Tomo

Defensively and positionally he is non existant (Alonso's poor but he's Bosingwa level), the one thing he has over him is pace .Put it this way, in their minimul games in the EL/LC i think Zappa and Cabellero have performed better than him but yet we don't see any false positive reviews about them because most are happy with who's ahead of them. Don't mistake this for me being happy with Alonso, i was cursing his every movement tonight and i want LB as our first port of call this summer market, but if Emerson gets the run of games people want him to have, i personally believe he will surprise for all the wrong reasons.

On a lighter note, i told you Pedro was ahead in the pecking order

Because the alternative is even worse, he got shot of Willian from the lineup as soon as we got a striker in. That"s not a defense of him, the last few weeks has made me seriously reavalute my opinion on him and i'm starting to lean towards him leaving but any manager will pick Alonso until we have a better alternative.

What I mean is he got that second chance because of the stigma attached here that's it's not the managers fault when things go wrong. Compared to managers who have fucked up at other top six clubs and it basically ruined any chance of a career at CL/just short of CL level. For examples Moyes, Sherwood and Brendan, even a historical great like Van Gaal won't be touched by a big club now after United, had that been us all apart from probably Sherwood would have probably got another chance at this level. That what I mean by risk free job, even if they fuck up beyond all recognition potential future employers wouldn't hold it against them.

To be fair , if we judge on an away game Vs Tottenham Pulisic looked like prime Messi compared to even our best player in the 1-3 in November.

Of course managers will come. Jose and AVB fucked up, got sacked and walked into jobs with teams that finished above us on those seasons when the summer came along. The stigma created by the media about us has basically made this job a free hit for managers in terms of reputation risk.

The confusing thing is when i look at the squad namely the players that start i look and think who and how do we mentally collapse whenever we are in setbacks. The 15/16 squad were accused of similar but what has to be noted is i think only about 5 players remain from that squad so have we recruited badly (mentality wise) since or is it a club issue? I don't think the squad are mentally weak (you don't win what we have since the core players were assembled if that were the case) and i actually think that could be part of the problem on a week by week basis, they want every match to be the big match, a match a trophy is within distance, for all the other faults you can't take away the fact they almost always deliver under those pressure situation's (which shouldn't be underestimated, look at how a very talented Spurs squad crack under the same pressure). I don't think the players specifically are trouble makers either, not intentionally anyway i mean looking at our first eleven. Kepa, Jorginho, Kova and Higuain have just arrived, Rudiger, Luiz, Kante,and Azpi definitely don't fall into that category, Barkley seems determined to make it here, Hazard would have rage quit years ago if his attitude was a bad as myth portrayed and Pedro is a player who got to have the career he had mainly on attitude and application so i'd be amazed if he was a culprit. The only one's i look at out of regular starters and think maybe,are Alonso and Willian, and would those two alone be enough to sway a dressing room? There seems no obvious candidate looking at the second Xl with the possible exception of CHO. Seems to be deep rooted for some reason, Barca in 2008 Real (twice in a few years) and now United managed to solve similar issue's by appointing a club legend who got the club and had everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, should Sarri's position become untenable which looks a matter of time (which is a shame because i genuinely like what he's trying to do in terms of on the pitch but that's for another post) then i think it's time for us to do the same.

Ramires signed a new contract and left months later.

Left back has to be a priority in the summer, ten years ago i would have been able to suggest loads of options but i don't follow football outside the big 6 enough these days, someone in the mould of Robertsen at Liverpool would elevate our attacking play. I will be incandescent if we sign no LB this summer but as for right now we have to lump the fact Alonso will carry on playing because the alternative is worse, sadly.

The squad rotation was always the big question mark over him but if we do transition to his style fully it's probably not something that would bother us too much. We knew what we were getting when we hired Sarri. His type of managers always have a plan A and work on perfecting that, which is why his team's when perfected are a lot more consistent than the likes of a Carlo, Emery side who are more implusive and look to change a lot. The club need to make the decision, they need to be all in one Sarri's football accept the growing pains (they shouldn't be as bad as today) and hope he works out with more of his players or replace him, regardless of what we as fans want there can't be any in-between .

I did initially think we would have coped with the change better as we on paper have defenders more suited to a high line and more technical attackers than when AVB was here for example. The bizzare thing is the blueprint to what he wants to do is clear and in the spells it comes off we do look promising, even today we had that spell between the 4th goal and half time when we were the better side and created three very good chances (Pedro twice and Higuain), in the final that could be 60 minutes we have the better and we tuck away two big chances and win. I do like what he is trying to do, but at the same time we can't keep capitulating away from home like we have been, that's more a mentality thing which the manager has to take responsibility for.

It's a tough one to answer. In many ways no and I still believe the style he's trying to implement is the way we should be heading (which is a big reason as to why I would want Lamps and Jody in if he goes) and I do believe our problems are a lot more personal then structural but the same time the severity of the recent results can't be ignored, today and the Bournemouth and Arsenal games were complete initiations.

On Derby fans UK they have already started a thread about the possiblity of it happening.

If it comes to it, Lampard.

Atleast this nonsense spouted that Willian is an untouchable can finally stop.

They must all be instructed from higher up to feed these cliches, i refuse to believe so many 'footballing people' can be such simpletons. I'm not just talking the Jorginho/Kante debate just the general basicness in football talk on the TV overall, it's mindblowing.

Sorry i meant to say potentially 10 behind Liverpool.

Of Course he's going to say that. If he rules us out and we turn them over all off a sudden we are 5 points behind his side and 10 behind Liverpool. That's similar gaps City have recovered at a much later stage. Now i'm not saying we are in the title race (we're obviously not) but swap positions with City and we would probably be saying the same thing about them (how we shouldn't rule them out etc) so it's understandable why Pep is saying what he said in public.

Liverpool totally ballsed up the Suarez money, they did well with Coutinho though.

Morata has had two goes at Huddersfield and has failed to score on both occasions, admittedly one against the better version of themselves last season. As poor as they are can they are somewhat good defensively for the standard of a relegation battling side and it was just the type Morata was ineffective against.

Why can't players speak up if they disagree with something? If the manager at my work does something I believe to be wrong I have no hesitation speaking out. This notion that players have to be submissive choir boys is ridiculous.

Context! Lately we have been struggling badly at creating chances let alone scoring. The fear pre match would be Huddersfield would come here strangle the life out of the game and make it a serious struggle for us (which they did in this fixture last season), instead the opposite happened and we cut them open. I repeat, crisis far from over, but it was still a good performance and a baby step in the right direction.

You're completely twisting my words, again! Only 7 times before today have they conceded more than twice and only once (away to City) more than 3.

Huddersfield are where they are because their attack is the worst at this level for generations, defensively they are pretty decent for the average relegation battlers, most of their defeats are usually only by 1 goal. Now just to be clear i am by no means saying crisis over but given our struggle with scoring and creating of late i would say smashing 5 past a side that don't normally ship more than 2 would be an excellent afternoons work for City and Liverpool let alone us.

I'm guessing we won't be seeing you again until the next dropped points now.