Sideshow Luiz

Pretty good article: https://www.theringer.com/soccer/2018/10/19/17995886/the-premier-league-standings-are-lying-to-you In the bit about City, you see how dominant the underlying stats say they are.

Full rotation except for Morata and Willian, please. Willian - Morata - Moses (though I want CHO if healthy) Barkley - Fabs - RLC Emerson - AC - Cahill - Zap

I'm not against both of them starting in some matches. In a match like today, Kante is a must because you need his energy and he's guaranteed to play all 90. But, in others, where we're going to have 70% of the ball, I could see them both playing.

I like having both (Kovacic and Barkley). There's a lot of running and pressing in our midfield. Kovacic played well, but was starting to tire. I think both of them would struggle to play all 90 against quality opposition like today.

Elated for Barkley though (despite the terrible team performance). He's getting the rewards for the graft he's put in all season.

Barkley, you fucking beauty!

Pedro + Giroud >> Willian + Morata. Sorry Sarri, you got it wrong today, and didn't rectify the mistake quick enough.

I may have blinkers on, but I didn't really think that was Luiz's fault. He should not have to be out in that position. Alonso has been shocking. The things he's usually good at he's been terrible at. As soon as Morata starts doing the "I don't think I should stay up, I can't do anything anyway, please bail me out Mr. Ref" he needs to come off. It doesn't change, that's it for the match.

Pedro and Giroud need to come on. Only way to salvage this. We've been terrible.

I know the dislike for these players is a bit over the top at times, but Morata, Alonso, and Willian have been terrible.

I thought the same. Then looked back and it did seem that he was getting a bit leggy. Rather sub too early than too late.

Morata has been playing without confidence today. It's not his day, Giroud needs to come on.

Fuck

I was going to say the same. We've lost the ball in some terrible areas, need better link up play. Utd. have set up quite well, I think. There is a definite plan to stop the defenders from playing the ball to our midfield and they are playing some good 1-2s on the counter. Need the 2nd, because I feel like Utd will get 1 or 2 good chances in the second half.

Exactly. these guys need to look at Barkley. He got less than a sniff under Conte. Not a peep. New manager comes in and he went for it on day one, trying to show him that he should be considered a valuable member of the squad. He's made himself valuable, Sarri can't afford to exclude him.

Christ, every question trying to get some sort of statement that can be twisted to cause some sort of controversy. Why the hell are you asking about Conte's and Jose's relationship? Do they ask Klopp what he thinks about Benitez and Ferguson not getting along? Christensen's dad? Trying to get Sarri to insult Jose. You've matched Chelsea's best start, which came under Mourinho 4 years ago: Are you playing better football? Nice try, I'm sure you'd love a Saturday headline that reads: Sarri SLAMS Jose's tactics. Sarri doing a good job, keep it boring. "I don't know, it's hard for me to say in this moment" then give the answer to a similar but not the same question.

He has all the potential, but I'm not loving this attitude. Luiz is 31, missed all of last season with an injury problem. Some/most people say he's a liability (personally, I love him). And Christensen is going to move clubs instead of trying to win the job? He has to look in the mirror, it's not Chelsea's fault. He can't honestly look at how he's played this year and think that he deserves that starting spot. Instead of working and showing Sarri what he can do, I suppose it's easier to go play week in week out at some mid table club where the stakes are low.

this match is worrying me. Everyone is saying that we're going to win, Man Utd fans all think they are going to get spanked. That's a recipe for disaster, IMO. We don't give up that many chances, but the ones we do are golden. If Utd put one of those away at 0-0, or even 1-0, it could be a lot of trouble. Long balls to Fellaini and/or Lukaku to bypass the press. Utd may be in terrible form right now, but their physicality could be a huge problem for us. Tough match. I hope I'm wrong and we crush them.

I was going to say the same. I know he makes us question it sometimes, but he is still just a human.

I thought I read somewhere during silly season that Man Utd offered 50, but Kovacic turned it down because he didn't want to play as a CB (well, style of play, but you get what I mean).

This CHO contract situation is almost as bad as the Hazard situation. At least, if Hazard doesn't renew, we'll get some decent money for him, we won't even get that with CHO. CHO is not going to be starting regularly next season, and as much as I want to see him in the team, I'm not sure he's ready for that yet (I agree, CHO needs to play more now). Edit: I re-read, my last post, I didn't mean to give the impression that I don't think anyone should be brought in. Just not a Sancho type of player. They have to be 1st team ready. CHO needs to play more now, and we can determine if that's him, I agree. CHO should really be getting Moses' minutes, I hope this is a Moses-in-the-shop-window type situation. Sarri certainly rates Chiesa, not sure what the club think about Bailey, and his dad/agent. If they both come in, it certainly means that Willian is off as well (which is okay with me too).

Should buy a house, then he could do this every day when not at training or match days, for next 5-6 (+) years.

Thank god that International Football is over. I agree with akgw13, Jose is going to have something in store. That something is Fellaini. I think he's going to be in the RB position when we kick off in order to combat the long overload diagonal we use on every kick off (maybe we'll go to the right this time?). I can also see Fellaini going up front as a no. 10 and Utd trying to bypass our press with long balls to Lukaku and/or Fellaini. We know that they are going to bring the bus. I suspect that the no.10 will have instructions to mark Jorginho. This is going to be a tough match. We'll see what Sarri thinks Jose will do, and what kind of adjustments he makes in preparation.

Maybe we can get Baka to grow a mohawk and we'll have "the new Nainggolan"?

That Croatia match was dreadful. Shit match, no goals, no real chances apart from Rashford, in an empty stadium. Did it really happen?