Pizy

Looks like we will indeed ride the false 9 into the new year and hope like hell we can bring someone new in.

Of all the current "big 6," Spuds are the one I hate going against the most. Their super physical style and manic pressing are very effective against us. Would rather have drawn City, tbh.

When Kovacic's touch and dribbling are on point like they were tonight he's such a good player. We need this more consistently from him. Anyways, our attack is so frustrating. Our build up is often great, our passing crisp, but we have no "killers" anywhere that can consistently put shots on target and even test opposition keepers. Pedro is I guess, but even he doesn't shoot enough. Other than Willian we have no one who will even shoot from outside the box. We desperately need a player or two who are aggressive, hungry and who will have a go. It's what separates us from our rivals.

What an ambitious signing this would be. Imagine how the likes of City, Liverpool, and the rest of the elite European sides would feel seeing Chelsea line up with Callum Wilson as their #9 should we make it back into the CL next season. They'll be terrified! In all seriousness, he's the sort of player who I'd take here for sure if he cost £20-25m and was our backup. Matt Law has suggested that Bournemouth would be demanding £50m or more. We'd be making a Drinkwater level mistake at that price. No more average or above average striker purchases, please! FFS, can we just splurge out on a proper top class striker?! We did so on a goalkeeper, why not arguably the most important position on the pitch?

Pogba, Rashford, Martial, Shaw, Lukaku etc. Let's be honest, that's a young core that any manager would like. Knows the PL like the back of his hand and United will be desperate to spend their way back to the top. Will be something completely new to Poch to be at a club who will back him. Let's not act like it isn't a desirable job. And certainly a big step up from Spuds.

It would've been the worst possible time to leave for RM last summer as we can now see looking at them. Best player left, most of their best players aging, etc. They're a huge mess. Think those two will be battling it out for him in the summer.

Very true. It'll be extremely difficult. But United will be desperate enough to offer whatever it takes. Say they offer him triple his current salary and he goes to Levy and asks to leave. Poch and Levy seem very close so I'm not sure he'd refuse his wishes. Would definitely be funny if Poch turns them down, though. Then they'll probably have to turn to Zidane who I think would fail. Or scramble around with the names we were linked with prior to appointing Sarri like Blanc.

Third straight big club where his antagonistic ways has blown up in his face. Long gone are the days where you can manage the way Mou does. Unless he realizes this and stops creating a toxic atmosphere everywhere he goes he'll never reach the highest highs again. As he did before he got the a United job, I'm positive he'll convince some club to take a punt on him soon enough. One of the Milan clubs I would guess. United will surely make a huge effort to steal away Poch I'd assume. They cannot afford to take a risk after 3 straight failed managers have been sacked. Pochettino is the safest, best manager they could get. They'll offer him a salary he can't refuse (probably Guardiola type money) and a huge war chest in the summer. Lets us now hope that 1) they continue to be shite this season because it's hilarious and 2) Poch turns them down and they're forced to scramble around and panic.

I think English teams will win both the CL and EL this season. Most of the traditional powerhouse European sides have not been great (Real Madrid, Bayern, PSG, Juve) while City and Liverpool are just getting better. I think Barca are our best hope to prevent them from winning. I think Spuds will just make it through Dortmund in what will be a great, close tie. PSG will hopefully embarrass United. Guess I'll cheer for Atleti like I usually do when we aren't in it.

Cheeky move for Pogba in January? 😄 Could be amazing under Sarri and wouldn't have to shoulder 100% of the creative load. Think he'd be a monster here.

United are horrendous. Didn't look close to scoring and wouldn't have if not for a howler from Alisson. United's midfield is awful with Matic and Herrera. VVD has completely manhandled and dominated Lukaku. United are a side that needed to come here in desperation mode since they're so far behind the top 4. Instead they look like cowards.

As others have said, Alonso was again terrible today. He needs to be dropped for a match or two to send him the message that he's not undroppable and that his standards aren't good enough. His talent going forward isn't even able to make up for his dreadful defending lately. Its one thing to get abused by the top teams, but small sides like Wolves and Brighton are targeting him and having plenty of joy. Let us see Emerson, please! At least if he makes a mistake he's got bags of pace to recover.

What a shocking 2nd half performance. We completely took our foot off the gas and thought they would just roll over and give up. Instead, they had their tails up and took the game to us whilst we were totally unable to regain composure. Sarri really has to work on this. Very common occurrence.

Out of nowhere. Completely in control and almost 3-0 up and then they score...

Got better and better as the half went on. Amazing what happens when we are crisp and careful with our passing, huh? Our pressing has also been effective. Forcing Brighton's deeper players into making rushed, sloppy passes and giving it away.

Our passing has been utterly atrocious so far, fuck me.

Interested to see how this false 9 will work here against a side that we should actually dominate possession. Could be the way forward until we can maybe bring a striker in next month. But for the love of God, can we please get off to a fast start here!? Sick of having to wait sometimes a whole half before we wake up and take control.

As pathetic and awful as we've looked at times recently and in the first half here, gotta throw my hands up and credit the lads. After our first goal we were clearly the better side. Whole defense and even all three of Willian, Hazard, and Pedro played well. Wow, what a huge 3 points.

It's truly embarrassing how much better City are than us. We look like a feisty midtable side fighting like hell just to compete with an actual top team.

I'm not even mad at Sarri or place any real blame on him. Perhaps he was naive in thinking we could trust the strikers we had going into the season. But we have to remember that he showed up super late and didn't really have time to properly determine what he needed. That he continues to persist with Alonso is puzzling and even infuriating, though. He doesn't have to be dropped indefinitely but ffs, at least give Emerson a few games!

Fucking hell. Honestly, a false 9 almost can't be worse than what we've been using. But Alonslow starts again. I'm not sure I will watch this. Might just follow along on Twitter to spare myself of the anger and frustration.

If he starts on Saturday I'm not watching.

Alonso is basically undroppable when he's so clearly struggling. How bad must Emerson be in training for Sarri to not use him? Marcos has no recovery speed, gets caught too hi up repeatedly, and what was considered his best attribute (attacking) has been embarrassing for a while now. He can't beat ANY defender for pace and his crossing is awful. Today he gave it away carelessly about 4 times from the same exact spot on the left wing.

We have ZERO players who can reliably score. NONE. One of the biggest and richest clubs in the world and we depend on two strikers who can't score, two wingers who rarely score, and we have no goals from midfield. Meanwhile, City, Liverpool, Spuds, and Arsenal have goal scorers in abundance. It's a disgrace. We aren't making top 4. We'll finish 5th and have yet another season in the EL.

Absolutely shocking, horrific game to lose. We were totally comfortable and should've been out of sight at 2 or 3-0. Our attackers are embarrassing. We have bloody no one who can clinically score. Wolves shithouse tactics of constantly fouling over and over combined with counter attack after counter attack worked like a dream. Helped by a woeful referee and Alonso looking like he's playing with a 400 pound weight vest on. Seriously, Alonso is fucking shocking. Needs to be dropped immedietly. This embarrassing result combined with the smack we're going to receive on Saturday may be the start of the end to our top 4 hopes.