Tomo

The other defenders that play in the cup games aren't the best defenders but have the basics on point, Emerson is all over the place and it's when you're inside the ground and you can keep a close eye on things like that it becomes clear, painfully so infact. The desperation for Alonso to be dropped is leading to even Emerson's shitest games being passed off as good. I want Alonso upgraded on as much as the next person, but if Emerson is the answer i dread to think of the question.

It's not like he hasn't been given games all be it not in the league, he has the occasional overlap that looks aesthetically pleasing but he's very naive tactically, he looks totally out of sync with the team shape the same way Bosingwa use to be.

He's even worse, id rather we draft in Zappa and put Azpi LB. It's the Ivan/Baba situation again, the desperation to see one dropped has led to false illusions about how good the other is.

We conceded at home to Bate

The Zolayes of the era in question is missed, the version he turned into the few years before he was eventually banned was a massive black mark against the forum, he spent it all insulting everyone who had different opinions to him and survived solely on his previous built up status. The fact i even forgot about you and LDNBlue shows just what a variety of quality posters were about at the time, im not usually one for nostalgia blinding but i don't think you will ever see such a decent community feel built up in any online forum again.

While we are on the subject of talking about forum activity, are we the last two regulars left standing from when this place was in it's prime? All the rest i can think of from back then are either long gone (Term X, Steve, Madmax a few examples) or post about once a year (Alex).

Fairly certain ever since he's joined he has long periods on followed by long periods off, rinse and repeat so his absence isn't that out of the ordinary.

I can't speak for Lewa as i didn't see him pre 2012 but in my experience of watching footy and playing with numerous team mates i can't think of one example of a player going from "clown shoes" to even having acceptable technique.

A player so technically lacking at all doesn't improve, natural talent is either there or it ain't, if you struggle to control a football at 15 you will at 26. That's why i use to cringe when people used his youth as an excuse for Lukaku being a crap footballer and alas coming up 26 he's no better than he was when he was "only 22 ".

Bats is much worse.

Will he be able even if he wanted to? I imagine most if not all have played in the UYL which makes them ineligible.

Would prefer zappa came in with Azpi LB until we sign a quality FB, but tbh this isn't the time or place.

City pressing was excellent and the plan was to strangle us out of the possession before the ball even got to Jorginho. Sadly for City however we were breaking their pressing with consumate ease!!

That"s 10% of the battle won, Sarri has proven he can beat Guardiola in head to heads, now he has to match his consistency!!

Maybe they would get the better of City in head to heads, but as you alluded to in your last paragraph they would wipe the flaw with all of us in terms of flattrack bullying. It was actually failure to master that side of things which was a big part of why United beat us to it three times on the spin (and even the year we got it back was due to an unprecedented 6/6 vs the Red rivals) and City are even more ruthless than Fergie's United.

Pep maybe but Klopp had some beyond miserable performances and runs of results for his first two seasons, remember those three home defeats in a row? I disagree, United may have been more successful trophy wise but the sheer consistency City are displaying is insane.

But to play devils advocate he could also be looking at how they have both been rewarded for sticking to their process and not panicking, Pep took the short term hit to implement his style and as soon as he got more suitable players to go along with a the rest being a year into his training he's arguably created the best PL team ever, Klopp looked like he was neglecting his defense and keeper at one point (and maybe to an extent he was) but he waited for suitable players and now has probably the best in both positions in the league. Re subtle changes, I think (am trying to convince myself) that he is slowly looking at things in that regard, he took Alonso off vs Fulham (and i think Zappa might start with Azpi LB on Saturday to help combat Mahrez cutting in) and he's rotated Jorginho off which is the one thing i thought he would never do, the Christmas period will tell us a lot either way.

Sorry for the late reply, i agree on minor adjustments but the base of his philosophy has to remain the same, we signed up for it so telling him to adapt is like signing Ederson and telling him not to use his passing range. As for the play side of it, we are definitely a lot better in possession than any point under Conte or Jose, for all our other faults right now we are still playing out of the back well and having 65% ish possession per game. As for the overall play of patterns and combinations in my opinion it's largely right now down to the lack of pre season and time on the training pitch, since September we haven't had a free midweek which means fuck all if any training time (high match turnovers mean training is basically warmdowns) which is a killer when trying to learn a new system. Imagine if say you were taking regular exams that you've only just took on but your schedule means little to no time to revise, your performance will slow down after a while. In a way Bournemouth knocking us out could be a blessing because as much as a semi final is nice, we desperately need some time on the training pitch to aid us in the home straight.

I would say AVBs ultimate downfall is because he did "adapt", as soon as he showed willingness to revert to default mode the players stopped listening and he was done. We could probably park the bus on Saturday and get a smash and grab point or 3 but what would really be the point? We will just end up back in the cycle of pragmatic football that lets be honest is past it's sellby date in todays game.

I swear you kept banging on about how shit Costa was...

I think you have basically answered your own question, Mata choose to leave us and choose to stay at United. I think the main aspect of his decision comes down to the fact there was serious demand for him while he was with us which wasn't really the case when Mou rocked up at United.

Emery's philosophy isn't a million miles away from Wenger's, he is just more tactically astute with his selections and tactics than Arsene (to say the least) so time on the training ground isn't THAT crucial for them, we on the other hand are overhauling our style of play so we need that time on the training ground to perfect things and most of our key players have basically had only three weeks of a full week of training under Sarri.

The lack of pre season is starting to bite now, since September we have not had a free midweek which has equated to no time to really work on the training ground with patterns and shapes, which is a killer when learning a new system. In many ways Bournemouth dumping us out of the cup and freeing up our midweeks in January could turn out to be a good thing for us.

What i am loving the most so far with Sarri is how open he is about the need to improve on the defensive phase and how much work still needs to be done on it. How many times down the years have we seen a manager with an attacking philosophy arrogantly look down their nose at defense play like it was beneath them and bang on about their principles or whatever bolax after a defensive horror show? To say im relieved Sarri isn't of that mould is a massively misguided understatement.

Every time i see a post about Willian it's either people going too far with praise or too far with criticism, it's ridiculous that no one can seem to find the correct middle ground with him.