Sideshow Luiz

Actually, I kind of think that even if he does sign a new contract, he might leave. I could see him signing a deal with the promise that if a legit bid comes in for him, that we will sell him to Madrid. He said that he would do right by the club, and I could see him signing a deal that would force Madrid to pay us full value (as opposed to the cut price rate we got for Courtois).

Oh, for sure. Despite the hype and our "under the radar" status, we were never going to win it. Top 4, that's still out goal. We were progressing nicely, but haven't had any real training time for a while now. We're still not playing with the speed that Sarri wants, and it's not going to happen until we have time at Cobham.

I can't wait until we have some proper time on the training pitch. I think our results have fooled people in to believing we are the finished article, but we are so far from it. The play needs to be faster, the pressing more organized. January is the next time we aren't playing twice a week.

That was coming. Son has been carving us up

FFS

that's a pen.

wake up. needs to be sharper

Huge match. C'mon!

Hazard - Morata - Pedro Kovacic - Jorgi - Kante Backline we all know.

Whenever she's mentioned, I can't help but giggle at the memory of her failed hastag

I don't disagree with you at all. I was just asking if that fee was net, because second highest spend in the league didn't pass the eye (or rather, smell) test. Our purchases have been terrible as a whole. I think we got good value for Alonso and Rudiger recently (besides who you have mentioned) but "value" signings are Arsenal-eque level of ambition. But the summer of '17 was abysmal. We got in, Zappacosta, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Morata, and Rudiger. When you play the 0-net transfer game (and we didn't even do that), you need to do better than 1/5. It comes back to the same things, over and over. 1. Need a Club Identity. 2. A DoF who can oversee that. 3. A manager who fits that profile and keeps the team playing in that manner. 4. Then, the right players to fit that system (and you get the advantage of being able to spot them when they are younger, because you know what you need). The club keep asking the manager to do tasks 1 and 3, while the board gets the players in that fit their profile (whatever that is). Actually, they want the manager to come in and change the club identity. The manager is expected to be Cruyff, while the board try to run things like...I don't even know...it's directionless. Yes, we got Jorginho in who was definitely a Sarri want. I honestly think we got lucky there. I think he was in the right place at the right time to stop the pissing match between Marina and ADL. And yes I agree with you, the team has been fun to watch this season. But, there is a problem in the background that's been there for years, and it doesn't look like it's getting sorted any time soon.

Those figures aren't "net" though are they?

Ah, international break. God, I hate you. Thankfully that's it until March.

Sure. But everything has a cost, including standing pat. I just believe that Willian is a better winger (on the left) than Morata is a striker. I think Eden is dangerous wherever he plays as he works best in a free role. Next match against Spurs, might be asking for too much in such a high stakes match. But, at some time, if Morata continues to disappear.

Who from our usual starting XI and bench haven't been selected for International duty? We have a lot of work to do on the training pitch.

It's international break again, but we haven't heard any Real Madrid talk yet, what's going on? It's been 24 hours.

Learned it from Luiz

The same would have been said about Mertens before moving to CF. In the end we can all speculate and say, this would work, or that wouldn't work, but we can all realize that our CF situation is not good right now. So, all I'm saying is to try it, how much worse could it be than watching Morata ask the ref to help him out in every tough match? If it doesn't work, back to square 1.

We have to try it. Willian on the left, Hazard at CF, and Pedro on the right. I've been banging on about the training time. I think we were very fortunate to get the results that we were getting at the start of the season. We were improving, week after week, but since playing 2 matches a week for the past month or so, it's kind of stopped. Our play is too slow and not sharp. It's a lot of passing, but no movement, ATM. The 3rd man runs that make up the vertical element of Sarri's vertical tiki-taka are not there yet, or when they do make the run, players aren't making the pass. We knew it was going to be a work in progress. Unfortunately, we won't really get that quality training time until January.

Arsenal are so lucky right now:

This team needs some serious time on the training pitch. It's just not quick and sharp enough at the moment. Unfortunately, we won't have a break in the fixtures until the new year.

It's kind of been like that since we've been playing twice a week, every week. We need time on the training pitch, but that's not really going to happen until January.

The fucking time wasting. Holy shit.

GTFO

For all his weaknesses, I have to say that Alonso has some fantastic technique (shame about that horrid cross in the first half).