manpe

@Vesper Do you happen to know of any good quality Russian streams?

@Vesper I need you right now EDIT: Nevermind, I thought the match had already started

Honestly can't tell if that's Luiz or Guendowhatshisname.

Hazard showed some rust and came close to creating a goal for Madrid but also gave the ball away – much to the frustration of ex-Chelsea team-mate and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. ‘He almost scored a goal with what he did [in attack],’ Courtois told Movistar. ‘He has a lot of pace with the ball, it’s what he does. ‘But I got a little p***** off with him because he lost the ball twice.’ https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/15/how-eden-hazard-pd-off-thibaut-courtois-during-real-madrid-debut-10746338/

When you have no real quality youngsters coming up in that position, then you buy instant quality given the chance. Let's be honest, Tammy was more or less considered just another part of the loan army at that time, he wasn't put in the same hype brackets as CHO or RLC and everybody wanted an upgrade to striker position. There was little to no talk of blocking Tammy's path. Had we not got banned and Lampard as head coach as a result, he probably wouldn't even be here. We were pretty much forced to keep him and luckily it's paying off at the moment, he is shutting up many doubters (including me). The real indicator will be if he will be able to do it over long periods of time, purple patches come and go so let's not also get ahead of ourselves.

No, not at that time. It's not like they are fortune tellers so whatever is happening now is irrelevant to decisions made then.

I told in some match day topic that I didn't believe in him much, but glad to see him making me look clueless. Fine form he's in, long may it continue True passion playing for the club as well, something that can't be bought.

Yeah I'm usually pretty optimistic, but winning this one will feel like a bit of a miracle. Kante and Emerson out, Alonso in... I'm hoping he will have the game of his life to claim his stake, but what I think will happen is that he will be targeted and it will pay off for them. Zouma being his cover on that side isn't encouraging either.

Last season Sarri spoke quite a bit about defensive positioning while having the ball. This was when we were too exposed to counter-attacks and leaked goals due to attacking players' positioning being too forward and not thinking about what would happen if they lost the ball, after which our style of play became more pragmatic and less fluid. It wasn't easy on the eye at times, but our defence certainly improved. I think this might be one of the issues now - players having maybe too much freedom, which means the team loses its shape defending quick counters. Perhaps the team needs more time and experience playing together, to develop that positional understanding and discipline.

I like Emerson, I don't think he's the finished product yet and I believe he still has a lot of potential to improve. He's been steadily improving since recovering from that serious injury and with him now having finally nailed the starting spot, it's the first time since recovery that he's consistently getting consecutive games, so I expect him to continue improving as he plays more. Who knows, by the end of the season we might be talking about signing a backup left back instead of a replacement.

Because they know they're guilty. Hiring Lampard and resorting to youth was a deflection tactic by them to minimize bad press, no way would they have gone down that route if they hadn't fucked up.

I wonder how many more unfavourable results it will take for the media to start pushing the "it's Lampard's fault for not playing and alienating Willian" narrative. You just know it's coming if results don't improve.

Why do we have two threads for European games? Just noticed [emoji848] Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

City getting a free pass. Group C Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta Ours is not bad as well, should top it. Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

Psg Real will be sehr interessant Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

Ajax, interesting Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

So we have then Zouma and Bakayoko in the same line-up, with a bit of passing problems ("a bit" being understatement of the year). You wanna handicap our offensive play entirely? Jorginho is good but not so good to do it all alone. Bakayoko losing possession instead of keeping possession would put our defence under a lot more pressure and we would concede a lot more goals. Keeping the ball efficiently is part of defending, not merely being big enough to outjump your opponents (and even that is suspect because his positioning is bad).

Silva is also 25 and has been at City for 2 seasons, why are you randomly comparing those two?

Baka is a destroyer alright. Destroyer of our game.

True. He's clearly been instructed to keep it simple, he never tries anything adventurous and plays it safe. Which is the right thing to do considering his skillset, but ideally shouldn't be the CB type we aspire to make a starter. Rüdiger's passing and ball control are much better, so I hope he gets in shape quickly and benches Zouma. We could also use his experience and leadership.

What makes you say that? Have we been fine with Kante?

Yup, we would be right to scrutinize him like every other player who earns that much. No more Mr. Potential.

We are becoming Arsenal also with our injury record now...

They were entitled to it. CHO hasn't shown anything to justify wages of a world class/legendary player, like JT and FL were. Worst case he flops and we are stuck with another dud on huge wages that nobody wants to afford (I'm still not sold on CHO being the messiah he is made out to be by our fans).