Tomo

Agreed. I said for months if Norwich or Southampton will take him fine but many managers should be blacklisted when it comes to loaning players of Gilmour's specific skillset as they wouldn't know what to do with him. I really hope we have a recall clause just incase Norwich have a rough start and panic appoint one of the recycled old school managers, could you even imagine if he all of a sudden has to play half a season under Tony Pulis?

Put it this way, if he had no connection with us and we were linked to signing him after his last season at Fulham would you be keen? The problem with your pre season idea is there's other players that have simply done more to earn that spot (and more crucially suit Tuchel's system better), Gallagher for instance.

I think the point he was trying to make is both when at their best are very good, but it happens so infrequently its absoultely pointless trying to make any sort of plan that involves them in a big way. Ruben had a run of form under Sarri after nearly the whole season being dragged to the touchline at any and every break in play to be given tactical instructions, he's a very talented guy but simply lacks the nous to make it at this level, when you see Mason Mount or even Conor Gallagher as a comparison the difference in their tactical games are astronomical. It's the sake argument with Barkley really. If he played like he did vs the two Scouse teams before lockdown he'd be one of our star players, but he doesn't.

Pretty much every great attacking full/wing back start as a winger. That said i think Callum is a lot better further forward than given credit for but there's simply too many players infront of him at the minute especially if we sign a striker.

I won't lie and say it isn't gutting to lose out on Hakimi, people saying a wingback isn't a priority are lying to themselves, James and Chilwell won't cut it in a 38 game season in those areas, the former is more suited to RCB and the latter is still very raw in his attacking play despite decent numbers, although it does work in big games we need a lot more against bus parkers. Realistically speaking there's two ways we can respond to this. 1. Revert back to 4atb. 2. Go all in on training CHO in that position and promote Livramento as the back up.

Is this the Sancho signing that should have been done last summer?

Hopefully the rumours Tuchel is doing a Klopp (number one or no one) is true.

Players aren't that precious, Lampard kicked out David Luiz but that didn't stop his best mate coming here a year later.

I'm actually against signing Rice as I don't think he's the profile of player we need (certainly not under Tuchel's system) but all these posts claiming every Tom, Dick and Harry are better just screams picking the fancy name just because.

Is he actually better than Rice or is this another "Regullion/Telles > Chilwell" lite thing?

From a trivial POV that goal Porto scored was irritating. Prevented us being unbeaten Champions and Mendy from getting the clean sheet record.

Thinking back, apart from Tammy all our attackers had atleast one clutch goal en route to this trophy. Giroud had the winner in Rennes then the four goals in Spain to help us top the group then the winner against Atletico in the first leg. Ziyech gave us the crucial second of the tie against Leti. Mount scored the opener vs Porto and the tie sealer vs Madrid. Pulisic scored the opener against Real away. Werner scored in the second leg. Havertz ofcourse scored in Porto. Even Callum opened the scoring in two group games and who knows what would have happened had he not done that. Infact you could argue even with Tammy vs Rennes he eliminated any chance of a comeback, small but you never know. Was properly a team effort.

If this happens we will be in the market for two keepers I'd guess. The third choice (hopefully) won't really matter much but the second choice we will need to get right with the ACON on the way. Idealistically Hradecky would fancy the gig but realistically Sergio Romero is probably the best choice, maybe Areola.

Taking time off isn't just about physically resting from playing it's also about giving your mind a rest from the pressures. Even not playing they're still part of the preparation and in a position where they could be thrown into a high pressure situation at any moment. A break mentally is probably even more important this time round given the relentless schedule of the last year.

He only has himself to blame signing that big new contract knowing Levy's lack of integrity.

Even at right back he was often drifting into the half space (where Azpi got all his assists to Morata).

This is exactly what I mean, apparently if you don't think he was world class you are "questioning him as a player". Why can't there ever be middle ground?

I hope not but you can never rule out Pep teams especially going on mental winning runs. Even last year with a 'standard' title winning points total they broke the record for consecutive wins in all comps.

And to add further to that, if City and/or Liverpool roll out beast mode again we'll have to keep up such a relentless pace to the point even one dropped game could prove fatal.

While I accept he wasn't given the best platform to perform under Lampard, Edou also played half a season under the same manager and was still stocking up on clean sheets bar the final month. The biggest problem with Kepa isn't the obvious mistakes he makes it's what he doesn't do. People can say all these long shots he lets fly past him are "unsavable" but if that's the case why aren't other keepers conceding these type of goals regularly? How many of those type of goals have Cech, Tibo and Edou shipped between them for us? I'm sure there's a couple more but off the top of my head I can actually think of only one for each keeper (the first Cech ever let in for us, the Henderson goal and Xhaka goal) which leads to one of two outcomes, either most of them aren't as unstoppable as made out or the opponents actually do pretty much think "fuck it it's Kepa". I mean even his distribution has gone to crap which was the main reason we even signed him. It's not like he was being world class then suddenly turned shit, the signs were there under Sarri we just tried to convince ourselves it was a first season in England thing.

I was talking a general sense. There seems to be many seemingly ready to defend/make excuses for Kepa so why didn't Turnbull have a similar fan club?

Why did we never see this type of energy for Ross Turnbull?

I'm not too worried about the first set of big games being played in the first two months but I'm very worried about the second set being played when Mendy goes to the ACON. f**k how it will look having a record signing as 3rd choice, we need an adequate back up urgently.

There's defiently a mental barrier for teams aiming for their maiden trophy. If we somehow managed to win in 2000 I reckon the old guard would have had atleast 3.

For less glamourous news I wonder who we will bring in as the new number 3. Looking at the released list from PL clubs Wayne Hennessey seems the obvious choice.