Tomo

If Partey signs we'll have to ask a player use to playing in a 2 man midfield for counter attacking sides to playing in a 3 man midfield for possession based sides. Sound familiar?

But if he's our first choice and there's clear encouragement we can get him at some point (which there is as we've heard as much from Declan himself) doesn't it make sense to wait and take the short term hit instead of blocking a squad place? We only need to look as recently back as January to know the potential shortfalls of panicking on a plan B, imagine where we'd be right now had we panicked and signed Gedson, Bergwijn and Dembele in January?

Quite ironic KDB and Salah being brought up given they were let go due to the same lack of patience being shown to our current young crop.

He's lucky not to have one already.

Two weeks ago you branded him "Hudson Invisible" (link below) but now there's rumours he's about to leave all of a sudden you rate him

And I can flip that around by saying Rudi taking a squad place there could take a squad place and block potential moves for top class CB's that become available. You can't operate on such if, buts and maybes, especially a ridiculously low percentage one.

Christensen has had a decent start to this season even factoring in the red against Liverpool, he seems to be a lot more proactive with his tackiling and interceptions, Brighton away he was especially good. He also had a really positive game vs City at the back end of last season to add to that. Time will tell if this is a false dawn or a genuine breakthrough but i'm really not understanding why he's getting so much flack at present.

Play the team that clawed it back at The Hawthorns with the obvious exception of goalkeeper and maybe Ben in for Azpi. Would have said rest Mount and give Ross a start but that option is off the table now and the two 8's midfield is the best way to approach this especially with Kova in such a rut.

Are we counting community shields now? Does this mean our double under Carlo is going to be upgraded to a treble?

And who would have seen this coming when he was 20/21/22? Some haven't learned their lesson and are writing off some of our current players in that age group (who have shown quality), the one's that are deserve seeing KDB at City.

Why? If he's as shit as you say what's the harm?

Haven't seen the first half but in the second yet again Arsenal are getting cut open at will and being saved from humiliation by Leno. They'll probably shithouse this on pens and we'll be getting told Frank should be doing things like Arteta.

Depends on who. I reckon there's some (Ziyech especially) that could do with the match practice.

The bants if Simeone shithouses Klopp again.

It shows how fucked up the new system of seeding is that us, City and United in pot 2 have better odds of avoiding giants than Liverpool in pot 1.

Done a draw simulator. Would be happy with this group.

I agree with all of that apart from goal threat, i think he's overrated on that regard. Through like November 2018 to the end of 2019 he scored like 3 goals which all came against Malmö or Grimsby. Judging by his interview on the Villa channel it sounds like it was his choice to go for more regular action which makes me feel a little less annoyed about this. Sounds like he got to the Phil Neville point (when he left United to go to Everton) where taking a step down for regular action trumped being a squad player in one of the top teams, so good luck to him.

That's what i mean, we'll avoid the two standout teams.

If we get two minnows from pot 3 and 4 i wouldn't actually mind Bayern again, not because i think we'll beat them but because it means we'll avoid them aswell as Liverpool in the RO16 and i think any other team are beatable in a one off tie if we bring our A game, even Real. I don't expect to win it but i just want to atleast get to the quarters, it's been too long.

The fitness 'excuse' isn't an excuse and we aren't the only team suffering from it. Why do you think many managers are playing close to their best Xl's in early league cup rounds? To build match fitness! United conceded 5 should have been 10 in their opening two games. City conceded 5 at home to Leicester, for context Leicester scored 4 away goals Vs the entire top 8 last season. Chelsea conceded 3 in a half Vs WBA. Spurs needed part time minnows to go down to 9 men until they recover the game. PSG lost their first two league games. Wolves lose 4-0 to West Ham. Heck Bayern, yes Bayern, lost 4-1 to Hoffenheim and it could and should have been more. That's the best team in Europe. Not to mention Dortmund lost tamely at Augsburg the very same weekend. Liverpool conceding 3 to a newly promoted team and a further 2 to a lower league team. Find me one time, just one, in the last ten years where that many crazy/unexpected things happened within 3 weeks. There's many things Lampard can be questioned for right now, but if lack of fitness due to a broken pre season is down to "bad coaching" then the managers of all those teams above deserve the same heat.

That's utter horseshit, sorry but it is. He has a lot less "blind followers" than what Conte, AVB, RDM and especially Mourinho had.