OneMoSalah

I think people underestimate, despite the perceived “lack of quality” Alonso and Moses have, what they brought to the table last year and how they free’d up Willian, Pedro, Hazard to play more centrally which is what people always wanted to happen after the whole Jose asking him to be disciplined come back and help the fullback. Now people want new wing backs, I think we could still improve on both but spending big on players isn’t always a success. Alex Sandro has been pretty poor for Juve this season, there’s no doubting he’s a good player but he could come in and perform just as poorly as he has done at Juventus or worse. I think generally we could do with a better quality of attacking players to help Hazard, Morata and Cesc either from the starting 11 or for the bench. I think to point at City and go they spent 150m without hesitation on full backs or United having spent 100m on whatever is not always right, you can get the right player for less, sometimes the biggest name isn’t always best. Also if you look at the way the City squad is built with attacking players, they have always been top heavy going back even when Mark Hughes or Mancini was there. What I like about Conte is he manages to get a system that gets performances out of the likes of Alonso, Moses, Cahill who are good players not particularly top top level, but what they do are crucial to the inside forwards and striker in the team as they provide genuine width and stretch teams. He reminds me of Ferguson in that way, Fergie got average and absolute shite players like Darren Fletcher, Wes Brown, Ji Sung Park, Johnny Evans and whoever else to perform to levels and in ways nobody expected them to. Even last season I didn’t expect us to win the title yet alone compete for it after the previous season but he found something that worked and ultimately you could say it improved almost every players performances at the club as well as influencing clubs to try and replicate his tactics. Peps City are going to win the league and will be remembered for a long time if they continue at this rate and style and whatever but they won’t be the greatest team to have won the league in the past 10 seasons. Conte winning the league last year with that squad and team is probably a greater achievement than anything Pep has done since his days managing Barcelona too imo because it was completely unexpected. Back to transfers I generally don’t think the issue is Conte picking transfer targets. It’s the club and what was an unbelievably disorganised summer that didn’t help. Arturo Vidal would be an amazing signing despite his age as well. He is a real complete player.

Honestly not sure what to make of him and now it’s confirmed that he’s going to Liverpool for 75m... he was vastly overrated before but now, with that fee... jesus, it’s a lot of pressure because if Liverpool’s backline doesn’t instantly improve then he will be given as much criticism as the rest of their CBs. Saying that I liked the look of Lovren in France and for Southampton but look how hes turned out for Liverpool. I think this could be a similar if he has a bad start. For 75m I wouldn’t have gone near him though, far too much but they are desperate so Southampton were always going to get a record fee.

Honestly having watched Celtic the past season and a half he isn’t exactly a massive talent, which is a term that like world class is being thrown around like mad. He is good for Celtic, last season the whole team were on another level to where thy have been in years and years due to the high of Brendan Rodgers coming in to replace the underwhelming Ronny Delia but they’ve not hit that heights this season just like Dembele hasn’t either. He will undoubtedly leave but honestly he isn’t better than Batshuayi and that says a lot considering Batshuayi isn’t particularly great. Saying that Brighton would be good move for him, there’s no way he’s ready for a top 4 club and again he would need to take the path a few ex Celts from recent times have done. Looking at Wanyama, Forster and Van Dijk who have been successful in the PL after moving from Celtic and eventually made moves again like Wanyama and now it seems Van Dijk, who have improved again and gotten moves to top 4/6 clubs.

Crazy. Even crazier is why anybody would publish that on their website 😂😂 not even we are that stupid to do such a move

Never mind if he wants to leave, if AC Milan are willing to let him go for anything yet alone David Luiz I’d say we keep our distance because either he’s dropped his performance or has upset somebody. I mean look they made him their captain upon his arrival, breaking a massive promise to Donnarumma which was in that new contract he took ages to agree and now Bonucci is wanting to leave after 6 months? I can’t see the club spending unnecessarily on him considering Christensens break through and the urgent need of strengthening at LWB and CF. I can’t even see him actually wanting to leave anyway, just seems like a bullshit rumour because AC are struggling.

Wait and see them show up and do what they did against Liverpool to us 😂

Grimaldo is a goood talent but he has got injury problems and I can’t see Benfica selling anybody mid season for anything but a buyout clause or extortionate fee. If Sandro is available he will be the clubs first choice for sure.

If he’s going then we surely have somebody lined up. After the comments Conte has made about transfers this season i can’t see them not having somebody lined up.

Tammy sitting on the bench here would be pointless, I mean honestly how often does Batshuayi play from the start? Once every 6 weeks or so? Then 10/15 minutes in games we are winning every week or second week... sure Conte doesn’t trust him but I can see him and the club preferring a young kid like Tammy is away on loan playing every week for a few years like Andreas did because he has huge potential and stagnating him by sitting him on a bench is pointless.

Juventus apparently want David Luiz and we want Alex Sandro, so hopefully we do what we should of done this summer with Matic and offer them Luiz + 25-30M for Sandro. Win win

Tbf I don’t think we started the season particularly slow last year or in particularly this year. Inconsistent this season yes but we had injuries at the start of the season, hardly had the depth to deal with it, which doesn’t help coupled with a bad start against Burnley but if Man City hadnt won 16 on the bounce we’d be 5-7 points off them. The CL games against Roma doesn’t help. Also last year we had two big game losses in succession but other than that we still started decently enough. City won’t start as well next year just like we didn’t start as well as we did when we won the title under Jose a few seasons back. Everyone is raving about Man City which they did about us last year when we were on that run. It’s just a pattern that seems to repeat itself every season. There’s no way this City team is the best team in PL history like some idiotic pundits and journalists are suggesting.

Apparently Rafa Benitez wants to sign him on loan in January for Newcastle. Make whatever you want of that. https://t.co/AKQlh8RMUw

I know people have already posted similar things to this and I know people don’t like him playing as a false 9 but if anybody in that forward line is capable of playing that role it’s Hazard. I don’t think Pedro would be suited to this position as somebody suggested. For me, a false 9 comes off the Center backs and into the space in front of the defence and helps create another man in the MF. He is as much a creator as much as a goal scorer, who possesses the ability to hold onto the ball in tight areas, score goals and is able to create chances for the inverted forwards. You look at Messi when he played as a false 9 at Barca he had runners in Pedro, Villa, Sanchez, Cuenca or Tello in the wide forward positions, who would come inside and their movement would either occupy the opposition freeing up space or they’d be able to run into vacant spaces left by players going to engage Messi. Pedro is suited to one of those inverted forward roles for sure but Willian I’m not so sure he comes to the ball a lot more than Pedro although not many teams posses a forward line as good as that Barca one from however many years ago. Until we get a back up striker of adequate quality maybe playing a false 9 as a back up option would be decent but again we would need another wide forward imo. I think the fact you don’t see that system used now a days just shows the lack of players who can occupy that false 9 role effectively. Although I think somebody like Paulo Dybala would be exceptional in that role anywhere especially at a Barca or Madrid.

I generally think Conte is the best manager we’ve had in a good few years in terms of motivational skills and tactics. I hope he stays in charge for another 1 or 2 seasons at least as I don’t think he’s done building the team or squad he wants, he is clearly wanting to challenge Man City next year for the title as he’s said in a few interviews and I believe that if anybody is capable of challenging City next season for the title it will be us. I still think we can get the points gap down this season but it will be pretty tough. This talk of Carlo coming back would be an extremely poor and backwards move for us I feel. Carlo is a good proven coach but at Bayern the complaints was he wasn’t anywhere near as demanding or intense as Pep (although not many are) and I feel he would have the same issues here. Conte is a demanding and intense coach, who works a lot on tactical aspects based on improving the team and players in training where as Carlo is not and although he had a very good spell here I think this group of players wouldn’t be as productive or willing to push themselves anywhere near as much as they do now, just because of how Carlo is.

Honestly disagree with this. If your any player and you’ve got the balls to question the managers tactics then you should be man enough to take the circumstances regardless if it means being benched, dropped completely or being sold. End of story. The board and owner (who were more behind signing Luiz than Conte was) would be backing the coach. We aren’t exactly short at CB and quite frankly there will always be good center backs available in football. Even if Luiz goes in January or say we wait to the summer, it’s an easy thing to fix because Kurt Zouma comes back. Before his injury for me he was by far our most consistent defender. Sure we’ve added but I don’t think his defensive side was ever an issue for him but positional and being comfortable with possession. If anything we lose Luiz we aren’t in the worst position because Christensen has shown he is more than capable of playing at a very high level at such an age. Will we even need so many CBs if Conte doesn’t stay beyond the summer as well? Talk of Carlo coming back, although maybe just rumours makes me wonder. If we go back to a back 4 Azpi, Christensen and Rudiger won’t be going anywhere.

If Luiz is injured or not think he’ll end up leaving and even if he doesn’t, Christensen will remain in the starting 11 undoubtedly. Think he probably has fallen out with Conte over questioning his tactics and the whole training alone thing. There was a similar thing with Sturridge years ago before he left for Liverpool, he was reportedly injured but moved to Liverpool and it turned out he wasn’t injured. People were saying he had fallen out with staff or that he had been asked to train alone etc. How true that was I don’t know.

Totally agree. Especially somebody like Pedro who has won the World Cup, European Championships, CL, Super Cup, Club World Cup, Premier League, La Liga, Copa Del Rey and whatever else. He is a serial winner. The thing with olders players is that they are more likely to accept being squad players as opposed to young guys and players in their prime who don’t want to be sitting on the bench. Pedros game is not necessarily about relying on break neck speed either, he’s always been quick to a degree but not that quick, I think he’s more than good enough to be an excellent squad player option if he’s willing to take on the role. He always seems to have an impact of some sort too when he comes on.

I’m not judging Bertrand on the fact we sold him. We had Ashley Cole on his last legs and he couldn’t break in. Eventually a RB took Cole’s place. When he did he played as a LM. Says it all. He didn’t go on and become a world beater or anything we necessarily missed. Hopefully the club can find some sort of player like a Alex Sandro or even take a gamble on Luke Shaw as well.

If Bertrand was good enough he’d never have been sold and replaced by a mediocre player like Baba Rahmann. Particularly when in recent times we needed to fill our home grown quota. Regardless of playing 3 at the back, 4 at the back, 5 at the back or whatever he’s not good enough... considering we already have Alonso who is a better player than Bertrand and people want to upgrade on him. Bertrand would of been a huge step backward. Unless he was to be Alonsos back up but considering links to the likes of Alex Sandro, Alex Telles... heck even Kolasinac at the end of last season, were all linked so for me Bertrand would be a step backwards. Regarding the former youth players not given a chance your meaning him, Ake and Chalobah in particular right? To be fair Nate is a much better player, with a higher ceiling who could have easily taken Drinkwaters place in the squad but he didn’t want to stay. Bertrand for me would be an upgrade on Kenedy but still he would hardly displace Alonso and offer anything more. Where as Nathan Ake has not shown anything to prove he’s worth the 20m Bournemouth paid for him so not a problem either.

Another defensive minded midfielder? Wont be a priority. Not even worth considering after signing Bakayoko and Drinkwater in the summer, unless it’s some sort of bargain once in a lifetime fee (which it won’t be). Our midfield needs creativity, not more defensive minded players considering we already have Kante, Bakayoko and Drinkwater in those roles. Fabinho’s clearly not a RB/RWB either now a days so it would be a stupid move as well to sign him to play there.

Not for me. Don’t think Mahrez is Chelsea level. Hes a half decent player who had his best and most consistent year 2 years ago and won’t improved much more, it took two managerial changes and moving him to a “free role” to get something consistently productive from him. He wouldn’t get that here. I’m not even sure he’s better than Willian or Pedro, other than that one year he’s not done much else to get excited about except maybe 5 games since they changed coach and his role. This adjusting to PL thing is not as big as before, particularly for attacking midfielders and wide players, Lemar is a good player, if we could get him for 40-60m it would be an excellent move that would pay itself off as he’d be a player who is good enough to play here for the next 10 years. Buying in January is difficult though, Mahrez could be seen as a more attainable fall back option but he is a worse player than Lemar.

Don’t think it will be anywhere near as bad as people think. I mean the matches aren’t to February... Barca is Barca but they aren’t unbeatable as Valencia showed few weeks ago. Real/PSG game should be a belter for neutral football fans.

I don’t see why Courtois doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. If we lose him that is a huge problem because for me he is in the top 5 GKs in the world, has got god knows how many years at the top left and is at least equal or perhaps better than David de Gea (who is somehow talked about being better than Neuer which is nonsense as Neuer is incredible and the complete goalkeeper). Also he is a leader, big personality and ultimately a winner. There are lots of very good goalkeepers around and very good young ones developing sure but Courtois is better than most out there.

He’s nowhere near world class class. He’s a very good young player but people are getting carried away extremely Italians, he has shown just as many weaknesses since breaking into the Milan team as strengths, these world class tags are getting more ridiculous.He will undoubtedly grow into a top top player eventually at any club but he is not world class because if he was he would have already displaced Gigi Buffon as Italy’s number 1. That’s the stark reality of it. Buffon is a great goalkeeper (but think he’s no longer one of the best out there) but he is 40 y/o realistically if Italy had any world class goalkeepers they’d have replaced him. I think he’d be a very good long term replacement for Courtois if he left but don’t think he’s near the level of which many people think. He’ll grow into one of the best goalkeepers of his generation if not the best if he continues to play every week but honestly it could take him the next 3-4 seasons minimum to reach those heights.

To be fair he’s hardly made an impression at Liverpool. He’s played two games recently maybe yes but we are halfway into the season. Hardly a massive leap up the pecking order. He should of went somewhere else.