King Kante

So, we get the draw that should've been the FA Cup Final 1997.

It does and it doesn't. It does speak volumes that we don't have a go to man to score for us, but it equally shows TT's system allows the goals to be shared around. Either way, I was happy with Mount again against West Ham. He was probably our MotM which followed his MotM performance against Watford. Hopefully that will stop the haters/unconvinced thinking a rest is him being dropped.

Ok, so is this Rudi's replacement?

Is Lukaku clinical? Tbh, I do not really put him in that category, a good finisher, yes, but a clinical one doesn't have the kind of misses he has had in his career.

Playing him as a RF may work better in the attacking phase but in the defensive phase it would be even more disastrous than playing him as a CF as the RF in TT's system has to cover the RWB and thus press and get up and down more than the CF, something he is already struggling with. The principal problem with Lukaku isn't his technical issues (which are a problem) but that he is completely the wrong type of player for TT's system. The West Ham game was actually a very good case in point as we got one half without him, then one half with him. In the first half, the front three were pressing as a unit in a constant and consistent manner, as well as working together as a cohesive unit. This consequently meant West Ham were struggling to get out and when they did push up we were stretching the field to counterattack in a dangerous manner, which also meant they had to keep an extra body back. In the second half, the press disappeared which allowed West Ham to step up the field and start attacking us. Additionally, when when we did have a counter-attacking opportunity he was static/central which made the attacks easier to defend.

So, essentially Giroud.

@NikkiCFC this is what I was referring to in my post on the Lukaku thread.

Yeah, where is @Special Juanat? He came out to bat hard for Lukaku telling me that I was 'the Del Boy' of this forum and that I didn't 'know shite', whilst asking @NikkiCFC if he touched himself and had problems maintaining a relationship when they pointed out perfectly good points about Lukaku not doing anything impressive in Italy.

This is the problem of just looking at stats and why we have ended up with Lukaku. Drogba and Costa, even when not scoring, occupied 2 CB's which then gave room for the AM's and CM's to get goals. Lukaku on the other hand just stands and points. His hold up play is also nowhere near theirs' either.

Lukaku is 7/7 in the pecking order of attackers.

Stop it. Lukaku wasn't 'cold' this is his level as people warned. He was an absolute passenger without the ball was like having 10 men on the pitch once he came on.

Not sure if it is punishment. TT likes to rotate. Additionally, Mount needs to play in this one as with no Kante, he is our best player at creating turn overs in their third. Tbh, it was between CHO and Ziyech in this one for the LWF role and Ziyech did start on the bench at Watford. I am sure we'll see him start the next game.

I think, regardless of what he says, TT has also recognised that we're a better team without Lukaku and he needs to up his game and work rate off the ball to get back in.

Another game where we need to be careful. West Ham will put in 110% effort into this. Strongest team possible will be required: Mendy AC Silva Rudi James Jorgi Kante Alonso Mount Havertz CHO Some may argue about Mount over Ziyech but West Ham are going to kick us up in the air so I would take Mount in the front three as he hustles them more.

What is your solution with Chilwell out? Play CHO there? I ask because if we do then teams are just going to target CHO as whilst he is quick, his defending isn't great. Additionally, considering he was targeted, shouldn't Alonso get credit for dealing with it reasonably considering the pressure he was put under?

Alonso is a lot of peoples scapegoat. He gets criticism regardless of his performance or whether prior to his return he had been injured.

Not sure we can. Normally, there isn't a break clause. Even if we did send him back who do we get? Recall Gallagher? I can't see us signing anyone unless Chilwell is out for the season.

Just take the 3pts. Way to look at this is that we got away with a win, whilst playing second/third string CM and WB's; whilst we also has Silva out at CB. For me, this kind of makes up for the Burnley result as the two points dropped there have been made up here. Obviously, the performance wasn't great and we learned a few things i.e. Saul is not up to the demands of the PL at all and RLC, despite his recent form, is still in the CM4/5 category. At this point in time, we need to get people healthy so it is all about results over performances until then.

The thing that is most frustrating is that this was all very obvious before we signed him, so why we went out and did it is completely baffling. Lukaku has always been known as a technically limited footballer who does not have much of a work rate when it comes to pressing. What is happening should not be a surprise to anyone as it was obvious this would happen. All we can hope for now is that he bangs in enough against the lower quality teams like Watford tonight and is on the bench for the big games.

Could see it. AWB is a disaster going forward.

Apparently we compromised on contract length and he still hasn't signed. This looks like a wage/signing on fee issue. This is the problem when you have Kepa and Lukaku on £150k/£300k+ it sets the floor to negotiations.

Yeah, I wasn't saying that he was going to be as bad as Kepa, the point I was trying to make was during 2017-2018 we brought a lot of players who were bad fits for the league/squad and thus became square pegs pretty quickly. As @Magic Lampssays, it was pretty clear when in Italy he was doing well because of his physical advantages and the lower level there. This is also why he continued to underperform in the CL and would still go missing for Belgium when it mattered. For me, thinking he is going to adapt his game now is pretty futile. What we're seeing at the moment is the same sort of performances as he was putting in Utd l. Additionally, if you actually compare him to other CF's in Italy such as; Immobile, Zapata, Ibra, Murial etc, he didn't outperform any of them over his two year period on a minute to minute basis, whilst Giroud is currently doing the same sort of job he was on a minute to minute basis. For me, he is simply a CF who is of that quality level (Ibra at 38-40; not prime obviously) and it was absolute madness going for him as it means we now have to bench him in important games or completely rip up our formation and style to play to his strengths to try and get the best out of him. This essentially was why I was completely against his signing as where people saw a plug and play world class CF, I saw the same player (a good CF, but technically limited player) who would need the system here adapted to get the best out of him, which is detrimental for the other players' in the squad. This also goes double as, because he was so expensive, we cannot just write him off as a bad signing; this also happened with Kepa where he continued to play long after he should've done in the hope it could work. As I said, this was all fairly obvious, so how we end up in this position is incredibly frustrating as it is not as if we haven't been here before with buying players who aren't good fits for us.

I don't hate Lukaku, but I hate how we went out and brought him/how a number of people were telling all and sundry that he has developed in Italy and was a new player. That clearly wasn't the case (I suspect they got carried away by looking at stats and some YouTube videos) and in fact he was the same limited player as he was at Utd. For me personally, the Lukaku transfer had all the hallmarks of a Summer 2017/Kepa transfer i.e. an average player, who probably won't even fit the clubs squad profile being brought for a massive fee/wage that we will be lumbered with for years' as no one else will take him on when he fails. As I said, I don't hate him personally, however I just don't want him in the side as we are a better team without him. He does have his uses against the bottom feeders in the league, but apart from that we have no need for him.

Juve not qualifying for the CL is the least of their problems at the moment. They're currently under investigation for fraudulent receipts and money laundering through the amount of swap deals they've done. In particular, they presented these deals on the accounts that they presented investors and the stock markets. If found guilty they're going to be in massive trouble.

Slightly annoying result as we all knew what Utd were going to do and we allowed them to do it. However, I think the biggest issue was the lack of Harvetz. One thing that seems to be missed with Harvetz in the false 9 role is that he is both able to drag people around with his off the ball movement, yet he is tall/good enough for them to worry about him in the box from crosses (I think he isn't great in the air but he gets just about enough to make sure teams will not forget about him.) Anyway, it is clear that he wasn't ready as he didn't even get a few minutes. As a result, I am slightly amazed that Puli didn't start. In my opinion, TT fell slightly into the trap of not wanting to drop in form players (CHO and Ziyech) but equally wanted to give players minutes/starts (Werner.) Anyway, this game was one that was lost on an individual mistake (Jorginho) rather than a massive mistake in tactics (like City.) Personally, I always thought today was a bad match up for us as Utd love counter attack play and we were missing; Chilly, Kante, Kova and Havertz. When all is considered, the injures impacted us and, apart from the Werner>Puli decision, I don't think we did too much wrong, apart from the mistake from Jorgi.