Tomo

They scored from an unlucky slip and a half chance other than that couldn't get in the danger areas let alone score, the fact it ended 2-2 was not the defense fault (apart from Emerson for not kicking out despite Mount screaming at him too). Likewise with Norwich, we wasted a lot of good chances while Norwich created jack, had that ended 1-1 I wouldn't have blamed the defense even if one of them did a Varane Vs City. Leicester yes was a bit of a horror show, but the point being we should have killed them in the first half hour to which point they'd have played damage limitations and move on to the next one.

But there's also games like Arsenal home, Bournemouth home, West Ham home, Leicester home where any defensive mistakes would have been amusing sidenotes in comfortable victories had we killed the game off, those games alone should be an extra 8-9 ish points with our new signings. There's even games like Villa at home and Watford away where we blew them away in general play but the games ended up nail biters due to our wastefulness. Even some defensively chaotic games like Palace became that way in the first place due to us not finishing them off (we should have been 4 up before Zaha's strike). I don't argue we need defensive changes to ultimately challenge for the title (unless a best of a bad bunch season comes about), but with an attack that takes it's chances and a keeper like Onana in goal I think improving by 10 points is very much a realist aim and that's even assuming we don't sign any defenders, which I'm sure we will.

I seem to remember you equally dismissed our chances of finishing above Arsenal in the season just gone, but I digress. United conceded as many goals as us in the league last season as we did this, did what you suggest we should do now and prioritized the defense and while they did concede less goals, they still had to sign an attacker in January to even gain parity on their points haul from last season, and even that only happened because he had a major instant impact. Lack of consistent attacking threat has been just as big a problem all season, whenever Pulisic or CHO wasn't on form trying to break down the low block teams was becoming next to impossible, we really missed that standout magic Hazard gave us to grind these teams down (for example, the WHU home games this season and last were similar type of performances only last season Hazard danced through half the side to get that crucial breakthrough) and replacing that is every bit as crucial as any defensive reinforcement.

Not atall I praise when due and critisise when due as you well know.

Hardly it's not like I'm saying we're goung to turn the tie round. Stop trying to pigeonhole me!!!

If we can get a result on the night from 2 down that would be something solid to build on all things considered.

I disagree with that, with the backing he's got there absolutely has to be an upward trajectory, 75-85 points plus a strong CL showing (go out kicking and screaming). However winning the title is still a season too early (we will be getting in 5/6 new players asking them to immediately gel and match City/Pool's consistentcy level immediately is unrealistic), in many ways a slowish start will be better for us so to manage fan expectations, the run we had in the autumn last year led to fans getting ideas above the squad's capability (likewise with Sarri's start) and in my opinion contributed to the toxicity when the inevitable growing pains arrived.

Could argue Nuno due to maintaining Wolves' league position despite Europa destractions. However in general i agree, i wonder how many of the people laughing at his nomination were swearing blind last summer that they'd be happy with 10th if we saw youth and progressive football with a promising projected end product. We got those with a 4th place finish!

Still far behind Mount who went off twice with serious looking injuries only to start the next game.

Was last summer the most deceptive window of all time? I remember getting a bit envious as I thought there was loads of talent available just as we were banned (saw other comments saying the same) but almost all of them have flopped or at best severely underwhelmed, Militao, Mendy, Jovic, Haller, N Dombele, Pepe, Rodri, Cancelo.....

Tbh i wouldn't want to sign 2 LB's, especially when both will sign expecting to start. Furthermore as much as Alonso's flaws have prevented him truly nailing down a starting place, he's perfect as a horses for courses second choice. I think a mix of teams being cautious with their money added to Marina's valuation's will make selling them all tricky, i hope i'm wrong.

But we also need to be realistic. In this Covid world there's only so much even we can do in one go. Unless we somehow get rid of a lot of deadwood a LB and GK is probably as much as we can realistically expect all things considered (unless we skimp out on a CB somewhere).

Not for me, they're instant results based manager's who don't really look at the bigger picture (especially in Allegri's case), those methods can only be justified by getting results and big one's. Manager's like Lampard, Pochettino and even OGS you can offer a bit of leeway too as they try to build a sustainable squad and brand of football that will benefit the club even if they don't turn out to be good enough.

If we ever appoint a Simeone or Allegri it can only be justified with strong challenges for the big two every season at a minimum.

His skillset was something that team lacked and would have given us another dimension. Plus he actually had a good first season at City.

I'd prefer he came to us with a medal round his neck myself.

So to cut a long story short. He's average as a sweeper, which could be an issue at times when we play high lines (I did laugh at how badly he mistimed a couple of them on that video). He's okay at playing out, not Ederson but not a train wreck either. However his main strength's lie crucially in the areas we need it the most right now, in shot stopping and command of his area, which should see a vast decrease in set piece horrors and conceding the first and sometimes only shot on target. If that report is accurate all in all I'm sold, especially for that price. Only downside will be we will lose him for a month season after next to ACON, which makes finding a suitable back up pretty crucial.

Doesn't this kind of back up the point I've made that attack signings should be considered just as important as defense for us now if not more? United conceded as many goals last year as we have this, they prioritized their defense and while they did concede less goals they still ultimately needed an attacking signing in January to be able to even match their previous season's point's tally.

Last time they were in the PL Fulham came a lot closer to getting results against Spurs and Liverpool than they did Chelsea.

Part of the assesment of fullbacks are what they offer going forward so why can't that work both ways?

Parker was appointed as a PL manager before he managed a single game at pro level, nice try though!

There's no guarantee it would have worked that way either. He may have scored more than Morata but they could have been the 6th and 7th and home to Stoke, the 4th at Huddersfield and the 3rd Vs Southampton. Also Morata scored the winner against United, something which can be reasonably assumed Rom wouldn't have done given his big game record. Morata also had an excellent game at Anfield and played a huge part in the equalizer, something that Lukaku may not have done. Furthermore we were comfortably in the top 4 in January despite Morata's flaws, it wasn't the striker issue that meant we lost out (we actually upgraded that January and still collapsed). Regarding Conte, he's been backed properly at Inter and is still acting like a baby, even if we somehow delayed the meltdown that season it would have happened the next. In hindsight the board should have took the fan outrage on the chin and sacked him after the title.

I don't think any signing we made instead would have made me wish we signed Lukaku, the guy is an average player with the ego of a generational one, he would have butchered the dressing room morale.

When has a transfer story gone as far as this and not happened? From our perspective I can only think of two and that's Robinho and Lukaku. Thankfuck the latter didn't happen, although I still to this day maintain the former would have worked for us.

There's a reason Coutinho and Willian have ended up there, they should be in the dictionary next to inconsistent.