Superblue

Well it doesn't look like we need to be worrying about him coming in from his summer break over weight and out of shape.

So assuming there aren't any late hitches, it appears that Tammy is off to Roma, Batshuayi to Besiktas, Miazga to Alaves, Kenedy to Flamengo and Ugbo to Genk. If these go through, how many players do we have left to "sort out"? Perhaps a question for @Vesper...

I think the confidence and passing range in Jorginho's game has gone up a notch in recent times. Personally I think we need a more defensive minded midfielder for the balance of the squad.

The biggest thing for him is he now seems to have won the trust and belief of Tuchel. If he remains here this season it'll be as a squad option but I don't think Tuchel will be afraid to throw him into games. With this in mind, he may be better off staying this season and giving things a go. Given the volume of games we have, even as a backup he could easily play 15-20 games, maybe more. He would also have the opportunity to play and train with some top, experienced defenders such as Azpi and Silva whom he can only continue learning from. Our defence could be very different next season. I personally think the futures of Azpi, Christensen and Rudiger will be sorted but there is always the possibility of one or more possibly moving on and Thiago Silva will almost certainly be winding down too. Staying here and remaining in Tuchel's thoughts could really help him try to break through. From a squad perspective this season if Chalobah stays, we're stacked in defence. Azpi, Christensen, Silva, Rudiger, Zouma, Chalobah and James if needed for the back 3. I'd be inclined to roll with that and go big on a defender next summer if players move on. Instead I think we'd be better off getting an extra midfielder for the pivot this summer. If we can add one to Kante, Jorginho and Kovacic I think we're strong across the board then with the depth of pretty much 2 first team players for every position.

Stream was playing up so second half was a bit stop-start for me. First half though I thought Jorginho was the best player on the pitch. He dictates and controls everything, and is no doubt these last 6 months been in the best form of his career.

I can't see Chalobah going out on loan now.

Doesn't seem to be working now, no worries.

Stream gone down again, hard work today.

Exactly this. There are a lot of times one wing back can be crossing the ball in and the other wing back is an extra attacker in the box.

I'd say it has more to do with options in Jorginho's position being limited compared to the wing back positions. I think he's trying to strike a balance between starting a couple of them (Mount and Jorginho) and maybe looking to give a couple of them game time off the bench.

This should be a rule change to be honest. If you still have a spare sub you are allowed to bring them on for the penalty shoot out. You are able to make changes at half time or full time if going to extra time, so I don't see why it's never been allowed.

I wouldn't say it's because he's not good enough to lead the line by himself, I think it's that the strengths of his game and probably his personal preference isn't to lead the line by himself. No different to someone like Rashford to be honest.

I think the top 4 this season will end up finishing a fair distance from the pack and to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if any of them went on to win the league. I think all carry some positives and negatives. Two big issues for us last season we've at least addressed being (1) we're starting the season with an elite coach and to boot, one that has now had 6 months experience in the league and with the squad, and (2) buying a striker who regardless of what people think of him should score goals. Unless someone goes and puts a 100 point season on the board, I'd be shocked if we're not much closer this season. Another trophy or two to add to the Super Cup this season and getting to within 5-10 points of the top of the table I think would be a very good year to continue to show progress and build on.

I think given the pressure and size of the match he was being thrown into last night he played very well. He did get caught out a couple of times and you could see sometimes his positioning was a little suspect however he had Zouma central to him and Hudson Odoi out wide. Someone a little more experienced alongside him could probably help iron some of those positioning issues out. He's done all he can do, which by the looks of it is be the one out of all the loan players to impress Tuchel the most in pre season and earn his trust. I think whether he goes out on loan or not may depend on our transfer activity for the rest of this window so he might be one of the very last to make a decision on. I definitely would have no problem him being part of the squad next season though, he seems a more than adequate option as backup.

Yes if his inclusion brings out more in others too. For example if Lukaku 'only' scored 15-20 goals but his inclusion improved the output of the likes of Werner and Havertz so they were both getting 10-15 goals then it is overall better than Lukaku scoring more than 20 but others only managing around 5 again.

I agree to an extent with this - if it was week after week, it can become a little demoralising, especially if it feels there is no end in sight. I think with the profile of players we have we're not suddenly going to play turgid football at every given opportunity. There will be some games where the football clicks and is of the highest quality, but there will be some games where we are poor. Every team has games like this. In this instance you just have to gut it out and win those games. Going back to Lukaku, I don't think his inclusion is going to mean our football becomes a hard watch. I don't see us suddenly banging long balls up to him at will for example. But on the same token he isn't as technically sound as a Havertz and there may not be as much fluidity between the front players. But if his presence spearheading the attack makes it more effective then he's doing his job in the team.

Even this could be subjective though for different people. Is better side a higher league position or playing better quality, more pleasing on the eye football? Because there's every chance that his inclusion improves one but worsens the other. For me, I've never cared less about the quality of the football so long as we win. If anything sometimes the "backs to the wall", defending for our lives and nick a goal are the most satisfying. If Lukaku, whether it's through his goals, assists, or just his general presence in the team gets more out of the likes of Werner, Pulisic and Havertz, gives us a greater chance of winning the league and other competitions then I believe his purchase and inclusion will be merited.

Pretty sure that 'sexy football' term was coined by Gullit during Euro 1996 when he was working as a pundit and I'm pretty sure we were labelled with that during his managerial tenure here. I think some of the football we played in the late 90's under Gullit and then Vialli was very exciting (it certainly felt like it at the time).

Lukaku is almost certainly coming in to play the majority of games, but he can't play all the time. Assuming Tammy leaves we're looking at 6 players in attack - Lukaku, Werner, Havertz, Mount, Pulisic and Ziyech (I think Tuchel will look at CHO more as an offensive minded wing back). The first 5 all played for their countries this summer and Ziyech plays in the AFCON mid season. We have a packed schedule with the World Club Cup, we could easily play 55-60 games throughout the season. There will be rotation and I think all 6 will have plenty of gametime. The best part too is the versatility of the other 5 players will give Tuchel multiple options throughout the season to set up differently. Tuchel can play 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 and even in games where we're likely to be dominant or we're chasing a goal he could just play one midfielder such as Jorginho or Kante and then play two of Mount, Ziyech or Havertz as two number 8's alongside 2 strikers. I wasn't particularly in favour of Lukaku, but having had time to think about it, I do think his inclusion within our squad makes us look much stronger.

I'm a little sceptical myself but even at United which would probably be considered the worst period in his career, he still scored 42 in 96 games. Nearly 1 in 2. That is a significantly stronger ratio than anybody currently in our squad during their Chelsea careers. If he scores at around a 1 in 2 mark during his Chelsea career then his goals should be a huge positive to add to our attack.

From the sounds of it we've tried knocking down the fee with the likes of Alonso and Zappacosta included in the deal but Inter just want a straight cash deal.

Costa's general hold up play, first touch and passing could be incredibly inconsistent and frustrating at times. The facts still remain that he was a goal scorer and regularly managed to find the net in tight games. It's no coincidence that he was 'on it' two of his three seasons here and those two seasons we romped the league. If Lukaku is regularly scoring 20+ goals a season over the next 3 or 4 years, I think we'll be closer to the league title than we have been in recent times.

My point is yes it would be ideal if he was only 25 or 26 but I wouldn't have wanted to spend big money on the Lukaku that was leaving United. He's needed these couple of years at Inter to re-establish himself. I'd rather have the best possible version of him even if he's a couple of years older. Let's just hope he can fire goals in for the next 3-4 years because if he does that I think he'll be worth the investment.

A little sceptical but it has to say something that universally Inter fans are broken that he's leaving and all Italian pundits are saying this is a different player to the one that left United a couple of years ago. The biggest thing for me is that he has never had a problem with the burden of being the chief goal threat of a team. If anything he thrives off of that responsibility and in turn I think it will benefit the likes of Werner and Havertz to not be shouldered with that same burden. They themselves (along with the likes of Mount and Pulisic) I think will thrive off being secondary attackers for the team with a focal point in front.

I suppose the argument with this is would you rather have the 28 year old version of Lukaku or the 25 year old version? The fee ratio to the age is a bit risky but we're talking about a player clearly in the prime of his career. We have a core group of younger players in the squad so I think we can take the risk of adding one or two players in the prime of their career. Lukaku isn't the first and won't be the last player where the penny seems to have dropped for him at a later point in his career rather than much earlier. Hopefully we're getting the very best version of him.