Magic Lamps

Reminds me of Mata with a bit more power. So quite good in most games but his lack off pace always made him useless in big games where he had to play against wingbacks who were stronger, faster and more agile.

I wonder if it is like in Germany where for an underage person to work i.e. to play football at senior level on Sundays or after 10pm he has to be granted a special permission every single time by some federal youth protection office so I could understand if a club would not want to put up with that bureaucratic struggle every time we have a cup/EL match or play on sunday which is probably 50% of our games just to have him in the matchday squad when we have tons of overage players in his position that maybe could explain his lack of action in some cases but less in other cases like last week vs Bate. I think it is too early to judge both situations i.e. Jadon sancho's and CHOs so far. Obviously I would love to have us only play world class talents and make them the next Messi but I have not really seen enough of either of them to be dead cert they will make it in the long run.

Machine. Amazing assist so super smooth movement made it look easy and if the goal means we are now a threat from range it gives oppositions quite a bit more to think of. Hope he can keep it up. Definite starter next week but in the cup I wanna see Kovacic and RLC together.

I think he can play all 3 and he is also able to play on the wing if necessary. But IMO Barkley and RLC both can play there too (apart from DLP) so that really should not be it. Kovacic came in with great form and immediately looked undisputed starter, esp with Barkley struggling for form initially. But now both, Barkley and RLC have delivered in impressive fashion and I can see why they are playing with the form they are in, no midfielder in this squad can rest on his laurels with the competition we have there. I still think Kovacic is the most talented naturally. But RLC and BArkley have quite decent technique plus are physical monsters with height, strength and pace. Now they are also scroing goals. You can see why they are playing.

The problem Morata has is not to find the right path but to stay on it or at least put in a shfit when he is off form. He is instantly disheartened by misses and at the same time his confidence does not really improve when he scored resulting in more misses. Martial on the other hand is still only 22 and has scored from whatever position he's played and already has dragged himself through rough patches. Twice the striker Lukaku is, just not Jose's pipe dream of a big strong strikerr like Lukaku. Mourinho often forgets that size is not everything. Even for Drogba it was not his size that made him great but how clever he used it and mostly what awesome technique he had. Martial also has great technique and is such a slick finisher with his right. Would love to see him with the midfield we have behind him but never gonna happen.

Exellent game. cant believe how on form all of our midfielders are. Even Kante had a better game given his new position IMO. I wish we were able to recreate such an all-round attacking display against the big sides too. Kepa was struggling a bit but he was getting no protection from the ref and Burnely were expectedly rough. Really hard to pick our best midfield rn. But with all the games we have now surely no problem to keep them all happy when rotated enough.

Attitude problema cost him thi season..his agent and stepfather forcing him to force a call up of hia stepbrother as condition for playing for jamaica. No wonder no one is currently interested

Barkley was asked to do more, score more and has delivered. RLC also asked to contribute more and has delivered. Love the attitude of our young english midfielders. Got to find a formation where we can play all 5 of our sexy midfielder at once. Defence- Kante-Jorginho-Kovacic Barkley-RLC-Hazard 4-6-0 we would have 90% posession and every game would end 0-0 or 1-0 haha but it would fix our lack of quality in the ST and RW position and at the same time take a lot of strain from the defence with all those combative beasts in front of them.

There are a few literally few players who are worth whatever they demand and clubs know they have tonpay up. but players lik Shaw - there are tons of his quality out there who would play for a fraction of this. Utd are dumb to give in to this and I dont envy them. We are guilty of deals like this too but not quite in this scale

bas dost has a release clause of 60m and as i said is bang average and has only scored tons i minow leagues like. Cavan is unobtainable I guess. Modeste has always been a nice option. I was really sick we did not buy aubameyang back when we had the chance and modeste would have been my second choice from those former bundesliga strikers who shined consistently. Ibrahimovic would surely be fun bu ti am nt sure he can still do it in a top league. Would be a great treble tho having all 3 great strikers of their era, Drogba, Etoo and Ibra under contract at some point even tho only one in his prime.

at least its at home. I would say start the kids but we all know its not gonna happen even though we could well afford it in this group.

I think we are not even that far away and that is actually the most frustrating. We are those 4 players away. And the best is we got decent replacement for all of them already in the squad. I think we are one world class striker away from a team capable of winning the league and maybe 1 world class cb, 1 world class striker, 1 good winger and 1 good left back. away from being a world class team. We just need to splash some cash but then again when we splash some cash we usually fuck it up it 50% of cases. And in normal clubs you pay shitloads of money to be sure you get a world class player.

Agüero still only fucking 30. It is now almost 8 years ago we signed Floppes instead of Kun and he is still banging em in despite a shitload of injuries. Absolute cunt of person as it appears but never gives in, always drags himself up after the most comical of misses even his guilty of. That is what makes the difference. If we had bought agüero back then instead of Torres I think we would have won like 5 out of 8 titles. How many seasons a reliable goal getter up front was the missing peace of the jigsaw to win the league? Then again we probably would never have won the champions league with him as our main striker...

I remember bas Dost scored like 14 goals in 9 games or so twice in his career and he still is an average striker. There are no really world class strikers available so there are huges prizes quoted for the in-form decent ones. I would say stick to Giroud until some true quality becomes available.

Emerson who is the most ordinary of players might very well be more reliable. Especially in games like these were defending a lead is the priority. in 80% of games Alonso does nothing offensively but passing the ball back to Hazard every time he gets it and maybe put in a mediocre cross once in a while. I am 100% Emerson can do that too but he will not get found out on the break and if so he has the pace to recover.

They would have never given us Martial. But if we had taken the money and invested half of it in some run-of-the-mill in-form winger like Douglas or Rebic we maybe would have like 4 points more now. Marina obviously fucked up milking Barca for money but my word. when someone comes to you and offers you twice as much as he is worth for an average, over-the-hill winger you fucking bite their hand off. Pure luck they even came back once with a better offer. I just sold someone from my uni an old financial calculator which is basically useless to me because I got a better one, for almost its original price. Sure, he was desperate and his exams are just days away so I could have milked him for more. But then I know that my calculator is probably not the only one he is in for so I grabbed the money and ran. The prospect of holding out for a few more quids when you already got the option of an excellent deal is not worth the risk of not completing a deal at all.

in all of these games we were very dominant in the beginning and crumbled defensively more and more.... I think this is testament to a) us not being completely immersed into sarriball yet especially in defense b.) our inability to finish off games after a lead which is imo due to both a bit of lack in killer instinct and attitude as well as our poor finishing skills in our front 3. We have to make up for these results on the road. where we must not get beaten. OT, Anfield and Etihad will be hell. I hope Sarri gets a bit of a plan b cos if we play like we did so far vs City we are gonna get humiliated. We need to be able to make games more tight and not concdede so much space right and left when having a lead which allows sides we have dominated at will to come back into the game.

Once again awol when caught on the break. his constant roaming around in front of the strikers without being able to create something on his own or anticipative enough to prevent counter attacks on his side is absolutely annoying in big games. Especially against rapid counter attacking wingers like United's. Forced Luiz into a rash decision which we know are not his forte. Left his side deserted so often., it is a wonder we only conceded once from this. I really like his unpredictability against teams with limited counter-attacking prowess who just sit in deep. but clever, pacy wingers will always exploit his catastrophic combination of lack of pace and lack of tactical discipline. If he was Marcelo who can run rings around the defence fair enough but he is not. He is just an average player with an above average eye for goal but deficiencies in all major parts of a left-backs game.

I think that should settle it. Not gonna improve. And even if he were to go on a purple patch like in his first 10 league games here we knew his confidence would just drop when it matters and he would let us down. Just like Torres, every ball into him is a turnover.

Still playing like some 18-year old in his first professional football season. Just never learns. If he was just a plain average player like Alonso it would not even be as infuriating. But there he is all the skill and pace in the world but just not able to make his mind up and concentrate one fucking time when it matters.

AS glad as I am about the equalizer this is really worrying. We are unable to kill of matches and have been basically since 2016 where we still had a decent striker. It is plain obvious how much individual mistakes and a rift in individual quality costs us. Alonso, Willian, Morata and to some extent Luiz, as everyone on this forum here knows. are passengers and a clear cut below our core of world class players like Hazard, Jorginho, Kante and Azpi. And the really mind-boggling fact about this is that we more or less got capable albeit not class replacements for all of them in the squad and just don't play them. Conte has not played them and now Sarri does not. I don't know what tf is wrong there. Really need to cut our losses with Morata and buy a decent striker. I maintain a decent one will do. Our front line will make him look like a world beater if he does the basics right and has stable confidence.

great shot by Kante. thought that was in.

every ball played into morata ist lost. what is he still doing on the pitch?

indeed. Kovacic has been great. ran rings around their ponderous midfield. Grioud and Pedro are what we need now.

that could have easily been a red on mata.