Jase

Loftus-Cheek did alright at Palace last season but is he really as good as/will he be as good as the (OTT) hype he has been getting? Can understand people's desire to see our academy players succeed in the first team but turning down the potential choice to sign a quality player just for the sake of seeing an academy player play in the first team is dumb isn't it? It's like clubs sticking to a manager for the sake of patience even though we all know it's going to go only one way. It is obviously still a little early to say Kovacic will be a success but if he does, we would be foolish to not try and sign him, wouldn't we? This especially after he has indirectly made the point of not wanting to go back to Madrid. Would like to think that Sarri would give Loftus-Cheek his chances to play games this season, particularly when the cup games come into play, and if Loftus-Cheek is as good as he/people think he is, then he would seize those opportunities to impress Sarri. If he does, then we'll have a good situation in our hands where players strive to get better and secure a spot in the starting XI, which is better than having only one player for one position and risk him stagnate and go nowhere. Also, if we do not try and sign Kovacic, if he turns out to be good, and we stick with Loftus-Cheek only, the same person who wrote that piece would probably later complain about the lack of squad depth. Having squad depth and squad competition can help improve players if managed properly.

But it still happened, didn't it?

He did/said something similar when he came back in 2013. Remember the whole 'The Happy One', planning to settle down at a club talk? It all went down the drain. United were idiots for failing to see the obvious and hiring him.

But every Vesper's post seems like an essay, like Barbara's! Not that it is a bad thing, obviously. Thought the emoji in the original post was a dead giveaway. I obviously didn't mean anything malicious. Was just kidding around.

Meh. It's only 2 games in for goodness sake. He may be a good defender but it's hardly catastrophic we didn't get him. As someone said above, he's always wanted Liverpool and had Conte gotten his way with Van Dijk, we might not have seen Christensen break into the starting XI!

Revisiting this...what do you think now?

United aren't a great side but they are not exactly bad either. Somewhere along the way, Mourinho has stopped doing what he was hired to do - coach the players, improve the players. On a side note, am curious to see if United will go after Conte if/when they sack Mourinho.

Think his man management may have something to do with that. Let's not forget, he has a number of decent players at United who can score the goals and provide the goals but they are not producing the goods. Not saying his players are faultless but whether for better or worse, the players these days are different to the ones from 10 years or so ago. Mourinho's man management style connected with the previous generation of players and they were willing to run through walls, play beyond their level for him and thus, he and his teams were successful. The modern players are different but Mourinho is still trying to manage them the same way as before, even when it is bloody clear that it is not working. The players are not responding his methods, not willing to die for him on the pitch etc and Mourinho only knows one way of doing things. That's why he's struggling now and looks outdated when compared with the likes of Guardiola, Klopp etc. It's also arguably why we have rarely heard a player talk fondly of him since his Inter Milan days. Rather than going down the same route as Sir Alex Ferguson, who adapts and tweaks his management style with time, Mourinho is becoming like Wenger - too stubborn to adapt and subsequently, become irrelevant in the game.

Doesn't change the fact that you seem keen to react negatively to everything about him though. As @OneMoSalah said above, he was talking more about the playing style helping/not helping him than blaming Conte. Whether Sarri's approach can get the best out of him remains to be seen but can you really disagree with Morata's point about Conte's playing style if you think about it? We all know Morata isn't the strongest, isn't a physical striker and yet Conte continuously to use him like a target man. It was like Conte using Hazard as the player upfront and then asking others to lump the ball up to him and we all know what happened with that one.

Gosh. Someone can't explain their reasons for their struggle without being accused of blaming something/someone else? Your negative obsession with Morata is "hilarious".

It's The Sun but...

Starting to wonder if Vesper is Barbara in disguise.

He's the Rich Man's Tony Pulis, isn't he?

I watched the game again earlier and noticed that the players were ball watching for all the Arsenal chances and goals. Nobody tracked the runners and everyone just went AWOL and allowed Arsenal players to have a free run inside the box. Instead of marking players, we're marking zonally. The Iwobi goal is a prime example. Also, the space between Luiz and Alonso is a problem. There were couple of instances where Arsenal cut us open by just simply playing balls into the space between them. Doesn't happen a lot, if at all, on the opposite side, which says something. That needs to be addressed ASAP.

It's not only that. Even when Mourinho uses his Plan B with Fellaini, there's no cohesion or any sort of attacking pattern with the route one football. It's just a case of lumping the ball up to him and hope something happens from it, like with that stoppage time penalty at Brighton. Even Allardyce and Pulis would make route one football look more decent than Mourinho!

Guess Sarri sees Hazard/Willian for the LW and Pedro/Moses for the RW, hence no CHO so far? For now, Sarri gets bit of a pass with regards to matchday squad selection. We're playing only one game per week at the moment and the players are still adapting to his methods. Will wait till September and see what he does when the League Cup and Europa League come into the equation. His squad management from that period onward will be telling.

Am curious to see what will happen when Jorginho doesn't play. Who will take his role? How will we fare without him?

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/19/alvaro-morata-i-want-to-stay-and-change-things-at-chelsea

Álvaro Morata: ‘I want to change things, not for the haters, but for Chelsea’

It does feel like fans do not value or appreciate Azpi enough. Don't think many had heard of him when we signed him in 2012 but we did and ever since then, he has improved immensely and proven to be very reliable and consistent. He has played in 3 different positions across the defence in 6 years and has never looked out of place at all and has always given at least 7-8 out of 10 week in week out. We have become so used to his consistency and dependability that I think many have taken him almost for granted. Sarri's football is obviously different to what we have had in recent years but if there's anyone who deserves the benefit of the doubt and a fair chance to cement his spot under Sarri, it's Azpi, who has shown he's intelligent and adaptable. And it's not like he has been a disaster under Sarri, nowhere close. As you said, there are more concerning issues elsewhere than the right back at this time. (random fact - since the start of the 2015/16 season, Azpi has played in all but two Premier League games - was rested in both. if that isn't consistency, I don't know what is.)