Magic Lamps

2 years ago Alonso would not even have reached the ball …

We have had no issues today either. We just at emit clinical enough City have shat the bed themselves vs parked buses . But it is obviously their strength in posession. ours is counter attacking that is why we beat them 3 times

Here we go well Played good instincts

Lol tbh I am maybe his harshest critic and still admitted he has been in awesome shape so far. Got the goal his performance deserved sadly our attackers are all not close to his form

this weird lineup gives me 2019 vibes probably Chilwell and James still have a fitness backlog from not playing in euros and then having vacation as much as I dislike Alonso, he looked fresh and fit as fuck in the super cup

Good deal for all sides

so Tino and trev are probably gonna stay with the squad while Barkley is gone and Tammy is still diddling around where to go.

Pau Torres is the more conventional and IMO better CB

No way. Zahavi offered Lewa to us under the condition that Bayern woudl expect an offeri n excess of 80m euros without consulting Bayern first. you think the club would pay 80m for a 33y.o.? Also his wages would be even higher than Rom's. the board will never accept such a terrible deal and rightly so

NG has to win this, no question about it. And i actually think he will

Don't rate him at all. Has been quite average at Bayern, given they paid 80m for him he would cost a ton again.Bayern have been pretty pissed ever since figuring they bought the wrong Hernandez brother lol. Lucas is also similar to Malang Sarr playing wise, which i don't like. Bastoni would be a decent option. Very technical, disciplined defender, I just have the impression that italian defenders do not like to come to EPL too much. Süle could work there as well, albeit he is right footed but a physical monster could complement our other defenders well. My absolute favourite is someone else tho... I still don't like Rüdiger's positioning and awareness too much, it can hurt us when we drop deep once he is not protected by AC/Thiago and Chilwell. No wonder Villareal tried to attack our left side with him and Alonso more despite our right side being a lot less experienced with Chalobah and CHO. Rüdiger's strength is his aggressiveness and determination, trying to win the ball ferociously stepping out of the line almost as an extra DM which intimidates the opposition such that even if he does not make a tackle they cycle the ball backwards or risk being hurt by his pointy bones (KDB says hi) He also contributes in attack with his bursting runs and insane pace. In this he is pretty much unique so there can not be a 1 on 1 replacement. But from his physical characteristics I think my no. 1 choice Maxence Lacroix could work well on the left. He is just as fast and physical. Albeit he has been used mostly in a back 4 he has all the characteristics to thrive in a 3 with his proactive and resolute style.

At this point AC renewing is maybe more important than Rüdiger. I think we can find another left sided one, but the mid CB who is as comfortable on the ball and in his positioning as AC or Silva is rare.

Laughing at Arsenal’s quest for a ‘real no.10’ to fix their problems apparently stuck in 2010

I agree. 90% of the coverage was about to that change and the immense effort we invested in that match went a bit under the radar. Given we had 6 subs, whilst van Gaal sacrificed one of his only 3 subs for this makes the move even less spectacular and more calculated. Nothing genius or amazing about it. Just a professional, common sense decision from a very professional, experienced coach.

Question is how City even need Kane. While for uncreative sides like tottenham his movement and passing game from deep is essential for city there are enough players to do this job. Agüero was actually the perfect striker for them but Pep just did not get along with him. will be interesting how they blend him in. Their weird mini-England project is getting tiresome. As good as England was or was not at the euros, they lack bottle. will be interesting if a different manager is gonna fix that for mini-England

Honestly, I would still be frustrated with him. The chances he missed vs Leeds, West Ham, Real to name a few are so ridiculously guilt edged that anyone should be expected to score these. Apart from Torres and Morata, no other striker at this club has missed this many 100% chances in sucha short timeframe. You got a point about the football tho. He is our only player who makes long deeps runs off the ball and dregs defenders away at maximum pace. His off the ball movement is what enables a lot of our attacks. Just look at the last 2 goals we scored. both time he makes the run to the left, the defender follows and everything opens up.

I think Mount next so someone like Kante or even Tchouameni can actually work, albeit none of the two would fucntion to the maximum of his abilities. Think young Lampard. He was perfectly capable of working in a midfield two next to Makelele. But he only realized his full potential when released in a midfield 3. With the right partner, Mount can play in a midfield two even if it is not his best position, but neither is as one of the 2 behind the striker... His best performances have come when he dropped deep from there, making us effectively more of a 3-5-2. We usually play a little different when Mount plays as opposed to playing with wingers like Ziyech and Pulisic.

Bayern will probably not try to sign Sabitzer. I hope they do at some point. Sabitzer is dire and would weaken them. Absolute anti-leader, always at his worst when the stakes are big. However, independent of this, Bayern desperately want to sell Tolisso and would probably settle for around 20m. Can see a midtable PL club take a punt.

Koundé has yet to play a single minute of preseason football, though he was due to play against Aston Villa before Sevilla pulled out of that friendly last week due to “reasons related to COVID-19”. Sevilla’s season starts this weekend and presumably Koundé will be taking full part. Tuchel’s supposedly pushing for this signing, but we have less than three weeks to do so if we are to get it done at reasonable financial terms (i.e. not panicking into exercising yet another €80m buyout clause). Time to move! Let's hope we tell Sevilla they can shove Kounde up theirs for 80m. Talking about overpaying. Take away the issues i have with is lack of height and physicality, he is not a ready made world class cb that would warrant such a price. He is a bit like a miniature david luiz, skillfull and flashy, funny hair but error prone. Maybe the emergence of Trevoh Chalobah means we are not in the market for a CB anymore. Would welcome this turn.

You can see why we waned Hakimi... He is good on the ball but usually makes the wrong decision with the pass and movement. Just not direct enough. Alright rwb opiton for cover but if Bayern come back with 50m we should sell him. Also I did not really see what he offers offensively over RJ in that position.

Delaying a completed transfer announcement is like submitting a task or homework late. You do it so it looks harder than it actually was.

Come on, i am usually a bit pessimistic myself, but super cup is hardly a benchmark of how the season is gonna unfold. Clearly our Euros returnees are not yet up to speed so we played with a makeshift team through pre-season and today. Our jewel will be defense again and we only had one out of 5 defenders from our usual lineup. With the big guys coming back we will look much more solid. Midfield is a bit of a worry, without kante our midfield looks quite average but enough for top 4. Offense will decide where we finish but even if Lukaku does not add those elusive 20+ goals i am confident we will score enough to secure top 4. i think we do create enough chances to win more comfortably. Last season we lost most points vs shitty oppositions who park the bus under Tuchel. Even if we only get the everton/Manure Lukaku and not the magically transformed Inter one, it sould be a peace of cake for him to score his usual clusters vs bottom half teams. If our strikers are not again all totally misfiring, i am not worried here at all. we should be good enough for FCWC as well so that is our main priorities right there.

Really feel bad for ziyech. that was his purple patch and big chance to start off the season brightly after a great preseason. The only good thing about shoulder injuries is that he at least can still practice with the ball at his feet albeit alone while doing rehab so he will not be super rusty when he comes back. A dislocated shoulder usually is just 3 weeks out but this is apparently worse...hopefully he trains his rotator cuff after rehab so this is less likely to happen again.

The whole team atmosphere just feels so harmonious with TT in charge. Real team spirit, everyone being happy for the next guy and supporting, just after Kai missed, the rest of the team welcomed him back into the group, so no one missed after him. Maybe the feeling of security that the group will accept him nonetheless played a part. TT always gives the impression that he respects and appreciates everymember of the squad no matter his role and this vindicates everyone's role in the group. He has really come a long way from being the technocratic tacitcal genius as which he was known in Germany to be an overall world class team and people manager.

Honestly, if he had arrived on his inter form he would have had a field day today, Villareal had moments when they were super open but Timo just got bullied off the ball. that will not happen with Lukaku. But there will be plenty of moments were Lukaku will be just as frustrating as Tammy or Timo. 2 things i think he will help us with is a) be more clinical on the counter. He can run with the ball at pace and go past defenders without being shoved off it. This will enable us to play out counter attacks way more direclty b) fix long balls in attack. we lose a lot of rebounds and 2nd balls. lukaku is good with his back to the defender and this will open space for our players to latch onto the rebounds. I dont think he is worth what we paid for him but in games such as today, he might be clutch. That is provided the pressure is not too much for him and he does not completely shit it like our last 2 big money strikers.