Pizy

That's one massive hurdle cleared. Now the harder part which is getting him to sign a new contract.

My last comment/question about this match. I wonder if today was enough for Sarri to realize that Alonso simply cannot excell in his setup. He has started every preseason game so far and has looked poor in each. Even clubs lower in the table will be able to get at him. Every opposing manager will have their side under instructions to target him, it'll be all over their film study. It's bad enough that Cesc will have to play for a bit longer until Kante is ready. We can't have another passenger in Alonso. We need to get Emerson up to speed ASAP.

I definitely think this'll be the sort of season where we do well against teams we should beat but we'll struggle a lot against all of the big teams. City, Liverpool, and Spuds in particular who all have years of coaching in how to press. In games where we can be the ones dictating the tempo I believe we'll be fine.

I fully expected City to be the better side today. I just expected us to put up a fight.

To expect a club of our stature to compete with City was asking too much? We aren't a small club hoping to frustrate the big boys. Even missing players I thought we'd at least give them some problems. Looked like men against boys instead.

I'm asking myself if we had Kante, Hazard, and Courtois in there today would we have looked better. Yes, we would've looked better in midfield and we would've been harder to play through. Kante in place of Cesc would've made a real difference. Caballero kept the score from being humiliating so Tibo wouldn't have changed anything. Hazard would've pinned Walker back more. But even with those 3 back Alonso is still a fish out of water in a back 4, Luiz would've still been spanked by Aguero, Morata is still soft as toilet paper, and we have no set 3rd midfielder. These are things that could've been rectified had we dealt with the managerial situation quickly and were active in the market.

Is indeed a pretty bad look to see KDB there supporting his teammates and Kompany actually play in the game while Eden is still absent.

Anyone else notice how Alonso looked dead on his feet as though this was the end of a grueling season? He had the whole summer off, ffs, and the season hasn't even started. He looked shattered already.

This really drained all optimism I had. We are nowhere near their level. I certainly wasn't expecting a title challenge this season but I think even scraping 4th is pretty far beyond us. Especially if the likes of Alonso, Cesc, Morata, and Barkley play huge roles. And it's now too late to bring in serious quality.

That was seriously depressing. I truly thought that this would be a competetive, fairly even match. They didn't even get out of cruise control and totally dominated us. Was frankly embarrassing. We look worryingly poor in so many areas. Entire back for looked shocking. Alonso and Luiz in particular. Even Azpi looked bad. Morata is not good enough, straight up. We will not go anywhere with him. Cesc is done at this level as well. Should only ever play when we are by far the superior team. Barkley looked way out of his depth today as well. The most worrying thing was that the players all looked demoralized. City effortlessly played through our pressing until we just gave up even trying to press in the second half. Whereas when they pressed us none of our players could handle it. Lastly, I can't even remember what it feels like to have a world class striker up top. Aguero terrorized Rüdiger and Luiz today. Must be fucking nice.

Well that was quite the wake up call. City taught us a lesson, really. -We really struggled to play through their press -They easily played through ours -Jorginho was stranded on an island in the middle because Cesc is zero help which forced Jorginho into really bad positions -Sad to say that Azpi really struggles when he receives the ball under pressure -There's a giant, Kante sized hole in midfield -Morata & Pedro offered nothing at all in attack -Barkley was very reserved and nervous to try anything. -Defense was very shaky We have a WHOLE LOT of work to do.

This will be the first of our preseason games where Kante's absence will be exposed I think. Cesc will likely be targeted.

Might be to Spuds in exchange for Toby A?

They don't. Made up shite. Doubt we're after him either.

Will be very interesting to see how we cope against another side who loves to dominate the ball. Arsenal play that way and we dominated them in that first half. City will be without KDB so it's not as big of a test as it normally would be but there will still be a decent City team out there tomorrow. Also something else to keep an eye on is how long Jorginho plays here. Sarri has played him a ton so far in preseason in order to help the rest of the team adjust to his tactics. With the last preseason match against Lyon just a couple of days after this one, I wonder if he even plays on Tuesday. Surely we shouldn't risk that? Seems really dumb to have another game after the CS. Oh and btw Mahrez v Alonso should be fun...🙃🙃🙃

Yeah, Mertens just seems like really poor value for the 50m that's being stated. Having multiple 32 year old forwards is a no-go for our club. If we sign another attacking player it has to be someone young with loss of potential to still realize.

We wouldn't sign Higuain due to his age but would then sign Mertens who I believe is older? After Giroud confirmed he's staying and reports of Batshuayi playing a part under Sarri, I highly doubt we're after another forward now.

I feel sorry for him as well. Certainly looked as though he was on his way to becoming a top defender. Problem is, that would have to be in a perticular system under a particular type of manager. He's too technically limited to play under either Sarri or Conte before him, Think he'll carve out a nice career for himself at a smaller club but can't see him becoming an elite player we'll massively regret not bringing back.

We'll either force this rat to stay and leave for free next summer or panic buy Pepe Reina after he just moved on deadline day.

Sold the greatest keeper in our history to bring him back and this is what he does to us. This giraffe-necked rat can fuck off already. Doesn't deserve to wear the shirt. Shouldve sold his ass as soon as the WC ended. Remember the video Lukaku posted on from the pitch after the 3rd place match where he was jokingly asking where Courtois was going next season? This snake was obviously talking with his Belgian mates all summer about moving to Madrid. I hope he goes there and flops and the Madrid fans boo him.

I'd rather Drinkwater out for nobody than sign that chavy looking cunt. 😂

Hmmm. We've got a couple of box to box ball carriers in Barkley & RLC. We've got disrupters/destroyers in Kante & Baka. We've got creators in Cesc and Jorginho. Maybe he simply thinks one of those areas needs an upgrade? Still think one or more have to move before we have room for another midfielder.

Unless one of RLC, Baka, or DD are loaned or sold I can't see us bringing in anyone else there. So I'm wondering which area he's talking about. He seems to have taken a liking to David Luiz so I don't think CB is an area we need a signing in either.

I'd be excited for anyone above Bakayoko or DD's level in the final week, ffs.

We're bringing back El Niño, lads. No other explanation.