OneMoSalah

Interesting so far. Leeds look dangerous everytime they go forward. Liverpool look shite defensively same as in Community Shield.

Thiago Silva played virtually every game for PSG in the league and in the CL including the final where he looked so comfortable against arguably the most in form player in Europe this season. He will be fine.

Think he got all 3. His shot was saved for first goal, his corner for second and his pass for third.

You either back the manager or back the player. We had already decided to get rid of Conte by then. So if anyones to blame its the higher ups making the decisions who decided to keep him despite that incident. Looked very good on his debut for Arsenal, also got 3 assists. He had our highest goals and assists involvement in attacking midfield last season and letting that go to a rival was potentially going to not end well. Regardless of how people feel about him, if he recreates those or betters them numbers, it reflects badly.

Well deserved he gets number 10. Easily our most important player last season and in the long run he is going to be the face of the club alongside Havertz for the next 10 years plus. Marketing side there too but anyone who says he shouldnt of been the number 1 option to get it would be lying.

Pretty sure his contacts almost done. 1 year left. Signed 5 years when he signed under Conte IIRC. Or did he renew? If so stupid move just let him for free.

I really dont know with Soumare. Honestly he just reminds me of Bakayoko in terms of he has had only the one decent season and I was wary of Bakayoko when were linked despite the opinion he was the second coming of Yaya Toure, for this exact same reason....

Bit unrealistic. He had a really good 3 or 4 months under Antonio before flakering away after the Barca game. Tbf, Hes put some really solid matches in since over the last 2 seasons with Sarri and Frank but again hasnt been too consistent and the defence which hes been part of has been poor. I dont see where this could be world class thing comes from. Its the same as when he was in the academy people were spouting it. Could be world class and being world class are 2 totally different statements. Would much rather people say he is world class because that means he is doing it. As opposed to he could be, which means he isnt doing it or done it yet. I understand you need to be patient with players but you either are world class or your not. He has the potential to be a very good player but he isnt yet. He is a pretty decent player but is still flawed and still can grow.

Should of just sold Zouma and let Tomori compete with Rudiger to play with and also learn off of Thiago Silva who I think is going to definitely start this season. I mean he was very good in the CL run and shackled Lewandowski pretty expertly if you ask me in the final. Baffling decision if I am honest. You sign a 36 year old CB whos won everything more or less in several leagues, captained his national team and then loan out one of your two young CBs who could learn a shit tonne of invaluable things off him from playing with him and training with him. A season after playing him sort of regularly with no PL experience. Hmm. Okay may seem harsh on Zouma, obviously he is decent enough but he probably isn't going to elevate his game much much higher in the same way Ross Barkley isnt going to even if we signed the likes of a Zidane or someone in that position. Their at ages now where theyve more or less sort of shown what sort of players they are going to be. Obviously Frank has his preferences, as we know he likes Ross, he likes Zouma which may have accounted for it but still questionable. Plus the games Tomori played last season I would say he was likely to he ahead of Christensen in the pecking order too. I suppose if we were weeks into the season and he didnt play its also a fair idea but we wont know, I can see him going to Everton and having a good season, where people will probably question why did we loan him out if we end up with a shite GA again. Also whats changed after last season? We should of just loaned him out last season if Frank felt he needed a move to play more PL games. He will be better off having played in the PL for 1 season so a loan move now strikes me as very odd.

Loan RLC out for another year? Havertz is like 21 and so is Mount. Plus Kovacic and Kante are probably going to be here for another 2 or 3 seasons. There isn’t really any room for one of Ruben or Ross if I am honest. We have left and right sided midfielders for a 3 man MF. Despite Barkleys obvious limitations I think FL will keep him ahead of Ruben right now, we all seen him try shove Ruben in as a winger at times the 2nd half of the season, he doesnt suit playing there and he looks well short of being the player he was under Sarri. It will be interesting but Mount, Kovacic, Havertz and Kante are going to be ahead of both this season for those roles in a 3 man MF. Jorginho as a 6 although I do think your right and Frank wants Declan Rice.

I dont see how selling Jorginho or Kante is going to make this squad work. In deeper midfield those two are our best players if I am honest and Lampard has to get one of them in at least if he is to be successful. Its more guys like Ross or Ruben who will be likely to find playing time hard to come by and likely to go eventually if I am honest. Even more so in a 433 with two 8s say to how City play, it would still be same scenario if I am honest. Havertz has to play. Mount has shown he is incredibly hard working and Lampard is a keen admirer hence the minutes he got last season despite playing through sticky spells. Jorginho is still our only midfielder truely capable of dictating a game and the tempo. our best football came with Mount-Kovacic-Jorginho actually last season.

Who is saying sell Kante? Have you seen how top heavy the team is? How shite we were in transitions last season and if we keep same approach will likely continue to be this season? And selling Kante is still in some people’s minds? Fuck me

Some great stat comparisons etc but even in his first season it was so obvious to me if we wanted to move forward and be a team that dominate the ball and play like the way we all wanted to he would be the key player in midfield. His passing range is always overlooked but as many have seen it is there and it is good. You need the movement and the fluidity in other areas of the pitch and we always haven’t had that. Even the fullbacks athleticism let us down st times particularly on the left before MS trusted Emerson. I felt Sarri would of brought that sort of football but it didn't really happen either and maybe he needed a bit longer but with Hazard and Willian in attack, who in my opinion more likely to want the ball to feet to try dribble or break a team down than run off it in the same way Pedro did at Barcelona or Sterling does for City under Pep or Callejon did for Sarri in Naples or get into the box regularly, it was always going to need time or personnel changes to make it work. Pulisic I think has that selfless running and ability to get into the box in an area between the two goal posts regularly and now Werner as well could have done that from the left. obviously now with Frank its no surprise to see we are upgrading in attack, these additions should be aiming to improve the fluidity, movement and overall quality which should help Jorginho as well from that deeper position to find runners over the top more or players at least making movements that can open space up for other players in the team as well.

Good post. I have to agree with Chilwell, Werner, Ziyech and Havertz (closer now) coming in, particularly Werner and Havertz, should raise Jorginho’s game because the movement will be much better off the ball and hopefully look to get in behind more. Ziyech as well is also going to be a huge player for him, coming between the lines to receive the ball. Really think selling Jorginho would be daft still.

Rakitic is 32 or 33. Hardly a shocker would of been more a shock if they sold him for that 2 years ago even if it was PSG. Think Barca tried to offer him to PSG for Neymar in that deal firstly but when PSG wanted to buy him for 80m€ (lot of talk it was 65m €) separately, he didnt want go either which is why he said the whole I am not a sack of potatoes thing. Not sure its free either his move now, Seville got him for like 1.5m € upfront and then goes upto 10m € with add ons. Potentially only going to reach 4m € for definite, rest depends on him or Sevilla doing very very well apparently. Umtiti is a weird one, always a good CB but move to Barca and Euro performances sky rocketed his stock and overrated him a bit IMO. WC winner or not, will find a club somewhere if they want rid of him. I think Koeman could improve him a lot also though.

Jason. If he signs, he signs!!! It would be more convenient but it’s better to get him whatever way than not to haha.

Maybe (if your on about Firmino that is). Depends though how you look at Firmino. He isnt necessarily a 9 to some people but he reminds me of Karim Benzema and has played as a number 9 in a similar system to what Real used with Benzema centrally dropping in, linking the play and Bale and Ronaldo coming infield from wider positions as forwards and running in behind. I would class him as a centre forward if I am honest, I know he was an attacking midfielder in in Germany but I would say he is a modern CF. Suppose just a matter of opinion. When people say false 9 I think more of Messi or even Gotze with Germany and Bayern.

How can they say no? They can say no, legally he has a contract. Same as any other player. Would you let the greatest footballer of all time leave your club so easily? Regardless of what he’s done recently missing training, putting in a request etc? Even more so when the clubs all over the place from board to president? It makes them look strong keeping Messi in this position when everything else has gone to shit around them. Personally I doubt he will go anywhere the financial impact of a transfer fee of that magnitude in the current market without mentioning 500k weekly wages makes it even more unrealistic. I think he wants the current president to resign and this is why he has made this request to leave. Eric Abidal left his position as sporting director, after being responsible for various transfers and also the sacking of Valverde and Setien. They are going to go through a major restructuring. If they do sell Messi, they will be even worse off.

Selling Messi would be the stupidest thing they could ever do right now. In fact any massive club in the state they are in now, selling their best player would be a shambles. Everyone knows Barca are a shambles upstairs and most players out there will know this. The lure of playing for a big club which is in disarray isnt half as appealing as playing with Leo Messi. The playing with Leo Messi lure outweighs the playing for Barcelona lure right now. Actually I would say it has done since Valverde was in charge and they’ve regressed since then. Luis Suarez I sort of agree with about selling and it seems Koeman is keen to get rid of him as he had a poor season but again on his day can still contribute something I dont think hes particularly lost his legs or his ability overnight. They need to figure out a lot quickly but selling Messi would be incredibly daft. Dafter than some of the stupid shit theyve been doing over the years, dafter like signing Braithwaite, dafter than spending 140m on Coutinho, dafter than appointing Setien etc etc etc.

People will just pick on Azpi in the same way they did regarding Cahill when he was captain, which is ironic because as soon as someone else criticised a player they liked it was the good old oh just get behind the player and the team. Its just a stupid argument to have. I mean do you think City fans argued about similar things when David Silva was made captain or Liverpool fans when Jordan Henderson was made captain or United fans when Darren Fletcher was made vicecaptain (he moved not long after as he hadnt played a lot due to his illness but still) or whenever wny club made their captain or vice captain someone totally against the mould of a Terry, Vidic, Gerrard etc? Captains come in different shapes and forms. There is different types of leadership and ways of being a leader which makes me realise that people are so caught up in how captains ‘used to be’ (as if its changed hugely and that every captain was one of these guys mentioned above) that they are totally blinded by the fact that just because someone sits shouting on a football pitch it means they are captain material when it doesn’t mean they are necessarily captain material. They could be shouting a whole lot of shite, I mean weve all played some sort of sport where some fucking idiot will sit talking shite throughout a whole game and you are thinking wtf are you on about... I would imagine some of these professional footballers are more than likely the same and probably some of the coaches can also do this too. But on regards to having leaders the addition of Thiago Silva is huge for that, all good teams or even looking at businesses have more than one or two ‘leaders’ so to speak, you need a good number of these guys. Its no surprise we were so successful with Cech, Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Cole, Ballack etc because ok while we only had one captain you had several senior leadership figures.

Hopefully we never line up with a false 9 ever again after Di Matteo, Conte and Sarri using it over the years here. Bar Guardiola, what manager has ever successfully incorporated one in his team? And even then, he had the greatest player of all time in the role in one of the greatest club sides of all time where they had such qualities in various areas of the pitch to make it work so effectively. I get Havertz has played there, I do, but I dont think it should be a viable option, I know you said if necessary but I think even with Eden in that position we lacked so much and even more so, even with Havertz we still will lack.

I dont see it. Hes probably half the player Thomas Muller is and even then Muller divides opinions due to his rounded ability and particular playing style. Knew he wouldn’t end up signing for a Real Madrid or a Barcelona or a Juventus. He might get a move but I dont think he's gonna excel particularly. If he surprises me fair enough but I dont see it.

He can sound as daft as he wants as long as he delivers on the pitch. Thats the important thing, why people care what someone sounds like or what their IQ is or who they kick about with or how many cars they have or whatever when their paid to kick a football is beyond me, just freakishly weird. As long as he doesn't do anything stupid off the park and does well on it, I dont care about anything else. That should be the criteria for footballers. Nothing else really. He will be an improvement on our other LBs. 50m not bad compared to the 80m we were first told to pay.

Arsenal should be 2-0 up at least. Liverpool playing virtually every one of their starting players bar the RB and maybe Milner and they look beyond average. Thats with an extra week of training and more pre-season games also. Think Arsenal look really solid in defence which is a concern because thats been their problem for ages.

Ruben looks like he will never make it back to that level he had with Sarri for 4 or 5 months. Not just based on today but last season also. Yes it was a big lay off but he just looks sluggish and afraid to run with the ball. If we sign Havertz, him and Barkley are as good as gone imo. Or at least one and its at the point now where I would imagine Frank sees more from Ross than Ruben, even more so based on last seasons continued faith.