Tomo

They have this recent week aside. Admitedly poor opposition but they were scoring for fun vs Malmo first time, Norwich and Newcastle and we were very poor between Villa and Brentford yet came out of that period top.

If he played today we created jack all and won 2-1 because he took what little we did create I'd have been happy we got the three points but worried going forward. It's not just how he doesn't mesh on the ball it's how he doesn't off it. Our stats for successful pressures were slightly ahead of Tottenham's a few weeks ago and I'd wager we have shot up the table in that regard since (and we look a much more solid unit collectively aswell). That's not to say he doesn't have it's uses but he needs to at the very least meet the system half way, he's simply not at the level to have a Hazard esque workrate exemption.

But we've seen already that this narrative doesn't really work in theory. Throughout September and early October with Rom leading the line we created fuck all bar the second half vs Spurs. Would Lukaku have scored once or twice if he was literally placed in the same positions? Almost certainly but would his movement and awareness have put him in these positions repeatedly? The reason we created as many chances as we did today is because everyone is heavily involved in the build up in a way Rom isn't. We go from hoping our team can score one or two of the 100 chances to hoping Rom takes one of two of the few chances, which is all well and good when he does (Villa, Zenit) but disatorous when he's anonymous (Juve, Brentford).

I'm frustrated af but not angry, performance wise we played better than times we won 3-0.

He's a lot worse, as bad as Lampard was in the end we did have some promising performances in season one going toe to toe with teams (although in hindsight the muscle memory from Sarri's tactics probably helped a fair bit).

No but there's a big difference between training (even under a manager like Tuchel) and match rythm.

Would rather be playing at Turf Moor, it's been our easiest away game of the season for the past three years. Also would be very out of character for Fernandes to make a key contribution tomorow, he makes Lukaku look like the ultimate big game player. Edit: Jase sort of beat me to it.

My opinion of Rom is not something I have mustered up over night. I didn't want him to return in 2016 or 2017, i just simply don't like his overall game. I'm not saying he's completely useless and there will be games where he will be useful. If he was being utilised in that way I wouldn't have that huge an issue but he's literally playing every game he's avaliable for even when the false 9 is more suitable to a certain game (City prime example).

Yeah I know but it still showed what can happen in this tournament. To use a similar match from a similar part of group phase would be Genk in 11/12 away.

Maybe but with Rom the question mark is, would we have created as many chances to waste? I said after the Norwich game with him I could have seen it being 4-0 with him netting two or three of them and the talk after the game would be how we would have struggled without him.

We played a scratch side at home to Krasnador last season and dropped points. Lose tonight and all of a sudden we have a fight on to get out of the group, especially if Zenit win. Simply not worth the gamble.

Thing with Conte though is his record isn't even average. He's only got past the group stage twice which for context is as many times as Lampard.

Yeah his record in Europe is a massive question mark hanging over him. He's got everything to prove on that score still.

The league cup was last week.

I think you're being a bit harsh there. The defending Champions when he took over Juve were A.C. Milan with Ibra, Robinho, Silva etc and he also had Napoli with the Cavani, Lavezzi and Hamsik trio to contend with. And that's before we mention Juve had two consecutive 7th place finishes prior to his arrival. With us, while it's undeniable Klopp and Pep were far from having their complete team he still took over a team who finished 10th the previous season. It's easy to say in hindsight we still had the core of the 2015 title winning team but no one fancied Conte to have us bounce back from the 15/16 horror show so quickly. I was one of the few that thought there was a minor chance (due to his previous of recovering a crisis) and was laughed at. As much of a cunt as he turned into the following season, he was next to flawless in the title season (and the 'next to' bit is only there because of the cup final). Inter is probably the closest to benefiting from other teams in a lull but at the same time I'd argue that's a strength to be the manager who will say "I'll take this" when everyone else plays like they're more keen to lose it, it's how Fergie won a good number of his titles (especially the last two). For example, if Conte was managing United last season you can be sure he was taking advantage of City "only" getting points in their 80s and us and Liverpool self destructing in the middle third.

He will certainly have them there or there abouts once again (unless the masks comes off before the success this time). Difficult to gauge how good his peak will be on this occasion, if he inherited their 2017 side I'd be seriously worried but with the current squad and Levy's backing (even if he heavily backs Conte for Spurs' standard it still won't be enough to compete with what other clubs can put on the table) I think the title will be a big ask even for him. From our perspective he's certainly better of at Spurs than United, I reckon he could have got the latter seriously challenging immediately.

My educated guess is the hostile atmosphere on Saturday has forced Levy's hand, they've made it clear they're at the end of their tether with him so he's panicked and meet Conte half way (possibly more).

I said what I said yesterday in jest (sort of) but you're right I won't lose a great deal of sleep if it actually happens. I'd say getting benched by Ole is closer to a badge of honour than an insult on their abilities. He's taken two of the most promising young players in Europe (Van De Beek and Sancho) and given them next to no minutes because he doesn't know what to do with them. If we weren't so stacked in midfield I'd happily have VDB here, he's a wonderful player in a proper system.

On another note, United fans must be spitting feathers. How glad I am we have an owner not willing to exploit our fans dropping their standards to accommodate Frank and Jose when they had us plummeting down the table.

Jol was pretty good, consecutive 5th place finishes with a bang average squad. Regarding Conte, he went to his beloved clubs major rivals so he was never going to spare us if the chance came along. I do think we'll smash them at The Bridge in his first return, I believe Jose's thumping on first return was karma for the way he behaved at the end of his tenure and I Conte's due some of the same.

Happy to hold my hands up on that one, most of the issues I had with Chilwell from Leicester are almost completely gone. Hopefully I'm saying the same thing this time next year just with "Lukaku from United" in the place or Chilwell from Leicester. That said, I do think the former two of those trio you named would be good in our system aswell, Ben has one big advantage over those two in that he's being properly coached.

Stick to the false 9 and get Raphinha in next summer. Lukaku can play a part till then then go wherever Conte is.

Completely different type of players, you may aswell compare Barkley to Mendy. Gilmour direct replacement in the squad was Saul.

Early days and still to be tested against top opponents sure but his tweak with the wingbacks is looking like a masterstroke so far. I wasn't really convinced by James or Chilwell as pure wide players in the back 3/5 but since they've been given licence to drift in they've both hit another level offensively and that's even before you bring the numbers in the play. Few weeks ago I was ruing the fact we missed out in Hakimi and lost Livramento, now not so much.

Yeah this sheer level or squad depth isn't sustainable in the long run but may aswell make use of it while it's here.