manpe

Very good points made Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

Thought he did well yesterday against City. Didn't let much through from his side, didn't make any (big) mistakes, had some good defensive plays. There is a reason why they stopped attacking from his side and went at Azpi instead, but he also had a big "FUCK OFF" sign on his forehead. Wasn't so noticeable in the attacking phase, I think we attacked through Azpilicueta more and Alonso sat back more than usual (probably instructions from the coach). It's great because he showed he can perform to an acceptable level when the odds are stacked against the team.

My man of the match, love him to bits. Hope he shuts his doubters up sooner rather than later, I know he has it in him to play better than he has sometimes shown this season. This kind of performance should be a reminder of what we would be missing if we didn't have him on the pitch. If there's anybody who deserves time to adapt to this new style, it's him. For me he's a crucial player who needs to play every big game, wouldn't swap him for anyone.

Yeah lol, honestly I thought it was Hazard till I saw the number on his back.

And an herculean effort it was! Outstanding reaction from the boys, everybody was on point, Never would I have dared to dream we would win 2-0. The best part is that not only did we scrape a result, we actually played ball, we pressed! We didn't sit back in super low blocks, we closed them down and harrassed all over the pitch! Even when winning 1-0 we didn't only play long or try to hit on counters, we kept it on the ground and played ball. I wouldn't have believed that the team would be capable of doing that AND win. All props to Sarri and the boys who showed massive balls against a City team unbeaten since... was it April? Azpi MOTM for me, rock solid and led by example.

Oh well, I was calling for Sarri to do something different and surprise them. Not exactly what I had in mind, but we'll see soon enough.

Sarri going the Conte route of playing without a striker against them. Fear it won't work.

You know what I mean my sweet lady, Luiz can be replaced by Christensen or Ampadu, Alonso by Emerson, Azpi by Zappa (James when back from loan), RW we have Pedro and CHO. It's Sarri's business that he doesn't utilise those players as much, fact is we have some adequate squad depth in those positions. But at striker we have literally nobody we can take seriously, we can only choose between bad and worse/dumb and dumber. Giroud is okay for backup, Morata okay for kiddie playground games... who else? Nobody. Bats when back from loan? He's shit, not the answer. Tammy Abraham? If we want to sink deep into mid-table obscurity. Striker is our nr. 1 pressing issue in my not-so-humble opinion.

Hazard has a point, it must be tiring playing with statues and being the one man in a one-man team. All the other players are simply too dumb or below required quality to play the type of style that City do.

Please be a striker. We have every other position covered except striker, where we have only backup quality. Problem being there will probably be nobody of required quality available. Don't think we will buy anyone and it's maybe for the best, we need to sign the right ones, not random stopgaps.

He is still 100x the player Ivanovic was at that time, don't give me that bs. After leaving us, he still put up impressive performances for Atletico, Ivanovic never did for us, he only got worse. Filipe's few appearances for us also proved that without any doubt, but our manager was a man who rates Fellaini, nuff said.

How? Our defensive mids are not tall nor strong. Our only strong players are our CBs and Giroud if he's playing. But I agree, I thought we were past that archaic height and strength fetish and are moving towards modern football. Guess not, fear seems to be clouding Sarri's judgement at the moment considering his reluctance to play youth and persistance with shit players. This also explains why he has no qualms over playing Emerson in games outside EPL fixtures, EPL is surely more physical and demanding, but fuck me are you telling me our team is so weak in set-pieces that we still need to put out Alonso against teams we have 70% possession against, just to defend against a couple of corners/fks they might get? The few set-pieces we'd concede would be compensated by the advantages Emerson would bring in attack. When are we gonna get a manager who has a set of balls?

I'm also not a fan of some of his defeatist comments either, that he doesn't know how to defeat Pep and how it's impossible to win City over the course of a season. They may be light-hearted comments, but there is truth behind them and does a struggling unconfident squad need to hear their manager publicly preparing them for loss and kinda admitting he's clueless? I just find it a bit odd.

At 11:10 he talks about Alonso vs. Emerson and he brings out that we could have trouble in set-pieces without Alonso... So what do we think about that? How valid reason is it?

Why are some so certain he will start against City? I doubt he will considering he had a shocking game and was joint first to be pulled off the pitch together with Morata. Willian hasn't been untouchable, Sarri's used both a lot, so it's not as set in stone as Alonso or Luiz are. Think Pedro and Giroud will start, also because they played less and are prolly fresher. I would be really surprised if both Morata and Willian started after their shitshows.

I'm afraid of what City will do to our 4-3-3 if we persist with it, especially with Jorginho the deepest midfielder. We're going to concede shitloads of space in those areas for the Sterlings and Silvas to run into. Luiz.... please don't clown around this game. This really isn't the game for Alonso considering the pace City have, they run around like rabid rabbits. Alonso will be targeted so hard and with Kante playing on the other side, his help will be Luiz, Hazard and Kova/RLC...... Sarri needs to mix something up, surprise them, otherwise Pep will punish our predictability with ease. I would play this 4-2-3-1 exceptionally against City: Kepa Azpi - Rüdiger - AC - Emerson Jorginho - Kante Pedro - RLC - Hazard Giroud

Are the shock reports from Don Balon? If not, then of course I hope that Hazard stays and commits, but if he really wants to go, then that deal doesn't look bad. €100m + Kovacic and Asensio, who together add the total up to over €200m. That's a very decent return for a wantaway player entering his last year. We add two quality(hopefully) players and get another €100m to spend. That money would then need to go on a striker. Maybe in the end it would benefit the team more than having only Hazard? Let's say we get Kovacic, Asensio and Icardi, who we otherwise couldn't afford without Hazard money. I'd be down with that.

And never take on opponents 1-on-1 because he doesn't have the pace to swoosh past them and whip in a sharp cross from the byline (Emerson frequently attempts to do that). It is one of the most dangerous moves a team can do, difficult to defend against. Arsenal did it against us and we were lucky not to concede more. Rashford did it yesterday against Arsenal and Martial got a scrappy goal because it is difficult to defend against. City do it all the time. With Alonso it's either a pass back to whoever is closest, or a bad high cross when the opposing FB hasn't closed him down quickly enough. Azpi also doesn't have this burst of pace in his arsenal to go past players and put in dangerous crosses. This seriously handicaps our attack on both sides, like yesterday, when we kept passing from one side to the other without any penetration. The moment Azpi or Alonso got the ball, you knew it was going back to the middle, from where it was going back to the wing and back to the middle and so on...

Get him. It's his first season, he hasn't fully adapted yet, so a few pumps along the road are normal. Especially when the whole team itself is not too sure what to do on the pitch. He's a great option to have either way.

A transition doesn't depend on the manager as much as it depends on the people behind the curtains. You just have to have a manager who fits the ambitions of where they want the transition to end up at. Sarri does fit the bill of playing quick pass'n'move ( ) football, but now he needs to be fully backed.

It's akin to our ex-prime minister saying before elections that he'd take us to top 5 richest countries in Europe It's still a meme here.

I have to say I chuckled at this, because it is true. We have been saying we're in transition at least since 2010, but we have never got anywhere because there has never been any true vision to where we should transition! We bought young attacking talents only to bring in Mourinho, then Conte... Before them Benitez, RDM, AVB - all play very different styles from each other. We then stacked up players for their tactics, and now we bring in the polar opposite manager with what seems minimal support in the market. Sarri is not blameless. I blamed Mourinho for running a struggling Ivanovic to the ground when there were clearly better alternatives available (FILIPE LUIS !!!!!!!!!). The same with Alonso now, we have an alternative who is worth a shot, being frozen out of the team completely. Alonso was okay for 5 at the back, but in a 4 it's becoming clearer and clearer that he just doesn't cut it. If one of our academy products put in a performance like Alonso has done lately, he'd be proclaimed "not ready for EPL" and be shipped on loan. Reputation and price tag plays an unbelievable role in Chelsea's player selection, double standards every-fucking-where.

Alonso's modus operandi: Get burnt by pace, fail to recover, hack the legs from behind with no intent on the ball and concede a foul. Several times. This shit infuriated me yesterday, so fucking slow. You could see he himself was frustrated... Sarri, do him and the whole team a favour and let him sit out some games.

Take a hike you fraud

I on the other hand don't see how it CAN work out. He is not a player for teams who want to play quick possession football. I have seen enough of him to know that even if he does generally improve dramatically, his characteristics and playing style anyway aren't suitable for a team that wants to play on the front foot. A player so technically lacking at that age will never improve to required levels.