Tomo

Are they? They look quite similar to me.

Is he reliable?

We saw what happened before we put that policy on. We ended up with a squad full of 30 plus stagnant players who we couldn't shift (even if they gave one last extreme push at the end to get us Munich) and had no space to freshen up the squad and when we did ended up signing Torres. It's too big a risk having players that age on big long contracts because if they suddenly turn shit overnight like most of our 2010 double winners did were fucked. For 1 Modric there's 10 Alexis and Malouda's.

I worry if he goes to Spurs, he would be an ideal replacement for Dembele who he's in a similar mould to (ie world class right up until the final move).

Spurs in the cup. For all the faults you can lay you at the squad, one thing no one can take from them is they show up when a trophy is on the line.

If it's all game time motivated for Callum, then his England call up would have worked in our favour.

I disagree, Arsenal and Liverpool were known as boring counter attacking sides pre Wenger and Rodgers respectively and managed to change their image within two years, United went the other way when Fergie left. In Fact we were changing our style with promising signs ahead for a couple of years until Mourinho changed us back to the old model again. In many ways the hard bits done now, even if we sack Sarri he will leave a team comfortable in possession and building up play which a similar style of manager could apply to the side and fill the blanks Maurizio couldn't..

If he's being offered the job here they won't have a choice, even the FA aren't as heartless to deny him the opportunity of a lifetime, furthermore can't you combine being a club manager with being an assistant in the National set up? McLaren did.

I am actually a bit torn regarding Sarri at the minute, i actually like what he's trying to do system wise and especially like how comfortable we are in possession and the ease we play out of danger under pressure (which were big weaknesses even in our title winning sides) but at the same time the mentality this season is awful, the first blow in a game especially away from home and we collapse, Bournemouth and Everton i thought we were excellent in every sense bar finishing in the first half but we concede early in the second and lose the plot, even at City the opening few minutes we forced a couple of mistakes and looked like we were going to give it a good shot but we concede then another 3 follow in the next 20. What is crucial beyond any Sarri in or out argument is we carry on with the good stuff he's implemented and build from that, none of this back to reactive pragmatism because that's part of what created this problem in the first place.

Called up to the England squad.

Well it does, we beat Barca In 2012 but it doesn't change the fact they battered us pretty much the whole tie bar about ten minutes. The first half was very good outside of scoring. That's not an excuse for losing in the end btw, we are weaker mentally than any point for years and that's down to the manager.

Not really an apt comparison. A better one would be Eto'o for his first few months here, off the pace but still evident why he has the record he did.

I agree with that apart from delivery, that's actually been a big weakness of his especially this season. Some of his crosses today would have made Ivanovic wince.

It was truly unprecedented, i can't ever see such an underperformance compared to squad quality happening again.

Yeah there seems to be a lot of rewritting of history for previous bad times to make the current days look worse, but any use of 15/16 as a favorable comparison really takes the piss, probably the biggest underperformance ever seen in football all things considered, especially in modern times.

We could have got relegated with record low points this season and Conte's sacking would still have been completely justified.

It's called context, i personally believe we will get more out of RLC today bringing him on to run at tired legs for half an hour. I feel (backed up by previous evidence) two 90 minute games in 72 hours will be a bit too much for him at this stage whereas i think he will cause Everton problems coming on fresh when they tire.

If shit goes sideways, he'll come on. Play your strongest team from the start. Then what if (what is likely going by past evidence) Ruben tanks or worse gets injured? We lose what could be a key weapon of the bench who could come on and stretch the game with his burst of acceleration against tired legs.

It's a factor with RLC especially. While he's improved a lot tactically he still isn't that great fitness wise. I think a start today would have seen him tank early or worse see his injury flare again. Although that said i wouldn't have played Barkley, he doesn't have the mental strength to cope with the abuse he'll get here.

Catch 22, he's not to suited to our LCM but i fear if we don't sign him Spurs will to fill the gap left by Dembele and he would be ace in that type of role, possibly world class.

Arsenal have 5 away games, i'd back Championship teams to get results against Arsenal at home, their away form in the last two seasons has been relegation form.

Now I'm a little more concerned because your assesment of players tends to be spot on more often than not. He does from what I see seem to have the raw talent and if Sarri stays he will have a manager who will put all the effort in to improve him, so hopefully over time we will see some sort of positive results like we have with RLC who in my opinion has been a huge benefactor of Sarri's arrival here.

He's a very rough diamond and will probably take a bit of time to settle but certainly has the potential to be moulded into a to player with the right coaching. Reminds me a bit of Mane at Southampton, blows hot and cold but could (as Mane did) develop into a weapon of a player in the hands of the right coach.

The league's the one tournament more minutes should have been afforded but ultimately he's likely going to end the season on around 25 appearances including a cup final, a semi at Wembley against Spurs while also being used in circumstances we are chasing (Wolves, Watford) or trying to close out games (Newcastle, Kiev at home to an extent). The big disappointment for me is he didn't get the early round Europa and Carabao games, but beyond that I think his game time has been largely positive and we would have all took 25 ish appearances in the season for Callum had we been offered that in summer.

How often has he had just the last ten minutes of games? And how many of them have been with the game already won? Most of his sub appearances have been a good chunk of minutes and with the game far from over. Apart from Huddersfield at home all his minutes have been quite important in terms of either length or chasing/holding a scoreline. I agree he should have played more but he has still been played in pretty important circumstances.