Jase

Moyes back at West Ham! On an 18-month deal.

I know we are interested but they didn't report we are working with Dortmund for a deal, are we as The Sun claimed the other day? And to be cynical/pedantic, The Telegraph states "Chelsea have now emerged as potential frontrunners...". Potential...

But it's nothing we don't already know.

Ho ho. I don't think it's gonna be as straightforward as that. CHO hasn't done enough to suggest he'll be a starter any time soon while Lampard loves Mount and Willian.

We'll see about that. It's easy to jump onto the bandwagon when someone is doing well.

Can't wait until he suffers a dip in form and you say he's shit and all that.

Yes, he did. https://www.transfermarkt.com/florent-malouda/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/5461/plus/0?saison=2010&verein=&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id=

Selective shot? Pretty sure I saw them acknowledge one another.

You're really psyching up yourself for that to happen, huh?

Malouda had 9 goals and 9 assists in 2008/09, 15 goals and 15 assists in 2009/10 and 14 goals and 5 assists in 2010/11. Cole had his injuries and inconsistencies but he had 9 goals in 2004/05, 11 in 2005/06 and 10 in 2007/08. (too lazy to check the Assist stats, sorry. ) We also had Anelka on the RW when Drogba was playing and he scored at least 15 goals in 3 of his 4 seasons with the club. Kante, maybe but his goals still feel like a once in a blue moon occasion. Kovacic? Good luck with that, because in 10 previous seasons as a footballer, he scored more than 2 goals only TWICE - in 2011/12 with Dinamo Zagreb and 2014/15 with Inter - and he recently went like 2 years without a goal before his strike at Valencia. I guess the point I'm trying to make is the Jorginho-Kovacic-Kante just doesn't give the confidence that there will be consistent goals (and assists) coming from them and maybe I'm just remembering the better times of past teams, but the midfield we had from a decade ago had more goal threat about them. Lampard, Ballack, Essien etc were more of a natural goalscorer (okay, maybe not Essien) than Jorginho, Kovacic, Kante etc.

TBF, think we can stop speculating Sancho's replacement at Dortmund because it looks likely he'll leave in the summer (at the latest) and Dortmund will find a replacement one way or another. It's just a question of who will Sancho join...

Yeah, but look what happened in that dumpster match at Everton.

So, which Chelsea side are gonna turn up for this one? Seems like we've become like Solskjaer's United going by recent results! Hope James, Pulisic and Alonso are back for this one.

@Sideshow Luiz, are you still alive?

Based on our current squad, I don't think the 4-3-3 is all that great as a default choice. In theory, the trio of Jorginho-Kovacic-Kante can help dominate matches but they don't provide much goal threat, if at all, and their creativity is questionable. Jorginho only score penalties while Kovacic and Kante only score once in a blue moon. With that kind of midfield, there's just too much (unnecessary) pressure on the front 3 to do all the creating and scoring. The reason why the 4-3-3 worked so well for us a decade ago was because we had Lampard, Ballack, Essien etc, who contributed goals and assists regularly, in addition to the front 3. What do I like though at the moment is that we have lots of midfield options, allowing us to play 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or some other kind of formation. For the time being at least, 4-2-3-1 works best IMO but we can tweak it depending on the opposition we play.

Alcacer is better off as a sub. Doesn't look all that great when starting.

Or Luiz for that matter!

Crazy game in the Championship. Leeds win 5-4 at Birmingham in stoppage time!

Not posting that shit. But others are doing it!