Pizy

It’s actually kind of insane that we’re so far into the window and are not even close to bringing in any cover for either wingback position. It’s as though the club hierarchy just assumed they’d be able to bully Lyon into letting a key player come back to us and had no other plan in case that didn’t work. How many more times do we have to see Azpi and Alonso get torched down the flanks before we do something? It’s probably going to happen again tomorrow with Lamptey. We going to wait until deadline day and panic loan some shit player?

He’s shit.

I would damn sure hope it’s a loan. He’s a mediocre player and is nearing 30. Absolutely not the sort of player we’d sign permanently.

Watching Lamptey against Alonso again should be fun…

I said before and just after we brought him in that it wouldn’t be the worst thing if Lukaku could bang them in against shit teams. I figured the rest of the attacking players would make up for him being subpar against the biggest teams. But none of our attacking players look any better than they did last season when they were mostly poor. Lukaku should certainly be enough for us to finish top 4. But if we have any ambitions of ever finishing above City in the near future we won’t do it with him. But what do you do with him? Unless we are so desperate to move him on that we’ll take a massive loss nobody can afford his fee + wages. He is basically the outfield version of Kepa. We’re stuck with him.

Chiesa would’ve of course been the ideal player but he is out long term now. That’s the profile of player we need to target. Wide players who will get on the ball and sprint into attack with the intent to score or at last cause chaos.

We need to somehow identify some top class wide players who can score goals. Find the next players in the Mané/Salah/prime Pedro/Robben mould. And then build around Havertz up top. Fuck all these frail, dainty, soft wide players with mouse mentality like we have. We need aggressive, athletic guys who put unbelievable pressure on teams. That may be the only way we can haul City in and it’s what Liverpool have done these last few years.

Lukaku is getting all the heat and he was indeed terrible overall but Ziyech and CP were shocking as well. Ziyech’s total inability to beat anyone with the ball was brutally exposed today. He’s slow as fuck. And his fabled passing that we saw at Ajax feels like a distant memory. He couldn’t complete simple passes. Pulisic is a once in 5-8 games player. He’s essentially a worse version of Willian. I’d be perfectly happy to see us sell every forward player we currently have this summer except for Kai. Lukaku, Ziyech, Pulisic, and Werner can all go and I wouldn’t feel bad at all. Shouldn’t be difficult at all to find buyers for the latter 3. Lukaku is a massive anchor unless Inter or someone else take him on loan.

Even with our full compliment of players fit like Chilly and RJ we don’t have the capability to rattle off 10, 12, 15 league wins in a row like City have done for multiple seasons now. That’s the difference. It requires damn near perfection to finish above them now because they’re capable of insane midseason winning streaks. Even at our fittest and best we were still capable of dropping silly points to shit teams multiple times. Unless we bin Lukaku and sign Haaland we will also have no chance of winning the league next season either. And god knows that ain’t happening. Haaland will probably end up on City and make the league even more of a piss take for them.

We aren’t near City’s level and won’t be for the foreseeable future in the league. Our best chance for major silverware as long as Pep is at City is the CL. Our only job from here on out is to keep the chasing pack at arms length. It was foolish to even think we had a chance today and this result shouldn’t be a huge setback for the players’ mentality. All about beating those behind us and hoping the likes of Arse, United, WH beat each other up.

Just look at us here, man. It’s as though we forgot how to play football. We can’t do ANYTHING right.

Azpi and Alonso just getting roasted for pace over and over and over and over. As predicted.

Also it must be pointed out, Arse played City a couple of weeks ago with zero fear and showed them no respect. Their team of kids showed more quality and courage than our team of super experienced veterans and CL winners. I realize it’s hard to be confident and courageous when we have Alonso, Azpi, Sarr etc out there but still.

Lukaku had a few really poor touches, true, but I don’t see why anyone here is having a go at him here. He’s making the runs and as the commentator Lee Dixon on the American broadcast has said repeatedly the ball doesn’t come accurately. He’s in acres of grass but our players aren’t composed enough to find him. Any striker would be invisible the way we played there.

Sarr is not even PL standard, never mind Chelsea starter standard. Looks like a terrified under 18 youth player out here. Panics when defending, late on every challenge, and petrified to play a forward pass because he knows he’ll misplace it. A point here would be a miracle.

Both clubs with massively expensive squads filled with top players but it’s straight up frightening how MASSIVE the gap is between them when it comes to comfort and composure on the ball. City just effortlessly stroke it around and EVERY SINGLE PLAYER on the pitch for them is ultra good on the ball. Conversely, our super expensive footballers look petrified whenever they get the ball. We can’t string together 3 passes against City for now the second league match in a row. All City have to do is get in our faces and they basically snatch the ball back every time like a school bully picking on a nerd. And they’re doing so with a bunch of tiny dwarf sized players. It’s embarrassing how much better they are than us.

Sarr is doing as poorly as I predicted. He is not good enough for this level. Too slow in thought.

Alonso, man… This is depressing. WE NEED A FUCKING LWB ASAP.

City players know ONCE AGAIN that if they press us all over the pitch we struggle. We can’t handle being man for man pressed.

From a compete stand still Alonso gets fucking destroyed. This is going to be ugly on the left side of our team today.

I am a bit surprised that he started. Well actually, I’m surprised he started him as the lone striker. Since Kai rested against Spuds I figured he was planning to start Havertz and Rom up top together. City probably wouldn’t have expected that.

Tuchel himself acknowledged yesterday that he got his tactics wrong the last time we played them. We went too defensive and passive and were dominated. So I’d expect us to do what Arse did to them a couple of weeks ago and take them head on. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how well that’s going to work with the fullbacks we have. Think it’s wise J5 isn’t starting here. Kante + Kova will hopefully have the aggression to cause serious issues with City’s intricate passing. Very nervous about Sarr, Azpi, and Alonso. 😬😬😬

The easiest of our CB’s to replace from a skill set POV, though it will suck that we won’t get top dollar for him (any dollars, actually) due to his contract situation. It’ll basically cost 50-60 million to replace him with Koundé. With Silva confirmed to be back next season, it’s much more important to lock down Rüdiger than it is AC. Literally ANY one of Süle, Koundé, or Ginter is a pretty substantial upgrade on AC.

As I said yesterday, Kenedy is a shit player. Completely failed to make an impact at any of the clubs he’s been loaned to and those were nowhere remotely close to our level. It would be an absolute joke if a club of our stature couldn’t find anyone better this month even if it’s just a loan for someone like Dest.

Christensen out with COVID now. So it’s either we continue with a back 4 that includes Sarr or we play Azpi as the 3rd CB in a back 3. Think I’d prefer the latter as Sarr looks a bit shaky on the ball when he’s pressed. And god knows City will press the shit out of him.