Magic Lamps

That entry is false. He did not win the taca de la liga in 2011. Not sure if Coupe de Championes is actually a title, i usually do not count Community Shields either.

Damn. Showtime now. We need Zouma and AC to become the players they were always hoped to be and do so right now. No idea what to expect. I think it is just important to play without fear. For guys like Pulisic and maybe even Mount it will be their PL debut and that at OT. Absolute baptism of fire. It can go horribly wrong or it will be a refreshing performance. I can see no middle ground. I dont think we can go there and hold out for a 0-0 Mourinho-style. We dont have that in our locker right now and its also not Lamps's philosophy. I just hope we will not be naive like when AVB came to OT and placed Terry and Luiz almost on the sidelines and Rooney walked right through the middle. Different times but we need to be compact and probably not risk a high line and close players down in midfield quickly. If we win the midfield battle, which we should be able to given our midfield is vastly superior and do so without pushing too high and leaving space behind we have a chance. Win the ball in midfield and then distribute them to our pacy flank and it can be a feast.

I guess it feels like being at the wrong end of a 4-1 EL final drubbing.

Luiz got 16 and that is counting shit trophies like confed cup and taca de portugal. Anyway with Pedro, Willian, Azpi, Giroud, Kante we retain more than enough title-winning experience. Btw Mustafi must be one of the most ridiculous WC winners in recent years. What happened to him? He regularly played and even scored in the 2014 WC. Even Großkreutz was part of that squad and Kramer started the final. Testament to how clueless Löw is in team selection. Almost wasted that generation.

Was a completely different situation tho. The fans heaped all kinds of abuse on Giroud, he had been frozen out and they had the possibility to sign a replacement. (Wasn't Aubameyang signing even the reason for Grioud leaving?). Luiz left us in bad terms and in a situation where he basically lets the club down due to the ban, justified or not.

Lool. They have short memories that do not even date back to their tinpot club's latest professionell game. The one were they got humiliated by our superiority and thus still are without a European trophy for how long? Also maybe Luiz can show them his EPL winners medal, the only one they have in their entire squad. Closely read the name of the club on its backside...

Still looks so wrong in red and white. I really wish him and Arsenal only misfortune. What a shitty way to leave.

Shiit you are right completely forgot about that. And including Inflation you are probably right. Cheers to the board then

How much do you reckon would have been a fair pricr? 20m? Given he just renewed his contract you are surely right. Maaan what we spend on Luiz. Buying him for 30m and 30m plus Mativ who we also bought for 35m later, almost 100m Sold to Psg for 50m and now for 8m to Arse. So he cost us like 30m net. Which is alright I guess overall, given we got his and Matic's best years.

This one has not aged well lol.

Lamps telling Luiz he is not first choice being the reason for DL leaving is plausible. After his shitshow in pre-season, you can understand Lamps's decision. Also the kind of ruthlessness we need. DL not being content with being 3rd choice is something we should respect. but not that he is pushing this hard this late for a move. He could have decided to stay and fight for his place. Also smart not to loan out Tomori yet. We will need him now. Lets hope this situation does not come back to bite us. I do not fear DL at Arsenal. Their defence has always beens suspect and replacing Koscielny with Luiz is a hell of a downgrade. The only thing we will miss as a tactical weapon is obviously Luiz's ability to play long range passes. Lets hope our other CBs get comfortable doing that. If not I have seen how Barkley and Mount drop deep at times, like Lamps himself did to open up the play with long diagonals. I am not sure this is better than doing so with a player less in behind and having more attacking option for the CB to pick out but we will see.

maybe it is all an elaborate plan for him to join us on the cheap: He deliberately flops big time at arsenal, they want to get rid of him next summer and they even accept a cut-price offer from us, because he was so shit.... one can dream

It is. and rigid. I can so see Mount run rings around Matic. But we need to be careful. The pace of Martial and Rashford can easily exploit a high line, so we should always leave enough players in behind. Also since they usually play without real wingers we should make our numbers advantage on the flank count. Esp with the pace of Emerson and Pulisic we should seek 1 on 1 often and go behind their lines and then play cut backs. This is were they are really vulnerable. They draw their defneisve lines back in panic when they are attacked directly and with pace so they leave huge gaps behind just in front of their box. On paper, they might be a bit better than us player for player, more experienced, better age balance, but with superior tactics we can pull a shock win even at OT.

dafuq. read some 2nd rate sources on that too but did not pay it any attnetion. Thought it was BS. That is so out of character. He usually goes out of his way to state his love for the club and now he is basically dumping us for our ugly cousin out of nothing? Not that I would be too mad, his best days are behind him but I really had a different picture of him. Why would he do this? He is one of the first names on our teamsheet (for better of for worse) and even Arsenal fans would admit right now that they are a downgrade.

I think Lamps knows exactly what to do with Kante. He just said Kante is a doubt for ManUre as a smokescreen to give OGS more to think about.

It was stupid from a financial point of view. Marina would not have hesitated a second. But Bayern had their reasons. They said it was not their style to treat a player as cash cow but what they meant is that Madrid gave them special conditions in the first place based on their club friendship and they would not want to waste that. But yeah both clubs are absolute twats

ah damn. would have given him a nice 10-15m plus in sale value I guess.

It is imaginable he has lost a bit of pace but what I noticed is that he is sprinting more often. Like always. Even in preseason almost all of his off the ball and pressing movement was conducted in full sprint. Most players do not have the endurance for that but his guy is crazy fit. As for formation, I do not really trust Tammy. He is wasteful and slow in his pressing. What i could imagine is some kind of a double-false 9 with one of Barkley and mOunt always falling back to receive the ball. Requires a lot of pracice obviously but would confuse the shit out of oppositions. -------------Kepa------- Azpi---AC--Luiz--Emerson --------Kante-----Jorginho--- Pedro-Barkley-Mount-Pulisic This way we could feature all of our better players and empahsis our strength (midfield). RLC could easily drop in for Mount or Barkley when fit again. So the 3 players for one position problem would be solved as well. But obviously not gonna happen. Still worth a thought.

I actually thought about Pedros contributions vs big 6 in the past years. It really is not much. I remember that he always performed well vs Everton when they still were a top 6 club. Last season he scored a vital goal away at frankfurt and generally did good in the cup conpetitions away. 2 seasons ago he assisted for our win at Tottenham. He also scored when we lost to arsenal away in the edl cup semis. Anyway, the sample maybe is too small to establish a general rule that pedro is shit vs big 6 sides away. Also i do believe that thisb eason he should be back up to CHO or Pulisic if the perform well enough sooner or later. We can not continue to rely on 32 y.o. wingers

It is Old Trafford the refs will obviously give their best. The number of times Mike Dean and friends have robbed us vs Utd. The only time we got lucky vs them was in 2010 when Drogba was a yard offside before scoring what proved to be a title winning goal. The season before we were not given 2 clear pens and in 2011 we also should have gotten a pen. Not to mention how the refs robbed us at the bridge in 2011 and 2012 with those ridiculous penalties for them, the res for torres which was a joke and the offside winner from hernandez afterwards. The new ref darling is now liverpool obviously but i am sure they will be a few Manu fans left in the ref squad.

Is he not homegrown btw? He joined us months after his 19th bd but was registered in FA affiliated clubs since then. Given the season he starts at age 21 still counts full he should be homegrown or am i wrong?

How are city always so damn lucky on pens tho. Hate it when teams thatcare not us get more than their fair share of pen wins esp in finals.

Really sorry but all our 3 strikers are average at best. I could not even say who is best. All have more weaknesses than strengths. Michy is a deadly finisher and a good physical all rounder but has no idea about linkup play and awareness, can't hold up a ball and has no game intelligence. Abraham is super tall a good finisher but has no acceleration, lacks sharpness and hunger, games pass him.by and he can't make his own chances. His interplay is also far from stellar. Giroud is strong and good in the air, great holdup and combination play but super slow, wasteful in front of goal, a but clumsy, cant press and is inefficient in position play. Putting their strengths together would give a good but still not world class striker. I am the biggest opponent of false 9 but if we have so many midfielders in top form, I would not mind it from time to time

Tbf Tolisso has looked bang average whenever on the pitch for Bayern. he has been wrecked by injury tho

He was surely better than Luiz but he was ill positioned more often than not. And that aggressive striker Haaland really gave him a tough ride. I don't think we can afford to let him go but I hope that Rüdiger comes back soon and Christensen can fill out the Luiz role. But a zouma Luiz partnership is a disaster.