OneMoSalah

2 man MF is a bold move. Anyway lets get into this Barca team and give them a real game.

If we lose Hazard to Real him or Isco is a must get in the deal. Asensio is younger and can just be as good as Isco if not better. Was outstanding the other night for Real v Betis in what was a pretty exciting match for a neutral.

I get you know pal, yeah maybe but Costa (this is going to sound odd) still when he was anonymous and not scoring he wasn't entirely ineffective (sometimes, not all the time, perhaps his fitness played a big part too he always seemed to have wee niggling injuries during the winter and second half of the season). He had a big effect at times even when he wasn't playing great, still occupied defenders, the more aggressive and physical side of his game was a bonus for us as we hadn't had somebody like that since Drogba (although they really were totally different players). Its a real pity Costa and Conte fell out because he has been excellent for Atletico since going back, hes been a huge miss for us although I'm a massive fan of Morata. Hazard false 9 I agree with, its pointless, Hazard and the team suffers. Plus when Hazard said we don't need another striker because he can play there I was quite shocked because his goal ouput could be better. hes got like 15 for the season in all comps but still think it can be better, not convinced either that hes got that ruthlessness (or maybe you could call it selfishness) that good strikers have. I'm not entirely sure Batshuayi ever did enough to convince Conte though, hes doing good things for BVB but I still think he may struggle to get back in if Conte is still here next year. Maybe he deserved more chances but like manpe said ultimately that first season where Michy rarely played at all until the second half of the season, we went on to win it with Costa having been pivotal, Conte's decisions seemed to work. I think at Dortmund Michy will get plenty of minutes, if a new coach comes in here at the summer and we don't potentially pursue a deal for Pulisic from them then odds are maybe he gets a second chance but still slim in my eyes. Giroud for me is a perfect second option (despite him being in his 30s) his game isn't based on pace, he holds it very well and links nicely with attacking midfield players. Morata will be better next season for having struggled during the last 2 months here too, he'll know that he needs to be fitter perhaps because there is no stopping period like Spain and Italy.

Not relative to what the other guy said but I am keen to hear what you mean by 'Conte misused Michy'? Because he did play him and in his right position to which he didn't do anything spectacular. Fair enough hes got something like 20 goals in over 50 appearances in 1 and a half seasons but considering only 7 of those were goals in the PL says a lot.

I think pace will give Pique more issues than strength. Although its an interesting one to see who starts, Giroud or Morata.

We will play counter attacking football against Barca without a doubt. Not quite like the 2012 games vs Barca but it will be quite nasty at times again for us I think, Barca have been excellent this season after many people questioning them signing Paulinho, selling Neymar, not signing Inigo Martinez as well as the likes of Iniesta, Messi, Suarez getting older etc (age doesn't make a difference for those guys imo still world class players). Emerson has more pace than Alonso so he might be a better option for us, as well as having greater recovery speed if he gets beaten. Yes pace isn't everything and yes Alonso offers height, a threat from set pieces and maybe hes a bit better defensively (honestly not sure haven't seen a lot of Emerson) but we are going to need quick transitions to get up the park, players like Emerson, Moses, Kante, Hazard, Willian, Pedro, Morata... these guys will be crucial over the two legs for us going forward and getting chances. I'm a huge fan of Alonso and finally he has got a reasonable level of player for competition, so it will push him as well as give us the chance to rotate him but I think purely from how we are going to get chances created and goals from the game, Emerson could be in contention to start purely for how quick he is and how comfortable he is taking players on 1v1. Probably won't start but that is what I think. Barca full backs maybe don't go as high as they did under Pep but they still like to go forward and leave spaces in behind.

Your right. Old post but yeah selling De Bruyne for profit as well as Mata (although at the time I hated the fact he'd sold him as he was our best player in the previous seasons since arriving) while resigning Matic was a masterstroke in the short term imo. Matic was needed more than any of those two at that point considering the likes of Oscar, Hazard, Schurrle and Willian were playing more regularly and consistently than those two. Salah came in, didn't get a huge chance (as we've seen now with him scoring goals for fun at Liveprool) but at the time nobody complained. In the short term, when we won the title the next season, nobody cared.

Tbf I can see Michy going to Dortmund in the summer if Conte stays or not. Just don't see him ever starting ahead of Morata or Giroud who offer so much more in general play and playing with the likes of Eden, Willian, Pedro and Cesc. Morata is on a dry run goal wise yes but Giroud is PL proven and will get a good few goals before the seasons over. Morata will probably get some goals again before the season ends, just think a lack of fitness and fatigue from playing every week was perhaps hampering him but now we have 2 good options.

Honestly I think his career will go the way of being a box to box midfielder, hes not exactly brilliant tactically, I reckon he'd struggle to play a fixed role as a holding midfielder. He can break the lines pretty well, did that for Monaco, but honestly unless he improves drastically he won't be a long term feature here and rightly so, 40m should get you so much more. People complained about Rami and lack of technical ability for a box to box midfielder at times but in all honesty he was 10 times the player Baka is and technically on another level (which says alot because Ramires was also infuriating when it came to how he would use the ball).

Make it happen. Batshuayi, who has been quite frankly poor here, and cash in return for Pulisic who has the world at his feet? Would be idiotic not to.

Looks like a man with a point to prove, which bodes extremely well for us. Impressed with him against Hull and also quite happy with what I seen of Emerson. Hopefully Barkley can have a positive impact when he comes back too, would be a nice wee boost going into the latter stage of the season.

I think we might see them both together but not starting, can't see Conte sacrificing Hazard to play with 2 upfront because there is no way we will play Barcelona with a 2 man MF, not a chance in hell. Hazard off Morata or Giroud is a must with Kante, Cesc/Barkley and Drinkwater/Bakayoko in MF regardless, playing Barca with a 2 man MF is suicide.

Why does it matter how old he is and how many kids he has? What the actual fuck is going on. Basically all I've read is something along the lines of 'Oh he might leave because his kids are in Madrid' and 'why does he have 2 kids aged 25', what do you want the club to do next sign players with no kids, no girlfriends and make them get the snip haha?

Would be an excellent signing imo. Wouldn't be surprised if Bayern snap him up eventually though. Lewa is in his 30s and Werner is a totally different style of striker.

Tbf out of all the recent Chelsea managers he has given the likes of Christensen, Ampadu, Hudson-Odoi, Ruben and Nate (last season) a decent enough amount of time considering our record with youth. I'd like to see more of CHO and Ampadu before the summer but chances are slim because in all likelihood he will be gone come then.

Tbf hes showed more at Dortmund in 3 games than he did here in 18 months. Not hard as he didn't exactly do anything spectacular here, fair enough he had limited minutes but he looked extremely poor bar maybe 3 games here. Will he have a future here? Maybe but hes not going to be playing every week regardless, so if he needs regular matches to show hes a good player then he has no chance.

Central or right side I think. What a player he is though by the way. Would take him here for 50m never mind 25m.

As of right now I'm currently training to become a marine engineer. Worked on pipelines beforehand.

Nobody voiced support for AVB is what I meant, half the shit he got was probably from Chelsea fans

I'd much rather see us go for Milinkovic Savic. Someone that could do a job long term rather than a year or two with a much larger wage. Vidal is a more rounded player, sure SMS is a very good talent but for 2-3 years Vidal would still be an excellent player. Think people forget how much he gets about for Bayern even while now being in his 30s he’s all action and has real quality.

Good start. More to come, at Arsenal he’d score in a game or two and go on a run so hopefully he can get some goals in the next few fixtures. Never doubted his willingness to be involved in the play or his desire but although he added a lot more of a killer instinct to his game the last 3 or 4 years at Arsenal in comparison to the inconsisten player he was when he just arrived, still guilty of missing some decent chances. Should have got one tonight. Maybe he’s waiting to get his first goal v Barca, fair enough if so 😂

People were very vocal about wanting Scolari and in particular AVB sacked if I remember correctly. If we never won the CL and FA cup that year RDM came in, people would probably have called for his head too. I think people have seen now that the club has a big chunk of blame to take for not only how we’ve been this season but also in previous seasons gone by, like Jose’s last year, although he was always going to get sacked things were worse then than they have been this season imo but could habe been easy avoided with a few better signings to keep first 11 and squad more competitive.

Think the penny will drop for him up here. He'll soon learn that you need to be more than just a luxury player at Celtic, James Forrest was keeping Patrick Roberts out of the team for the very reason he would work harder off the ball in comparison although maybe he doesn't have the same ability level as Roberts. I might go watch Celtic one of these next few weeks, seeing Musonda play in person would be quite cool.

Icardi top 3 CFs in the world with Kane and Lewandowski? No Suarez? No Griezmann? Not even Higuain in about that mix either? Good dream but like 75% of those deals would never happen. Particularly the likes of Alaba, Varane, Saul, Milinkovic-Savic... Bayern wouldnt even entertain selling Alaba or Real Madrid wouldn't even consider selling Varane. Romagnoli probably not leave Milan anytime soon either, he is seen very much as their future. Saul signed like a 9 year contract at Atletico, think that says it all. We wouldn't pay whatever Lazio want for Milinkovic-Savic because they seen how much Pogba went for and they believe he can just be as good so yeah..

Not sure if this is tongue in cheek or not but Burnley have come a fair bit since they first came up, they aren't exactly just a defensive team and they play a lot more than they used to. Anyway we won the league playing a similar style more or less haha, just sitting off teams with a back 5 and block of 4 in MF really. Personally I think Dyche has done an excellent job there actually. Not that he'll ever be considered for here and not that he should be (potentially he could end up managing a much bigger club in the future if he keeps going the way he has been but).