Pizy

We have so few ideas without the Hazard option.

Painfully slow in possession and getting passed around easily without the ball. Sigh...

Really is strange to see a big club like us start what is basically the first game of the season without a single new player in the XI. Without Hazard and a first choice #9 I also must say that our XI looks quite average.

Would've liked to see Rüdiger in with Azpi on the right here to possibly prepare for Burnley.

Loads of pace in that Arsenal team. Hopefully our midfield doesn't get bullied with Cesc in there as part of a 2.

Thought Sanchez was being hyped up to return for this? Be surprised if he doesn't start.

Definitely think we'll see Morata wide again unfortunately. And if he struggles there be prepared for the whole football world to call him shite and say we completely wasted our money on an average player.

It almost sounds like desperation from him now to get the board to fucking do something.

How pathetic do you have to be to make a fake football journalist Twitter account? And not even one of the bigger, more well known journalists at that.

😰😰😰 Edit: nevermind

I'll give everyone here a BJ if it happens.

I may as well lock this thread if no other mods object.

Just trying to understand why Conte would apparently like him. He'd have made more sense if we had signed Lukaku, tbh. A striker who plays on the shoulder of the CB's and sprints in behind. So long as we sign 2-3 more quality players this window I won't care if we bring Drinkwater in. Van Dijk, Ox, and Drinkwater and I'd be content.

I may be remembering wrong, but hasn't VVD been playing mostly as the left CB at Soton? I don't think he plays as the "sweeper" in the center like David does. I could be wrong. Even if he had been, he's good enough to walk into our XI in any CB role without moving Luiz around. Think he'd take our defense and team as a whole up a level of he replaced Cahill. I'd be a hell of a lot more comfortable with him in the side against top opponents.

To be fair, watching his highlights from their title winning campaign he does look very good playing the ball over the top to Vardy in full flight. Everyone in that Leicester side really struggled last season so maybe the likes of Drinkwater and Mahrez will return to a high level in better sides.

YouTube usually has highlight videos where even decent plauers can be made to look top class. Youtube can't even make him look good! What a strange, strange target.

Years ago. In an emergency situation he can fill in for a match or two. Thinking about using him there with any regularity would be stupid.

Azpi moving to RWB I can definitely see. No way should Luiz ever play in midfield again unless there's literally no one else available on the day. Hope Conte never even considers that. If the club simply cannot get a quality upgrade on Moses then signing VVD and moving Azpi makes sense.

He's at his exact level now. A slightly below midtable Leicester side. He's no better than that. He'd be a nice signing for a club like Stoke or West Brom. I cannot believe that we'd seriously be after him. That's not to say he wouldn't do a serviceable job if called upon here, but surely spew should be aiming higher? Can't see any of our rivals even sniffing around him. Even Liverpool who love a bargain basement midtable signing.

Which further reinforces my opinion that there's no way Conte wanted Matic to go. It was 100% a board decision. He could've stayed and been a vital member of our squad. Now he's a vital member of a direct rivals squad while we are dangerously short in midfield.

Like I and others have said, Matic is still too good of a player to have sold to a direct rival. There's no way Conte would've sent him there if it were completely up to him. Much like Cech to Arsenal where Mou would've blocked that.

Disagree. Will he be bombing forward constantly and beating players with his dribbling? No. But he'd do very well in the role in my opinion. Besides, it's much more important to have a more attacking wing back on the other side to support Hazard. Having wing backs on both sides that are weak defensively will be a disaster against top opposition now that we have many more matches.

A back 3 of Rüdiger, Luiz, and Van Dijk with Azpi at RWB would be completely dominant in the PL. We may lose a bit in attack on the right with Azpi there but I think he'd do very well in that role. Much better defensively than Moses and decent enough further up the pitch. We'd have 3 CB's who are physically dominant, very comfortable on the ball, and can all spray the ball around easily. Add Kante and Bakayoko in front of them and I'd say we have the most complete and balanced XI in the league. I'd also trust Cesc in a midfield 2 more with a CB of Van Dijk's quality added to the side. The negative as already mentioned is that Christensen would surely be off. Don't think we'd sell him but probably loan. At this point I'm putting this in the "too good to be true" category personally. I'm not convinced we're after another top CB.

Bit suspicious that literally only the one source is reporting this. You would think Chelsea making a £50m move for a player would be a big deal that a bunch of papers would be investigating.

Oh my. Not sure I believe we're after another CB. If we got VVD, though, it's surely the end of Cahill in our first XI?