Tomo

For ages people have been suggesting Butland and some went as far as saying he'd be an upgrade on Tibo, now it could be happening goalposts are changing big time However now the posts are now in the right place, he would be a horrible signing.

On what evidence? The last time we had a good "progress" season despite winning nothing was Jose's first season and back and he wasn't sacked.

Negotiating incomings is what we are slated for, when it comes to teams buying our players we are widely considered one of the best around.

Very much doubt it.

Because just like with Ivanovic in 15/16, the alternatives are worse.

Can't speak for anyone else but it's not based on coming back early from pre season for me and just arriving, i have been fighting my instincts for years trying to convince myself he's good enough but i every time i see him i become even more sure he found his level at Palace. His case gets worse now Sarri's here as he doesn't play with anywhere near the intensity required. When it comes to Bakayoko and Drinkwater, Ruben's a moot point, those two if they stay will be cover for Kante and Jorginho while RLC will be cover/competition for Barkley/Cesc, so ultimately the former two have literally no influence on what happens with RLC.

Willian has no defensive nous for that position, literally zero.

The only times i recall you were prominent on here during our title winning season was the Spurs game at WHL where you took over the match thread telling us our invincibility's gone and were getting caught by our amazing rivals and the Costa thread after he went a few games without a goal and you were going on about how shit he was. There may be some things we need to worry about but there's also plenty to look forward too and i don't really get why your so desperate to make out were so shit while all our rivals (including a side we have comfortably finished above every season with the core of these lads bar once) are like Pep's Barca reborn, but each to their own i guess.

On another note could see Tammy in a squad role this season, was good when he came on.

Because you seem to coincidentally be more active the worst our moments are, would you be on here now declaring doomsday if Arsenal didn't level?

Funny how you were quiet on the match thread for the first 15 minutes while we were dominating but popped up the second something went wrong (missed penalty).

So long story short, were shit and our rivals are amazing?

Too far

Yeah, but the golden rule in football is eventually the performances catch up with teams. When we were scoring with minimul chances in 2015 under Jose it was always likely to bite us in the end and did, i'd be more worried if we weren't creating anything.

I touched on finishing being a worry but our combination play was carving Arsenal open at will.

We had a B team defense and C team midfield and strikeforce out in the last 20 minutes, we were absolute shite in that period but none of those players bar AC27 will be getting significant minutes this season so meh. The first half i felt was terrific, we totally dominated an Arsenal side further ahead in preparation than us and dealt with Auba very well despite playing a high line. Will take a while to perfect and finishing is a worry but very promising early signs under the new regime.

Sometimes managers just need training sessions, especially one's with as much attention to detail as Sarri. From a personal POV i can't say Emerson convinced me atall last season when he did play nor when he's come on pre season, to me he screams another Baba or Zouma in the sense that the desperation to see his competition dropped is leading to wild exaggerations about his performances/ability.

Or maybe Emerson just isn't actually that good and Alonso is the better player/lesser evil?

Funny you mention that, because some of that lot also moan about net spend and sell to buy aswell, most of these "amazingly ambitious" signings Liverpool have made were funded by the sale of the star player.

Mata's one i can't blame Mou for, his decline has arguably been as steep as Torres's.

It helped with Dortmund that they played a more attacking system but even then in some of his games i saw the flaws were so evident. While Bats is unquestionably the best finisher of the 3 his movement far out from goal is so horrific the whole team become easier to defend against as a result, even Morata at his absolute worst atleast gets the basics as far as that's concerned. The Norwich home game in the FA Cup sums up Batshauyi for me, well taken goal but was also the main reason we couldn't sustain any serious attacks.

I would be on board for trying with him if he had the basic intelligence in general play, with him we are down to ten unless the balls about 10 yards from goal.

Couple of years ago few people were calling the club they allegedly support every name under the sun because we missed out on Joao Mario

I have a feeling Sarri may be going down the route Klopp's going at Liverpool - ala either he has someone he really wants or he waits until they (someone of similar ilk becomes available). That may cause some teething problems but if Liverpool's current side are anything to go by, it could work in the long run and we are much, much better than the side Klopp inherited so it should take less time.

We could be facing Bakayoko on his own and you would still find a way to turn us into extreme underdogs and play down our chances of winning.