OneMoSalah

I dont think theyll have proper funds avaliable to get 3 or 4 big players until the summer, even then like most clubs buying in January, its always difficult. Theres plenty to there to work with for anyway. Actually intrigued to see if he has changed in any way as someone said in another thread this is really his last big chance at club level, unless Madrid are willing to go back for him in a few seasons (wouldnt think theyd fancy it because Pochettino is on a free maybe and likely their top bet if Zizou gets chucked). I am actually more interested to see where Poch goes from here because if it is a Bayern or Real who have been linked in the past, like Juve, he will have to win and for someone who disregards domestic cup competitions, it will need to be a change in mindset from him. This appointment makes the games against them even more interesting. Love him or hate him, personally I am excited Jose has stayed in the PL, he may be a bit of a idiot at times but he is top entertainment regardless of if you agree with him or not 🤣

Strange for someone to make that claim because as soon as he went to Juventus he was a bit of a cunt according to certain percentages of the fan base on the likes of social media and that. Funny how things change now Jose went to Spurs 🤣 Dont see why people still let Jose get under their skin, he did the same here to opposition coaches/players/fans etc in both his spells here albeit differently. His thing has always been psychology, getting under folks skins, be it mind games, going to other clubs whatever and then building up a sort of us v them group mentality. Enough Mourinho. Hopefully Pulisic is fit to play, he could do some real damage I think.

I dont think anybody is overrating Spurs regardless of where they are just now. We all know how good they are. Out of form but who would of said this season we would finish above them especially after appointing Frank and losing Eden? Id imagine a lot wouldnt be so sure. They still have got some top players in key positions, for instance Kane, Eriksen, Alderweireld and Lloris are all arguably in the top 5 of their respective positions in the league. Think Jose fits Spurs in terms of what they need the now like a glove. They need to go back to basics in terms of without the ball, shore up in midfield because they are caught on the transition too easily and once they cut out individual errors as well theyll not be as easy to beat as they have been. Tactically he will probably play 4231 which they already use but tweak it. Spurs have never had someone who has that huge winning mentality either. Whether or not his last few jobs ended up with sackings in the third season, he still has won more than Pochettino in the last 5 years. Go back before that and look at his trophy haul, that will make the players respect him from the get go. While going in and winning the CL is maybe a tall order they are already qualified from the group. Knockout football is as much luck as anything else, Di Matteo coming in here in 2012 shows that, you get the rub of the green in some games and big game players to deliver, so who knows? Hopefully it doesn't happen but I am still surprised hes went to Spurs as it is, if he went and won a trophy in his first season.... they have good enough players to challenge for cups/leagues I think but they severely lack depth though in positions such as RB (well if Aurier was our RB I'd want an upgrade 🤣), LB (same as with Aurier, Rose/Davies could be upgraded on definitely), CF and out wide which is why theyve always come up short in my opinion. They rode their luck last season As I said up there, in knockout football, you need luck at times. The run up to the final in 2012 prime example as well as the final too. Messi hitting the bar from that penalty Barca got against us, Gomez missing countless chances he would of buried in any other game that season or next, Cavani missing sitters... luck certainly can help in certain details.

Looking increasingly better every time I watch him. Very talented boy. Not be long before Juventus want him or Inter try to resign him.

4 days rest is more than plenty of time. Hes made it through unscathed despite people thinking he should of been rested. Less international breaks throughout the season would be better but wont happen quickly enough.

True and it was actually confirmed Carlo wanted Torres. So maybe Aguero wasnt the right fit for what Carlo wanted. Still think Dzeko would of been a even better fit for us but City got him from Wolfsburg.

Probably all true. This is why Hazard with all the ability he has, will still never get to that next level because he is a bit more chilled out and perhaps lazier than someone of his level should be. I doubt Mikel meant this in a bad way because he knew first hand Eden is so good but with a little more dedication he could potentially go that step closer to those 2 at the top. I think Cesc said if he was more greedier and wanted to score more goals or be a bit more selfish he could have gotten closer too. Was the start of last season he said that IIRC.

I think this is probably the most bullshit story theyve posted about us in a while. As if JT would of said that and as if the club, who are so thorough and during that time, did brilliant recruitment would not go for Aguero due to JT saying something like that. I know there was the Ribery and Villa quote he put out (that article has it there too) but we didnt get realisitcally close to signing either of them either. We probably never went for Aguero because at the time Anelka and Deogba were playing well. Will be as simple as that.

Kante probably needed the minutes having not played for a few weeks being out with an injury but as I said in another thread, still no gripe regarding Mancini using Jorginho who was fully fit and not injured beforehand. Regardless, Kante being fit again is very good for us, especially with the City game coming up. Hopefully go with a 3 man MF with Kovacic-Jorginho-Kante.

Im still on the fence regarding these comments as some of it I'd say is spot on and some of it ie the comments after United game, is a bit off. I have really enjoyed him and Keane on Sky because they are straight up and arent biased compared to Neville and Carragher who make it a United and Liverpool love in every game. Even if they arent fucking playing 😂 The whole youth thing will be reflecting poorly on Jose and Conte for definite. If the whole buzz around us playing the academy players is going to affect his judgement, which I dont think it will, then he shouldn't be a manager or a pundit. Hes left us a few times and weve done right enough and even at United when he went they improved for a while, I doubt that has affected his judgement or opinion on taking or not taking jobs or particularly bothered him at any level. I mean he managed us and ended up at United so if the whole buzz around our youth playing is affecting him then I will be really surprised. He said in a game of that dimension you need more and as youve said the teams not the finished article but Jose being Jose, I think hes talking about it from what he would expect. He mentioned the gaps between the midfield and defence not being right IIRC which was spot on as well as our press consisting of 4 players going and the rest of the team not going, which again was fair and spot on. I do agree with you regarding the whole tactics and experience thing, it is experience but you cant get experience as a kid if your not playing. I do still think the game v Liverpool in the supercup is the best of our big game performances this season. Theres still plenty to work on. Set pieces are horrific still. The Leicester game I think we were lucky we didnt lose because if Maddisons final ball was better theyd have won the game 100%. It was controlled to a point but the gaps were huge, Leicester just seemed to find it easy to get at the back line. I think if we sat a bit deeper, it would of suited us better because they'd have to pick us off and we would be a threat on the counter. Again though he is learning and he has been tweaking set piece defending etc to no avail because we still look ropey defending them. Franks a flexible manager, hes still very much learning as well so this teams trajectory can only go up as will his stock as a manager. I think he has exceeded expectations so far as youve mentioned were above City, have played better without making any signings etc but we still have plenty to do.

But again, in my eyes, regardless of if their qualified or not, that would be like saying it doesnt make sense for Frank to play him against a lesser team here in the PL or what. For all the NT games in a season as well, if youve got your best players avaliable surely it is in your best interest to use them to maximize the chance of winning? If he was carrying a knock or something I could understand them resting him. But he wasnt. He just sat 1 game out due to his suspension v Palace too so he would of been rested so to speak so Mancini is well within his rights to select him. We can't be selfish in a way where we want Jorginho or any fully fit international player to be able to play most games for us and get rested by their NT even if they are qualified or not. It has never really worked like that. Mancini having PL coaching experience from his time at City as well he will be aware that players he selects from there will play a lot of competitions and not have a winter break. It will be more up to Frank to find time and solutions to rest guys like Jorginho, Tammy, Kovacic etc who will have amassed X amount of minutes. In an ideal world there wouldnt be as many NT breaks but there is, so it will be a recurring theme all season, like England being qualified and playing Kane, Sterling etc when theyve played a lot as well this season. Its not just a Chelsea or a Jorginho specific problem.

Perhaps but again, what do you want Frank or Mancini to do? He is undoubtedly a key figure for club and country. He has played a lot but I doubt it is really going to benefit him if he plays 5 or 6 games in a row and is then rested for 2 weeks or whatever. He is in good form, has got good match rhythm so interrupting that, which it will happen eventually with the festive fixtures/cup games, may also affect his performances. The recovery time between games has been kind so far, obviously the fixtures are more crammed this time of year but I dont think he is any danger of being burnt out when we are only not even halfway into the season. If he was struggling with injuries or looking sluggish in his performances, then yes I'd see the point more but throughout his career at Napoli and here he has been pretty good for avoiding injuries and while that isnt always a guarantee, he played for how many years under Sarri who is notoriously known for a lack of rotation... and he was arguably one of the most key components of his side there and here. Obviously the team will change for the games coming up and he will be part of that in some capacity but I still think its being a bit over the top its not as if hes breaking down. I really dont think Frank and Jody would have played him so much if they were as concerned about his fitness/potentially picking up an injury due to being overplayed.

Yeah its madness. Such a disgrace to see in all fairness, never mind in football. I still remember when Neil Lennon and Niall McGinn got sent bullets when they were at Celtic and the whole circus around that, not sure why these idiots feel compelled to do this sort of shit. Italian football has enough problems with racism and now this sort of thing happening, doesnt bode well for it.

I see the concerns but he just missed a game for us through a suspension.... Its upto Frank to manage him throughout the season accordingly because he will play more for club than country. The regards to Italy calling him up, if Italy want to play him despite being qualified they can and he is fully fit so dont see an issue where I know there was regarding Ngolo due to his fitness at that moment in time. But again, Jorginho didnt play the last game for us before the international break so he would of had time to rest and while over the course of a season one game isnt exactly enough, he has missed other cup games as well. I think its perhaps just overthinking and expecting the worst.

If the coaching staff want the players to not muck around on social media then they have to set that example. Morris posts on twitter and instagram a loy so he has to toe the line.

Sarri will take him to Juventus I think. Eventually. Cuadrado is getting on.

Its a bit of both. Obviously hes made errors and so has the defense. Maybe a new coach is needed because Sarri had his own one last season and Kepa was better so maybe Hilario, who in all fairness and respectfully was a reasonable enough servant here, is part of the problem yeah. The natural talent is there with Kepa, his distribution and reflexes are very good. Not sure Shay Given will be the best GK coach but again not sure, a familiar face for Frank though.

Exactly. He didnt even play poorly the majority of last season in my opinion, Sarriball maybe restricted him as well as inconsistencies from the team as a whole for a wee bit but Sarri was never fully accepted because of the disconnect with the fans and Jorginho was basically the one man everyone would associate with Sarri so he was a scapegoat. The last 3 or 4 months of last season he was just as good as anyone in that position in the PL imo and in the Europa League run, again he was very good.

Severely overrates fullback. Pretty much hopeless defensively. Scoring goals as a fullback doesnt make you a good fullback, I mean just look at half the opinions on here regarding Marcos Alonso and even Ivanovic towards the end despite him getting goals.... even then hes 28 turning 29. Plus he has lost his place at Paris I think for the very reason Tuchel cannot trust him defensively.

One meeting but it took him about 10 weeks to sign the actual contract. I smell bullshit because there is no way we are that bad at dealing with setting up new contracts. No way in hell.

We are just awful at defending set pieces. Regardless of who plays. It would be like saying Kepa has played every game this season and the stats for lack of clean sheets doesnt look good... when in reality our defending set pieces has been a huge weakness of ours and it wouldnt matter if we had 11 Terry's or 11 Drogba's, if the set ups poor we would still concede. The set play set up is more coaching than anything because there's no way we have made say 5 or 6 individual errors at the set plays weve conceded and even the ones that we havent conceded from. Even more so when you look at the fact that we have used zonal more often than not. Yes Alonso gave away a penalty v United and whatever but in terms of defending set plays people going after Alonso who is up there with Rudiger and Zouma as probably one of our strongest players in the air, seems a bit moronic. Alonso has been a opinion divider since his 2nd season here but honestly I dont think he has really let us down this season in comparison to his performances last season. (Apologies for the 2 posts in a row didnt notice the previous discussions before the last post haha)

No Bernardo Silva for City. Banned for one game and fined 50k for the whole Mendy incident. Not sure what to make of the incident and not aware of the whole story behind the Conguitos character either. be a tough match anyway they have got excellent squad depth and attacking players.

Tbf they did and it was obvious to see why. There were numerous times Hazard, Willian, Pedro etc could of passed to him at clear opportunities at times and didnt. If they were confident in him they would have. Not their fault they lost their confidence in him, simple as that, just an excuse more than anything if your doing your job and playing well regardless of scoring goals or not, your team mates will be confident in you. End of story. For Atletico he has done wellish but still, if shit goes south they will get a new CF in, theyve always shown they want as many top CFs as possible.

Having watched a lot of Celtic games for years now including the old firms, I am still not 100% absolutely sold on both Morelos and even Eduoard making such a big move yet. I did think that Moussa Dembele, Kieran Tierney and also Krisoffer Ajer who will be the next one to go, were definitely ready to move to a bigger league although I do think if Morelos or Eduoard got a move similar to Dembele's and continued to grow for a season or two, it would suit both of them much better while they mature a bit more as players. I think Moussa Dembele and Tierney both had a real maturity to their game as well as their ability, you wouldnt have thought they were so young watching them play. Both Morelos and Eduoard at times, that perhaps shows, but again having Morelos here competing with Tammy and both of them alternating for playing time isnt ideal for both of their developments. Their both at ideal ages where they need to play every week. Saying that, Morelos' temperment has improved a lot since he first arrived in Scotland and his physicality means he usually gives defenses a tough time, in Europe and in Scotland. I am not sure if he is technically superior to the likes of Eduoard or Dembele. In and around the box he is very good, undoubtedly his strike rate is very impressive for a player lf his age. I dont think Morelos has ever played as a wide player for Rangers or Columbia though. The price for either Morelos or Eduoard is going to be 30m plus undoubtedly though, both players are goalscorers which adds more to their worth.

Personally I still think Solanke is one of the more overrated English youngsters to have come through in the last 5 seasons. Youth level and senior football is two totally different things, Solanke hasnt even done anything relative at Bournemouth and has only scored 1 PL goal his whole career playing for us, Liverpool and now Bournemouth. Even Klopp preferred keeping Origi ahead of him. How he has an England cap is beyond a joke as well in all fairness.