Tomo

I would say his drop off in 2017 was the start of his decline, it got the point i was starting to wonder if he was doing it on purpose.

There's a hell of a lot of re writing history with Klopp's early time at Liverpool. His first season he oversaw statically their worse season for about half a century and he didn't sort out the defensive woes for over two years giving the likes of Lovren, Moreno and the two chuckle brother in goal chance after chance before finally replacing them in the market, as recently as last season some Liverpool fans turned against Klopp for it. Up until the back end of last season, there was absolutely no signs whatsoever that Klopp was going to have Liverpool anywhere near the level they currently are.

Funny thing is, Morata is better than the current day Costa, that's why Simeone turned to the former and plays him ahead of the latter. That's how bad Costa has turned, he's been off form for two and a half years, think it's safe to say he's finished as a top class striker.

Four games away from the end of the league and we are 4 points of last seasons total, you would think/hope we will at the very worst match it. Add to the fact this season has been a massive culture shift in the club, most of the first team didn't arrive till 1 week before the league started and we have had Europa distractions all season (added to a league cup final run has meant a brutal schedule which has lead to high match turnover basically all season). Right now i think Sarri has should get the benefit of the doubt given what I've listed above. That said there's some aspects he needs a big improvement on. His tactics on big and even 2nd tier away games, our results have not been good enough and the way we capitulate at times is beyond pale, his big game away results at Napoli were pretty good iirc so he needs to translate that to here because we can't have anymore humiliations. His squad management was a big concern of mine 2 months ago but recently he seems to have improved a lot on that score, only Azpi is really getting "flogged" to the level we feared our entire starting Xl would be at this stage, hopefully this is a sign he's learning to better utilize his squad. All in all i want to see where giving him a second season alongside a proper pre season will take us, if we get to October and still no progress or worse we go backwards then okay bye bye, we won't be winning the league next season so it's worth a roll of the dice.

With the exception of Azpi Sarri does seem to be rotating a lot better than he did in the winter period or at Napoli. Hopefully he keeps it up next season if he's here.

Arsenal have a poor record at The Mestalla (been knocked out of Europe there twice before) so hopefully history will repeat itself.

Injured last i heard.

To further add, based on what RLC has said about Sarri's management of him any youngster coming in the squad next season being told by him to improve this and that if they want a shot here will know he means it and is not paying them and the fans lip service (ala Jose/KDB).

Yeah Sarri is the only one who has really focused on improving RLC. Mourinho, Conte and even Roy just shoehorned him in places they believed hid his weaknesses the best. Earlier in the season Sarri was calling Ruben over in game at every opportunity to give him instructions and it looks like his persistence is starting to seriously pay off, something Loftus has mentioned himself. I think this is a perfect time to get Mount and James in the squad even if the ban gets overturned, I think we need to spend all our budget on serious quality at ST and LB and with Azpi declining and the LCM spot being open, this is the perfect chance for both.

It's quite funny that Sarri has done what everyone's wanted for months and it's being swept under carpet, possibly because only 1 of the 3 wanted trio actually performed today.

I'm certain we would do a lot better infact had we got yesterdays Barca at The Bridge last season I'm certain we would have won comfortably. Despite ultimately losing by three goals we were quite unlucky against them last year (we didn't take our chances and they were clinical when they got there's). United yesterday did literally nothing in attack, it was probably the worse Barca have played since pre Pep and the worst I've ever seen Messi yet they still coasted to victory.

We have only really so far had two players want to leave and both times they were to Madrid (a fate even United regularly suffer). All our players (and AVB/Mourinho) who went to a rival went because we deemed them dispensable, not the other way round.

I don't think from an offensive view point he played that well yesterday but was very disciplined going the other way which is probably why his game times further increased of late.

He's made many beautiful passes that the strikers didn't finish. Chances created should be a better way to judge creativity than assists, for example Jorginho created a beautiful chance for Odoi vs Brighton on Wednesday and has for Higuain a few times lately all of which squanderered whereas RLC has got 2 assists this week purely by being the last man to pass the ball to Hazard before he scored his wonder solo goals. A lot of the time assists are very flattering, chances created and key passes give a better barometer of how creative players are.

I'd go as far as saying that's his best achievement for us to date. First few months he was constantly calling Ruben back in game to give instructions and it looks like it's paying off.

Biggest plus of the season for me, he's streets ahead of the player that returned from Palace (who i gave up on truth be told).

For all the criticism Sarri gets (some of it justified) no one can argue about how much better we are in possession. We use to be vaunlrable against any form of commited pressing (even our title winning sides) but now we play our way out of trouble so effortlessly.

It's a shame Christensen's dropped as i think he's our best CB currently but beyond that good team, will be interesting to see how Higs does with these players.

I would say he looks like Lincoln Burrows from Prison break more than Sarri.

Pedro was the starter in the Conte title season for the most part.

It certainly wouldn't be a bad thing should the worst happen and we play Europa again, all going well in the three comps that would be a good 20-25 appearances guaranteed straight away before even factoring anything else in (Azpi's decline the main one).

He's a decent asset when on a run of form like he is at the moment, his problem however is he seems to have one prolonged spell a season where he goes on a destructive goal drought and his play drops to bang average levels, he cost Arsenal the title in 2016 because of that.

Given how hit and miss all our rivals are aswell as us it won't take much for all of a sudden momentum to swing in our favour. A win at West Ham followed up by a positive result at Anfield (which I think we will actually get) and all off a sudden momentum's with us and we are looking good for 4th if not 3rd.

Still don't see RLC as a starter, he's done allright tonight but is a shadow of the player he is when he comes off the bench. We do seem to be playing a lot faster more often in recent weeks which is good to see.