Tomo

Surely, surely we have 3rd in our grasp?

It's actually incredible how much we've rode out losing Hazard without the chance to replace. Suarez, Bale, CR7 leaving Pool, Spurs and United respectively left massive holes but we used losing him to improve collectively. When was the last time a team lost their best player but improved despite that? Last example i can think of is Henry at Arsenal.

Was actually having a similar debate with a United fan who was going on at me for losing this fixture, i said i wouldn't take that performance for an extra point, why? Because in the grand scheme of things it does nothing for United, a point higher in the table but in terms of competing with Liverpool properly it's actually a step back. Whereas us by comparison went toe to toe with them and despite losing didn't look out of place atall, 0 points but a big step forward in terms of properly competing with Liverpool in the long run.

Lautaro Martinez will be a good option but I could imagine Conte going to the boardroom holding them at gunpoint demanding they reject any offer we make.

We were better than Liverpool, we lost because we couldn't finish our dinner (and VAR).

I think it's more a case of his qualities being more complementary to the players around him. Last two years we only had one reliable scorer which was Hazard and even he wasn't troubling Auba, Aguero, Salah, Kane as far as the golden boot was concerned which meant Willians lack of end product was highlighted more as we could have really done with better numbers from him. This year it's a completely different ball game. Tammy, Mount and Odoi are getting the goals and assists he lacks while he brings the game management qualities that those boys are lacking right now, so in turn that means we can focus on appreciating Willians strengths as opposed to bemoaning his end product. Its a really mutually beneficial relationship between him and the academy lads. With the numbers the three above are producing it doesn't matter too much if Willian doesn't score again this season, in that sense it's back to the days of Costa/Hazard/Oscar/better version Pedro where anything he offers in terms of goals are a bonus because we have enough of them elsewhere, thankfully.

For all the talk (correctly) about how badly United are run one thing they do get right is they put an extra year option on players contracts.

He's probably our only untouchable at the minute with the outfielders. Anyone else we can lose and the team performance by in large won't be too highly affected (even Kante as has shown) but I don't think we will be able to control games the way we have lately even against the likes of Newcastle if Jorginho wasn't playing. Hopefully Gilmour is being moulded into an alternative because "Sarri's pet" is just as crucial to Lampard's brand of football, if not more so.

Remember being so jealous when they got him aswell, genuinely believed he had Thierry Henry esque potential.

I know things can change quickly in football but right now Spurs and United look so unbelievably bad that our only threat to top 4 seems to be Leicester doing a poundland 2016 season and grabbing a top 4 place.

On another note were the Longstaff brothers really made to look that good against United or were the media hying them due to the romance of them playing together? I thought they were both absolutely terrible today.

Unless they are all happy to rotate in perfect harmony we could end up in a position where we have to sacrifice some youth because too many are coming through

Defensively especially transition it is still very concerning. Newcastle looked very dangerous in transition. Don't think we will commit so high up against better teams than this, while on the ball we we're practically playing 2-5-3/2-3-5. Yeah there was a couple of hairy looking moments on paper but we gambled on Newcastle not having the quality or speed of thought to take advantage, which they didn't.

The pleasing thing about recently is we've not only conceded two goals in four games but given very little in terms of clear chances also. We're starting to control games a lot better now compared to the basketball type matches we saw early on. Odoi gets MOTM but mentions have to go to Kovacic and Pulisic, completely changed the dynamic of the game after coming on. The fact we can have an injury crisis yet still bring on two players of that calibre speaks volumes as to how strong our squad is now. I think Christian should be starting at Ajax on Tuesday as the type of open game we will likely see will suit his ability's. Full value for the win, would have been a catastrophy if Newcastle got a result, they did absolutely nothing going forward and despite playing defensively they still allowed about 5 clear chances, absolutely hopeless side.

If we're going to play that game Brighton gave City a good game (4-0 was very flattering to City) and battered Spurs by an even bigger score yet we comfortably kept them out. At the end of the day we only have the Brighton game to go on (so far) to access that midfield three and it's very much so far so good.

The whole idea is to dominate the game alas not having to do much defending. We played this exact same midfield vs Brighton and we won with a clean sheet.

I swear we're the only club on the planet who don't have players willing to fight for their place. It feels like the only non starter who hasn't allegedly or otherwise complained about lack of starts this season is Caballero.

Little different. Lampard's genuinely concerned for Kante's welfare whereas Deschamps wants us to drop our top scorer to accomodate one of his player's.

Ten years time they'll be no celebrations due to VAR turning everyone insanely paranoid.

Mount has form on this score, he 'hushed' the Elland Road crowd after scoring their in the playoffs. While i do agree with you in principal i can't say i wouldn't love it if he did something similar at Anfield or WHL (assuming we go on to win that is).

Given Michy will be a sub in the world cup, wouldn't it be more useful for Martinez if he's also playing that role here?

Our squad depth has low-key become really strong this season. Our benches this term have been full of game changing options (as Lampard alluded to himself in a recent match) even though we're still yet to have a fully fit squad available. Think this is the first time since 2009/2010 we have had such a deep squad in terms of quality, recent years it's always been about 15 first team players and the rest scratch players to make up the numbers in domestic cup games (like Kenedy and ageing Ferreira).

I do as a rule but I will enjoy watching our lads get in the England side one by one, especially when they cause media and opposition fans to have meltdowns after replacing their favourites (it's already starting with Mount getting in ahead of Maddison).

Everyone says he improved so much but I don't see it, he was already very good. The only reason people (some fans and especially pundits) are starting to acknowledge his class is because Lampard done the very awkward thing of playing him and Kante in the exact same positions Sarri did, meaning it's easier to say he improved as opposed to admit Sarri was right all along.

Wonder if Reece James will be played in CM for England? He will certainly be a massive upgrade on the current options. Only question mark will be if he can maintain a high level switching between RB for club and CM for country.