OneMoSalah

Ahead of Mount in the 10 role. 100%. Dont think he will come here though, on his day an excellent player but Zidane said he counts on him. As mentioned he seems to be content at Madrid too.

Much needed win with Spurs losing and United getting 3 points. Need to keep winning to build up a points cushion on the others particularly before we play Arsenal and Spurs. Top 4 race is going to be very interesting indeed.

The same way Lukaku was a Chelsea fan, at a club who sell (Everton after we sold him), who was going to resign here because he wanted to prove himself here after loans, being sold and whatever else bla bla bla, before be ended up chosing United over us? Its easy to put 2+2 together and assume things. Theres still different angles and views, personally if he has the choice to choose between us and some of the teams hes linked with, I dont think he will be coming here and I could see why. Even then, the big money weve recieved or will receive, I still doubt we will go mad and spend 100m or more (he could potentially go for 150m if he has a very good 2nd half of the season) for a player who has only played 18 months of first team football. Another concern I think the club and Frank will see is that he has shown discipline and punctuality problems in the last 3 or 4 months as well as the whole scapegoating thing which I think all are part of a pretty ridiculous ploy to accelerate a move from Dortmund. People also think that players being fans of certain teams makes it an absolute cert they will go there. It doesnt neccessarily make a difference. There will undoubtedly be a bidding war for Sancho this January or in the summer, whoever pays Dortmunds price will get him and thet will get a huge fee over 100m if it goes how I think it will (they say hes avaliable to leave in the summer when all the big clubs prefer to do business). He realistically could have United, City, us, Liverpool, PSG, Real, Bayern and Barca all going for him if the rumors are to be believed. I do think we will be nowhere near the favourites, I mean Barca, Real and Bayern even if they are in a bit of a mess, they still get pretty much most players willing to walk to their stadiums to sign for them. If they are geniunely in for him is another matter but I do think Bayern and Barca will most likely be as well as Liverpool.

Because he was fit then got reinjured against Wolves IIRC. Similarly to Kante and Emerson around that same period of time. Anyway stuck on a boat with shite wifi so cant get the game, heres hoping we get a result.

Pepe still has time to come good, coming from Lille in the French league (at a level inferior to what Eden came from when we got him) to the PL is different. He is a good player, tad overrated (which is why I am happy we didnt get him at first because I thought he would need time to get upto speed in the PL and at 72m wasnt the best value) and his inflated fee hasnt helped along with Arsenals Arsenals inconsistencies. Still think Pulisic has got plenty to work to do although he has impressed me, didnt doubt his ability based on a difficult season at Dortmund but their were people who wrote him off before he had even kicked a ball.

Have to disagree with this. A lot of people keep comparing what Franks building here to what Klopp started at Liverpool when he first came in but you look at Klopp's Liverpool team now and they only really became potential trophy winners when they strengthened at the back by signing Van Dijk and Alisson. They had the high press, brilliant attack, reasonably solid midfield but lacked defensively and that limited their potential as a team. Joel Matip is a decent player but he is 10 times the player next to van Dijk and there is no comparison between Alisson and Karius. Take those 2 and even Fabinho out of their team and I doubt theyd of made back to back CL finals. Even Man City under Pep, the first year he had Kolorov, Zabaleta and Bravo as 3 of his 5 players in the defense. He signed Mendy, Walker and Ederson and they won the title the next season. They were better defenders, much better suited to playing defensively in a Pep Guardiola team in the way he likes his teams to defend high. People dont look at their defences but if City had Zabaleta, Kolarov and Bravo playing every week still they wouldnt be winning trebles and if Liverpool didnt have Van Dijk and Alisson they probably wouldnt of won the CL. Good defence is still just as necessary in modern day football, regardless of if your an offensive minded team or a much more defensive minded team. Cant outscore teams every game if you cant keep goals out at the other end. Brendan Rodgers Liverpool back 5 or 6 years ago or so is proof of that.

Just depends. At Derby he wasnt exactly hugely productive in terms of creating chances I felt. Vitesse he was and youth level but that league is a lot more open and lower quality. Probably finding the same thing this season, higher quality of opposition, a lot more mixed tactics, where the final ball has to be perfect because you might not get that many chances. His last assist was against Burnley. His last goal at club level was against fuck knows.

Billy can play higher up too but hes not the right option either. Just depends. I think Mount is becoming a bit jaded, hasnt scored in how long and his last assist was vs Burnley and while thats not a fair representative of his performances, hes played a lot of games this season. When Ruben comes back he will be a big plus.

Well I thought West Ham would be an easy win for us so now we have to definitely beat Villa and then Everton to have more control in the top 4 race. Must win. Just get it over the line. Not bothered if we play shit or not. Villa wont be pushovers either Grealish and McGinn have got something about them.

Think as long as his recovery goes well a 433 with him taking Masons place will be likely, cant see him slotting in anywhere else unless he plays off the front as well but I dont know. His physicality and ability to break the lines with his direct powerful runs is a huge plus.

Mourinho with a point to prove v United? They will win it. I have a feeling he will get a result against us too (lets be honest who wouldnt be surprised?), just think we will play into their hands like with United on opening day.

Not even mentioned Arsenal who can still make up ground too, having sacked their manager too que the new manager bounce when they appoint one, I havent got full faith that we will get 6 points from those games (Ajax, Valencia, United and City all sufficient evidence we need a lot of work still) although I do think Spurs and City will beat United but you never know. As Frank said this is a reality check, people wrote Spurs off too soon (11 games into the fucking season....) and 2 PL games in with Mourinho, theyve won 2 and jumped like 8 places in the table and are right where back in it, still early days too but the Mourinho being finished and going to destroy Spurs bla bla bla was daft to presume.

How the fuck did we manage this? West Ham's beem playing shite for weeks on end. No striker on after 60 odd minutes, for me, Frank got it wrong again. Same mid week and same v City. Still plenty games to redeem ourselves though but if United win as well they will be chasing too for the top 4 with Spurs too who despite conceding are still getting results. We need to make sure we win our next few and those 2 drop points to give us a bit more clearance again, 6 points isnt a lot and considering we have to play Arsenal and Spurs soon too.

And where are the folks who thought Spurs were out of the top 4 race after 11 games now???? Funny thing that. We need to win our next few games get out of this run of losses in the league.

Yeah if anyones in a good mood after losing to City and drawing with Valencia in the last week then they need their head checked.

For me its a pointless comparison. Kylian Mbappe is a once in a generation player who is already so far ahead of Sancho, who has delivered on the biggest stage in world football, the world cup. Plus he has never displayed any sort of attitude issues, been fined for being late, subbed off by manager for poor team contribution in a derby game or took the huff/felt he was scapegoated because of that sub... I can see why people wouldn't be worried about his pricetag because he has no baggage to go with the fact hes already an unbelieavle player. Sancho is a good player but has already slowed down from last season and looks like he will be trying to force a move already with all this bullshit he has come up in the last while.

Tbf out of the Turkish, Portuguese and Chinese league, it is only really worth judging his stats in Portugal where the standard is higher unfortunately and even then weve seen players do well at Benfica and struggle in the PL such as Lazar Markovic. 20 goals in 77 games for Benfica is not bad either obviously but the other 66 goals he has scored since then came in Turkey and China. I think this guys chance of a career at a top top team has passed for whatever reason be it money, lack of ambition or laziness. He had promise but hes 25 now, he probably is leaving it very late.

Sancho signed a new big contract last summer. No way they will sell him for less than 100m euros, pissy behaviour or not, just look at the Dembele situation a few years ago.

Sancho again, good player, obviously got a bit of an attitude problem though because it looks like this is something he is using to try and force an exit. At his age and having only played 2 seasons of top flight football, it is extremely worrying to see especislly as we are continuously linked to Him too. If he was late here, he would be fined 20k wouldnt he 🤣?

True but they also had a settled team, they didn't get many clean sheets but in key moments in games they remained solid enough to withstand pressure spells, the Man City and Ajax games for instance despite playing or not playing well in spells of it. That comes from having good players, collective shape and organisation in key moments. Obviously the ideal thing would be for us to be really solid but I understand that with this way of playing, Rudigers injury and as well as arguably having 2 CBs who havent really kicked on in Zouma and Andreas and still not being able to balance Kante in the midfield while keeping Jorginho and Kovacic in, it is hard. I mean when we play bad we cant seem to stop conceding chances far too easily, there was times where even if we didnt play well or were under pressure in a period of a game we had enough about us to be solid and not concede chances.

Tottenham last season had the one thing we dont this season though, a solid shape and settled back 4 with 2 proper CBs who are leaders and organisers. Alderweireld and Vertonghen (even Sanchez is decent although he has regressed I feel) are very good CBs, aging but very good, but their team shape also helped them and although Moussa Sissoko was a bit of a joke for a few years his physicality and energy in there undoubtedly helped them in that CL run. Yes Rose and Trippier werent brilliant but they were reliable too. Throw the likes of Eriksen, Kane, Lucas Moura (who has surprised me since coming over because I thought he was overrated) and Son in any team that has good defensive stability and you have every chance of beating the likes of City and Ajax of last season. They even had a high chance v Liverpool. If we can sort out defensive aspects of our game out, we can certainly hurt top teams, I agree but I am not fully convinced with Zouma and Tomori as a pair or as I alluded to in another post, our team shape, we seem to defend well for a few games then look really open the next few. Rudiger has to come back yet though and I feel he is better suited to playing than Zouma. Zouma is good in the air though, probably better than Tomori in that aspect but again Tomori is better with the ball imo and despite not playing as well as he has, I think we should persist with him as theres huge potential there (shocked he wasnt loaned but the Luiz sale made it an absolute certainty he stayed) if he can iron out those wee things. Christensen looks a shadow of the player he was for 5 months under Conte but again Luiz excelled for Conte in a back 3 in his first season back, I said with Luiz then that I felt the system helped him because he had the 2 wide CBs who would engage players more and allow him to step out with the ball with less risk and perhaps the same can be said for Christensen.

Im gonna go back to pre-season, defensively weve never been completely right. This did improve slightly over time since that United game but it is regressing again. It is a huge issue. People keep saying not being clinical is an issue but conceding chances and goals is one of our biggest concerns. In Franks 2 seasons of management his clean sheet record is pretty bad. Are we going to say that is all down to players? Lets be honest there have been individual mistakes, yes but I still have concerns with the teams shape.

Got to be honest, not a good result. Infact both results against Valencia and the 4-4 draw with Ajax are not good enough in my eyes. Despite this team being "young" or "not the finished article", these are games where we should have played better in defensive and offensive side of the games. Conte or Sarri would probably of got cruicified for not beating Valencia in 2 attempts and defending in the way we drew with Ajax, thats the harsh truth. Luckily for Frank, hes still learning and doesnt have the luxury of the transfer window but we need to be blunt as well and acknowledge these results arent good. Round of 16 if we get through will be incredibly difficult, especially if we continue defensively in this manner against a much better team than Ajax, Lille or Valencia. Harsh reality but true. Good attacking football is all well and good but good teams are solid and hard to beat. At the moment, in Europe, we arent unfortunately.

It just depends. For me after first 30 minutes we struggled to move the ball fast enough, having commited men forward so City could just pick us off on transitions. They were happy to do that too. Felt we needed to be more balanced, yes we lost to a deflected goal and a individual goal but they could have scored more too as well. I think Klopps teams are very good against the likes of City but they arent all high press attacking for 90 minutes, they have periods were they arent as reactive. Fair enough they dont sit deep but make themselves solid, difficult to play through so the opposition teams work the ball wide and cross it, which is ideal as they defend crosses well with Fabinho, Matip, van Dij and Alisson. Then they go press at certain times and play direct long passes into the channels for quick counters. They have a mix of everything, they have a very efficient attack, legs in midfield and plenty of defensive stability with Alisson, Matip, Van Dijk, Fabinho and even Henderson (who I hate as a player makes me sick hes played in 2 CL finals 😂) Dont think its completely out of our capabilities to be more like this. On the front foot, pressing, then maybe be a bit more solid and then go after them again. Its in game management. I think Lampard is continually learning and maybe he will see that going to the Etihad and playing that way, having more possession etc is all well and good but still he will maybe think what if we were a bit more solid in that time of the game or whatever. Maybe not. Its just my opinion I think the big games he has to maybe realise that we can maybe be a bit more flexible, maybe sit 10m deeper in periods of games or maybe just control the game a bit better. Man City and Pep teams in general they will always prefer to face teams who try press or commit men forward because they are confident they can play through it and exploit the spaces. Similar to Sarri, at Napoli here and Juventus he wants teams to press them high so they can play through it and exploit spaces theyve left. Pragmatism has worked against Pep too, it depends on what your teams characteristics are. Dont think we could go to how Jose or Conte (2nd season) approached with Frank though not in his nature, hence why his teams havent kept a lot of clean sheets in his short spell as a manager at Derby and here. Contes team here when we beat them at the Etihad in his first season for instance though we didnt really press too much first half, sat deep and yes we went 1-0 down but equalized through a long pass and run off the shoulder of their defensive line who was higher up because we were deeper. Then second half we started nicking the ball 10m further up and went on to win. It just depends. Van Gaal's Holland team vs Spain again did something similar in the Euros or whatever in that game Van Persie scored that header. Played a lot more reserved in terms of going after Spain but then switched it up and got into them.

One mistake and if the ball didnt take the deflection its probably not going in.... He has been praised a lot this season because its been deserved. Give the guy a break. Probably been our best player so far this season yet one result v City where we lost and its basically all forgotten on here by some posters... I would question Lampards nativity (just a bit naive I felt) at trying to play away to City like that and really we played into their hands (just like v United on day 1), they normally have all the ball but probably knew they could get at us on the break/in transitions and they basically were happy to do that at home. Even then though, it was a deflected goal and a good second goal of individual skill. Defensive mistakes throughout the performance yes totally but nothing new in some of our games this season, particularly in big ones.