Pizy

Been saying it here for many years and I’ll say it again, PSG are never winning the UCL. They couldn’t do it with much better squads than this current one and they won’t with this one. The level of competition they play against week in and week out over the years has been so beneath them that it’s very hard to suddenly flip a switch when you play clubs that aren’t terrified of you.

United are in as big of a crisis as we are. Maybe worse because of their ambitions at the start of the season. We were just aiming for 4th whilst they had eyes on the PL title and winning the UCL.

More bloody injuries???

Really is night and day having Enzo deeper. It helps everyone. Defenders have a calm, technically excellent players to relieve pressure and Caicedo does as well. Likewise with Gallagher further up pressing and making opponents uncomfortable. This should be the norm from now on. Let Enzo get forward at strategic, opportunistically times but mostly keep him deeper.

Midfield 3 have all dominated. But still a game here if we get sloppy for one moment.

Enzo HAS to be putting this strikes on target at the very least. Those are the sorts of chances he should be feasting on.

Work rate from Cole Palmer has been great so far. He’s everywhere.

Finally a bit of luck FOR us rather than against us!

YESSSSS

What a pass, what a take!

Why is there just zero pressing whatsoever? Just letting them casually walk the ball up over and over again.

We already look low on energy or urgency. Like this is an early round League Cup match against League 2 competition.

Another perfect Chelsea tackle penalized….

I continue to be shocked that Maatsen still can’t get a sniff at either fullback position despite many injuries or suspensions. One of the best in the Championship last season and great in preseason (though not at fullback) and it’s now as if he’s a 15 year old who can’t be trusted. We’re totally going to lose someone who would generate a big fee for nothing by treating him this way. And then there’s Conor deep with Enzo advanced again. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ Can see this going badly.

If we do start with a false 9 it’ll surely be Sterling up top. I would go with Sterling flanked by Mudryk and Palmer and then have Gallagher just behind them as the advanced CM rather than Enzo so that we have more aggression and energy in our press. Move Enzo deeper next to Caicedo where he can actually dictate the tempo and spray creative passes. We can try the “Enzo as a #10” experiment once Lavia is fit and up to speed. But for now it’s stupid. Play Gallagher where he’s more comfortable and play Enzo where he’s more comfortable. Anyways, we 100% have to win this by any means necessary. Have to start putting wins on the board. I expect Fulham to come out super aggressively to try to rattle us knowing that our team is shocking once we go behind. So it’s extremely important that we match their intensity.

Spuds are what we should be so far this season. Absolutely humiliating and embarrassing that they are where they are and we are we here we are. That they’ve been whipped into a super competitive and smooth playing footballing side overnight whilst we struggle though every match is depressing.

Villa are legit good. Thought we outplayed them last week until the red card so it goes to show that if we could put away chances we’d be up there mixing it with teams much higher than where we are. Happy see see Brighton getting smacked, though.

So who are some other proven striker targets we could move for in January? I see Arse are apparently going to go hard after Toney and it’s highly unlikely he’d choose us in our current state ahead of a team near the top of the table and in the UCL.

Unlike last summer where nearly all of our big money signings flopped I’m not angry or let down by this summer’s signings. I think ALL of them will eventually grow in to great players. Some like Ugo and Gusto into very solid squad players. It’s the coaching that I’m extremely let down by. The constant playing of players out of position is what’s harming us nearly as much as injuries and the inability to finish our dinner. I like Poch and truly thought the turnaround would be rapid entering the season.

What makes things even worse is what’s happening at Spuds. Sold their best player, hired a manger everyone in the league laughed at, and signed a bunch of supposedly mediocre players that we would’ve scoffed at. Yet they’ve been transformed virtually overnight. Well and truly feels like we’ve been cursed.

We entered this season with every advantage you could hope for. No European football for a team that has a new manager, full weeks to train and get the tactics across, a whole solid preseason for the coach to work, hundreds of millions spent on quality players. The feel good factor and optimism really felt around the place after outplaying Liverpool comfortably for much of the opening match. Now we’re right back into the same exact nightmare as maybe our worst ever PL season with no apparent hope of changing things.

And done.

Cheated by the ref again. Fuck off. That’s a perfect fucking tackle.

That’s a perfect tackle. Follow through unfortunately caught him. But perfect fucking tackle.

I would move Enzo back to his actual position and swap Gallagher out for Palmer to play in the #10 spot. Having him there for some of these many cut backs could prove the difference. And he can also receive the ball between the lines. I just don’t see what Conor is adding to this match.