Pizy

Sooo, will in-form Pogba own our entire midfield today?

I literally have not heard Lukaku's name since Mou was sacked. So he'll probably score against us today.

I love Luiz. But he, along with many of our aging players needs to go in the summer. Too big of a liability despite his great talent on the ball.

I was so fixated on how casual Andreas looked that I didn't even notice Luiz. But yeah, he wasn't even on the bloody screen there! 😂😂😂

What on earth was Christensen playing at on their goal? Looked as though he's should easily have cleared that ball into row Z. Under no circumstances should that cross have been allowed to go in. Anyway, everyone here knows I'm a Jorginho guy. But......I think it's time to talk about the fact that Kovacic looks better in that deeper role at the moment. Like, really good.

We are mind numbingly boring in possession and completely non-threatening in the final third with this XI. Pedro, Willian, and Giroud are totally ineffective. And this is against a Championship standard opponent.

I'm fine with him playing a strong team, but come on. How shite do Willian and Pedro have to be until CHO becomes the undisputed #1 option for the remainder of the season? I've been one of Sarri's biggest supporters and still am. But the biggest complaint I have about him is that he persists with the same struggling few players. Give CHO an extended run in the side. Give Emerson an extended run in the side. Just those two changes and at the very least we become much more unpredictable and less stale. Inject a bunch of pace into the side and see what happens.

CHO must be simply counting down the days until he can bolt in the summer. Can't even start against Malmö.

Sick and tired of the idiot media/journalists killing Sarri about Kante's position. Saying he's "wasted" higher up the pitch. Lost track of the number of pundits bemoaning the fact that "Chelsea have the best DM in the world and aren't playing him there." You can tell these people watch us only in the biggest matches when we've struggled and haven't watched all of our games. in reality, Kante is having by far his best ever season in an attacking sense and in this new position can win the ball effectively higher up the pitch. He's clearly developed significantly under Sarri. The problem with this position he's in is what happens when we lose the ball, not simply where he lines up. That's something that needs to be solved.

What I think may happen is that Sarri will definitely stay until this time next season at least. We will sell off most, if not all of these players that have been here long term. Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Luiz. All will be gone. I think we will go the Dortmund route and bring in young players with potential (like Pulisic) and combine that with finally using our youth players.

Really sucks to see. He's a gem of a player who is paying a severe price during this experimental season. I'm certainly not ready to bin him like a lot of our fans and seemingly 100% of the media are. Thing is, where do you move him in Sarri's 4-3-3? There really isn't a place. If we played a 4-2-3-1 where Kante moves back into a pivot and therefor is always close to him I guess it would be better. But Sarri plays only one system so can't see it happening.

I would just really love to hear from one of the players what they think the problem is. Rather than just apologizing again and saying some terrible cliché like "we need to focus and get better." Give us the supporters a fucking idea of what is going on. Many times this season the players look like they really buy into what Sarri is teaching. They clearly enjoy having more of the ball and taking it to the opposition rather than being reactive like we were under Conte and Mou. So wtf is the issue? We've got a squad of players that 95% of managers around the world would envy. Why are we repeatedly getting humiliated?

He stays for now. Get spanked by United and he's gone. Although I have no clue what we would possibly do if we sacked him. Not really any options out there.

It's now just more apparent than ever that you need to build a good relationship with the upper levels of a club and the manager. Everyone from the top down has to be on the same page. The current top 3 have that. There seems to be a massive disconnect there for us. Buying players like Pulisic without Sarri even being consulted. Not buying players or positions that we're in dire need of. Shit like that would simply not happen under Pep, Klopp, or Poch. Its so obvious that we have non-football people running everything while knowing nothing about football.

I mean. Roman does indeed seem more distant from the club than ever before. Both literally (not being able to even be in the country) and figuratively. It seems Marina is the one who runs the club these days.

People just suggesting we give it to one of our legends. The job is too big for someone with little experience (Lamps) no experience (JT) or someone who has failed pretty badly everywhere he's managed (Zola). I don't think any of those are ready to make a big difference.

Don't think anyone would want him back, just saying that he may fancy it. He has an image in need of desperate rehabilitation. He'd look like a savior if he came back and won us the EL.

If we went begging on our knees and promised him the moon I bet Jose probably would come back, funnily enough. In fact, I bet he's the only big name manager out there that would touch us at the moment.

I think Sarri might be gone. Sad, but I think he's gone.

Can Sarri survive another humiliation like this? First time I've had to seriously ask that question. This has become the norm now. Repeated humiliation.

Game over already just minutes in.

Our defending is a clown show. We literally look clueless. As though we aren't even there.

Alonso telling Hazard to defend his area...

I'm guessing the thinking there is that Sarri knows we won't have as much of the ball as we normally do. Having Pedro's excellent off the ball runs and movement may prove more useful than Willian who slows everything down. Looks like we will be hoping to counter attack the hell out of them. Which is their one weakness, tbf.

Honestly, I'm actually strangely calm and will be so even if we lose today. I'm sort of resigned to the fact that we aren't likely to finish in the top 4 and am all in on the EL route. Sarri's style will take a few transfer windows where he gets his targets. This season is all about laying the foundations. If we win today, amazing. If we lose, oh well. It'll be a bloody fight between 3 teams for that 4th spot.