Jase

http://www.espnfc.us/video/espn-fc-tv/86/video/3600977/robson-jorginho-is-not-an-outstanding-player

To be fair, you don't have value Cole to judge whether Alonso is cut to be first choice at a big club. The answer is fairly obvious.

Wonder what @Tomo makes of that...

I find ESPN amusing to watch whenever they bash United or Arsenal, especially with those pundits you're referring to. But on a serious note, the only pundits really worth listening to on ESPN are Marcotti, Lowe, Honigstein and Bandini. The rest are pretty bad, to put it kindly. And not sure if anything hit Stewart Robson in the head. I know he commentates on European as well as English matches and he's usually decent with his analysis but his dismissive view of Jorginho was arrogantly bad - also don't get why they keep branding him as a holding midfielder when he is a deep lying playmaker! - and felt like he and the others didn't watch Bakayoko last season at all. They were judging him from his Monaco days and Burley was trotting out all the silly excuses for him!

Never mind them, I will come after you if he doesn't contribute at least 35 goals/assists this season.

1:15pm UK time.

Okay, we get it. We know you don't rate Morata. We know you think he's shit and should be sent to the dumpster, far far far away from Chelsea. But do you really need to go bang your drum about Morata in almost every post? Rarely see you talk much about other topics as you do with your complaints posts about him. It feels like it has reached the point where you just want him to fail more than anything else.

And yet, they still looked like a mess against City last weekend, which wasn't (much?) better than we did in the Community Shield. I know it was only a friendly back then but I remember people saying Arsenal would beat us in Dublin because they had a proper pre-season with their manager etc and yet, we outplayed them in the first half and should have won the game. Both sides are still adapting to new methods, manager etc. It will come down to who will be less shit on the day itself.

I know Sarri plays attacking football but isn't it ridiculous to expect he'll turn players into some goalscoring machine just because of the attacking approach? There was also something similar with Conte, who we all thought had the midas touch and capable of making players play beyond their level but look at how that's turned out. Not everyone is gonna turn out to be like Mertens under Sarri. That Huddersfield example you gave, it was just Huddersfield, who more or less gave up by the time Hazard came on. More concerned about Sarri getting players up to speed with his methods and making us a cohesive unit rather than elevating individuals. If Sarri can get that first two parts right, the individual part should come naturally.

Scenes when Hazard still contributes below 20 goals and assists.

It's The Sun but oh dear...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/aug/15/chelsea-technical-director-priority

Speaking the obvious but the most important thing about getting the Director of Football is that the person has to be on the same page as the manager. If they are, then it could work out like Txiki Begiristain and Guardiola at Man City right now. If one person is thinking A and the other thinking B, then problems will definitely arise. There is a piece on the DoF situation at Man United on ESPN FC and I largely agreed with the points made on that position. http://global.espn.com/football/club/manchester-united/360/blog/post/3597132/for-manchester-united-is-a-director-of-football-the-answer

Same here. Thought I got kicked out.

Okay...I had problems logging in as well. Had to change my password to get back in. And like Unionjack above, I can't like posts either and the 'Mark As Read' feature isn't working as well. Have notified Jim about this. Just hoping he sees the message!

Could be interesting if/when Conte replaces Gattuso at Milan.

Good god. Suspended for a week. It's your third warning in the forum. You're walking a fine line after this...

He came on against Lyon. My guess is he's not up to speed yet in terms of fitness and Sarri has gone with those that have had minutes under their belt - e.g Christensen - on the bench.