BlueLyon

For me, Azpi was PL best 1v1 defender for a couple seasons now. Be it on flanks or in 3 CB system. This year, he just wasnt that great in defending. Got exploited more times than usual. His offensive, I dont even care much at all, he was never excellent there, and I knew he would have some difficulites under Sarri. But his defensive level also dropped compared to previous seasons. He wasnt shit at all though. Its just that his level is so high, that when he plays okayish, thats not good enough because he can be much better. Same with Hazard. He doesnt play bad at all, but for his standards he is underperforming. Thats why both Eden and Azpi deserved some criticism lately. City game, he was just crazy good and that was level he was showing in number of games previous seasons, I was always impressed. Yesterday he shown that top quality again for the first time so far in current season IMO. He is world class defender after all. Thats what I meant by being back to his old reliable self. Same can be said about Kante, he was shaky in first half, but absolute boss in second half. Normaly, both will have to adjust to new Sarri system, but if they play like they did yesterday, we absolutely dont need any upgrade on them anytime soon. On side note, Kante (while I believe he will show his worth under Sarri) is quite wasted in his new role, but if he plays like yesterday, he is pure class. Even if we forget his goal, he was great in breaking their play and set up some dangerous attacks himself.

People are right to criticise Azpi, he wasnt 100% this season. If he now picks from the city game, he will be back to his good old reliable self. But fans who called for his replacement after 4 months under completely different manager are disgrace. Have some faith man.

When we are motivated, we can actualy play realy well. Only player that I would still replace is Alonso. Hazard, Willian and Pedro were much better than Morata or Giroud. Also Kante and Azpi were great.

Yes. Finaly Pedro, Willian and Hazard, something I suggested a while ago. It just cant be worse than Morata or Giroud. On the other side, sad that Alonso is starting but that was expected.

That was a sarcastic response to Sarri preffering to play Alonso to defend setpieces.

Just goes to show we desperately desperately need a striker.

I like Sarri and his football style/philosophy, but if he insists on playing Alonso because of his height at setpieces, he can feck off. What year are we living? I mean, I understood Conte or Mou need super solid defence, because 70% of the time, we defended. So their excuses with Iva or anyone else actualy made some sense, albeit outdated. But Sarri is exact opposite, attacking minded manager and he must understand fullbacks quality going forward is more important than being tall to defend setpieces. Take example having lets say Grimaldo who is almost #10 in LB spot would greatly benefit our creativity, ball circulation, width etc. Why dont we play 3 defensive mids in middle then? They would surely help defending setpieces and counters better than Jorginho. Shit man, sometimes I seriously dont get some managers. They just dig their own grave.

On our side, why the hell are we so inconsistent? We had great start with Conte, then dropped. We had great start of 2014/15 with Mou, then dropped. We also had very good start with Sarri, but now we play much worse. Obviously Sarriball will take two seasons to truly work, but its bad that we played better two months ago than we play now, when it should be the other way around. Players cant be tired already, so what is it? Just a shit attitude or?

IMO Chelsea 2004-09, United 1999 and 2008, Arsenal Invincibles would wipe the floor with this city lot. Probably Liverpool at their peak too. What people dont see is how shit City is in europe. They might do well in england, because their depth due to crazy money is insane. Only one that cant be replaced are Ederson and Fernandinho. They have like two strong 11s. Just crazy depth quality. Its not that hard then to win vs burnleys with ease. Secondly, top teams in pl are far from great. Liverpool is only one that is in some decent shape and they have given city a spanking before. In CL though, city is nothing special. When we had strong squad (or United), semifinals were constantly there. City struggles because in europe, teams are actualy strong and tacticaly apt, Guardiola doesnt have plan b and he will get smacked in knockout stages again. The PL is far from great. Its true however that City is probably most consistent team in PL history. But put them in 2005, they might win all games against smaller sides (something we or united got burned sometimes) but they would also lose to all england top 4 teams in 2005.

Maybe unpopular opinion but still; Im big fan of Kovacic and wanted him when he was still in inter. But I dont think we should pay 60m for him. Maybe he didnt adjust here yet, but he has rather poor phyisical shape, doesnt show enough grit in games and has zero end product. Has great ball control and passing, but doesnt do much with it. Sort of reminds me why he didnt break in RM team, much like Isco, they offer alot of flair, but dissapear when you count on them. That said, RLC is walking good path and we should try making him starter if he continues to impress. Has good technique, decent passing that will improve, much better finish than Kovacic and maybe him being chelsea youth will also make him more passionate for the club which lacks some identity since Terry departure. I wont be dissapointed either way if Kovacic stays or goes, because he is good player, but maybe right now we need to spend 60m elsewhere? Also Mount will be here in season or two. Signing Kovacic will be big fuck off sign.

Hysaj is just slightly better passer, thats it. He is solid defensively, but doesnt go forward much. His crosses are also average. When Ghoulam was fit and in form, literaly everything went through his flank. Even Malcuit is better in attack than Hysaj.

Player availability, IMO LB and CB are the easiest. They also cost less than wingers or strikers, so the january inflated price will still be realistic to pursuit, unlike some strikers who are already super expensive, but they will be even more in january. But yeah, with Alonso and Emerson, I dont see chance board would buy another fullback. Emerson has to show something first before being sold and Alonso is "key" player. Idealy we would ship Alonso or even Emerson (if Sarri has no plan to play him) and buy new LB because there are many who can be persuaded like Telles, Firpo,... New CB can be easily bought in january with someone like Rugani, but again I would like the board to target someone better like Hernandez or Skriniar. That said, striker is absolute crucial thing. But I think we just cant get anyone good enough in january. I dont want some short gap that will only fill squad places and then we wont be able to get rid off. Just maybe with Ibra reported to return to europe, a cheeky bid for a six months/year wouldnt hurt anyone, seems impossible though. RW should be targeted in summer IMO because we have to ship Willian/Pedro and we wont do that in january.

Oh thats cool then. But Hysaj wont be cheap, do we realy need to spend this much on backup when we desperately need starters? We could put James as backup for Azpi anyway.

Brace yourselves, winter is coming

He is not great right now, but anyone saying we should sell him should rethink about watching football. Hazard is still regardless head and shoulders ahead of anything at the club, specialy now that Kante and Azpi dont play as great as they used to. It is hard to replace him right now, and absolutely impossible to do it with our current clueless board. People saying our burnley game was most complete and Hazard didnt play, well great, lets just stick with Pedro and Willian for next 5 years then. Also having someone like Eden out injured is completely different to not having Eden in club at all. The players react differently. Just look at Real, they didnt seem bad when Ronaldo was out injured/rested, because they wanted to prove themselves. Now that Ronaldo is actualy no longer at the club, all pressure is fully on other players and they are dogshit. Without Eden we wont be even near CL, especialy when you look how ambitious the club is, targeting fucking Ruganis and Hysajs...

The board and managers lack balls for years now. No one wants to play less known players and maybe risk a game or two in favour of bright future, so they just stick with past-it "proven" players.

If its true, wtf? We want to replace Azpi before we replace Alonso? And with fucking hysaj of all people.

What is more, Eden might leave in summer, which means only Azpi and Kante remain of the 3 reliable players we had. But Sarri managed to ruin both. Lovely.

There are so many good available LBs out there like Grimaldo, Telles, Firpo, even Chilwell,...literaly no excuse for the board not to pick one in the near future.

Up until 1st goal we were ok. We had control and all. Then we created 2 serious chances, at which point it should be 2 up and game in our hands. Instead our might attack flopped time after time and they got themselves back in the game after realizing our attack is not working. We should kill the game off, but we didnt. Thanks to our attacking lineup.

Hazard is seriously underperforming too for a while now. Not that he is bad, he is still one of best on pitch, but when you know his ability, he is way off right now. He was flying in early months, but then he faded once our title chances got shot seeing how good Pool and City are doing. He had these out of form games, but almost always put serious performances against top teams, however he was usual bad vs spurs last week and I doubt he will be fired up for City. Then again, with Willian and Morata against top side, why even try hard. One player cant defeat them and Hazard's team mates in attack are as shit as you can get for a top team. He is literaly surrounded by 3 worst players in squad; Willian, Alonso and Morata. I would get my hopes shot down before match even begun if I was him.

It probably has nothing to do with training at this point. Just lack of balls to try something new. Marcos is established player, one who won PL and obviously wont be dropped. Same with Willian. Same was with Iva when we already had Azpi in squad, but he was on bench until Cole injured himself and we were forced to play Azpi on left.

I fucking hope it happens. Because if we win that game with them, this lot wont be dropped for next 3 years.

Dont want to sound arrogant, but 5th place isnt good enough. CL is absolute must. We cant go another season without cl football for all the obvious reasons. As for Sarri, I doubt he will drop Alonso even after such shitshow tonight. We need at least two more losses for anyone at club to realize something is wrong ffs.

The fucking arrogance when you rotate vs Wolverhampton and plan to go full strenght vs city, thinking you can snatch 6 points. Instead of at least 3 vs wolves, we are on good course to end up with zero. Amazing.