the matter is that we can not afford to lose Robinho, I think we should offer him parity with what's on the table at Chelsea and get him to sign ASAP. Not many players get a standing ovation from the Arsenal fans but Robinho received it because he's class. Pace, creativity, link-up and goals, he enjoyed his best season last year and is due for a breakout year. Robben is elite but his talent has never been in question, he needs to confirm his fitness. These two are absolutely vital because they're an injection of pace and penetration which are necessary ingredients to offset/ neutralize our slow forwards. Drenthe had a good spell down the stretch last year but fizzled out after a while. He's another one with bags of potential that we can only hope will be a factor this term.
Forwards; Raul looks in terrific shape, as always, and Ruud is Ruud. I just wish Schuster would realize that we're at a significant disadvantage as a result of the opportunity cost of fielding these two - primarily lack of pace and the general slow build-up of our football.
Higuain showed a huge improvement in his finishing last year and needs to rubberstamp his new-found finishing prowess this term. With Raul and RVN both on the wrong side of 30, he may end up with more minutes than he bargained for.
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All in all, our squad is very good. There's plenty of experience, talent and complimentary players. I expect Garay and VdV to be our only summer signings and when Sneijder comes back that will feel like a new signing also.
Liga - Too talented and too deep to expect anything less than a top two finish. I like our chances of securing the three-peat, Barca have made some impressive reinforcements but we're the Champions so we know what it takes and we're more secure defensively.
CL - As always, it depends on the draw. Barca had to dispose of Celtic and Schalke to reach the semis last year. I hope we'll draw teams that we match up well against when the going gets tough - teams like Liverpool, Inter or Chelsea. I feel Manchester and Arsenal are too mobile, so as long as we avoid those two teams until the Final we can dream of Rome.
Central defense; Pepe is simply awesome, but his latest injury niggle is likely to have influenced our decision to pay Racing an extra 1M€ for them to transfer Garay's registration rights to us for this season. Pepe has to make far more appearences this season compared to the 19/38 he put up last year in the league; quality wise and performance wise he is outstanding. Canna is going to be 35 in September so we'll have to use him sparingly. It took him a whole season to adapt but I thought he was quite good for the most part last year, especially in the key moments. Heinze's best performances for us thus far have come in central defense, but like Pepe, injuries have limited him to half the games. Garay is a welcome addition and I like the fact we reinforced this position domestically as he is familiar with the league. Metzelder was solid in the EUROS but he's the German Woodgate. Garay and Metze are adequate but they could suffer against the elite, so hopefully two from Pepe, Canna and Heinze will be available at all times.
Fullbacks; I'd say that contrary to what is often obscured in his greatness, Sergio Ramos was better in 06/07. I want a significant improvement from him this year, especially offensively he needs to become much more decisive. He also needs to improve his single biggest weakness defensively - covering his man on the blind side, and I'd also like to see him considerably trim down his 20 bookings (17 yellow + 3 red) from last year. Salgado is a liability as his pace has gone which results in sheer recklessnes, so we're lacking a bit here but a solution could be M.Torres as Ramos' back-up. I'd like to see Marcelo confirm his development from last year that saw him take a sizeable leap in quality, especially defensively. Of course, there's room for improvement, certainly offensively with his skillset you feel there's much more to come from him in that regard. M.Torres is reliable defensively but a non-factor offensively, so we're lucky Ramos is dependable in terms of availability.
Central midfield; Diarra and Gago + the two canteneros DLR and Javi Garcia. Solid backbone with plenty of bite. I gave Diarra a lot of stick for his early season performances last year, but like 06/07, he improved tremendously down the stretch. His first touch, passing and general awareness is of a high standard at the moment and I'd like to see him play a full great season, not just for six months. Our best performances last season have been with Gago in the team and that's because of the silent subtle touch he brings to our football. Now with Sneijder out, Gago's organization is the DNA in our build-up...come back from Beijing in one piece, please.
Playmakers; Guti.HAZ, Wesley Sneijder and Rafael Van Der Vaart. Despite Guti leading the league in assists last year I feel he doesn't contribute enough on a weekly basis. I am not expecting much from VdV because he needs to adapt - although having said that, he's got a good set-piece and a vicious shot so a few assists plus some goals can be considered as short-term success and much-welcomed productivity. It's a huge shame that Sneijder's out, I felt he was going to be a gamebreaker for us this year. Still, we should have him available for the business end of the season so it'll be interesting to see if VdV capitalizes on this chance.
Wingers; Our most important area tactically. The simple fact of the matter is that we can not afford to lose Robinho, I think we should offer him parity with what's on the table at Chelsea and get him to sign ASAP. Not many players get a standing ovation from the Arsenal fans but Robinho received it because he's class. Pace, creativity, link-up and goals, he enjoyed his best season last year and is due for a breakout year. Robben is elite but his talent has never been in question, he needs to confirm his fitness. These two are absolutely vital because they're an injection of pace and penetration which are necessary ingredients to offset/ neutralize our slow forwards. Drenthe had a good spell down the stretch last year but fizzled out after a while. He's another one with bags of potential that we can only hope will be a factor this term.
Forwards; Raul looks in terrific shape, as always, and Ruud is Ruud. I just wish Schuster would realize that we're at a significant disadvantage as a result of the opportunity cost of fielding these two - primarily lack of pace and the general slow build-up of our football.
Higuain showed a huge improvement in his finishing last year and needs to rubberstamp his new-found finishing prowess this term. With Raul and RVN both on the wrong side of 30, he may end up with more minutes than he bargained for.
------------------------------------------------------------
All in all, our squad is very good. There's plenty of experience, talent and complimentary players. I expect Garay and VdV to be our only summer signings and when Sneijder comes back that will feel like a new signing also.
Liga - Too talented and too deep to expect anything less than a top two finish. I like our chances of securing the three-peat, Barca have made some impressive reinforcements but we're the Champions so we know what it takes and we're more secure defensively.
CL - As always, it depends on the draw. Barca had to dispose of Celtic and Schalke to reach the semis last year. I hope we'll draw teams that we match up well against when the going gets tough - teams like Liverpool, Inter or Chelsea. I feel Manchester and Arsenal are too mobile, so as long as we avoid those two teams until the Final we can dream of Rome.