The Skipper

Exactly this. Very well put Tomo. Southampton are a great example. They have much more of an identity than we do.

It's tough but we have the resources to at least start something special. You know, I would agree with the SAF model being followed a year ago but it doesn't seem like that anymore. Philosophy "y" still hasn't been established yet. I reiterate that there's just no identity at the moment in our team. It looked like we were developing one around this time last year but now? We clearly aren't sticking to that. We aren't bringing through our young talents as much as we should. We aren't playing entertaining football anymore. We aren't implementing the ideologies that Mourinho promised to bring in when he signed. We seem to have lost the plot completely.

I disagree that we've had a bad transfer policy even before Mourinho, but that's another discussion. It transcends above Emenalo. It's about the ethos and philosophy of the club. The people higher up need to decide what way we're going instead of sitting on the bench. Are we going to focus on attacking football? Or will we play reactive, Mourinho-like football, and just buy players that fit the system? Is that what we're going to stick by as a club? I'd rather us have a path that we've decided on and stick with that. We need to decide what we want as a club. Are we a team that'll use our talented academy? Or are we just using that as a profit centre? It's all very blurred right now, we have no direction as a club. It's weird because when Mourinho arrived he kept saying how this and that was the new ethos of the club - how we wanted to develop young players and play with a high press, slick attacking football. We're seeing NONE of that though. Nothing at all. The club just has no identity.

We need to get past the stage of letting a manager dictate the future and philosophy of the club. That needs to be set at a higher level.

He's actually fully lost the dressing room it seems like.

He's throwing most of the players under the bus now. This isn't working. We can't sell 20+ players, so he has to go.

Yeah, I think that's it for me. Finally, fully fledged member of Mourinho out now. You know what, if we were hovering around 10th/9th, I'd still give a vote of confidence but this is unprecedented and very atrocious. Just not good enough. We have a lot of good players under performing. It points to one man.

He shouldn't be going overboard in the first place haha. Can't give that to him. He's behaving now how he's expected to.

How does me saying that people are forgetting how bad Torres was for us even remotely mean I'm trying to be pretentious?

No, he could not. Wow, people really have some short term memories here.

Really? I know you loved Torres but come on. No way. People have really forgotten how bad this guy was for us.

If you're going to have a big mouth you have to back it up.

Can't believe Costa had the cheek to say his team were sleeping defensively when he misses such a big chance.

People are forgetting how bad Torres was when we were a decent team... Imagine him right now?

Cesc has played well since coming on. He's creating. Can't fault him for that.

I still maintain Cesc should've started.

I can't believe we didn't score there. Twice. Fuck sake.

Might as well have played Kenedy at LB, honestly. Azpi has been destroyed.

Yeah, I agree that he isn't anywhere near as ready at LB to face Mahrez, it was just a fantasy XI really.

Notice in my XI how I stuck RLC on his side in midfield. To deal with him we need athletic players on that side I feel.

It's not Cesc so much, I just want to see that midfield 3 in action. They all balance each other very, very well and this alone could bring the best out of all three - we know how good Cesc is when he's in top form. Kenedy is a very interesting project at LB IMO, I feel like he's athletic enough to cope with the speed Leicester play at on the counter but I also know that he's defensively not there and would probably get toyed with by Mahrez. I know it would never happen but I'd love to see this XI sometimes (maybe not today though). (P.S. don't diss the Brendan kush. It's very good.)

If only we beat Bournemouth last week... We'd actually only be 8 points off top four if we beat Leicester today as well. Shame.

Courtois Azpi - Zouma - JT - Kenedy Cesc - Matic - RLC Willian - Costa - Hazard Will never happen but oh well.

Surprised to see that people are still keeping JT out of their starting line up despite him probably being our best CB over the last few games he's played in.

Sturridge played as the furthest forward at Liverpool if I remember correctly. Seems like Pato took the Suarez role at Liverpool on more than anything.