Tomo

Hazard single handedly dragged us over the line in 2015 while all the other attackers were playing like championship footballers, if that's not stepping up then nothing is.

He would be a shit wingback, there's a reason Conte played everyone but him there.

I know we need more but it's still a starting point to what he wants to do, i would say being able to keep possession at this early stage is a positive, how bad were we against high pressing teams under Conte and especially Jose? Now with almost the same players we are playing out comfortably even against City and Liverpool. He is basically changing the whole playing culture at this club with a broken pre season alongside it, if we are deep into next season with no to little signs of progress then we can panic but he in my opinion he's doing enough to earn the time to build.

I have basically given an answer to that above.

We have got the ball retention bit right for the most part, the way we hold the ball under pressure at times is delightful very little of the panic hoofing under Conte and Jose. I don't even think we are that bad defensively given the circumstances, usually at this stage of an attacking managers tenure the defense looks really bad whereas i think we have been allright with a few bad times, we are light years ahead of Klopp and Pep's defences at the same stage put it that way. The bits that need big work still are the speed of play and chances created, many times this season I've been screaming speed up at the TV/inside the stadium, there's almost been a 10/11 esque lack of urgency chasing results at times and chances goes without saying, we just simply aren't creating enough and that's down to poor decision making and to tie in with my last point lack of speed of play.. Sarri in my opinion deserves a chance to sort the second paragraph out because in my opinion he's done very well with what i mentioned in the first. When you are struggling for results in the first season under a manager the one question you need to ask is "can i see his plan and what he's trying to do?" and the answer with Sarri is yes.

I love JT but i hope he never becomes manager here.

Slight exaggeration

That position is the complete opposite of what Mount is about, his game is something of a Lamps (timing of runs), Oscar (intellegent pressing) and KDB (vision) mix (style wise may i stress, he's obviously not at that level yet and may never be). If we are looking from within for a Jorginho back up the most suitable player is Billy Gilmour.

Why would we? We absolutely dominated the first half were comfortable in the second, Bournemouth created next to nowt and their keeper was MOTM. It wasn't a 10/10 performance but not close to as bad as you're suggesting.

FA Cup semi

We were last time we had a semi draw.

Even back then his intense way of managing was not long term, at the time i thought it was because he was young and wanted the European tour but with further hindsight it's clear it was a flaw of his even at his best. The general footy fan mainly assumed he would have turned 07/08 around because he was Mourinho, but looking back now signs of a meltdown were brewing. Inter the season after he left was assumed as a effect of missing Mourinho, in hindsight that was a typical Jose season three he just jumped ship before his name got attached to it. His intense ways physically and more importantly mentally knacker players out, that's why his teams always peak in the first half of season two, because in that period the perfect storm of his methods being fully ingrained and it being too early to be burned out by them combine.

He may go to AC because of the prestige and resources but i can't see his pride allowing him to take any of the others. It will be top level or nothing and the only top level team that i think may go there are Portugal, we may not see him again for a very long time!!

I swear only we could defend our best player and have fellow supporters accusing us of putting him before the club.

I meant playing the Jorginho role haha

Where would he even go now? With us he was able to hide behind the player power stigma but no club will be that gullible again. No big club would touch him and he has too big an ego to do a Benitez and take a job more suited to his current ability level.

Didn't he do exactly that vs Lyon? or was it Drinkwater?

Even if they do Sarri would never play him, even the idea of Bakayoko we had when we signed him would have been screwed with Sarri coming in.

Conte would actually be the perfect candidate for the position United are currently in.

@Vesper if Eden leaves i would say it's almost certain we will break our transfer record replacing him, whether or not we get the replacement right however is another question.

Yeah but i meant we had all those players in last seasons side and lost them all in one go, we basically lost the core of the side (out of the players that played tonight only Gilmour is imo up there quality wise with the players we lost) plus one of the key brains behind our youth dominance, its the youth equivalent of City losing Pep, Aguero, Silva, KDB, Walker and Ederson in one go.

James, Sterling, CHO, McEachran, Ampadu plus the manager we have lost from under 18 level from last season, that's a mammoth amount. If we win the Youth League or especially checkatrade that would make up for it.

I liked the second move but the first was part of the reason i was underwhelmed over him returning, he made that run but as soon as he got in a dangerous area he looked like he didn't know whether to pass, shoot or carry on and ended up doing some weird middle ground of all three. That said he has improved a lot and beyond what i believed possible over the last month so hopefully he keeps it up.

Couple of years ago i would have said try to take advantage of the tension between Rose and Spurs, but his injury has ruined him.

You're talking as if im expecting prime Ashley Cole, the minimum i ask for in a player is the basics, Zappacosta for example is a fairly ordinary player but gets the basics right, Emerson while naturally gifted is often tactically/positionally looking like a player we randomely plucked from a random low quality league. Okay but i do believe that the want for Marcos to be dropped is leading to exaggerations regarding his performances (which in a way i get because looking back was a bit like that with Meireles because of how much i wanted our at the time stagnant midfield dropped) ,there's been games where i thought he was one of our weakest players yet came on here to read that he's the type of player we have been missing. I think for the most part this forum are quite spot on in an assessment of a player but in my opinion the general consensus with Emerson is well off just like it was with Baba, and the one common ground for both was that they were in competition with a player the fans badly want(ed) to be dropped.