Tomo

I very much doubt it, it's pretty clear now that Frank is a possession based manager.

I would prefer a 442 diamond if we went down this route, furthermore with Gilmour as the DLP he can drop between the two CB's for any phases of play that require it.

Giroud's growing influence and Tammy's return to fitness gives us scope to try it, however there's a couple of issues. 1. We'll need consistency (going forward) from our fullbacks so it will only work if Alonso has another hot streak. 2. Once again brings Michy back in the picture.

Isn't he injured? Likewise with Reece.

Purely because it's City and we will need our best pressing set up to unsettle them defensively (and protect our backline).

It should be the same lineup that twatted Everton, not only would that be fair merit Villa is a similar type of game in terms of oppo set up so in that sense makes sense to be as you were. For City they'll need to be changes, I'd go for Gilmour, Kova and Kante midfield with Mount on the LW, then against Leicester in the cup give games to the likes that haven't started yet like Tomori, Jorginho. Impossible to say after that, if we get past Leicester we have full weekend to midweek turnover from the restart all the way till the end so rotation will be needed like never before.

Still need to properly check him over ourselves, if he for example has a problem that would point to an early Torres esque decline RB won't exactly be in a rush to point that out themselves and risk losing £50m.

We've literally gone from our longest ever run without Chelsea games and are now heading into our longest relentless run without a real break from one. Even with the winter schedule there's usually atleast one free midweek somewhere to mentally reset and go again. Utter madness.

Wow I never knew that. Would Alisson and Fabinho have beaten that record or has the Watford defeat seen to that?

I disagree and I think he's been fine all things considered. After returning from injury he was on a goal contribution a month, including a winning assist in the CL a minute after he came on. Admittedly in the winter months he had a rut but in January he exploded back into form and was our best attacker in that period.

We will have a massive advantage in terms of match fitness aswell (as Bundi would have been long finished) which makes the first leg score even more annoying. If it was 2-0 we may have stood half a chance because of that but 3 is most probably too much.

That kind of strengthens what i'm saying. It was Liverpool saying no that's presented us with this opportunity, not qualification to CL.

I think the fact Werner is about to sign with no guarantee of CL pretty much destroys the notion we need CL to attract top talent, that's if Ziyech, Jorgi, Kova and Kante hasn't done that already. I disagree with your last line, i think there's mitigatng circumstances this season (unless we completely collapse) however i'd agree that next time round with the backing he appears to be getting top 4 is minimum requirement.

There's not a snowball in hells chance Gilmour won't be here.

Thing is we seem to be going in a different direction in that position. Lampard only tends to play Jorgi and Gilmour there which suggests like Sarri he wants a dictator as opposed to a traditional DM. Unless we plan to mould him into a CB pursuing him makes no sense.

I think it will be more down to which club in that hypothetical scenario came in as opposed to whether we have CL. If it was us vs United or even City i'd be confident we could convince him of the bigger picture, if Real or Barca come in we'd be in trouble even if we win the CL.

We should only consider selling Barkley if/when Gallagher is ready, possibly not even then. Football is going to have a hectic schedule for the 2/3 years with a fair chunk of players getting next to no time off, we need all the squad depth we can get, even more than the norm.

I very much doubt that, our best windows since 2014 have been without CL (Kova, Kante, Jorgi all gave up CL football for us) and if it was a deal breaker for Werner we wouldn't have got this far in negotiations already. Also wasn't Ziyech made official ages ago?

Horses for courses. When you have the old guard in or around their prime and are appointed as a win now manager ofcourse you will be judged on results, add that to being appointed because of CL pedigree and not only failing to get to a semi (with a club who made that stage 5 of the last 6 season's) but also go out in the meek manners we did to Inter and especially United, ofcourse that won't reflect well even if you win the league. Not to mention in 2011 we needed a complete rebuild and Carlo has no track record in that aspect of management. That said Lampard isn't safe no matter what and nor should he be (last thing we want is a Wenger 11-18 situation and Roman would never let that happen anyway) but his ground's for dismissal will be the polar opposite to Carlo's, infact (for the first 2-3 years at least) he's probably getting judged more for how well he's developing our future stars than he is for results (if Roman wanted to try and squeeze out another trophy or two at all costs we'd have appointed Allegri or handed Mou a third crack).

We can sign him (or any player) whenever we want, the transfer window means you can now register them to play.

I wouldn't be so sure, Remy was accused of gang rape just after he arrived in England but people forgot pretty quickly.

While i don't deny he's good when on song my problem with him is (just like Marcos) he's far too streaky in his form fluctuations, and not only that, when he's bad he's very bad, you may aswell be playing with 10 men (a Leicester fan on Foxes Talk gave him a 2 one match then a 1 the next, the former rating was in itself the lowest rating he ever gave anyone). If we splash out on a new LB it has to be a sure fire next level upgrade on Alonso.

I think a lot of the stick comes down to the fact he's been a regular starter. If he was used as more a squad/tactical option then it would be a different ball game as we couldn't really ask for more than what he does bring.

In fairness I'd love the 15-17 version of Danny Rose here, his injuries and Walker being sold was the beginning of Tottenham's fall.

I disagree re Kova playing there, his passing isn't of the elite standard to cope like it is with those two. I remember he once played that role in the Europa (was one of the home knockout ties) and he played the team into trouble about 4 times in the first half hour. I think we're quite lucky to have 2 deep lying midfielders and we should keep it that way, remember all the panic over Jorgi burning out during the Sarri season?