Tomo

Everton i'll give but it's really annoying me Arsenal/Arteta being used as a favorable comparison. They've been rubbish under him despite the FA Cup.

I'm not saying definitely, i'm saying there's no guarantee. People (you included IIRC) were desperate to see Emerson under Sarri because he "couldn't be worse than Alonso", and he, well, was!

I'm very skeptical about going for defensive players from Atletico, Simeone's system has made Stefan Savic and Kieran Trippier look world class. Infact apart from Courtois has any GK/defender/defensive minded midfielder been even half as good away from Simeone as with?

Maybe because believe it or not he may actually be the better option, like when Emerson and Baba were being beautified because they weren't Alonso and Ivanovic respectively then when they got their games it turned out they were worse. I mean lets be honest if Fik didn't have that spell last September we wouldn't be blinking at him being 4th choice as most had him down as a squad player at best anyway. Furthermore if Tomori does fall into that category (of being everybit as flawed as AC) i'm glad he's being kept well away from the team, last thing i want to see is another one of our own treated and spoke about the way Mount is.

It's infuriating that's he's still an untouchable at this point, he's at the stage now where he should be having his game time managed.

And people seem to forget Tomori was also making a lot of silly mistakes before being dropped and it was only a matter of time before they led to goals, and lets not pretend patience would have been shown to him by supporters either.

Maybe we were dominated by BHA but how many games last season did that happen in reverse? Apparently only the result mattered then. The fact that Palace created all those chances at OT with 20% possession proves my point, why would they refuse to (counter) attack a side when they had so much success vs a side with a better defensive record that also finished above us a mere fortnight before?

I see we've found our new scapegoat now Alonso's out of the team.

They may be pragmatic but the second they get the ball they look at getting at you quickly with the pace they have up front, we've had a lot of trouble with that in recent years (at Selhurst Park last season we looked vulnerable every time they did it). So it may be small sample size but it encouraging we managed to completely nullify that threat and hopefully the Silva/Mendy axis can keep that up. Regarding our recent record against them, you're right we do seem to be avoiding the troubles our rivals get against them in regards to results but they usually make it hard for us and trouble us on the counter.

Or maybe, just maybe, Palace "didn't attack" because we didn't let them? I mean think about this Palace recently went to Old Trafford scored 3 and could have scored 8, they saw us ship three to West Brom the previous week, their strength on the counter is also a weakness for us, you really think they would look at those things combined and think "nah ain't going to bother attacking today what's the point"? Not to mention they've won more big games away to the big six in recent years than the big six sides themselves, we limited a very dangerous and pacey counter attacking side to absolute scraps.

According to rumours he was recommended to Sarri by Pepe Reina.

The most damming thing now is the obvious/comical errors are creeping in, his one saving grace last season was for all the shots he tamely conceded he didn't make many if any Karius esque cock up's, this season he's doing it in his sleep. That suggests we've got our answer on whether the added competition would wake him up, it's not only failed to do that it's made him even worse.

They play out from the back but beyond that they (Arsenal) a very defensive counter side.

https://mobile.twitter.com/charles_watts/status/1317552142106898433. Arteta actually used Willian as a false 9

Still beats the Piazon esque career in the loan army he was destined for. Not really as straight forward as that, United chased Sancho all summer but that doesn't mean they have no faith in Greenwood. Tammy looks like he can at the very least be a good option for a squad at PL level, which again is more than was looking likely before, he was pretty pants at Swansea so much so he had to take another drop down a level. But got more top performances out of him than any of his predecessors. And what season has Kova had better than last on the individual level? The only debatable one would be his last season at Inter.

Tomori looked like he was finding his level as a Championship player pre Frank. Tammy's all round game developed a lot last season. Kova and Willian had the best season's of their careers. Early signs are Chilwell is going up a level under his management although too early to make a definitive judgement. Mount depends on what your preference is, he's turned him into a better all rounder but he has lost a lot of the creativity he had at Vitese/youth level. And finally, as you say, Pulisic, his talent has always been obvious but at Dortmund and his first couple of months with us he was widely inconsistent and would often totally ghost games. Lampard has not only got a level of consistentcy out of him that we will thought would take atleast a season minimum, but has got him to a Hazard level which was beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

I'd agree there's some concerns tactically but he's done quite well developing players on an individual basis.

The two best CB's realistically available last summer were probably Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake and they've hardly tightened City up, have they?

But at what cost? All our attacking players bar at a push Werner would look completely average playing that football, it would be an utterly ludicrous waste of talent.

I don't disagree i'm more arguing the narrative that Pochettino's Spurs success was a clear obvious thing from the get go, it wasn't.

Greizman was an anomaly, pretty much every flair player that's played under Simeone regressed to horrendous levels (Lemar, Correa,Felix, Gelson, Carrasco). Say what you want about Lampard's overall management but he's already above Simeone on that (developing attacking players) regard through Pulisic alone.

Pochettino's first season he conceded one less goal than us last season. Also the second season they didn't win in their first 5 games (which included cocking up a 2 goal lead to Stoke at home) and narrowly won their 6th due to a late winner vs Sunderland. And on this occasion, he didn't have a previous blueprint of success which according to some is the be all and end all when a manager is struggling a bit.

My eyes are bleeding here, we've just signed three of the best attacking players in the game at what they do, an attacking fullback and you want to appoint defensive managers like Simeone and Pochettino soon after If you want Lampard out atleast suggest a manager who will actually suit the players will have, Simeone with Havertz especially will make Mou/KDB look like a match made in heaven.

Would this be the same Pochettino that conceded 53 goals in his first season at Spurs?

I can't wait to see the back of Kepa and I blamed him for most of the defensive issues in general last season but he made three pretty decent saves today.