Tomo

I never knew Christian was emergency fullback cover for Dortmund. In that case we should consider him a wingback option when we revert to 3atb, neither James nor Azpi are particularly natural fits in that position.

Timings key to the announcement if he is signing on for another year. Take the Terry departure announcements for example, when it was initially done in 15/16 fans lost their shit and eventually the club caved and gave him a new deal. A year later we were storming to the title without him playing so when the announcement was made fans were sad but there was absolutely no scope to be outraged over the decision at that point.

Idk, I have always rated Mount higher than Loftus Cheek although the latters form at the end of last season did give me some food for thought but in Lampard's high octane system I think Mount has the edge. Also if we can produce good squad players that will be just as good as producing a world class player in some ways, part of the CO92 was Butt and P.Neville, neither were top class but both knew their place and played their part.

It's a bit of a headache in coming season's if all the lads produce as expected, even more so if others pull a Tomori esque surprise on top.

But on the flip side that works both ways, the same sentence was said about the likes of Bakayoko, Gervinho, Keita, Bravo, Falcao and United version Alexis and the supposedly inevitable upturn in fortunes never came. I did naturally assume Pepe will come good but watching him last few weeks (and keeping a close eye on him) I'm not too sure now, he looks like a left footed version of Adama Traore, there's one thing struggling to adapt it's another when teenage debutants are looking genuinely world class by comparison.

The ideal is that he eventually turns more consistent performances as he grows into his prime alas out doing Willian. He certainly has the raw tools along with a decent attitude and I remember how hot and cold Mane and Sterling use to look and now look at them.

I can't say I watch the channel reguarly for obvious reasons so maybe I'm wrong but he's always seems quite decent for me (especially by the standards set by his colleagues) and I remember an interview he did with Cech around the time we won the CL which I thought was very good although probably helped both being keepers.

Shaka Hislop seems allright, he should look at jumping ship, I would say to a quality broadcast but less shit would be more appropriate.

17/18 was probably more down towards Willian having those two months of undroppable form and then being more suited to playing in the 352 Conte implemented compared to Pedro. Last season I'm not sure how he got more minutes because it seemed whenever it was a straight choice between one or the other for the right wing (ie when one wasn't injured or we weren't playing false 9) Pedro seemed to get the nod more often than Willy, case in point Europa final.

Did they? Conte and Sarri both picked Pedro when it was a set choice out of either (apart from that brief period in 2018 when Willy's form shot up to Hazard territory). Edit: @NikkiCFC has already covered this.

Looks like United have their version of Ty managing them...

I think Lampard would defiently pass on him as he wouldn't want to set Hudson Odoi back, only possibility will be if Callum god for bid has another long term injury next summer. I imagine if he's available on a loan deal Bayern will be all over that, if Madrid will let him go permanently can see United panic buying him on the basis of a top player being available and they are desperate to return to prior glorys.

I keep forgetting Tomori's eligible for England, it's always been stuck in my head that he's Canadian (which he like 1/3 is). Given the current options at CB there's actually a chance for him to secure a place early on for England like he has here, unfortunately Tammy has a lot tougher a task.

I don't think it's anywhere near as simple as going man to man and everything will be fine, we have a small team with a keeper who is hesitant to claim high balls, that combination is always going to cause issues zonal/man to man/whatever. Infact I think statically zonal marking actually has lower goal and chance concession rates than man to man (it's only when it goes wrong with zonal it gets more attention hence people assuming otherwise) so if that trend continues here switching to man to man will only make things worse. If we want to truly improve our set piece woes we have to work on not conceding them in the first place.

De Bruyne is a different situation as he was literally getting no minutes. Lukaku had the chance at the age of 20 to be immediate back up which would have yielded a lot of minutes.

Sitting DMs are a thing of the past, pretty much all the top teams have DLPs running that area now and Frank from early evidence appears to have identified Gilmour as Jorginho's eventual replacement.

And equally, the excuses and reasoning for bashing him for any little thing is entering the Rafa terrority.

But it wasn't just on this occasion, he left us at the age of 20 for the exact same reason.

Neither do I but say hypothetically that's the type of player he ends up he can still be a good as a squad player. United fans I know would have been more than happy for Rom to have remained in a lesser role, but he wasn't having that.

It's more than just who the defenders are but the whole positioning of the team. There seems to be a lot of options and avenues for our players to exploit playing out to the point not even Zouma is being totally exposed in that area.

I do like how natural we look playing out from the back and it was (alongside RLC development) the best thing Sarri did for us. Yes with such a high risk strategy we will occasionally cock up like Kepa did late on (and made amends) but in general we look very natural at it, compared to Arsenal for example who look lost at sea when playing out.

Spotted last season that Willian and Callum have good chemistry together.

We have a very big break in the fact Ajax don't have Frankie anymore.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GEnRu3AYQhY

I see the "we will be patient if youth play" is well and truly out of the window now the times come to actually put that into practice.