NikkiCFC

FFS put them all in the bubble again. Another one...

At their place yes. We have 3 losses in a row and just one win in last 7 visits there. But at SB it has been one of the easiest fixtures. Last 11 games at home against them we have 9 wins and 2 draws in all comps. In PL last 5 games: 5:0 2:0 0:0 4:0 2:0

Antivax is just a small group tho. A couple of %. Majority people are not getting vaccinated because they are young and feel safe. Argument you are protecting others is gone since everyone protect themself with vaccine and can still spread it. In my country around 60% are vaccinated but from 18 to 35 years old just 4%. Death rate is 0.96% and this is with all old people who died from Covid so for younger groups is significantly lower. So younger groups really dont see reasonable explanation to get vaccine. If they are in 60s, 70s majority would get vaccine because they would feel vulnerable. Craziest part is Covid certificate. Scenario: You are vaccinated and positive on Covid, you can go to clubs, concerts to spread virus, no one cares, but if you are not vaccinated you are not allowed to go because there is a small chance that you may have it lol

I expect all these players not to be here next season. Rudiger Azpilicueta Sarr RLC Barkley Saul Werner Question marks over Kepa, Alonso, Ziyech, Pulisic. Kepa may leave on loan most likely because he is too good to be number two. Top Italian and Spanish clubs may go for him but question is can they give him salary like Chelsea and does he wants to go there? Perfect for us if he stays as number two. Anyway Baxter and Cumming are doing amazing on loan. Alonso will have one year left on contract and most likely he will leave for free in summer 2023. But we managed to sell Zappacosta, I think Alonso tho would prefer to stay as backup and put himself in great position as free agent. If Werner leave chances that Pulisic and Ziyech both stay are bigger but lets see what happens this season with their game time and level of performance. Jorginho will also have one year left on contract but he is 30 in a couple of days so dont know how will situation with contract go and his agent often speaks about his return to Italy. Most likely another player who will leave for free in summer 2023. Chris and Silva will extend. These 7 players I think will leave we need to replace with just 4 but top quality. Actually 3 considering Gallagher is already ours and he will replace RLC, Barkley and Saul. Yes, we dont need 5th guy. In summer 2023 yes. Sarr is extra so Rudi and Azpi need replacing. Kounde is obviously one instead of Azpi for that RCB role, same height. And it will be tricky to find Rudi replacement but needs to be strong, tall defender like De Ligt or Fofana. But in that case I would be concerned with too many young defenders because only Silva is experienced one. Who of the older guys can replace Rudiger but to have these characteristics? And I dont know which attacker will be, we are stuck with Lukaku and for wide positions Chiesa comes to mind.

It is a bit confusing how to define it. Lampard played 433 with two number 8s and he also said that he sees them more as number 10. Same with Pep. Both had/have 3 more attacking players upfront. This is what MM said after Burnley last season: “I am a No.8 and a midfielder," the England international explained to Chelsea's official website after the final whistle at Turf Moor. "I have always been in my whole career, so it is natural for me to play in there and I know I have started a bit wider this season, but I love playing in midfield. "It is my position and the fluidity we had in the game with the wingers [was good today].” I would not call any of our front 3 AM. If you call Mount AM you also call Havertz, Pulisic, CHO, Ziyech number 10. Which means we play without strikers unless Lukaku is on the pitch? Look at heatmaps for recent games. There are games where he was actually most attacking player. I would say his position under TT is more similar to Willian RW position than to number 10. Assist against Watford, goal against WH typical winger. There is that map of our players I posted after some of the games and Kai who that game on paper played as false 9 was actually our 5th most attacking player. In line with Kante. After all, this discussion is not that important, just come to my mind that maybe Mount would in long run prefer to play as number 8 and I just think under TT he is more striker/winger than MF. TT said this after Norwich: As you know we play most games with three strikers and Mason is one of the strikers and you can say in our world that Mason is maybe between an eight and a 10, so not a real striker.

I was very optimistic before the season and during the season about our title chances. But I lost that last couple of weeks. Realistically speaking can't see how we will challenge City and Liverpool. And that's 5 years in a row this is happening. Sometimes in November, sometimes in December. Longest run without even just fighting for title under Roman. It's just depressing. We finished 6th and 4th in the league when we won CL where you can win the trophy much easier with good draw, luck, system of the competition... I mean Spurs almost won it... PL is best measure of quality and we have not been good enough since Conte miracle.

I am still waiting for modern Cruyff to be released...

I am curious how does he feel about a fact that he has been playing out of position for almost a year now? I remember last season early on after Frank played him a couple of games as a winger and after putting him back as number 8 and he had a good game, post match interview he said 'I'm number 8'. CHO for example expressed publicly his frustration about playing WB. This would be big deal for some players. I know Mount is hard working dude, loves the club and stuff but if lets say TT is here for 2 more years that would basically mean that Mount from 22nd to 25th birthday will most likely play out of his preferable position. That's prime years lost of developing his abilities in primary position and where many see him to be a big star.

Did some light fitness work, could be back mid January. Excellent news!

Winner of Ajax:Benfica in QF please 😆 And if Juventus:Villarreal and United:Atletico pair together and we draw them we can have walk in the park all the way through final. Even easier than last season.

UEFA screwed Real here and with Juventus and Barca having very little chances to play CL next season I wonder how long we will wait for another Super League push? After all, those 3 are still in it...

History is a bit against Tuchel here... In last 12 years we got 3 PL and 2 CL but we never won 2 major titles in b2b seasons. Only one who did that was Jose with b2b PL titles.

He never proved himself in 2 men MF. He played in 3 men MF in Liverpool where he was most attacking one and in Newcastle he was left MF in 442, AM in 4231 or even a winger sometimes. @MoroccanBlue mentioned today our MFs are our most important players which last couple of games proved and they are disciplined defensively. Putting Wijnaldum there is to me similar to playing Mount in double pivot which we saw a couple of times as unsuccessful experiment.

That is two and a half weeks actually because now teams have break in winter. Just before CWC on weekend 5th-6th February we will have 4th round FA Cup tho. Which is good thing to get momentum after the break. Play half first team players there and other half in semi final CWC so they are ready for final where we should go full strength. We already have 2 PL games postponed because of CWC. If we get to the Carabao Cup final game against Leicester will also be postponed. And QF, semi final and final of FA Cup are also on the dates when we have PL games. So if we go all the way in all comps it will be very tricky to find free dates for postponed PL games.

Real last 13 games have 12 wins and 1 draw. With just 7 goals conceded. Their defense is looking really good. Alaba-Militao looks good pairing. We know Rudiger in 4atb is different thing. Not certain he will be success there. I mean, look at Eden 🙊

From what I have seen it's 22nd February first leg. Which is good for us considering CWC final in Abu Dhabi is on February 12th.

Announce Super League!

Mbappe - Real Madrid Pogba - Juventus, PSG, Real Madrid Kessie - not expecting creme de la crem teams for him. Maybe Newcastle. Dembele - Newcastle or Bayern Dybala - renew Insigne - Toronto Brozovic - renew or Newcastle Rudiger - Real Madrid Belotti - some Italian team Sule - PL maybe And many other players as well will be free agents... Romagnoli, Ginter, Corona, Kamara, Zakaria, Lingard, Cantwell, Tarkowski, Di Maria, Luiz Felipe, Onana, Isco, Sergi Roberto, Tolisso, Origi, Bernardeschi, Bale, Witsel, Modric, Lloris... Newcastle will grab many of them! If they stay in the league.

Just like Saul...

That is already happening. Rudiger, Silva and Christensen played more minutes. Chalobah around 100 minutes less but this is only because he got injured. So Azpi is basically number 5. And if we get Kounde for that RCB role really can't see a place for him. Rudiger, Azpi out De Ligt, Kounde in

It is great that we won CL and have another shot this season because Madrid dominance is coming. Vini Jr. Benzema/Haaland Mbappe Will be unstoppable. They are so good this season but under the radar. Also Simeone cannot really justify his big salary anymore. It is time for a change.

Inter top of the table after being 7,8 points behind. They will win title again, Conte should have stayed.