Tomo

I was relatively lenient on Jose when he played Ivan through that dark spell because as shit as he became Rahman was even worse (although you could argue it was his fault a decent alternative wasn't there in the first place). Lampard however has no excuse if he persits with Azpi, he has one of the best young defenders on the planet ready to come in.

Attack wise i feel this has been our second worst half after Leicester 2nd, thankfully we are defying our current reputation of wasting chances and have been clinical. Just need to see it now, a cautious possession second half because Sheffield are very dangerous if you let the game become a battle.

Can't speak for everyone else but for me it's this. 1. I think the diamond is the way to go for this one. 2. He needs to be managed carefully, he's 20 and will need time, starting him week in week out will be counterproductive, even someone like Bernardo was eased in to the PL.

We need to try and aim for a run in the CL this year, winning it is probably too big an ask this early but we need a memorable run sooner rather than later. We laugh at Arsenal for not winning a knockout game for so long but we're low-key only a few years behind them (Demba Ba Vs PSG was the last time we won a CL knockout tie).

Also I'm praying matchday 3 is a Tuesday because i'm flying on the Wednesday while the games are on I think every CL year bar one since we became a pot 1 side we've been at The Bridge first so hopefully the trend continues for both our sakes.

Didn't get past the VWR for either, likewise Brighton and all of August's games.

Now I've got a nervous wait for the release of the fixtures, due to travel commitments if matchday 1 isn't at The Bridge the only game i'll be able to attend before December is Macclesfield/Grimsby.

Would have preferred a cakewalk group but atleast we avoided all the best teams in the other pots (Real, Dortmund, Leti, Lyon and Leipzig). Next to no serious travelling aswell which is a bonus.

Not talking the fans, I'm talking the result.

Would love Inter. Conte is due some of the Karma Jose got first time back at The Bridge (for the way he acted at the end).

I think in general squad players being regular starters in our squad has held us back for a while, then in 2017 we made it worse by adding more squad player's to go with the one's we already had. Not only that but when our top player's decline to the level of squad player ability we tend to take years to act accordingly (Ivan and the old guard), hopefully the same mistake isn't made with Azpi. To truly push forward and challenge again we need to make top quality signing's while pushing the squad player's back to appropriate roles, with the player's we now have coming through the system that should be a lot easier as we have less spaces to fill.

Luiz in CM was okay when we're playing strictly on the counter (City, Paris, Spurs), however games we were expected/wanted/had to take the initiative (Roma, Leti) he was a horrible choice.

I think this is the game to bring out the diamond with the combination of Sheffield's 3atb and the injury to Pedro. Kepa, Azpi, Rudiger, Zouma, Emerson, Jorginho, Kovacic, Mount, Barkley, Giroud, Tammy.

It's quite the opposite i feel, around 2013 it peaked with almost every non top 6/7 side playing low block in games vs the big boys but now we are getting those type of managers whittled out. No clubs are pushing the Big Sam or Pulis panic button any more and even Stoke are sacking managers because of their style of play. More and more teams going toe to toe with the big boys, apart from Palace and Newcastle i don't think we will face many if any pure spoiler tactics all season.

Its seems the club and the fanbase have all universally learned their lesson from the De Bruyne and Salah situations and are firmly pulling in the same direction with producing the best pathway for these set of youngsters. I think the early contract renewals are in part to the fact if they have screamers of a season they could demand ridiculous amounts early on (like what Rashford did at United) whereas this way by the time it gets to that point they will be that little bit older and already be firmly established in the first team.

It's becoming even worse than I feared. Its not rectifying clear and obvious errors (like Azpi getting tripped up, what should have been a Cahill red card at OT) and worse changing correct decisions (Zouma's goal). Not only that it's punishing ball to hands where a players arm is stuck to their body (meaning no real advantage with it touching the hand) aswell as getting all particular about whether the tiniest part of a players body is offside. It's been completely counter productive so far.

Willian being untouchable with managers is the biggest urban myth I've ever heard. For both Conte and Sarri Hazard and Pedro were the first choice wingers and early evidence suggests he won't be starting all too often under Lampard either.

Does that mean in about 20 years time Frank will be in the Sky Sports studio having lost his mojo criticisising Mount (who's just got the Chelsea job) for his team selection?

I would say he's perfect for a squad role, he's inconsistent but does have natural quality which usually will mean a burst of good form once or twice a season. He can also play in a variety of shapes and positions. If he's happy to play such a role we should keep him, there's always a game or two a season which he will be a match winner (Saints, Malmo) or match saviour (United).

I would bet anything most if not all of those tweets were posted as bait. We should stop giving these people a platform.

They have definitely stagnanted, i called it last year even when they were getting results. The notion that's it's a sign of a great team to grind out results is a myth, well one off games ok but if you are doing it for an extended period you're always on borrowed time and the results will eventually dry up, happened to us through 2015 and to an extent the 17/18 season, United through 2018 and now Spurs. I didn't expect them to fall this badly but it's beenclear for about a year that Spurs are on a downward spiral, not adequately replacing Walker and Rose (the latter is still there but he's been crap since his long lay off) while neglecting a declined midfield (until this summer) is the start of where it all went wrong. 2017 i felt it was only a matter of time before they won the league, thankgod that never materialised.

While i agree that's probably the best way to use both that will also lead to more problem's defensively. I feel we will need better individual defenders before we can get away with doing that.

Maybe but they as it stands are competiting for 1 position. Moving Kante to sitting DM just to have both on at the same time just won't work.

If he's happy to stick around as a squad player I'd keep him. It's easy to say cash in but there's not many even good squad player's available in the £30-40m range these days as we found out in summer 2017 and while Ross isn't good enough to be a regular starter he's certainly good enough for the B team (we will need a competitive back up lineup if we're to compete with Pep's City).