Intended short post...

...that became pretty long before I knew it! So what has been going on:

• Dortmund is STILL invincible. They beat Bayer 3-1 last night - yes, even without Shinji Kagawa. Damn. I 'm getting so annoyed with how good they are - and at this rate, we'll never catch up. We have massive CB problems - at least Badstuber is back but his partnership with Breno is worrying - would you trust 2 20 year olds at the back? Seriously? Also, on other news, Kraft has been promoted above Butt! YAY!! Finally!! I don't know how good/bad Kraft is but what I do know is Butt does not give me ANY confidence in him. He's just not a good GK...maybe past his prime is a more apt description. Anyway, at this rate I just hope we do well in the UCL and qualify for UCL spot next year...

• RM's big rumour for today is that we are planning on getting RvN back on loan for 6 months! :D He's definitely a good choice. He's played for us before, is loved by us, experienced and I think he's more dangerous than Benz. Sorry, I know Benz has improved a lot over the past few games, but he's still so meek in front of the goal and his inability to convert SITTERS is REALLY annoying me. I've rewatched our past 2 games and I think what he is lacking is confidence. Some of his passes are sublime but it's as though he doesn't dare to take a shot when he's near the goal... :( The other rumoured strikers were Adebayor, Klose and Lukaku. Don't like any of them namely because the first is such a lazy a** (nothing wrong with his skills, but I just can't stand the sight of him in our jersey), the second although has very good telepathic-like linking with Ozil, is cup tied and never seems to perform as well for his clubs as opposed to di Mannschaft, and the third, a wee bit young (he's only 17!). Ruud would be great - and seems like he ain't too happy in Hamburg too! BUT he is 35.... :S. He was so amazing with MU, then continued his stellar form in RM (hmm very much like a certain cr7...). Anyway, I really like him so I hope we get him soon! =)

• I'm really worried about the MU match tomorrow, mainly because I've not much faith in our players. Very strange, isn't it? Somehow when people tell me "xxxx's been playing well", I really struggle to appreciate it - perhaps I'm too spoilt watching the La Liga of late and expect a lot more? BUT when I see Spurs play, I can see some really good technical abilities in the players. Modric and VdV are the 2 stand out players for me. Bale/Lennon are v. good too but...maybe a bit too predictable! Lol! I guess I appreciate Ozil-like players better than Bastos-like ones! :) Nonetheless I think we need to crowd out their midfield. Not sure how SAF will set this one up - having Park missing is a BIG set back for us in this one. I think he will bench Berb and crowd the midfield...anyway that's just my guess. It'll be a tough one and I really don't have much confidence, unfortunately. Esp how terribly we played vs LFC last week. :( My guess of the line up would be

VdS

Rafael - Ferd+Vidic - Evra

Carrick-Fletcher

Nani-Anderson-Giggs?

Roo

• The match against Almeria will be tricky - we somehow never manage to reproduce our stellar home form in away matches. Oh well - we just need to plough on as Barca will so whitewash Malaga (or more like Malaga lying down to be steam-rolled by Barca). It's slightly easier to guess RM's line up. Mou said in an interview the other day that there are some players that if benched, would decrease the quality of the team and these were: CR7 (duh), di Maria (my angelito :D) and O.Ozil (aka MFP)! But I think Mou will REALLY need to start rotating the squad soon esp if we intend to go far in all 3 competitions, otherwise we'll prob end up dead way before the end of the season. Kaka's experience will definitely help the young squad grow, but he IS really quite slow (I'm prob just SO used to our lightning pace counter-attacks lol!). We'll see - tomorrow could be either very fun or very frustrating. I hope it'll be the former. I am predicting the same line up as mid week - and subbing out Benz/Ozil/di Maria in the second half for Kaka/Leon/Granero if we're leading.

Okie dokies, don't have much to add. It'll be a fun weekend I'm sure - keeping my fingers and toes and whatever else crossed for all my 3 teams to win! :D Oohhh and another pic I that I like :D

*Listening to Dreaming People by Jay Smith*