OneMoSalah

Nice of Eden to show up. Great goal.

Luiz is so shite its unbelievable. Before anybody hits me with the oh he can play out from the back, fuck off, were getting fucking dominated by Watford, fuck his passing. Absolute liability. Rest of the players absolutely disgraceful in terms of attitude except maybe Kante. Giroud on finally. Hudson Odoi next please.

If I were Conte I'd be sending on Giroud and Hudson Odoi before 60th minute because we need something. Hazard and Pedro arent really offering anything. Wing backs aren't offering anything. Pity we've 10 men makes it more difficult to introduce two of them but yeah surely we'll get some sort of change, we need to wake up and 2 changes like that would do it.

Tbf not surprised. Hes hardly played in 7 months and in the space of 3 weeks along with training hes played what like 140 minutes? Match fitness needed to be built up slowly but Willian's injury didnt help.

Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid. Courtois that is.

40M. Why couldnt we let United sign him. Is he a lost cause? Probably if Conte is gone.

Bakayoko is an absolute shambles. Holy shit.

Dan Levene is a fucking tosser. Never seen so much shit on social media in all my life until I seen his. Fucking does my head in, him and several other idiots, who post absolute pish, ie. Conte out because hes not winning the league this year bla bla bla or whatever crap people come out with. That article alone is full of absolute shit too: -Last world class player we signed Eden Hazard, he wasn't world class when we got him was he? He is world class because hes developed here, not because we signed him as a world class player. He had huge potential. -Saying Mourinho overachieved when he won the league here? Really? He had one of the best squads in the country, arguably the best or 2nd best behind City, hardly call that overachieving. When we signed Luis, Costa, Cesc and recalled Courtois, 4 excellent players, it was so obvious we would win the league. You don't sign those sort of players then win the league underachieving. -"The lack of a Plan B, and a rarity of game-changing tactical moves, have grown clearer in recent weeks." Plan B? With what? No disrespect but if your plan B is Michy Batshuayi, you'd may as well stick with Plan A. No disrespect to Michy, hes obviously got a talent to a certain level but hes not up to the standard for me, hes not going to come off and change a game like a Gabriel Jesus or Zlatan Ibrahimovic is going to in that regard. Plan A was 3-4-3 last season and at the start of this one but 3-5-2 was plan B, its difficult to totally change a team when you've not actually got a specialist LB (Alonso is a LWB, put at LB and hes fucked) and have like 6 CBs. Lack of investment seriously hurt any chances of changing the team, also did you see how average we looked playing 4-1-4-1 last year? This squad, if the manager leaves, is completely fucked unless we get serious investment into it to change back to a back 4 and then revamp MF and possibly outwide depending on Eden or whatever. -"On average, the people that run the club are pretty good at finding the next best thing: a new man, every couple of years or so, able to reinvent and deliver short-term success" Hes joking right? Who next? You cant go through a manager every 2 years or every year and continue to do so, there is no plan, no vision, we might have won the league twice in 3 or 4 years now but honestly, we need to get some sort of plan, theres no point looking into the short term if your long term idea clearly isn't there. I'd take a year or two more of us building towards something and actually managing to get sustainable success with a clear idea (or a failure if it doesn't work out) than new managers every year or year and a half, I thought when Jose came back that was what the club wanted, theres only so many managers out there that are of a certain standard, you can't expect to work your way round them and sustain this ideology to build any sort of image or culture at the club, no way. Anyway all that shit aside. Conte, for me, is bold asking for a public backing, AVB never got it when he asked (fair enough he was a novice coach, whatever else had happened too with senior pros etc) but honestly I don't think this club is the sort of place you come and then ask for public backing when things start going pear shaped, that is just making me slightly panicky, that is almost like "okay I'm worried in case your going to sack me as its in the media, tell me you wont or do it" and I think that could rub off on the players and also Conte, which could affect his judgement. Sure its not an ideal situation but its hardly the end of the world, if we beat Bournemouth we would of went second yeah? Small margins.

LB, Augsburg? No thank you. Good day.

Sergio Canales? Is he still kicking about? Haven't heard of him since Real Madrid and Valencia moves didn't work out lol.

Can't see him ever making it a top 4 level club anyway, not anytime soon. Think him learning the defensive side of the game to be reinvented into one of those positions would just kill his development as a footballer. He looks so much better going forwards and even then, hes not overly great at that.

Asensio yes all for it because hes too good to sit on the bench at Real but there is no chance Sterling will leave City. We should of tried to buy him from Liverpool a few years ago or maybe even last summer with all the uncertainty around him but not going to happen now, hes one of City's key players. If Hazard leaves, 100M minimum plus Asensio, if Coutinho is 142m then Hazard has to be at least 180m upwards surely?

He was never going to be a long term option at LWB or even at LB under Hiddink and Mourinho. He doesn't exactly look a great talent but he'll surprise people at Newcastle I think if played in an attacking position. Still think he has a long way to go to be a squad player here, yet alone a starter.

I was reading comments from the first pages of this thread and the difference to now is ridiculous. I actually think the boards become victim to its own success in the past in a way, we used to go out, target players and they’d be signed within a week or two. Other clubs took notice: City, United, Arsenal, Spurs have all started doing the same and now we are going the other way in trying to spend less. Not even looking to sign players now a days unless they are generally under 23 and can grow and it it doesn’t work out can still make the club money (few exceptions recently). Think we need to go back to frying bigger fish, beating top clubs to top players in some instances, Kyle Walker and Alex Sandro would have been huge for us this summer.

Obviously he'd say something like that. What manager is going to say "No I'm not working to the best of my ability", what sort of message does that send to one the owner, two the fans and three the players? Him using the world exploiting is odd, how many times have you heard somebody say they're exploiting a squad to the max level? Is that another funnily worded hint or dig towards the club for leaving him short of players in his mind or what? Anyway when you put 11 players of that level out on the pitch you'd expect more if you were any manager. He made a bad call with a sub (not first time). That really changed the game for me, showed his intentions, to let Bournemouth play more. He has to motivate the players for the rest of the season and get them to finish top 4, he can do it I'm sure but again hes got to watch because a few more results like this against smaller sides and he probably won't be in a job long. Roman is not afraid to do something like that without hesitation. In the next month or two we'll probably have forgotten about this result anyway. Sometimes these freak show days just happen. Just seen the second quote. This is not news to anybody. We experienced this shit when we won the league under Jose, we didn't improve and look what happened. Every summer, most top 4-6 teams buy 3-6 players minimum of a good standard or to fill their squad. We needed improvement on Moses, Alonso, Batshuayi, Cahill, etc. We didn't sign anybody to improve on them (Well Morata but lost Costa after so not really improvement). If we finish top 4 hes done alright, considering all the talk and how people will say he needs to go now etc after this defeat, considering our strange dealings, considering more minutes (lame excuse still but yeah), considering the form of players who were much better last season etc etc. but these things should be expected.

Bad move replacing Barkley with Cesc, it was 0-0, I know hes Italian but take a risk, keep Barkley on and put Cesc on in place of one of the deeper MF players. Giroud's arrival gives us another dimension but again is it going to be enough if we've got 2 defensive minded midfield players on and only one or two attack minded players around him? Some of the subs these last few month, fair enough hes complained about the squad, have been bad. Not saying he needs to go, not a chance, hes a top manager, proved that last season but if he stays next year him and the club need to be more proactive in transfers and perhaps he needs to take the shackles off in games against smaller teams where its 0-0? I don't mind seeing us a bit more cautious in bigger matches, we aren't going to pass Man City or Liverpool off the park but if we're solid enough and can get a few clear chances we'll always be in with a shout. The smaller teams though, different story, we need to be more on the front foot at certain instances.

Copied this from page 1 of this thread, was in the article thing when he signed. "Bakayoko, 22, is a tall, strong and quick central midfielder who was instrumental in Monaco’s Ligue 1 triumph last season, as well as their impressive run to the Champions League semi-finals." Strong? Wtf was that for the first goal, big lad 6 ft plus fell like a sack of spuds, why try buy a foul there as well? Talk about using your head, your 15-20 yards from your own box, what a clown, why go backwards with the ball under a lot of pressure? The rest of the performance, Anonymous again throughout except maybe one or two decent long passes wide. 1 step forward 2 steps backward. If we are lucky enough maybe he'll be better next season but looking at him so far this season, wasn't really sure he could get any worse, then he played alright for a few matches but tonight, atrocious.

To be fair, to come on in this team and look half decent tonight, fair play , could have just came on and coasted like the rest, sure the others didn't do much but for a 17 or 18 year old he looked very confident in his own ability, wasn't timid or scared to try something. Also lets be real, in all likelihood if the team was picked based on the match from tonight, he'd be starting but there would be 9 or 10 changes, lets not beat around the bush, Pedro, Hazard, Barkley, Cesc didnt exactly set the world alight either. Regarding Odoi, lets not get too ahead of ourselves, he'll probably go out the squad when Emerson, Giroud, Willian are in and amongst it but hes not done any harm and if he keeps up his performances with the youth team he'll get more chances. Although Josh was the same and what, hes ended up playing in League 1 and the Championship now just shows.

Do you think we'll be playing a back 3 come the summer? We will probably need to get rid of 2 CBs unless we continue with 3 at the back because you can't keep Azpi, Zouma, Rudiger, Luiz, Cahill, Christensen happy when only 2 will play every week. Cahill and Luiz will be the first edged towards door I think. Cahill because of hes weakest out of what we've got and age, although him being captain gives him a lifeline - unfortunate unless back 3 stays because as a squad filler meh, youd hope he wouldn't play a lot although Luiz would be better for that role and could actually start in a back 3 - and Luiz because any manager should be able to see how much of a liability he is in a back 4... and before anybody says "oh wait he can pass the ball out from the back", regardless whats that got to do with how good he defends when the other team has the balll? Liability. Or will it be the midfielders fault for him being exposed again etc etc. Azpi will probably go back to RB if we switch back to a back 4 (new manager comes in its going to happen), so maybe only get rid of one but I can see their being a few more. Contes as good as done.

Honestly don't think Ake is particularly that great either. Had a good game tonight, along with the rest of their back line, none of our CBs covered themselves in glory which will prompt people to say we should have kept him. If our attack showed up tonight it would have been different.

Honestly he should start next game can’t be any worse than anybody else in terms of being positive on the ball. Really disappointed with the result but like the look of this kid.

The way he was heavy involved in the goals wont help his case but I think in other matches he has played here he’s been decent enough. Poor tonight in second half. I’m glad to see Hudson Odoi on though. Looks bright. On another note I think taking Barkley off for Cesc and not Baka was a hugely negative change before goals were conceded. We needed goal threat and Barkley further up pitch would provide that, Cesc playing deeper giving passes into those guys in between lines and around half spaces. The no focal point doesn’t help either. Or conceding shite goals.

Yeah was poor. Whole team has been shite. From back to front. No point singling out one when the other 10 haven’t done anything better. Probably go as far as saying Marcos Alonso again looking or most threatening player.... our LWB

We’ve conceded 2 soft goals because the whole defence has been poor and we’ve not scored because the attack has been non existent. Make that 3 😂 Anyone else think Roman might hit panic stations?

Okay he’s at fault for that one 😂 jesus christ