Tomo

Absolute brain dead selection of wingbacks there. They literally have man made wing backs in Dalot and Telles and he picks probably the two most defensive full backs at big clubs.

Barkley and Ruben being unable to find a new home this summer is coming to our benefit now. They'd be good players to bring on with a fully fit squad let alone one ripped to shreds by injuries.

Who's getting golden boot then James or Chilwell?

The one he made just now was more impressive. That one from the free kick his positioning was piss poor which meant he had to stretch and do the spectacular.

This is Arsenal all over, stringing a few performances together when the pressure is lower.

Early sample size but based on his two penalties in the respective EFL cup shootouts I wonder if he may end up climbing the pecking order for the spot kicks in regulation play? Possibly even taking over from Jorgi when the time comes.

That's even worse then we can't go two weeks without playing the first Xl. Even Klopp went strong in a cup game against Villa's kids last season to avoid that. A weeks rest while sticking the scratch side in for the FA Cup is more than adequate (if we get knocked out then go full strength in the FA). On a slightly related note given Kepa will be first choice for that period I wonder if we will see Bettinelli for the third round if it does turn out to be in the middle of two semi's.

I think of the top of my head VVD, Robertson, Fabinho and Mane from his usual starters. BIB: It is but isn't the FA Cup game a few days before the potential semi first leg? I imagine we will play the scratch side there and if so I think it will be better to play the first Xl for the semi to keep up match sharpness, don't fancy a week and a half without the first Xl playing.

Would Klopp play his first team anyway? He didn't away to us in the FA Cup. But yes the quarter final is probably our big banana skin (so hopefully we get Sunderland) given our schedule but if we make the semi we should be able to play the first team from that moment on.

Unless Liverpool suddenly decide to roll out the first team we really should be winning this.

Strange thing is it probably suits them just as much but for different reasons.

I hope you're right but last two times we had to throw in a back up not named Cech into a title race both made crucial errors (*Hilario vs City and Schwarzer vs Sunderland) so for that reason alone I'm pretty cautious. *Hilario also had a MOTM performance vs Liverpool months earlier. But like I said hopefully I'm wrong.

If we're going to talk about him in the context of playing in the league, if last night's a league game that mistake for the goal costs us two points. Of course he deserves credit for recovering from the Lampard era and becoming a decent back up but I'm still not comfortable with him playing a run of league games, especially given (if we keep up the pace) he will be facing both our title rivals.

I doubt it. Moyes just couldn't adapt his mentality to being at a massive club.

Got a feeling in the UCL opponents may start to play keepball to prevent the change happening.

I like our squad depth in the sense that one or two can come in to the first Xl with not much change but when the scratch side play together it's a clusterfuck.

I'll be annoyed if he's wingback vs Newcastle but this is practically a scratch side tonight. On another note, if Guehi didn't leave we'd be seeing the youth cup back three tonight most likely.

Conte will go tits up at the end and it will be hilarious viewing when it's not happening to us but he will likely win them the league or at atleast have them as a serious player again before it happens. We won with Conte it went tits up we both moved on and won again, it's the way football is these days with managers and it's no coincidence the club's that embrace it are successful (Us, Bayern, Real) while the club's that cling on to this idealistic notion of long term managers are a shambles (United, Arsenal). You will get the odd managers that last a while for modern day standards like Pep and Klopp but even they're both dropping hints about leaving in the not too distant future after a mere 5 years. United are stuck in the dark ages because they stumbled across an anomaly in Ferguson, he will never be repeated and they will never truly be back at the top table until they shelve their ideals and get with the times (hopefully they never do).

If that was the case we'd have dropped points vs Norwich or atleast made it into a battle. Pretty much every single fanbase think their club fall into that category.

Hopefully they beat Spurs and Atlanta unconvincingly while narrowly losing to City (ideally they would take points but realistically they won't go from that against Liverpool to beating City in two weeks). Just have him hold out until they come here.

Probably Tottenham doing that at The Bridge is the equivalent.

I use to think that but United fans actually tell me otherwise as according to them he's positionally pretty shit. Pogba played his best football of his career under Conte and Allegri. Under Antonio we will likely see the Pogba of France unfortunately. I don't actually agree the strengths would he diluted, quite the opposite. Most of their attackers actuslly want to be the ST so the inside forward formation Conte plays will suit them down to the ground. Bruno will be the odd one out but that was predictable anyway, he was always doomed as soon as a manager who wasn't having his brand of heroball came in.

I think that squad could quickly be moulded into the way he wants tbh. He won't need to play AWB as Dalot will be excellent for wingback (Dan James would have been his Moses wildcard so it's good he's not there anymore) while Telles is the perfect wingback. Lindelof, Varane and Shaw is a good back three aswell. It will eventually go to pot and when it happens it will be hilarious looking at it as an outsider this time but it's very bad news for the short term.

Board signing is a bit of a copout, at absolute worst Tuchel was happy with the signing hence him beaming in the presser (after his arrival) and then playing him for every minute he's been available for bar the last part against Brentford (League cup doesn't count as we were always go for a scratch side in that competition at the early stages unless we get a big draw). Also given our entire squad bar about three players have now scored it's looking more increasingly like we've been a little overzealous compromising our system to accommodate a focal point, as I absolutely feared would happen.

I'm fully sold on Tuchel tactically but my one worry from the minute he arrived was his record in the market and his signings so far have done nothing to alleviate my fears. Although that said I think the one we missed (Kounde) would have been a huge hit.