Sideshow Luiz

Really, I was just thinking that he's looked like his usual self, albeit standing up more, but his movement has been poor, IMO. Doesn't seem to want to move in to space to get open. Just what I've seen in the few moments I was watching him. Not been complete shit though.

CHO needs to recover from his injury. His chance is now.

I think he's said in the past that he pronounces it that way because that's how Americans pronounce it and that's where he's from. So, it's like a lot of American pronunciations, phonetic. Poo-li-sik Despite what my little notice says, I live in Canada (now/again), can confirm that there is a TOT - TEN - HAM in Ontario. It's a desolate backwards ass shit hole too, so that's common. From Wiki: The town was ravaged by a fire in 1895, which began at the McKinney foundry. Eighty structures were destroyed, including the foundry and a Methodist church. Despite warnings in 1884 that the town needed a fire engine, none was purchased. To combat the 1895 fire, the town of Allandale sent its fire engine, preventing further spread of the fire. Anyone who's lived in London and overheard Americans on the tube understand. "We're going to LIE-CHESTER SQUARE"

I thought he was going to miss it at the time. His pass is in doubt because the reason he was free was because he lost the ball and kept moving forwards. Also, hours after the final he was moaning about not being the "main man".

He made Diawara a beast (haven't seen him much this year TBH). I hope we do it. I don't think he'd expect to be on the bench every match, so our 2 midfield spots on the bench can be Ross, RLC, or Kovacic depending on who starts. He won't be too expensive either after fees and wages are taken in to account after Fabregas leaving.

@Vesper It's got to be Tonali as Cesc's replacement. As for the back up to Kante, I still think Kovacic can do that role. I think he's a great option. I know people wish he supplied more goals and I agree, but I kind of see his value in the ability to play both MF (not Jorginho) roles. Against teams that want to sit back, he can play in Kante's spot. Against teams like City or Liverpool his defensive tenacity and awareness are super important. Off the bench, he can slot in for either role if we are either chasing the match or want to try to lock it down.

I didn't know the status of his injury. I've also had the impression that he was 3rd in the pecking order for CF now. If he's healthy and doesn't make the bench, I think we can assume that he's gone.

Hazard Giroud Willian RLC Jorginho Kante Alonso Luiz Rudiger Azpi Kepa That's how I think we'll line up. I think it should be Emerson instead of Alonso, but i think that's his line-up.

At Napoli, he only really had Allan, though. Diawara was used more as Jorginho's back up. It was Rog and Zielinski (who would also play in Hamsik's position). Personally, I think Kovacic should be used more in the "defensive" position when we are controlling the match against teams that are sitting back. Barrios would definitely suit the role. Can't see us buying a 50M like Ndombele player to be Kante's dedicated back up. Kovacic would be good as he can play both roles and give us some flexibility in midfield. Priority 1 has to be our forward line, then a back up for Jorginho if Cesc is really on his way out. So......Barrios will probably happen then.

Some time on the training pitch would be nice too. We've been playing twice a week since October.

Thank Christ. Much needed win.

Ummm....what the hell? We wanted to see Emerson and CHO, but not like this.

He sits on the fence for as long as possible.

I'm surprised they gave us that. It was stonewall, but I'm used to not seeing us take pens. Okay. Need these 3 points, c'mon.

I'm not sure there's much in it offensively. Defensively, I'd much prefer to have Willian in front of Alonso, and CHO on the right with Azpi backing him up.

Shit. Fucking worldie. What can you do?

C'mon. Willian is much better on the left. Someone has to play on the right.

Feels like this is a massive 45 min coming up for the club. Need CHO to make a RLC style statement and make it impossible for Sarri to bench him.

Hazard isn't really playing like he's too good for us. Should have released Pedro far earlier on that break.

Cheers @Special Juan Merry Christmas to you too and to all the members here.

Sorry man. Selfishly, I hope you miss an absolute smashing where CHO comes on and score 2 goals in the last 30 min.

Europeans giving me stick for having values and not wanting anything to do with European politics etc grinds my gears - That's not what happened or what I was referring to. Meh - So it was brought to your attention that your response was completely out of line with what was said to you, and it's "Meh"? Lol I'm probably not going to respond - Except that you did respond. I'm trying to help you out here because if everyone on the forum responded to each other with: "Didn't read it, probably bullshit because we didn't agree some other time. What's that? That's not what happened? Meh. Doesn't matter because this isn't a response anyway and I'm only here to troll." Well. It probably wouldn't work. There's an ignore function that you can use, if you wish. There's no need to tell people that you're ignoring them, you can just do that on your own.

If we receive the ban in January, and it's for 2 years, how are those deals going to go through in the summer? Doesn't make sense. I'd guess that the ban gets handed down and we appeal it which may allow us to do business this January (which sucks because no one wants to sell important players mid-way through the season), or possibly we could appeal it to try to have it reduced to a year (like the Madrid club and Barcelona got) and have it take effect after the summer window. We'll see what happens.