BlueLyon

When comes to goals, both Van Persie and Drogba peaked late. Persie scored over 15 PL in his last two seasons for arsenal. Morata IMO is absolutely brilliant player. Dont look at stats, look his games. Whenever I saw Juve play, he was amazing. His ball skill ability is bar to no other striker aside from established Aguero, Suarez etc... Its true he doesnt score high amount of goals (tho this season he has like 27 and considering he didnt play that much, its impressive. I have no doubt he can improve finishing even further. And Conte appears to love him too. What is most important is his character. He is always working hard, he always looks to impress, he is very intelligent player. Lukaku is the exact opposite. Stands in the attack, thinks he is already best in world and complains all the time. Its true Morata is better along another striker and he IMO isnt worth 60m, but I still think he can become world class striker. If Conte gives him chance, he will take it. Bottom line he suits our profile perfectly. He can score with feet or head. He has good link up, he is young and has quite big potential. No, he isnt close to his peak. His ball ability is too good for a striker and he will improve other aspects. Belotti isnt bad option either, but one season without any taste of european football doesnt convince me yet. Tbh of the options available, I would go for Morata (and heck buy Isco too )

If we get very capable wingbacks like Nelsinho and Alba, we can compensate with more defensive midfielder.

Why why didnt atletico kept going at real to get 3rd goal? It was clear Real players were not in game and would concede another sooner or later. Sure who knows how tired atletico players would be then, but still in miles better situation than now. 3 goals in second half not impossible but I doubt it.

Tbh whole Monaco squad was poor. So many wrong passes and lost possesions, Juve did great job at pressing them. Watch Monaco in ligue 1 and u will see Bakayoko and rest are much better. In a way it was expected considering their age and inexperience, they will struggle against juve. But I agree Bakayoko had many fart moments in those two games, losing the ball in crucial areas which he needs to improve. Then again sometimes he looks very dominant in retaking the ball and driving it through midfield. If he can be more of that later, he will be cracking player.

How reliable is he?

To me from what I seen, Lukaku is alot more Negredo than Morata is. Scores shitload of goals, but doesnt have what it takes to make step forward. Lukaku got 3 years of regular football and tbh he only added even more goals to his game. Yeah he is striker, its what he must do, but his overall and mentality hasnt changed much. Morata is very good player in general. Maybe doesnt score that much, but his play is realy good for striker. He is still relatively young and with regular playtime he can improve his finishing. I start to believe Lukaku could be hit here only to then see a match against better opponent like Pool or Chelsea and see he is still very very poor. And it has nothing to do with squad. Dybala was playing for Palermo and he played well. We cant have another striker that is average on ball and needs all the service. In that case I rather stick with Diego who is at least consistent regardless of opponent. I dont think Morata is perfect striker either. Lukaku is better finisher and more consistent, Morata is better technician and more intelligent. We would need someone who is a mix of both. If we buy Morata there might be a problem of goals, but his link up and hard work wont be a problem. Meanwhile with Lukaku, he offers goals and goals only. And even then not against top oposition. Hopefuly Conte makes right decision.

Yeah but I doubt it. We need GK for Bego replacement, possibly Costa replacement, two wingbacks, midfielder and surely Conte will go for another CB. Thats 6 players already we actualy need and we most probably wont get them all. Nevermind getting another expensive marquee signing to play that RW spot. Unless Conte and Abramovic lose it and go all in.

But Morata has performed against every top team he played against. While Lukaku is invisible against every better opponent. Lukaku is tailor made to destroy bottom half teams of PL, but top teams and CL is where Morata proved to be more useful. The problem with these strikers we are linked with is everyone has one major weakness. I would gladly pay 80m for striker if I knew he is the real deal. Or small fee if there is quite a risk. But everyone we are linked from Lukaku, Belotti to Morata would cost above 60m and neither is the real deal. And I bet my ass our next season, striker will prove the difference. Average striker and we are done, good striker and we can win anything. I think its quite obvious we NEED top striker.

True but we need another player similar to Eden. Or at least with such potential. Because when opponents shut down Eden, we are half less dangerous. We have many players that can make things, but the gap between Eden and rest is too big. It would also elevate Eden to another level if he had team mate as good as him, not to mention improve chances for Eden to stay here longterm.

Another option would be to get a defensive CM next to Kante and also buy Isco and play him in Pedros position. That way we have two excelent players behind our striker, we wont struggle if they mark Eden, because Isco is also very good. And considering Isco is playmaker, we dont can have two defensive mids and if needed simply change from 3:4:3 to 3:5:2 with Isco moving from RW to RM. Isco has contract till 2018 and we can surely persue him to join us, but the Real will want Eden in deal and we must not sell him under any circumatance.

It wasnt realy a typical 3:4:3. When Juve had ball, Chiellini and Bonucci were CBs, with Sandro and Barzagli on wide sides as fullbacks and Alves Mandzukic further up on wings. There were multiple rotations indeed with Barzagli moving inside and Alves going to wingback role. But from the get go, you could see Barzagli as fullback which was brave decision from Allegri. Possibly Allegri only did this because Khedira wasnt available.

What about Goretzka?

Absolutely brilliant manager and gentleman, but Im already thinking about next season in europe. Conte has been quite poor there and even the great juve ditched 3 man defence in europe games after Conte left. Will be very interesting to see what formation we play and how successful we are.

Costa to stay

Nothing wrong with that tbh. Let Conte buy those he already knows enough. And in french league, we made some brilliant buys over years like Drogba, Essien, Eden, Azpi,... As for Naby, he is wonderful player but I seriously doubt Conte will go with two short midfielders. It seems impossible. We struggled mostly against Tottenham this season and even Kante got more or less dominated there. What we need is real powerful midfielder who is capable with the ball also.

So we are linked with him again. Im honestly impressed how he managed to recover so quickly after that injury and establish himself back as one of best players in roma. I dont follow them every week, but from what I seen he is alright and after reading comments from other fans, he is apparently having fantastic season. Last season I was pretty much hell-bent on not signing him because there were so many other options, but now, if Conte wants him, then so be it.

Nokia was once top phone company, no one cares about them anymore. Until United, Ajax, Milan dont reach their best again, they are inferior to us. Sure United can attract Di Maria, De Gea, Griezmann, but at one point they all leave for someting better. Football is all about that last game. Some clubs might have greater history, but not the present or future. Im soon to be in my best years so I have plenty of football to see and couldnt care less what others achieved in past. I respect their history, but to me only matters what we can do now and in future. Bottom line, I definately prefer seeing this our lot being competitve today rather remember those good old times 20 years ago while being in europa league is achievement today.

Great win tonight, in very simple fashion. We played without any pressure and had lot of freedom in attack. Besides usual performers, Matic was very good IMO. 3 goals, clean sheet and very enjoyable performance. Great evening all in all

Nah unless they sell someone, they will be as good if not better. That is if Alli and Kane maintain their good form. Manchesters will improve surely and I expect them to become something similar to Real longterm if they maintain this spending spree and find suitable coach. Maybe not next season, but in two, three years surely. Guardiola has no plan B and United is still a bit of mess, so I think they will be very beatable for a while. But If we dont invest smart next two summers, I can eventualy see us as Atletico in spain, always outsiders in three club race. We definately have more money, so hopefuly it wont come to that. The least I expect from Pool and Arsenal who wont progress under current coaches and policy, because they are selling best players. PL will surely become very very competitive soon.

Its irony also that we can only keep our best talents by paying them big money, only to see that money ruining their talent. Its also sad we need to pay kids in order for them to stay. What about loyalty to club and desire to become next Lampard or Terry or Greaves? Its pretty simple why all young players turn to shit. Their wages. When Terry was young he was cleaning toilets at bridge (not literaly, but you get the point). Todays kids drive around in ferrarris and live in best apartments. No wonder everything fucks up when they hit their 20s. We have best youth academy for past 5 years and where does it show in our first team? It doesnt, those players are nowhere to be seen. We will be lucky to have one of our own players in first 11 every 20 years which is sad. Its sad to see United have Rashford, Spuds have Kane, Pool had Sterling, and all we have to show is one english player less every season. Sure trophies are great to have, but I would love to see some faith in our youth players.

Meh I liked the traditional PL logo and numbers/names on kits. It was nostalgic thing, the kits were different, but print on back was not year after year. You get different fonts for CL and cup games anyway. Some things should never change... Tbh I find timing of these changes funny. We live in years when retro is getting more and more popular, years when everything had to be modern and futuristic and new were few years ago. Nowdays popular is simple and retro. The cars are getting inspiration from older versions, same for kits, old boots are being re-made like classic predator or R9 cleats. And yet PL is making these changes now. Everything in PL is turning away from tradition. From football to public picture to youth management. Its all about the money these days.

IMO they did great job chasing us from what at first looked impossible. To win 9 games in row, surely they had to lose at some point. Its not like they have world class squad. IMO someone bottling it means when you are first, and you have on paper such advantage that it looks impossible to be caught. Yet you lose all that advantage and someone else beats you to it. To bottle it means its all up to you to win something with great odds, but you fuck it up. Spurs were never first and were always chasing us, despite they were over 10 points behind us at one point. The title was ours to lose. We will bottle it if we wont win the title after such lead. After all they have young squad and rather inexperienced. Who knows how will these failures over past two years reflect on Alli, Kane and others. That said, Im more than happy Spuds lost yesterday giving us some space, which makes our run in a bit easier.

Great result, now our boys need to win against boro first before we can celebrate. On paper we have easy games, but I bet everyone expected Spurs to roll over West ham too. We need to win our games regardless of what spurs do.

We will only rotate defence if Conte wont be happy with performances or injuries/bans. If lets say Azpi, Luiz and one of Cahill/Dijk/Christensen performs well, others will have maybe game once per month. Wingbacks are different thing, but Im 100% sure we wont rotate defense because of fatigue. Luiz, Azpi, Cahill are the types of players who can play 50 games per season too. Obviously Conte will want to improve defense with additional CB, but once he finds his best 3, there will be no rotations ala Cahill for PL, then AC for CL etc. His game is based on same defenders who get used to the style and after that there is no rotation in that department. We might have 2-3 CBs on bench but they will be nothing more but quality backups. Obviously smaller cup games, Conte will probably mix whole squad, so they will get their play time there.

I never threw Diego under the bus because of the drought, Im one of few who would stick with him, neither did I say Morata is best option to go in summer. His skill is great, but to me priority for our striker is to score goals against any opponent. Thats why I have no complain regarding Costa even if he is poor on the ball, as long he scores those goals. I explained why Benzema wouldnt be good option here too. Bottom line, I said Morata is best in two man system. Next to someone who is established scorer, unless Conte can make Morata better.