BlueLyon

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.

Morata is brilliant ballplaying striker. His skill is miles ahead of Lukaku. He doesnt score that much, but then again he doesnt play that much and when he does he is usualy SS. IMO Morata is perfect if you play two striker system. But maybe Conte can make him work as lone striker too. Definately has more in his locker than any other striker we were linked with, but he doesnt score as many goals indeed.

You are forgetting that only reason Benzema works in RM is because Cr scores so many goals. Benzema doesnt need to score them all. Here, Benzema would be our main goal threat because we dont have any other natural scorer. We need efficient, technical striker and neither Benzema, Aubameyang or Lukaku fit that. Maybe Belotti or Lacazette, but those two arent proven yet.

Wasnt allegri quite poor in last months in milan?

Atletico was crap yesterday, but Real is playing brilliant in Champions league. They have complete team, creative, prime years, top fullbacks, good Gk, great defense, midfield and attack. Goals everywhere. I think only Juve can stop them because they are great in CL this year too. If they dont win la liga this year, they wont win it in 10 years. They have all the ref help and barca is in worse state in ages.

If we get Kroos type of player, you do know what will happen tho? Kante will no longer be our b2b, but our holding DM, which limits his abilities. Also, we will be weaker in defense, because we already lack steel even with Matic. Sure idealy, with Kroos type of player and better wingbacks, we would eventualy try to dominate more and we wouldnt need as many bodies in defence, but hell our team will never dominate, its just not in our DNA. I like idea about ballplaying CM, but in that case we would need to switch to 3:5:2.

Well when fit he is one of three top CBs in PL, other two being Azpi and Alderweireld. You can throw Kos and Verthongen in there when they have good day. Verthongen is better than Aldo this year, but generaly speaking he is not. Kos makes some stupid mistakes too often to get in top 3. That said, he plays for Soton and will definately need to join bigger club to prove himself at next level and get recognition as one of best in europe. But he certainly has that ability to be one. I agree 50m is too much, that Christensen deal is even worse. But 40m alone, I think he is worth the risk. Powerful CB who is also good on the ball, consistent past two seasons and leader. Perfect age too. I do fear his recent injury might halt his progress, but before that I would take him in a heart beat. Luiz, Azpi, Cahill, Dijk, Christensen and either Ake/Zouma would be great to go next season. I hate how players like Belotti or Dijk are so expensive these days when they are not proven in europe, but neither was Eden and I see similar potential in those players, just different positions.

Agent Cech, cmon stop the spurs today.

Brilliant performance. Very good teamwork, we were tight in defense and good enough in attack, second half especialy. Besides usual performers, Matic was amazing too. Giant win, we scored 11 goals against three quality teams, finaly a clean sheet too and completely unexpected. We have easier games on paper now, but we shouldnt underestimate anyone.

I find his comments very unnecessary sometimes. He talked about city and money, when we spend alot ourselves. Sure city spent more and should be higher on table, but the money doesnt guarantee success. We spend lot of money too. Secondly, those comments about underdogs, specificaly to Poch pre Spurs game. He said Poch need to drop that underdog excuse for his team. Then again, Conte said we are the underdogs many times. We are certainly not underdogs. We have some of best players in league, we are top of table and we win most of games. We cant be the underdogs, not in england atm. Some comments he makes are realy pointless.

If we let Eden go, I want Neymar/Dybala and Verratti. End of story. We must improve the squad, not weaken it. Sanchez never realy impressed me and Carassco while good player, not even close to Eden. Eden is best dribbler in world along Messi and Neymar. He is also kind of playmaker. Neymar and Verratti are only young players on that level. And even then, call me crazy, but I rather keep Eden than have Neymar+Verratti.