Tomo

I wish Lukaku was playing. Not only is he a big game bottler he wouldn't bother pressing us which would have helped our buildup play, Rashford will not give us a moments peace which could spell trouble if we are as sloppy as we were in the 1st half in Germany.

If it's a straight swap with Eriksen i'm not too worried. People are overestimating Spurs, a run to the CL final has masked the fact they have massively stagnated as a team, the first half of the season they were scraping undeserved wins constantly and in the second half of the season it caught up with them big time. However Eriksen to United is not particularly good news as he gives them the creativity they lack.

Apart from Real 2014 or Inter 2010 no one out of the teams that have knocked a Pep side out have done it with a top defensive performance. They either beat him by attacking his side (All three defeats with City, Barca 2015 and isolating the more "system" players in the team) or have god as the 12th man (Chelsea 2012, Leti 2016). The best way to defend a Pep side is cut of the supply lines to the attack because (as we found out under Conte in THAT game) basing your whole plan on stopping them once they get it to the attack doesn't work, they will grind you down. Ofcourse a fair few times the former method will backfire and City will evade press and pick you off but other times it will work a treat and you give them a serious game.

The two years leading up to us signing him he was very much a better player than Matic. The latter was awful in 15/16 (even by the standards our squad set that season) and was the weak link of our 16/17 title team and his spot was unanimously the one position we all agreed we needed new blood in. You can never get excited with signing a player like Drinkwater but I was relitevely content (not with the fee and wages but I tried to put that to one side) as on paper he was a good fit for Conte's 343 as he had a proven relationship with Kante, was defensively sound, knew how to play a 2 man midfield and was good at playing long key passes on the transition. He's very much been a waste of money given what's happening with him now but I don't think he was particularly shit on the pitch when he played under Conte and the comments made on this thread back at those times seem to back it up as most seemed happy enough with him.

I have never really classed that team as particularly defensive despite an excellent defensive record. In a hypothetical head to head clash that team would have for sure had a solid plan against them going the other way like I alluded too. It's more the teams that would have sat back and hoped without a serious plan to hurt them in attack that would have been sitting ducks against them or any Pep side (ala Mous second Chelsea, Mancini's City, Atletico although they somehow survived the semi in 2016 despite being toyed with at The Allianz).

By the sounds of it he's doing the exact same thing he did to us and rage quitting because he actually has to fight for his place instead of having it handed to him. It was one of the many reasons i was happy to see him leave and fundamentally didn't want him back under any circumstances, he thinks far too highly of himself and unlike a Zlatan or CR7 doesn't have the talent nor the attitude to back it up.

That's not true, the way to beating Pep sides is to have a plan hurting them going the other way, whenever teams sit back against him and solely focus on stopping his teams they mentally and physically wear you down to the point you're seeing stars (he repeatedly did that to Mou's Real in Classico's). It's no coincidence that Klopp is the manager with the best record against Pep while the pragmatic gaffers have wretched head to head records with The Spaniard.

I disagree, when we've played retreating football (Conte's second season, Jose/Hiddink season) Pedro was a borderline non entity, it's combination play with attackers playing close to eachother (Sarriball, Conte's first season) which gets the best out of him. Pedro's a player for when the going's good that's why he tends to get the nod when things are looking rosy and Willian gets it when it's not and individual magic is needed more.

IIRC him and Hazard tore United apart there in 15/16 but DDG had one of those nothing gets past me days.

While Lampard will be giving youth a chance I highly doubt he will go with three of the front four being so young, especially away at Old Trafford. I imagine Giroud will get the nod in this one.

The very main reason we have done poorly in Europe post the old guard era is because upto last season we couldn't cope against any form of commited pressing which would in turn lead to us being strangled out of games against elite opposition and feeding on absolute scraps. Even the likes of Roma were coming to Stamford Bridge and overwhelming us due to that. As I've said before I've never been Willian's biggest fan but if I had to entail a list of reasons as to why we've been poor in the CL since winning it, he wouldn't even be the tip of the iceberg.

The big positive of pre season is we dont look like we will struggle for goals, even today against a good CL regular we created chances at will. However defense is a big issue, it looks like there's something structurally wrong which won't just be fixed with Rudiger and Kante back, if it's a weakness in Frank's coaching I hope he gets a defensive coach in sooner or later because our games this week have looked worryingly Brendan Rodgers esque.

I've never been that big a fan of Willian even when he was all the range within the fanbase but now opinion of him is going well too far the other way (on the Shed End someone even criticised for taking his entitled holiday which is just ridiculous). He will be here one more year two absolute max, for all his flaws he's given the club a good service so I don't really have a problem with giving him his favourite number as a thanks while working out who deserves it long term. However I do hope he remains as a bench player like he was for Sarri and Conte unless he strikes up excellent chemistry with Pulisic or Callum.

I think in hindsight that window was a lot worse than 2015 and 2007. 2015 we didn't have a shit season because we missed out on Stones and Pogba, it's because the squad was physically and mentally exhausted, not even Messi would have pulled us out of that mess. We still managed to sign a top backup keeper and a winger who was part of the greatest team of all time. I think the "terror" of that window was overexaggarated a bit by the Stones/Papy debarcle. 2007 was a poor window but ultimately it was a bunch of freebies we then made money on. 2017 however I think had a direct correlation to how the season went plus we spent almost £200m on players bar Rudi that flopped, any more like that could have set us back years.

I would say all the games bar the Irish ones were decent tests in their own right. Fontale and Salzburg are in their season, Barca is Barca and Reading away could well end up as a cup fixture.

I know it's only pre season but if it's a sign of things to come we won't be struggling for goals as badly as people predict. I think Lampard is deciding to replace Hazard with an attacking collective and equal responsibility (as opposed to playing everything through one player as great as he was). We won't have a 30 goal season from anyone but we could get 10 goals out of 7 players which will go a long way to making up for a lack of an Auba or a Kane.

I'm thinking/hoping AC's form at the end of last season is a trajectory back to what we saw at the start under Conte (he was incredible in my opinion, made it look so easy) while i'm hoping the club see Ethan as a long term CB (for me he has elite potential in CB but will amount to nothing more than good in midfield). So with that in mind i'd prefer a prime CB.

CAM's the one position i'm not too fussed about, i feel Ruben and Mount deserve the opportunity to make the spot their own in the coming years. The only player i'm really bothered about and see as a missed chance is Pepe, the rest of the big transfers would have either never choose us over the clubs they went to (De Jong, Rodri, Greiamann, Jovic) or have blocked our talent long term (Dybala, AWB, De Ligt).

Looking back on this thread while he did play people seemed quite happy with him for the first six months, so saying he's been shit was stretching the truth a bit, waste of a signing absolutely but he did allright with his minutes for a while. He doesn't fit the system now and should either be 4th choice for cup games or shipped out but on paper he was a decent fit in Conte's 343, I was quite happy with the signing at the time for that reason (not so much the price and wage but I tried to ignore that) as I personally felt he was better than post 2014 Matic.

The amount of times I've heard that in recent years with Arsenal. Ozil was suppose to take them up a level, then it was Sanchez, then it was Cech, then it was Mustafi (lol), then it was Lacazette, then it was PEA , then it was changing managers, now it's Pepe. Arsenal won't challenge again for years because they don't have the mindset as a club (and a transformation in mentality takes a very long time), Giroud and Cech have both alluded to it in interviews this summer by pointing out the sheer differences in the dressing rooms at Arsenal and Chelsea.

We couldn't, could we? On a more serious note will he even be able to get out of Arsenal anytime soon? I know they have been a selling club in the past but that's only when players contracts have ran down, as shown with the Cesc and Alexis situations especially, they can dig their heels in with the best of them when they want/need. I reckon the earliest Pepe will be allowed to leave will be when his contract has two years left, to which he will be 27, not exactly old I guess but still won't give him a long term run at an elite club.

Tbh apart from the 13 game winning run and about a month after Christensen's introduction for Luiz i don't particularly think we were that great defensively under Conte (we went on our longest run without a clean sheet in 2 decades under him shortly after that run). The only time ive felt comfortable with our defense in the Hazard, Azpi era was the second half of Mou's first season back.

No, but it doesnt make them a pub team either.

They got to the semi final the year before.

CLs sides = pub sides in modern day ?