Jase

Tuchel also confirmed Kante will start tomorrow. Said he was rested in midweek due to pain management, to get some treatment but trained fine yesterday and today.

Whole group is available, according to Tuchel. Also reiterated that Kepa will start the final.

The point was about the psychological impact if we lose Saturday's final because the league game against Leicester is just 3 days after that. If the worst happens, can the team pick itself back up in time? And not to mention, Leicester have actually done fairly well against the top sides this season - 6 wins in 10 league games.

So, Aguero to Barcelona and if Haaland stays at Dortmund, then what?

You made it sound as if we were playing exciting football under Lampard when it was all about just spamming crosses into the box. It benefitted only a few players in the team and it also helped that we played a lot more poor sides under Lampard than under Tuchel (Barnsley, Morecambe, Luton at SB to name a few). Is it really Tuchel's fault that we don't score enough goals? The players have missed so many chances. Off the top of my head, we have Werner v Everton, West Ham, Real Madrid + Havertz v Arsenal, Real Madrid, Leeds, Brighton + Ziyech v Liverpool, Man United, Man City, Fulham + Pulisic v Porto, Sheffield Utd + Mount v Real Madrid. The irony of complaining about not scoring enough goals is it was Lampard's focus on attack and his neglection of the defence that got us into trouble in the first place. That Lampard approach was working till we started playing the better sides in December and suddenly, it cannot be sustained because our attacking play was bad and our defence was even worse that it failed to give us a chance of winning games. Tuchel has at least turned that around. Does he want us to score more goals? Am sure he does but again, it's not his fault that the players somehow contrive to miss chances, like against Real Madrid last week. If you compare shots, big chances created etc under Lampard and Tuchel, they aren't actually that different at all. (N.B. This was taken from an article that was written about 2 weeks ago and it's the stats for this season's Premier League) Aspects - Under Lampard v Under Tuchel PL Games - 19 v 14 Total Shots - 263 v 213 Average Shots Per Game - 13.8 v 15.2 Big Chances Created - 43 v 33 Average Big Chances Per Game - 2.26 v 2.36 Goals Scored - 33 v 18 Goals Conceded - 23 v 8 Another irony about complaining about the lack of goals under Tuchel is that we have picked up more points under Tuchel in less games than under Lampard (35 in 17 compared to 29 in 19), which in other words suggests we have stat padded the goals along the way in some games under Lampard.

If we don't win this Saturday's final, I can see the team losing their heads in the next league game and then god knows what will happen in the last one...

It's not. Kante was rested due to pain management. Kovacic could return to the squad at the weekend.

One slight problem with the Leicester game next week is they could play for a draw. A draw would mean their fate would still be in their hands going into the last game.

But it could all go very wrong as well...

OR we can always just win the Champions League. 👀

Klopp going to get his first win at Old Trafford...

WELL, IT'S SQUEAKY BUM TIME!!!

If it's a draw, then we would need 4 points from the remaining 2 games.

If it's a draw, then we would need only 4 points.

Even a draw would be decent...

If Liverpool lose today, we would need only 3 points from the remaining 2 games. But if they win, then we will need to beat Leicester and Villa.

No pressure, lads...

The lack of depth in midfield is coming to bite us back in the arse. Tuchel might have to get creative and maybe use James there or something.

I suppose Tuchel will reveal more tomorrow but I don't think Kante is actually injured? Tuchel just said he was left out for pain management, meaning his game time will have to be carefully managed.

We still wore it.

But there's Moscow, there's last year...

We've already jinxed ourselves by deciding to wear the new home kit for this final...

Those other qualities you mentioned are generally required for a top CB. The reason why the passing ability is mentioned is because of our playing style, we want to play out from the back. We need center backs who are comfortable with the ball and capable of making progressive passes with it. The ability on the ball has always been a problem for Zouma; it's arguably his biggest weakness. You say whatever he has is good enough for a 4th choice CB but the problem is, Azpi and Silva aren't getting any younger and if we're gonna rotate the CBs more often than not, then the 4th choice, the 5th choice has to be good enough on the ball as well, on top of having other qualities. This is also important if we are gonna stick with the back 3 system.

United back to their strongest XI against Liverpool...

We don't need a classy CB backup. We just need someone who is at least comfortable on the ball and can make progressive passes with it.