Tomo

Probably fake but

Now I'm worried, now you've given up on them a title winning run of form is coming But I'm all seriousness we've all been there, you should see my comments on AVB :shudder:

It was the more the point of emphasising that players can still look good statically but still be on the way down more than a direct comparison. If we end up getting Eriksen (which we won't) I hope I'm wrong but I can't remember many top performances from him really since that nightmare game Spurs ended their Stamford Bridge hoodoo.

Its only because he's most recent the go to example of a formerly top class player turning to complete shit, before that Torres was the one mentioned. Either way it will be a risk (all be it a relitevely cheap one) to say his performances are because he wants to leave Spurs, and furthermore even if it's as straightforward as that do we really want that type of player setting an example to our young guys? Hazard badly wanted to leave last season but instead of sulking gave us his best season yet, even Hudson Odoi (who a fair portion of the fanbase has already marked down as a bad attitude diva) still have his all during the period he by all accounts badly wanted to go.

Constructive critisism is fine, however there's one certain person on here that's so agenda ridden and unobjective he can't even bring himself to praise Frank for the Spurs game.

Even if he's still producing alright numbers doesn't nessesereiley mean he hasn't declined. In 12/13 Lampard and Rooney put in solid numbers but it was clear to anyone who watched them they were well past it. If I'm correct 14m a year is about 350k a week, that's just too far ahead of our highest paid player for the risk we're taking. If he doesn't recover from his recent injury's we'd be left with a crap player inflating our wage bill and negotiations with not only new players but contract extensions to current ones will be an absolute nightmare (for example imagine the leverage Tammy will then have if he outperforms him). As utterly outrageous as Drinkwaters wage is, it's not removed from our overall structure. I was happy to take a 6 month loan for Cavani with the wages subsidised, however the money needed to have outmuscle Atletico's offer is simply too much.

Wages. By the sounds of it Cavani is getting a two and a half year deal worth €14m a year. Would be absolutely mental to offer that to a 33 year old. If he flops we will fuck up our wage structure every bit as badly as United have with Alexis. Eriksen is exactly the type of player we should be avoiding at all costs. He is past his sell by date and unmotivated. He has Alexis at United MK2 written all over him.

It's already annoying me thinking of it, it's getting to the point I wouldn't blame these guys if they said fuck this and asked to leave. Analogy I can give is it's like the yummy mummies who want a real life baby doll but don't want to deal with the piss and shit.

Of course they would, we've attracted Kante, Jorgi, Kova and manager wise Conte and Sarri without CL. If you're referring to the true tier one elite then that would be the case whether we're in the CL or not.

Oscar's problem was that he stalled, after a promising 18 months he didn't kick on when he got to the age he needed to start showing more consistency. An Oscar who furfilled his promise would probably still be in the team today.

He's a 20 year old lad playing in a major league for the first time in his career, carrying an injury for months and playing on (even fecking Hazard was below par when he played injured). If we want these youth to get bleed you need to accept them blowing hot and cold (they all will for the next few years with the exception of James).

That's funny because I've just looked up the table at this stage of the season in previous years dating back to 14/15 and 40 points for us in those season's at the same stage would have us in the top 6 (a position almost everyone universally agreed would be acceptable under the circumstances) and all but once firmly in the race for top four, but please do carry on....

Well I was one who had doubts but I always saw enough to make me stay open minded, I would never dream of dishing out the abuse that's been handed to Mount/Tammy/Callum. Unfortunately this is predictable, I'll give it four games after his return until this thread is beyond toxic.

I've just had a look at your posting history and you've posted more in the last week than you did during the entirety of our winning run.

Im worried about him when he returns. With an injury like his we won't be seeing him anywhere near his best for quite some time which will put his a target on his back for abuse.

Point proven! You can have a fortunate decision to for you and still deserve to win, for example we were robbed of two penalties against Inter Milan in the CL in 2010 but we were still outplayed by Inter and fully deserved to go out. We may have got a bit lucky with that Promes decision in Ajax (but we've also had shitty decisions to against us in games like Azpi disallowed goal against Liverpool, but that doesn't suit the narrative I guess) but the point is we went away to a teams stadium who have been playing the football we're trying to adopt for the most part of their entire history and outplayed at their own game. Critisizing recent performances is fair game, even saying you feel he's won't be the right man to take us forward isn't exactly an outrageous opinion to have. However the bottom line is, you are claiming there's been next to nothing positive or encouraging about the season whatsoever, which is (quite frankly) agenda driven horseshit.

As are people with agendas. If you think Lampard is not the man to take us forward fair enough (and ideally bring forward a thought provoking analysis as to why which quite frankly is the least I thought you'd be doing since you feel so strongly about it), but you've been so unobjective you can't even bring yourself to praise the Ajax win.

We all signed up for this, we are transfering between ageing players and academy players. We will out football Ajax in Amsterdam one week and lose to a team we shouldn't the next (paraphrasing). It's par for the course. We are I think 7 points below what we were this time last season and 3 behind what we were with the same fixtures, that's decent going when you consider Hazard has gone and Rudiger has been out most of the season. And yes there's some decisions he needs to stop making but there's also been cases of rectifying mistakes pretty quickly. For example, no more of the 100mph stuff we saw in the opening against Leicester which left us knackered at the end, soon as he realised he screwed up at Arsenal he changed things and they couldn't get a sniff. And yes I do believe there are signs of encouragement despite the struggles of late, here are some bullet points as to why I think so (I will probably template this as I feel it will be needed a few more times this season). - He's had us winning three big away games (Ajax, Arsenal, Spurs) after more than two years not winning a single one, and ALL three of them were in a lot part down to his tactics/adjustment's. You could even say four at a push by including this very good Wolves team that scalp the top six as a hobby. - We went toe to toe with two of the best sides in PL history. Liverpool had to park the bus to escape the Bridge with three points, this was finished article Liverpool vs young players and a manager five games into top flight football. We lost the games due to them being more experienced and clinical but the fact we actually went toe to toe with them and competed at this stage was outstanding. - When it's come off it's been really good. Watford away especially was an absolute delight to watch. - He has improved players. Tomori looked like he was finding his level in the Championship until Frank got hold of him, Kova looks a different player this season, Pulisic has started producing numbers that he wasn't really known for, Tammy and Mount are better all round players, Willian is probably having his best season with the club. - We are vastly underperforming our XG rates at both ends, which as God frustrating as it is currently, is a promising indication things will get better. XG is as accurate a foreshadower of things to come as it's possible to get. Am I happy with everything he's done? No, I'm particularly vocal at my irritation of the Jorgi/Kova/Mount midfield being broke up prematurely (which in my opinion had cost us atleast 7 points) and i do expect evolvement year on year (less and less of the naiveity we can sometimes see) but all things considered (transfer embargo, losing Hazard, trying to rebuild a core with academy players, all in sundry thinking we'd be lucky to finish top half) he's doing a fine job and I've seen more than enough encouragement there's a potential top coach there.

In fairness that's a good point made, you would never see Pep draw 2-2 after leading with an extra man.

Who you would demand is sacked within months .

Maybe, but the point is if Kante didn't slip we would have very likely cruised to the most comfortable win of the season. I'm not using it as an excuse myself, just saying if you want to play what ifs then it's only fair it works both ways, no?

Your narrative was "if Leno didn't make the mistake", conviently you didn't factor if, buts and maybe's in when we lost points due to a mistake the other night. And it wasn't "like the Mourinho days", soon as we made that change we were the only team in it, if that happened in reverse you'd be banging on about how amazing Arsenal were and how superior they are.

https://mobile.twitter.com/OllieGlanvill/status/1220266718129467392

I think Jason is more referring to the fact that you spin a negative on almost anything. How many times after a victory is your thought is to hypothetically change the match scenario's so it makes us lose (ala the game at The Emirates)?

Critisism is fine, but being slaughtered when they actually have good games (Odoi Vs Arsenal, Mount Vs Spurs two examples) is ridiculous and vindicates why we often get slaughtered as a fanbase externally, not even Madrid fans would turn on homegrown youth products so quickly, it's ridiculous.