Tomo

The decision to bring him in permanently has been justified already, imagine the shit we'd be in right now with Kante's injury woes had we not.

Im not saying he isn't talented or doesn't deserve his place in the squad , however when he did play against top level opposition it was clear that the week by week consistency is a work in progress. From what I've seen of RJ, i honestly believe he can slot in and play to that type of level from the off, like Wan Bissaka did at Palace.

I think this season should be as follows when assessing Frank's performance. Top 4 or more = overachieving Challenging for top 4 = par for the course Finishing 6th with mid 60s points = below par but not a disaster given the circumstances. Anything less = massive underachievement I do think this narrative people are saying that it's okay if we finish 10th aslong as Mount and James play 40 games beyond ridiculous. Firstly because it's subconsciously patronising them, even at this stage they are a lot better than happy clapping with the likes of Watford in mid table and secondly it's not like we are promoting 17/18 year olds without any senior expierence, "the academy 8" all have about 300 appearances between them and they're coming into a group of serial winners. We should be looking at a top four challenge.

Can't speak for anyone else but for me that's not true on either level, however i do think he's a generational talent and a better option compared to current Azpi (who's rapidly declining) especially in this type of system. Wigan fans believe he's the best player to ever wear their shirt which given they were a midtable PL side for the best part of a decade while performing the odd deep cup run in that period (which includes getting to two cup finals and winning one) is seriously no mean feet at 18. I'm not delusional enough to believe his inclusion alone will turn our defense into a Jose 1.0 esque backline, however i think we will see improvements at the back and especially going forward.

Thing is i actually think Michy could be a 20 a season striker. The problem that comes with Michy isn't goals it's the fact that his overall game (both technically and tactically) further than 10 yards from goal is so unbelievably bad that 20 or even 30 goal season can't make up for those flaws. The Norwich replay under Conte in the FA Cup summed him up in a nutshell, scored a well taken goal but was also the reason we couldn't sustain any attacking momentum.

Weirdly im looking forward to this. The whole world including 95% of our fanbase are expecting us to get hammered, how many times have we been in that situation and actually got hammered? Barely if ever, most recent examples our cup finals last season.

Not really sure where the argument we used so many youngster's is coming from. We used two, United used one (yes AWB cost a bomb but he's still quite young and inexperienced) and actually their overall starting lineup was younger (although Azpi and Pedro likely shot our average age up). There's many reasons we lost 4-0 on Sunday but starting Mount and Tammy wasn't one of them.

Yet it keeps happening to him, managers who all see the game differently and (most likely) have never even meet have all come to the exact same conclusion. There's only so many times the conspiracy card can be pulled.

I really hope he's as mentally strong as people say he is because Mourinho's made him an easy target for the media and opposition fans now. Got to love the logic though, constantly slated for playing it safe in these games now slated for doing the total opposite.

Really looking forward to his return, i think he's the generational type talent that will slot in seemlessly. Mount, Pulisic and Odoi are talents but there be a lot of teething with them before they get to permanent starter quality, i feel Reece is that quality now and i actually think he would have prevented the 2nd and maybe even 3rd goal at Old Trafford.

I think he means if we get found completely not guilty.

He knows his stuff in general (obviously) but his comments on Mount proves he's learned absolutely nothing from the biggest blunder of his career. With Lampard's appointment we aren't here for a quick fix, we are trying to build the next generation while playing a fluent expressive style of play, we will have to take the punches and ride it out.

I see this "i will take the rough times aslong as the manager plays youth" stance is over the minute it becomes real

This is harder to take than City. Why? Because at City we were bolax and got what we deserved, here we were genuinely the better side (by a distance) for 65 minutes then were sucker punched due to sheer naivety.

He's always had the flaws we saw today, it's just previously we were so desperate to see Cahill dropped we ignored them.

The commentator said Auba is starting the new season like the ended the last, don't see Christensen at SJP sticking him in his pocket.

The stupid thing is he shouldn't even have had to explain that, anyone with even basic football understanding could have said the same thing almost word for word. I wonder if those around him went conveniently silent afterwards.

On paper maybe but as a collective unit they declined sharply last season, a run to the CL final has masked over a spectacular collapse and even with the new arrivals look a shadow of their 2017 selves. They had relegation form domestically from end of February onwards last season, that won't be rectified overnight.

Whether he is or not ain't the point. For most of pre season Mount has been playing with the first choice side while Ross was on with the scratch team, so it will be quite the 180 from Lampard if Barkley starts.

Seems most people think Barkley will start but I'm fairly sure it's Mason getting the nod.

Villa Park being our bogey ground is a thing of the past.

No way are Spurs title contenders, not quite sure where the hype is coming from with them, should they lose Eriksen in the next couple of weeks I think they have a huge battle to even retain top four.

I guess we will see but I personally think he's chosen the worst league possible. The German League would have been the most suitable league for him in my opinion.

The pitch there is perfect for City's slick game, probably more so than The Ethiad.