Superblue

Difficult to trust Mourinho's judgement when the likes of Robben, De Bruyne, Mata, Lukaku and Salah have all been discarded by him. The problem with Mourinho is his team is built in a regimented, machine like way, with the first port of call being physically strong and defensively solid. His team may afford a couple of more creative players but they must still be willing to work hard and fit to the system (e.g. a Willian over a Robben). The way I view it is that Luke Shaw isn't good enough defensively for Mourinho, which is fundamentally more important for his way of playing than Luke Shaw being good offensively. In other teams who are willing to play "front-foot" football and expect their full backs to push on, he could potentially thrive For me, Luke Shaw is far from the player he was at Southampton. Whether that is a result of lack of confidence, lack of character, the injury he suffered, or a combination of all three I'm not so sure. If we brought the player that could get back to his Southampton level then we'd have a player on our hands who could hold down the left hand side for the next 8 - 10 years potentially. But if his problems run deeper than confidence then we could be once again stuck with a risky buy that backfires.

I agree with this, he does have far superior passing skills and range. But I would still rather Courtois mix it up a little. He will nearly always try to play it short and in recent games I'm pretty certain we get caught out or dispossessed in a dangerous area at least a couple of times a game, and it's cost us a few goals to boot. There are no excuses when Morata or Giroud are playing up front because we have a target man to send the ball up to. I'm happy to try and keep possession and not simply gift it back to the opposition but it needs to be in a far more sensible way than what we are doing at the moment.

I've noticed this a lot of times this season and the fault cannot be entirely on Courtois. He must be under pressure from Conte to play in this way. Courtois in my opinion is a very good goalkeeper but he is not good with the ball at his feet, yet we seem to insist on playing out from the back. It's all fine and well when we're not being pressed as we recycle possession but when teams press high against us we still seem to do it and have got ourselves into trouble on multiple occasions this season. It's ironic because City don't even try and play out from the back as much as us. They will coax a team to push up a little higher and Ederson will then launch it long over the top for Aguero, Sane, Sterling to chase. We never seem to mix it up.

Agreed, although I wasn't around for the really lean times of the 80's, I do remember from the early 90's on wards, how great that FA Cup felt in 97, the cup winners cup in 98, etc. For me any trophy is success and enjoyable. People only go back in history and remember the teams that won trophies and were successful. If we drop into the Europa League next season, so be it. I was more than happy winning that trophy a couple of years ago, it was an enjoyable experience and like Arsenal have grasped, it may well be a huge opportunity for getting back into the Champions League by winning it. I would also like to hope it allows the board and the club to re-focus. I was listening on the radio earlier today someone speaking about Roma and how Monchi has come in and helped to re-build the team despite losing their most effective player in the summer in Salah and continuously selling big name players to balance the books. For me, it's key that we get a football mind on the board with strong power to get the club pushing on again. We're no longer shopping at the top end of the market and need to be far smarter with our purchases this summer and hopefully a mix also of youth integration and some of our own loan players coming back. It's a big summer. I've said in a previous post if we miss out on top 4 this season it'll be the 3rd time in 7 seasons which is starting to show a lack of consistency and stability which we once had.

He's very petulant and needs to learn quickly because once you have a reputation in this league, it's near impossible to shake it off.

Going back to my post earlier today linking us with Jokanovic. It's a weird link and at first thought it gives the impression of a manager version of our links with Crouch and Carroll. But actually when you think about it further, he's actually done a very good job in his roles over the last few years. He finally took Watford back up and was ridiculous how he didn't end up managing them in the Premier League. Took Maccabi into the Champions League group stages for the first time in however many years and has progressed Fulham on ten fold from relegation fodder to one of the favourites for promotion. All of this playing a progressive and 'easy on the eye' style of football and not having a problem giving chances to young players. Now the jump from these teams to Chelsea is beyond huge, and I'm not suddenly saying he is my first choice or 'the best choice', but with regards to the big name coaches we're being realistically linked with (Enrique, Tuchel, etc) none of them stand out in my opinion compared to previous years when we brought in the likes of Mourinho, Ancelotti and Conte. What I am saying is that a number of clubs have taken a punt on managers which may not appear to be 'elite' down the years and even recently who have gone on to do very well. I also get the feeling that the Board are trying to become more patient with managers and create a bit more stability. I think there is a realisation that we no longer have the biggest budget and as a result the strategy needs changing. In years gone by, Mourinho would have gone far earlier than he did, and Conte would also have been gone by now. I think Mourinho could have stayed and survived one poor year if he didn't have such a combustible and controversial personality which makes him unbearable and unreasonable when things are not going well. Conte seems to be very much from the same mould. Again, I think Chelsea would consider keeping Conte on next season, knowing that there is not any better proven managers on the market, even if we didn't make top 4. But his near constant moaning and irritable behaviour and demeanour mean this is very unlikely. That would actually encourage me more that they bring in a progressive manager that can freshen things up, but also be given time to make that impact.

A couple of papers linking us today with Jokanovic at Fulham. To be fair to him, he's definitely a better manager then he was a player!

Looking forward to Zaha scoring like he always does, prompting us to go all out and pay well over the odds for him in the summer...probably as Hazard's replacement

I agree. When United sold us Mark Hughes in the mid 90's he was still more than a useful player but not quite anymore at that top level but we weren't at their level at that time. When they sold us Veron, Fergie knew he was a busted flush and we'd struggle as much as they had with getting the best from him. I can understand the logic behind selling Matic and replacing him with Bakayoko, who the board/manager felt would bring something different that we were lacking and a much younger player. But we should have pushed for Matic to go abroad or held out for more money. There is no way with the greatest respect to Drinkwater, that we should be selling Matic for £40m and buying Drinkwater for £35m. In that situation Matic becomes worth £50-60m, then we'd see how much United still wanted him for. Mata is much the same, he's had a pretty good career at United since we let him go there and it looks good business on their behalf now. Lukaku doesn't annoy me as much because we sold to a club that wasn't challenging us so I can understand that more. (like above with United selling us Hughes) The annoyance is the lack of long term planning by not including buy back clauses with some of these players who we clearly had high hopes for (Lukaku, De Bruyne, Salah). Even if Mourinho didn't want them, it protected us should we feel the need to bring them back in the future once Mourinho had left.

A couple of things he would bring which I think we severely lack (along with a controlling presence in the midfield to dictate the game but I'll leave that for other topics) is raw pace and a direct nature running at players. Hazard and Willian give us it, but in my opinion we need far more of it and some youthful energy in our attack would certainly not be a bad thing. If Hazard goes in the summer (and I would like to hope that he doesn't) then I would much rather us use his money to buy 2 or 3 players like this then try to go after a direct replacement in their prime. I could see us overpaying vastly for somebody like Mahrez or Zaha and they won't have a chance coming in as a direct replacement for Hazard. At least with a couple of younger players I think the fans would give them a lot more time to adjust and develop over a season or two when you can see the huge potential that they have.

Everybody points to the trophies we've won to justify the lack of stability that the club shows towards its managers, but the other end of the scale needs far more consideration. If we finish outside the top 4 this season it will be the third time in 7 years, which is more times than we've won the league in that period. That to me shows the harm of lack of stability, because we are becoming a yo-yo club within the top 4 places. The board need to wake up and realise that the lack of a long term plan and system over the last few seasons rather than bringing in who they consider to be the best manager and not necessarily a succession to the previous one has caused this effect. We already need some surgery within our squad but if a new manager comes in wanting to play 4 at the back, we will suddenly have all of our wing backs bar perhaps Emerson no longer suited to the squad because none of them are capable of playing in a back four at a high standard. And if that manager wants to play with a midfield 3, we're struggling at the moment with one partner for Kante, let alone two. Sometimes you have to take one step back to take two steps forward, and the board have never done this. There has always been surgery and changes to the squad made with short term thinking.

I agree, he's too inexperienced for the role at the minute. It was different with Di Matteo as he was already at the club as an assistant at the time and could probably see a number of things which were going wrong and could help change them. Same with the likes of Vialli and Gullit before them. Lampard has been gone now for 4 years, there are a lot of new players, staff, even board members who have joined or changed roles since he was last here and as a result he would be coming in like any other manager. If you were going to go for an appointment of that ilk then the more sensible choice would be Jody Morris who has far more experience of coaching and working in such a capacity at the club. He would be far better prepared for such a role and even then it would be a huge risk in my opinion (although a very curious one as I love what he does with the youth team). The better option for Lampard would be for us appointing a more experienced manager for the next 2 - 3 years who will be happy to work with Lampard as an assistant, to hopefully help him develop and eventually take over as manager.

That is the biggest worry of all. Yes the signings in the summer have been proven to be overall pretty poor and yes Conte worked miracles last season putting square pegs in round holes at times, but his constant moaning cannot be good for the morale of the team and for those players feeling like they aren't rated or wanted by the manager. Last season he instilled belief into players such as Moses and Alonso whilst also bringing out the best in Cahill, Matic, Pedro, Costa who had all been written off the year prior. I unfortunately see none of that this year except for perhaps the faith he's put in Christensen.

I don't necessarily blame him for adopting the approach initially, especially with the absence of Kante. Keep it tight and hopefully counter them (which didn't click) and potentially go for the win in the final 10-15 minutes if we're still level. The problem for me was leaving it far too late to change our personnel and shape to try and get something out of the game because in our situation even a draw isn't hugely helpful. He brought on a full back to play in the front 3.

I'm not looking forward to the Nou Camp in a couple of weeks...

Today was a really hard watch. I can, to a degree, accept us losing badly to Bournemouth or Watford as every team will have a bad performance or get whacked now and again, but the set up and tactics of the team today I cannot accept whatsoever. A huge amount of this problem lies with the board though. We have not had a plan since Abramovich brought the club. Two of our most successful managers during this time are Conte and Mourinho who, whilst they excel tactically, are both reserved and careful in their tactics and set up of the team. Managers that set up in a more attack minded approach usually need more time to bring their style across to the team and need round pegs in round holes to suit this style. We have shown that we are not prepared to offer managers either. Even Guardiola was afforded time at City because it was not something he could achieve overnight. People forget that City only just limped into the top 4 last season. I want to see changes next season, but that isn't just the manager, the whole club needs to change its approach and develop a project which hopefully in 2 or 3 seasons time give us a team that will play attack minded football and look to force their approach on even the best teams, rather than worry about the opposition. City buying someone like Sane and giving him the time and patience to develop and gain confidence is bearing fruit...if only we had done this with the likes of Salah, De Bruyne and Lukaku.

Also I'm disappointed that Barkley isn't even on the bench. Even if he's only deemed fit enough to potentially give us 20 - 30 minutes. We have no midfield options on our bench, 4 defenders and 2 strikers.

Laporte is still relatively untested in England so far, I would have preferred Giroud or Morata to play as high up on him as possible and try to unsettle him. Kante is a huge miss, we are going to have to rely hugely on Pedro and Willian to put serious shifts in, tuck in and look to break quickly just like against Barca. City look so strong at the moment I'd be surprised if we get anything out of the game, players need to be far more clinical then they have in recent weeks because chances may be at a premium today.

Agree but drogba went through similar. He seemed unsettled in his first couple of seasons and i remember in his second one he was booed by our own fans for diving and his general on pitch behaviour and histrionics. I must admit that the last few weeks have been alarming, we need to see what he's made of.

I agree however the club needs depth in place if he does struggle again next year. If we only have Morata and Giroud and Morata fails to kick on we will struggle hugely. Even if one of the younger lads comes back from a loan next season to give us an extra option it saves us from the position we were in the first half of this season, where we had 2 strikers but only one favoured and as a result was flogged to death.

I was young at the time and can remember seeing that goal and thinking it was the most skillful and greatest thing I'd ever seen. Years on that goal still holds up, to be able to turn like that when the ball is fired into you. Pure class! I went with my dad to the cup final that year too. Great, great times!

I agree but if the standard and profile of player we've brought in the last 2 windows is an indicator (more attainable, lower wages, next level down in quality), then it won't have an effect on our transfer strategy. I'm with you, I'd rather see us bring in 2 or 3 top drawer players in the summer to add to what we already have here and immediately improve the starting XI. In this scenario it would prove hard (although not impossible as we got Kante when not in the champions league).

That's all fine and well, but the club is not going to let Courtois leave for free in a year's time, when they can still likely command £50 - 60m for him this summer and/or a player in return to soften the blow. Hazard is not quite as pressing with 2 year's left but again, you are talking a player that is probably in the current market in or around the £150m bracket but beyond this summer that value will drop significantly. If the players both had 3 - 4 year contracts I would agree, but as much as I would prefer them both to stay, I feel we would have to seriously consider selling them in the summer if they don't agree new contracts.

I would argue all the players that we've brought in the last 2 transfer windows would have joined if we were in the Champions League or not. I think the more pressing worry would be retaining our better players if we miss out, what with Madrid sniffing around Courtois and Hazard and PSG reportedly want Kante.

The biggest issue for me today with the substitution of Hazard was the impression it gave to our players, United's players and the fans. Hazard is seen as our best player, albeit a bit of a luxury player. Taking him off with the game in the balance gave the impression we were happy with a draw rather than going for the win. I think it encouraged United to go for the win and they did just that. I wouldn't say to never bring Hazard off because if he's playing poorly he deserves to be hooked, but I think in games against the big teams you cannot be seen to show weakness and vulnerability and I feel that substitution today did just that.