Madmax

Wow, was that little shit really laughing at Mourinho?

Except I never said he should've started them all, Iike LDN pointed out. One would've sufficed, which you agree with. I'm not bothered about other teams and what they do; I don't know how that's relevant. The game was won long before RLC came on. Is bringing him on earlier somehow equivalent to not putting out a good side? I agree completely and have been saying so for a while. But it's got to START sometime. Integration happens step by step .. 15 mins here, an occasional start in the cup there etc. Are you honestly confident we'll suddenly start say 2016-17 with 3 academy produced players as genuine squad members when they haven't tasted any serious action with the team earlier? Giving them meaningful time leads to what you talk about - developing a winning attitude, fostering team ethic etc. Watching the senior team from the sidelines does not. Chalobah was pointed out by Mourinho as being ready for the team at the beginning of last season yet where is he now? If the player is ready, you give him chances. You don't let that readiness suffer through the innumerable unknowns that can ruin their progress. What happens if Mourinho is sacked by that time? What happens if these poor, meaningless loans suck out all the motivation from these players and we end up losing them? Will we blame the players for it? Actually, we will because Mourinho can do no wrong. Read some of the posts in the Bertrand thread. No let's play the established players and still win fuck all like in 2013-14.

Everyone gets all that and nobody's asking him to start Baker or Boga in place of Willian; nobody's asking for Christensen and Ake to start against Man City. What is puzzling is when he doesn't play anyone from Brown, Baker, Boga or Solanke 48 hours after OT at Shrewsbury, when he sings paeans about RLC only to give him 8 minutes in a dead rubber. That's not down to managerial stability, that's down to managerial will.

Mata and Hazard score headers on the same weekend. The end is nigh.

Wait, three touches to get it out of your feet isn't normal for world class players?

I just hope Sterling gets me some FL points. He's been a passenger so far.

Tbf, I think he is assigned to every London team's home games. At least he's stopped going on and on about 'tempo' and 'pace' this season. Btw, were there really boos during the first half yesterday? He made a deal out of it.

Meh, Arsenal 2-0 was routine and predictable. This though : Premier League folklore.

It's no surprise though, this forum is incredibly reactionary. Now Costa's just a poacher, during his 'drought' he was just someone who looks to pick fights with CBs, eariler in the season he was Drogba, Greaves and Osgood rolled into one, etc.

What's the point of Mikel here? Need to break them down, need an extra runner like Rambo.

Nice picture.

Absolutely zero need for Mikel here. I'd love to see Ramires and Oscar in a three with Matic.

He laid his cards bare in this regard with the team selection and the subs for the Shrewsbury game. In a way it's good because it helped me (completely) temper expectations after I'd let myself get carried away with his comments about Baker, Solanke, Brown etc in preseason.

You know CatMan, you speak too much for an Inter fan.

His genius knows no limits; the man even made Mikel score.

No Luiz?

Except it was O'Shea who kicked him not once but twice before he paid back in kind and the elbow was nothing if not completely incidental to the need to jump in order to head a ball. Two occasions for which anyone not named Diego Costa would not get any grief. He thrives on confrontation; he becomes half the striker he is without it. You personally may not like this facet of his game but trying to pin his bad performance on it is not criticism.

Amazing (not) how this is only thrown about when he doesn't score. Not after Everton (Coleman), not after Liverpool (Skrtel); only after Sunderland and Newcastle.

There's hope yet as long as Mangala's back.

AKA the 'Put your FM hats on and come up with a mix of the yoof and the no-hopers' fixture.

Think I speak for all of the forum when I say COME ON EVERTON.

When does Ivanovic pick up a suspension? Is that the only way he'll be ... erm, rested?

Well that was hilariously predictable. All that talk about invincibles and of course we fall to two shit goals. Mikel misses an open net --> they go up the other end --> Cahill reverts to being a Bolton player --> goal. Hazard hits the post --> loses the ball --> Cahill reverts to being a Bolton player again --> goal.