BlueLyon

Sanchez is quality, but Im not losing sweat if he goes to City honestly. They already have plenty of quality players in that position. Alexis is not young anymore, he isnt that out and out brilliant player every week, frustrating to watch sometimes. If they were signing someone like Dybala, I would be much more worried, because such player can stay there for almost decade and create dinasty, Alexis wont. As long we get super quality young player ourselves for that RW, I couldnt care less if Alexis goes to City. KDB is there as well, but we can counter it if we sign proper players ourselves.

Very good performance, 1 point from second place. City might be too strong this season, but if we continue like this from now on and hopefuly no injuries, we can easily finish second. We are very wasteful infront of goal, but at least we are making chances and finaly the game was much quicker, I guess thats big thanks to Kante. Also, many times I criticise him, but Cesc was excellent today. During the match I read some comments how Baka is poor, lol the man was brilliant today aswell. Poor decision making sometimes and poor finishing, but his overal presence in final third was superb and definately game changer.

He is doing brilliant so far. Glad injury didnt leave any serious consequences, he seems even quicker and stroger now. Him, Christensen and Rudiger, Azpi...our defence is sorted for years.

On another note I also dont get two things; 1.) Under Mou we became slow without any movement. Then Conte came and we were brilliant. Players moved quickly, many options to pass to, lot of dynamic to the game. This year its slow and no movement again 2.) Defenders under Mou were reckless in posession, get the ball and hoof it away. No control and composure in back. Conte came and we improved there big time. This season, again defenders have zero composure and we cant build from back at all. So the big question is, why? Because of Conte or players simply decide to turn off every second season?

The main problem with Conte that I see is he keeps playing Cesc and Cahill althrough they are poor. Last year he was decisive and benched Iva, Terry and Cesc. The results came. This year its same old story, players who are big at this club play and not those that actualy deserve to play.

Probably the best fullback of the season tore his ligaments...damn shame. He will be out for 4 months, but the first reports saying injury was bad and he may face many minor injuries in future now. Heck he would be on last 6 months in january. If there was a chance of getting top quality fullback in winter, it just went away...

Tbh people blasted them when they were losing to second tier teams last year, I think they deserve credit this year. Real and Bvb are no small teams and they did great against them. Meanwhile we got blasted by Roma. I hate spurs but they are doing great job. They have balanced squad, they have stability in board. They got destroyed under pressure many times in title race and european games, but if they stick together with Kane and Alli, they will be top top side sooner or later. At the very end, they played great game against Real. We would close down and Real would be all over us for 90min. Thats the reality atm. We might be winning game here or there with great tactics or players having their day, but to expect them to put top game 90% of time against quality sides, thats a fantasy now. Players have proven they are average in pressing, dealing with high press, passing, tempo, controling,...basics. One quality game or even one season doesnt change the fact we then look like second tier team next game or season. Zero improvement. Just step forward, step back, rinse and repeat... Our team atm still didnt peak, so there is some reserve, but honestly we are backtracking big time when others are making huge improvement. Results wise, we might still be competitve, but play wise, not even close. Even the likes of Napoli, Roma, Lazio, Valencia, Monaco are slowly but steadily coming ahead of us. And in long term, they will get results too. We have results for now and for alot of time very shitty performances. If the results are gone, our level is Arsenal and Pool.

Napoli lost Ghoulam and it could be different if he wasnt injured. But credit where due City was amazing. So were spurs. I hope Napoli goes through, they are brilliant side, certainly one of best to watch this year and it would be little disaster not to see best napoli in knockout stages. Feyenord and shakhtar are certainly beatable and if they do their best, they will beat both. City should beat shakhtar aswell. But funny tho, I ALWAYS wanted english football to rise again, to conquer the european throne and end spanish domination. City, Spurs are becoming formidable sides. United will too sooner or later. But Chelsea...we were the only english team not to be ridiculed for years, but now that english football is once again making serious impression in europe, we are falling behind. Yes we won two PL titles in past 3 years, but we looked average in europe since that semifinal with atletico, while City, United and even Spurs have improved massively. We are slowly becoming on level with Liverpool and Arsenal mentality on too many levels. Fuck, the board and players better wake up.

Hahah last year almost everyone was throwing Matic and Costa under the bus, now you cry after them and even question Conte? Surprise surprise...

Torres comparissons shouldnt even happen in first place. Torres was below average and saying Morata is better than him, doesnt make Morata quality. The real question is if he is or can be better than Costa.

I think he is good GK, however he should organise his defence better. But long shot goals are getting ridiculous. Opponents are popping euro goals on regular basis, Tibo should save more of those shots...

IMO he can be at least as good as prime Matic but with better dribbling ability and more dynamic. And for longer period than Matic too. That would be one damn great midfielder. But Im sure fans here are like; 1.) Matic isnt good enough on the ball etc etc. 2.) Fans want new midfielder who can pass well and playmake etc and at same time defend 3.) We buy Bakayoko as simple Matic replacement in DM position 4.) Fans expect him to turn into next Iniesta, Yaya and Makelele combined. ____ Since we dont realy have playmaker apart from useless Cesc, fans demand Baka and Kante to turn super saiyan Iniesta, while their role is entirely different. Simply because we dont have quality playmaker, it doesnt mean they have to do that. Their job is DM and B2B, but obviously some idiots will be found saying those two aint creative enough, dont have vision or ball control of Xavi. Yes Baka atm has atrocious ball control at times, aswell positioning and he should run more, but Pedro was shit too in his first year when the whole squad was shit, well this season isnt realy much different when it comes to players form compared to 2015/16. Real fans dont expect Casemiro to play like Iniesta. But they have Modric and Kroos and everything ticks. We need our own Modric/Kroos for this team, thats it.

I have reserved my judgrment on Morata and Bakayoko, since they are new and whole team plays like shit (just look at Pedro in first season when we were shit and then in his second). But Baka is 23, came from smaller club, while Morata is 25, played in juve and real, plus he is striker and I always except more from strikers, since its very delicate position. So... Im not impressed at all tbh. Not saying he cant improve whatsoever, but the style he plays makes him absolutely not main #9. He can be great second striker, but uptop you need someone ruthless, someone who burries chances and bullies defence, not vice versa. Dude is 190 and gets bullied by every damn opponent. He isnt "weak". Its all in the head. Technique is there, finishing can be improved. Despite I get awol when he misses the whole goal shooting with his feet almost everytime 1v1, I guess that can be improved. But mentality is something that cant. I wanted him to come here because he was serious worker back then at juve and even in Real. He ran and ran and chased opponents. Here, all he does is jog around and either makes quite good pass or loses the ball in attempted dribble. His attempts to dribble the defensive line are quite shitty to be honest.

This thread gonna be a graveyard for some dudes here in year or so when Baka rips the league apart.

You know what they say about magicians...frauds. Harsh on Cesc but yeah, theres so much average about him and the worst is he managed to hide it for ages. Been saying that since his first year here. He offers nothing besides passing and even thats two great passes per game. No backbone, no character, no defensive work. As a central midfielder thats one big fucking liability. Its time for him to be benched or sold.

I see he is not playing much... Another one bites the dust?

When it rains it pours...

And never mind as long someone plays along Cesc, you cant blame him, be it Kante or Bakayoko or someone else. Cesc is absolute ghost in any defensive or off the ball action and when in possession, he cant control the tempo, cant held his own under pressure. Neither is he a leader or mental winner because he goes in hiding in every bigger game. No wonder his partner in midfield struggles too then, doing two man job and eventualy getting lost. Bakayoko had Fabinho in Monaco, once Kante comes back and the two play few games, it should be allright.

Drogba, Essien, Azpi, and bunch of others werent ''proven material'' either. They had good season or maybe two, much like Bakayoko. I always prefer the club to buy less known players and turn them into club heroes rather than buying established world stars. The prices tho are a reflection of the entire football tho. Yes 40m for Bakayoko was alot, but we have bigger revenue, bigger sponsor contracts, bigger tv rights etc etc. 40m for Bakayoko is like 25m in 2004. Most here dont see Cahill and Hazard are now the players with longest time here, 2012 (not counting Tibo and Moses who went on loans, or Luiz who left). Thats 5 years. Several top clubs have players who have been there for 10 years. Thats huge difference because those players are true leaders of those clubs. We changed whole generation few years ago and new one is just getting their feet here, and already got 2 titles. Stability comes with time. And time only. You cant expect great things from players like Morata or Bakayoko just yet. Give them time. Azpi, Tibo, Eden, Kante and maybe Luiz are the backbone of this team and they perform well in majority of the games. But you need whole 11. Bakayoko, Morata, Christensen, Rudiger will get there soon. However we wingbacks and RW leave plenty of improvement to be made in coming windows. We are 3 signings away of having excelent squad. Majority of our squad is 25, 26 then you have Baka who is 23, Azpi who is 28 and Luiz, Cahill over 30, but we already have younger future in Rudiger and Christensen. Majority of our club youth is overrated as hell too. They might be decent squad players, but I guess they want regular role elsewhere. Nothing we can do about. But most of them would never be good enough for first 11. Once we solve wingbacks and quality RW, which should be done hopeguly by start of next season, and if we keep all the main players here, this team is going to be beastly in 2019-2020

I agree about the other two chances, he was bit unlucky there, but generaly speaking he should have a goal in this game, that was simple execution, but he didnt even hit the target. If Gk pulls unreal save, nothing to say there, but Morata needs to hit the target more often. I think there were several chances he was 1v1 but completely missed the goal. For now, thats acceptable, he is 25 and adjusting to this league. But at one point he will need to be more composed and reliable in front of goal. Its nice he is good with the ball and linkup, but some games, there will be one such chance and he will have to score goal.

I dont think Morata was unlucky. He should have scored that clear chance, but didnt even hit target. It happend quite few times now already, he has to become better finisher.

Not linked with us at all, but I think its worth to create a thread, he will be big player one day and linked with everyone. Played brilliant against troyes tonight, fantastic talent. Ligue 1 has some amazing talent these days, Malcom from Bordeaux is another.

What I dislike about him are his leadership skills or lack of leadership skill to be exact. For someone so long in football, experience and being captain at young age at arse, I would expect him to lead the players in difficult games, but he just dissapears in every crucial game. Man lacks that character, otherwise I would forgive him for all the physical atributes, but without physical or character qualities, he is just average in every game apart from a pass or two. And when you have DLP like that, obviously you get dominated left and right in midfield. He is the exact opposite of what DLP should realy be. Alonso and Pirlo were example of class DLP.

For the moment he is still finding his very best role in midfield. He is not playmaker ala Cesc or Ozil, but I think he will develop into deep lying playmaker. He has all technical, tactical and physical atributes to become midfield general in the future. For the moment, he is good player for counter attacks. He works realy hard to retrieve the ball, then calmly keeps it in possesion and sprays long pass to attacker. Will be interesting to see his development.

Average in the beggining, but realy kicked on soon after. Best player for Nufc. Kid is realy all round, he got good eye for pass, he works hard and very neat on the ball.