I never thought James could be this could. I think he's bordering on world class now.

Hard not to call him world class if he's (currently) the best player on one of the best teams in the world.

He's brilliant. I never thought his world cup form would be the norm for him.

Same here, he was a good little player at Porto and Monaco but nowhere near his current level. Exploded at the World Cup and never looked back.

I hadn't seen him prior to the World Cup, but it was love at first sight. So much win.

Jackson Martinez scored a lovely goal against Seville.

and an assist.

Bale was involved with almost all of them too.

Barcelona won 1-2 at the Calderon, Torres with the opener, Neymar equalised with a brilliant free kick. Looked like a different sport compared to the United Liverpool match. Messi came on with 30 minutes to go and of course got the winner, a bunch of world class players on the pitch and they look dire next to him.

Angel Correa scored 30 seconds into his debut for Atlético. Torres also on the scoresheet, looks to have rolled back the years. We should really sign the guy in charge of scouting strikers for them, Correa looks incredible. And get Simeone too.

watched the barca game. Levante defending was abysmal. There are days when Barca goes out and faces absolutely no opposition whatsoever. 2 penalties, should have been three. wide open spaces everywhere. it's a bit of a sham at times. Messi has missed 6 of his last 12 penalties.

jones wrote:

Angel Correa scored 30 seconds into his debut for Atlético. Torres also on the scoresheet, looks to have rolled back the years. We should really sign the guy in charge of scouting strikers for them, Correa looks incredible. And get Simeone too.

Simeone that's who I want. It would be amazing.

The Correa guy is already a very hot prospect back in Argentina anyway.

We need to sign those prospects before they get famous. We always misses them.

Bebe, ex-United who not too long ago took this free kick:

scored this beauty this weekend:

That is some hit! Juninho would have been proud of that one.

I was at the Barca v Las Palmas game on the weekend (and was also at the Stoke game the weekend before that - I've seen Arsenal 3 times live and they've won every game so if the club wants to sponsor me to attend in future I'm all for it).

Anyway, watching the game live from high behind the goal at the Nike end of the ground (as opposed to the Qatar Airawys end) I was hugely impressed with Rakitic. Everything went through him and he has such technique and vision. What a lovely player.

He was just what they needed.

Sevilla won 2-1 against Barcelona. They were without Messi obviously but I don't think I've ever seen a team so unlucky, they hit the woodwork about six or seven times, including a Neymar free kick that rolled on the line for about four seconds

La Liga is very balanced this season, Sevilla were in a relegation spot before this match day, as are Málaga who got a point vs Real last week or Bilbao who put four past Barcelona. Every team looks capable to take points off others.

Atlético 0-1 down against Real at home, Navas saved a penalty from Griezmann earlier.

If there's any youngster we should pay 50m for it's Correa, comparisons are always worth very little but this guy actually reminds me of Messi, he has everything in his locker. Pace, technique etc are important but he has some of those characteristics that only the greats have, thinking a second faster than everyone else, good decision making etc, 50m would be a bargain, throw 100m at them and ask for Gimenez on top, that's attack and defence sorted for the next 15 years.

Undiano fucking Atlético over as usual

Vietto equalises finally, great work by Jackson for the assist

Keylor Navas saves Real again...He's been in great form.

@[deleted] I'd take most of the Atletico side to Arsenal (besides F. Torres)

I feel that Correa really reminds me of Aguero...I don't think he would leave Atletico so easily though. They stuck by him through that heart tumor and found the best doctors to operate on him.

The first 75 minutes were very tense, the last 15 were incredibly open.

Thoughts on this match (who cares lol):

• Keylor Navas was incredible and Real are lucky they don't know how to use a fax because he's been as good as De Gea was last year this season. That penalty save vs Griezmann is one of the best I've ever seen
• Mourinho is a fucking idiot for selling Luis, not even looking at how shit Ivanovic has been Luis is way better at LB than Azpilicueta. Had Bale in his pocket while playing like a LW most of the game
• We definitely have to pounce on one of the attackers Atlético will have to sell next summer, Griezmann, Correa, Vietto and Ferreira is overkill when Simeone is sure to play one of Torres or Jackson in a 4-4-2. On recent showings I'd even take Torres tbh

Bryant wrote:

Keylor Navas saves Real again...He's been in great form.

@[deleted] I'd take most of the Atletico side to Arsenal (besides F. Torres)

I feel that Correa really reminds me of Aguero...I don't think he would leave Atletico so easily though. They stuck by him through that heart tumor and found him the best doctors to operate on him.

Didn't see your post earlier. Yeah Correa might not want to leave but this is the level of talent where you just force the club's hand, 80m will at least make them think twice about it. The comparisons are obvious (Argentinian at Atlético) but I'd say he has even more to his game, his dribbling is better than Kun's was at that age. Last time I was so sure that a young striker would make it to the top was actually Agüero.

We need to poach some of those Atletico scouts. They sure pick up some fantastic talent on a regular basis.

We actually don't. Correa was well known to many clubs as a top talent. What matters is we have a manager to act on them.

Correa was certainly known, Gimenez on the other hand I don't think anybody heard anything of, they paid roughly 500k for him and he's already a massive steal. Either way we would do well with their scouts and a manager to act on them.

Don't the Spanish clubs still have an advantage over us when signing players from South-America?

Not looking at factors like language barrier, culture shock and the weather differences Spain doesn't have the visa problems that we regularly face when we get players from the Americas. That's only a problem if we're getting unproven youngsters though, if we bought a Neymar or someone of that ilk and paid a corresponding fee that wouldn't be a problem either.

I think anyone who cost more than £10 million automatically qualifies for a special talent visa in England these days, so it's not a worry when big money is involved. It does make it difficult to scout youth, but I agree with Jonesy - Correa looks like the kind of talent you'd happily pay that much for. I've seen him twice now and he's been incredible both times.

I do not follow La Liga at all, but saw the bench of Real on their match with Levante:
13 Casilla Cortés
18 Vázquez Iglesias
20 Jesé
21 Cheryshev
28 Llorente Moreno
29 Mayoral Moya
32 Lienhart

What the hell, what is this bunch? Do they have massive amount of injuries, shallow depth squad or what?

Modric, James, Benz, Carvajal and Pepe are injured.

wenger use to pounce on these quality french players. now he just window shops.

I soooo wanted us to sign Griezmann in January preceding last summer, and then I desperately wanted us to sign him last summer. We did sign Alexis though, so that sort of made up for it. In retrospect, we should have signed both of them.

Yeah, someone like Greizmann would complete our front three

we had the perfect in with sociedad too. we'll give you 12m and vela's rights ... done and dusted. only competition was atletico and we pay much better than them.

I probably underrated Griezman when he was at Sociedad but I still don't rate him as most people do. To me he's a bit like Theo, with better technique minus the blistering place. I reckon he'll always be a tier below the real top class footballers.

Talents like Correa,Martial etc on the otherhand you just know are going to be among the very best footballers in the world baring any injuries.

BTW Santi Mina is probably worth keeping an eye on for Valencia, was really impressed by him yesterday.

Griezmann didn't want to come to Arsenal, what did you want Wenger to do? Since when did Wenger use to pounce on expensive French players anyway? The last one I can think of was arguably Nasri.

Tactics wrote:

I probably underrated Griezman when he was at Sociedad but I still don't rate him as most people do. To me he's a bit like Theo, with better technique minus the blistering place. I reckon he'll always be a tier below the real top class footballers.

Talents like Correa,Martial etc on the otherhand you just know are going to be among the very best footballers in the world baring any injuries.

BTW Santi Mina is probably worth keeping an eye on for Valencia, was really impressed by him yesterday.

Nah. Griezmann is definitely one of the best 5 players in La Liga. He's carrying Atletico this season with his goals.