Superblue

Whilst there are some glaring problems in this team that will continue to hinder us until they are addressed, I think there was some encouragement that the team didn't give up at 3-0 and 4-1 down. It could have easily ended up a serious hiding but the team kept going and with a bit of luck and without the usual half dozen defensive errors we seem to give up, we'd have got a result tonight. Sunday will be difficult simply in the way this team tries to go about it. I don't think we're good enough to set up in a defensive way to draw the game to be honest. Whilst there is no reason to be gung ho we should be looking to control the game and be positive. United have gone off the boil a bit and I can see the Leicester game being a tight game. We have to just focus on ourselves however because it is in our hands.

I think it is probably the biggest mistake that Lampard has done this season. My theory is that Lampard wanted the central striker to be mobile enough to be able to lead the press, and I think he just did not see Giroud being capable of that and as a result Batshuayi became second choice almost by default as a result. To be honest Bats barely got a sniff himself. I think then by the time it got to around late November/early December, Lampard was probably looking at Giroud leaving in the window and possibly a replacement being added which probably only froze him out even more. Giroud deserves huge amounts of credit for his professionalism and stepping up when Tammy has gone off the boil. I'm pleased too that Lampard has realised his mistake not giving him more opportunities. I feel other managers would have spit their dummy out in Lampard's position and Giroud would have been left out almost in a protest, and Lampard deserves some credit too for being prepared to be humble and turn a negative situation into a big positive in the second half of the season.

It'll be interesting to see if Lampard backs this same group to go and pull off a result against Liverpool. I think the back 3 and wing backs suits the defensive group we have currently. Azpi is in my opinion at best as the right centre back in a three. Rudiger seems better suited also in a back three and Alonso is obviously more suited as a wing back. I think also currently it benefits Reece James too having Azpi behind him for defensive protection as he still develops and improves that part of his game and allows him instead to focus on providing an attacking outlet for the team. The two biggest question marks I think will be (1) do we keep Pulisic out and (2) does Kante come back in if fit? I'm inclined to stick with the team that started against United. If Pulisic isn't 100% like has been suggested he could be a perfect impact sub for the final 20-30 minutes running at Liverpool's defence or especially if the game opens up later on. Kante similarly, if fit, I'd have him on the bench to come on and try to make us more solid if we're holding on to a lead or need to get an extra body into midfield.

It should be an incredible confidence boost going into the Liverpool and Wolves games. Lots of people on the forum felt wholesale changes were needed today but I don't agree with this. Tiredness is 90% mental and usually nothing more than an excuse. I would take momentum over tiredness all year long, which is why I think United dropped the ball today making so many changes (including their shape). The other thing people have mentioned on the forum is how the FA Cup is pretty irrelevant. It's hugely important now at this stage to try and win it. Opportunities at winning trophies shouldn't be taken for granted. This season goes by, potentially next season too as we are in a bit of a rebuild mode and suddenly a large number of the squad are in a position where they lack experience of winning trophies and 'getting over the line'. It's no coincidence that Pep and Jose have always gone strong for the League Cup. In a completely different way, winning the FA Cup this season could be just as, if not, more important than making top 4 for the long term future of this squad and Lampard.

Disagree you'd only argue the keeper and Pulisic as really surprising omissions (but then Caballero has been playing quite a bit in the cups). I think given Pulisic's injuries this season it makes sense to not completely flog him in a very important week for the club and he could be a real impact from the bench late on to stretch United. I actually like this. We've lost three times to United and Lampard is trying something different against them. This is the sort of game where a back three may work out better and I like Azpi being a part of the '3' too. We need to make sure we're not overrun in midfield so Willian and Mount will be important in there, but we have some good attacking options on the bench (admittedly they do too).

Leicester could be out of the top 4 race by the time we play Liverpool if they lose to Sheffield Utd and then Spurs at the weekend. Two very difficult games against teams pushing for Europe (Jose has already said he wants to get into the Europa League). Our focus currently should be squarely on the weekend against United.

Wow, never had a clue his wages were that high. No wonder Atletico are reported to be really struggling through this period if they're handing out contracts like that.

Whilst everyone knows the importance of Champions League football, I think it will also be hugely important for a number of these younger players to win a trophy and for those here last season who won the Europa League it's a continuation of winning trophies. We go 2-3 years without winning anything whilst trying to rebuild and trophies will be much harder to come by. When in a semi final of anything we shouldn't be treating it as anything but a big game.

If there was some sort of Kepa/Oblak deal done it would be done in the same way as Pjanic/Arthur (i.e. 2 separate transactions rather than one deal) which would significantly minimise the impact on FFP for this deal (assuming that is even going to be a thing moving forward).

Champions League football is more important for the long term of the team, especially financially and potentially from a recruitment position. However I wouldn't want that to mean we just give up on the FA Cup and rest a number of players. If we were able to beat United it could be a huge confidence boost going into the Liverpool game.

2 wins away from a major trophy. I think you'll find a lot of people care. The FA Cup might not have the same romantic pull that it has in previous years but going to the old Wembley as a 10 year old to watch Chelsea beat Middlesbrough in 1997 is one of all time favourite Chelsea moments, perhaps only bettered by the first league win and Munich 2012. The FA Cup still matters to me.

Great cross, great header. It felt like it was beginning to build the last 10-15 minutes but we have looked so short on confidence it is a real worry.

One touch and two seconds too long on the ball from most players at the moment. Need to quicken up the tempo to create better chances. It just looks too safe and nervy at the moment.

Atletico are reportedly one of the worst hit clubs from this crisis and could be in some real financial difficulty. So a multi million pound offer plus replacement for that position doesn't sound as crazy as it might in other times and situations. Have they paid the Morata money yet? It may be even more of a bargaining tool if they're struggling to fulfil that deal. Despite our thoughts on Kepa, he's still well regarded in Spain and pushing De Gea for the number one shirt in the national team. I would tend to agree that I think a deal would be extremely hard to pull off, and there's no guarantee that Oblak would want to come anyway (he rejected us once before). But if we are to replace Kepa, I think Oblak should be the first one to be considered and any potential deal investigated because he's the best option possible we could buy in my opinion.

Up to recently I wouldn't have given much thought to this and considered it unnecessary but the continued poor form of Kepa has highlighted just how important a top keeper is. I think a dominant keeper immediately makes us at least average defending set pieces because I think they would deal with 50% of the crosses we struggle to deal with. I think on top of that a confident, dominant keeper breeds confidence into the defence. We need to upgrade our defence there is no doubt, but I do think that Kepa is the lightning rod that brings everyone else down with him at the moment. It would be a huge outlay, but if there was any way we could flip Kepa and something like £50-60m for Oblak i think we should do it. The keeper position needs to be sorted out and there's no reason why we shouldn't start with the best option possible and work from there. Oblak is the best option and possibly the closest thing to "sure fire" as possible. Who knows, perhaps some of the Lampard/Cech charm can work wonders again!

Wolves have Burnley next who will always remain competitive and will make sure they have no opportunities to counter attack them. It's a potential banana skin for them. Hopefully a win in mid-week and Wolves dropping some points eliminates that possibility. Ultimately though we have to take one game at a time and worry about our own house because everything is still well within our hands.

I feel in the latter period of this season, when fit, Lampard seemed to be settling on a partnership of Rudiger and Christensen and they did seem to be playing quite regularly together. Whether this is the best partnership of course is debatable. The problem is neither have repaid that. Both have been culpable for errors and goals conceded. I completely agree on the notion that you should have a settled back four or at least two or three in the defence playing regularly in the same position but the players we currently have aren't justifying that. I saw enough from Tomori earlier in the season to believe there is quite a bit of potential there and some real solid attributes to his game. I think with a real good leader alongside him he should be the one to try and move forward with if he is or can get back fit. The problem currently however is none of the other three centre backs are stepping up to be a leader in that defence, likely because they are far too worried about their own game and deficiencies.

United had the opposite problem to us earlier in the season in that they looked toothless in attack and were struggling to break teams down. They've gone and addressed that by buying a £60-70m attacking midfielder, whilst also getting Pogba fit. That's over £150m of elite attacking talent they've added to that team that was struggling. Solskjaer had a good chunk of last season to assess the squad and this season has spent over £200m on the squad. I think we need to see how Chelsea and Lampard are going to address this over the summer. We've looked rubbish defensively since moving to a back 4 last season under Sarri and just look at the personnel. Rudiger, Alonso and Emerson were all signed under Conte for a back 3 system. Christensen had his maiden breakthrough season in the team in a back 3 that I think masked his weaknesses, and Azpilicueta has had a major positional change. That leaves 2 academy players and Zouma who has been out on loan the last couple of seasons (i.e. not deemed good enough). Last season we looked so open then, and those defeats to the likes of Spurs and City highlighted that because you could see it from a mile off. Sarri was able to play in a safer, more defensive manner later in the season and grind out wins in a much duller way because we had an elite talent like Hazard to carry the attacking burden and Loftus Cheek either come into his own or hit a purple patch of goalscoring form. Without those two players to rely on this season I think Lampard has had to open us up to be able to attack and create more and I think that has been justified by how poor we are at expected goals and conversion rates and how many chances and shots we need to score. I cannot believe that Lampard will be prepared to go into next season without significant changes to our defence and potentially keeper. We haven't been linked much to players in this area of the pitch (except Chilwell) but I don't mind that. In recent times deals have only been leaked when they are pretty much being finalised (Pulisic, Werner, Ziyech) so the lack of rumours I think ironically may bode well. On the subject of youth, Greenwood I think will be a superb player in the future. He just seems to have 'it'. However he is no doubt in a great run of form but will almost certainly have stages in his early career where he'll struggle and then question marks will be asked of him like our own yoth have experienced this season. Also if United buy a new right winger (Sancho?) then Greenwood is back to being a sub for the time being which could stunt development. Rashford has been playing now for over 4 years in the United first team and there have been a number of goal droughts and poor form that he has suffered in this time. In my opinion he is only now in the last 6 months starting to add a consistency to his game that will take him up a level. That is where some patience I think needs to be afforded to some of the academy players for us. It's a massive learning curve in the Premier League and even more so in a side which should be up there challenging for the top 4 and beyond. I've seen enough from them all that they can be good, solid squad players here for years to come and definitely in Mount, James and Tomori I feel they all have a lot of potential to reach much higher levels than they are currently at. It's hard to remain patient during a testing time when there is a lot at stake this late in the season but I do believe the club as a whole will be better served next season for this experience.

That one sentence spoke volumes. Whether Lampard is the right manager to take us forward long term can be debated on here until the end of time. But I hope that the club back Lampard this summer to re-shape this team. One of the biggest drawbacks to our record of changing managers at a regular rate is that it has allowed too many players (past and present) to remain at the club for longer than they deserved to. The chopping and changing this season, particularly in our defence has shown that Lampard trusts very few of them. What he has shown though I think this season is a low level of tolerance with them that has seen most of them pulled off or dropped for poor performances or mistakes. I think if he's given the opportunity and is backed, he will be ruthless trying to re-shape this squad and a number could go. Getting a couple of signings done early and an extended transfer window this summer/autumn may actually be a blessing for us to try and sort a lot of these problems out.

I think Lampard should have given Sheffield United more respect from the start today and looked to have found a way to combat their style and system as opposed to expecting us to try and beat them with our own usual game. If we don't get top 4 now this season his inexperience at certain times this season will have gone against us no doubt. But I'm fed up of watching this defence unable to do the basics and make at least a couple of mistakes every game. You could argue we're unlucky that we seem to get punished by the vast majority of mistakes but the reason they get punished are because they are so bad. And these are experienced players too. If it was Tomori or James making some mistakes I would be a bit more accepting but Zouma, Christensen, Rudiger, Alonso, Kepa, all have ample experience and it's not just the odd error its the SAME errors time after time - ball watching, poor positioning, poor touch, poor anticipation, poor decision making.

I like the idea of playing two up front in this situation. Like for like is just not going to affect anything when they are this organised, we need to change it up to try and affect the game. Not sure Pulisic was the right one to take off but he hasn't been at his best today.

I can't remember Tammy winning a header. Ever.

I feel it makes sense to try and keep a player on that Lampard clearly likes, wants and trusts. There are too many holes in this team in my opinion to let Willian leave and have to use up transfer budget to replace him. We can fit some square pegs in round holes but if he leaves along with Pedro this summer it leaves us with Ziyech, Pulisic and CHO as our genuine first team wide options. Ziyech is unproven in the league and may need time to adapt and Pulisic and CHO are both still young and have had injury issues. I too, cannot understand why there hasn't been suggestions of incentives to achieve that 3rd year, i.e. a certain number of appearances across the first two years or in the second year to automatically trigger an extension in his favour. It encourages him to remain fit and influential and if he is still playing a regular role in 2 years time, then an extra year wouldn't be an issue. The way I see things with Willian is besides City and Liverpool (possibly United with Greenwood coming through but even then it's very debatable), he would be a first choice player in every other team in the league. If he is 3rd or 4th choice next season then that's a pretty good level to have in that position of the depth chart.

I would be amazed if City manage to entirely overturn the ban. Like others have said, it would leave UEFA too open for legal battles left, right and centre over what they have imposed on other clubs in the last few years. Unless City can prove absolutely no wrongdoing whatsoever, and that just seems extremely unlikely to me. Regardless of this, we still have a job to do. Sheffield United suddenly becomes a much harder game after they've turned over Spurs and Wolves in consecutive games. They have a real good chance of European football next season.

Whilst our last 2 games look like being extremely difficult on paper, Leicester's last 2 games are Spurs and United which I think they'll find extremely hard as they're far from the team earlier in the season at both ends of the pitch. If we can get maximum points from Sheffield United and Norwich then I'd feel confident of being able to at least match their last two results.