Magic Lamps

He looks like a handy young player. Snap him up, loan out and sell for profit I'd say

Those suckers rested some of their best players when they rolled over at Anfield. Couldn't believe dinosaurs like crouch and Walters still play football, let alone start over Bojan and bony. Hope we thrash them so no other team tries those little tricks and rests players before facing us.

Looks like spurs are hitting some form just before our match up - who could have known... But u know what? I don't care. We are the best in the league and we can beat anyone anytime anywhere. If we are as clinical as last time i am confident we will thrash them.

I think you are overestimating Kun's ball-playing/passing ability.I even think he is more limited/selfish in this regard despite being better technically. Costa on the other side has contributed multiple more assists this season and been working the channels, initiating counter attacks in a way Agüero would never even think of.

Fuck. But remember we are still 6 points clear so no worries. Best them at anfield next year and be done with it

Hazard. The one goal we need can come from anyone. The game vs Bournemouth is the chance to show that we are not dependant on Diego

Sublime performance. EVeryone with half a brain could predict that he'd get into Kroos territory in terms of touches in this kind of match. 68 at half time already. Makes such a difference when he has space and does not have to run at full speed (his top speed was just under 30km/h yesterday which is about the speed sporty 17 y.o. girls will run at a 100m sprint on average). That made me wonder how, in his late 20ies where a man should only be marginally past his physical peak he has becme such a shadow of the player he once was. I remeber when he used to be the emperor of flat track bullys at Arsenal scoring that outragoes solo goal vs Tottenham where he sprinted 40 metres in like 5 seconds. At that time Cesc gave anintrview to a minor German sports paper where he claimed his idol was Lampard who he had not reached yet but ho to do so in the near future. I remember that passage because I actually feared that might eventually hapen. How wrong we both were. Fabregas never came even close to reaching the level Lamps had in his early 30ies. Shows how too much playing time at a young age can wear a player out early.

Seeing how happy the boy seems to be right at deaths door really breaks my heart. He is 5 yo ffs. Can't show enough support for him but a really nice touch how all the people in the stadium showed their compassion. I am not really religious but I really hope that wherever he goes it's a better place.

One final thought on our recent series of narrow gritty wins. One of the most significant statistics in modern football is that about 97% of goals are scored within 15secs of winning the ball. I am pretty sure Conte knows this. We have never been a side patiently rolling around the ball trying to carve out the opponent's defense with intricate passing. More of a direct, counter attacking side. Conte has epitomised these strengths. Whe are pressing the opponent, rushing forward when winning the ball. That is how we scored the majority of our goals. Off this is gonna be harder vs stubborn organised sides but they will always make mistakes for us to pounce on. As long as we are stable at the back and shuffle things up at the front we will get our points. The thing is I trust conte more than any other manager we ve had so far doing this because other than mourinho or pep he is both a pragmatist and visionary.

Cahill had a good match but Cesar was absolutely vital in the early stages of the match when spurs bombed down our right side. He cut out so many 1on 1s and intercepted so many passes when we really were not playing well. He performs when others don't which is a very important characteristic IMO. His size IS a problem for a back three sometimes. Esp since despite being lightning quick he does not really have any kind of leap. But he would be wasted as wingback because he does not really have the attacking nous to make an impact. So I guess CB is ok for now. Pep usually also has a technically astute fullback in a 3man defense to open up the play so it is not an uncommon move tactically.

surely this is one position we can improve on. But he is a very competent player. He could be a bit more mobile and play the game at a higher temp but he is at an age where he can still develop. btw Ashley Cole used to be a similarly frustrating finisher at times. Also we have Kenedy and Baba who will surely excel at this position too so I am not too fussed about the Lwb spot

haha did just enough to see them off. I knew they would not be able to keep up that enomrous pressures. AFter 30mins they collapsed. Still we have to improve our performance for City who will play outof their skins against us as well

Scored a Hattrick vs Christensen s gladbach tonight. His first goals since losing his dad and aunt in august. Rip and well done Sala. Still enjoying his lanky awkwardness and rollercoaster between clinical finishing and horrible misses. might even still be better than pedro and willian

I think their equaliser was always coming after that wasteful first half. Shame we could have really put that game tombed early on. Hazard needs to man up the and stand his ground. He so!often is so poor when needed most. Also Comte should have reacted more quickly. 2 points lost on city so early despite our piss easy start. Shame. We fail to be ruthless in front o goal time and time and time again for years now, yet we seem to be powerless to do anything about it. This really has to be a mental issue. Plus we need a finisher from midfield to add to Costa goals.

Lol. True. Probably has some journos living in his guest chamber and conference centre with personalised ad wall downstairs. Thh I have tried to process the fact that Luiz returns since midday and still have no idea what to think of it from a footballing perspective. Hi he sure a hell will be great for the atmosphere in the dressing room and around the club.

Still not enough. We should aim for triple figures in the cash cow loan business. Great way to refinance these days.

Before we condemn anyone, we should wait for some inside on how this turns out. We could barely have sold him for much more than 20m and if he has to reach like 20 games over 3 years for the deal to become permanent it is the best possible outcome.

Watching the sky deadline day coverage why is there such a hype about Jim White? He has got Hayley McQueen and Kate Abdo besides him FFS.

Can't remember much of his time in England but those highlight reels make him look very technical, great Seems to be an accurate crosser, decent aerial threat, quick and like most tall lanky guys stronger than he looks.I like his first touch and that swagger about him when he moves. Tho YouTube videos are absolutely useless to assess the defensive ability of a player, but hey if it is Ivanovic he is replacing effectively he can only be an upgrade. He even has the same height the which dismantles the only argument Mou defended Iva's selection continued with.

I really think we should cut him some slack. I think he has improved distinctively from his form of last season and year. Yes he has been outshone by the far more talented Kante but he has made more tackles than his pivot partner, created more chances and looked a bit more like his imperious vintage form esp vs WHam. I particularly like those dynamic tackles when he just somehow steals the ball with his long legs and thereby co times his attacking runs. Yes he is offensively shit which is why I do not think he should be employed in that box to box role but defensively has been solid enough to vindicate his selection. Esp vs WHam he and Knte completely shut em out giving us an almighty dominance in midfield.

Despite being absolutely delighted about our two last minute wins, I fear that those are the type of oppositions we should sweeps aside with the quality we have. So, while heralding Conte's ability to instill fighting spirit into the team this early on, we should address why we made such hard work of it in the first place. IMO we still do not have the mechanisms to breakoppositions down quickly enough. Only few teams have the technical tools to dominate an opponent throughout the whole match and score after minutes of posession and dozens of passes. We certainly do not belong to that group. Consequently, we should focus on a more direct build up play from midfield instead of relying on our wingers to carry the ball out of our own third as they have to in most cases. I am sure having Cesc rejoin the starting XI will remedy some of those issued but I am not convinced it will suffice.

Unfortunately all reports linking us with him refer to that weaintgotnohistory wish list. That is why I think there is absolutely nothing I it even though this guy is probably one of the best young left backs in the game.

From someone who has watched him regularly he is not that slow. I'd say he is about as quick as Oscar or Cahill who both are decent sprinters. He is defo quicker than Mata as seen in the CL last season. Also he is by no means a bad defender. He just is not very compatible in his style, spending too much time running and tackling. He is a rather tactical defender with good positioning and marking. Don't forget he still is only 23 and yet has tons of international experience already. His progress in recent years has been steady and I am sure he can adapt to the league.

First things first WHam was crap tonight. That being said they were so poor because we did brilliantly to contain them with our pressing and tightening the midfield. Kante and esp Matic were absolutely relentless in their tackling and closing down. Also Cahill won about every header against that Carroll Donkey. On the downside we could not put the game to bed because we failed to create many clear chances and scuffed the ones we had resulting in the equaliser as always. But instead of giving up we pressed on and our individual brilliance and the belief therein got us over the line. The hunger and fighting spirit we are already showing has me buzzing for the season. I observed some interesting aspects about the individual players performances which I will cover more deeply in their threads: jt and iva did not perform as badly as we feared but they both lost even more pace as expected which was obvious today. So kudos to Cahill and azpi who made some really important challenges on the run. Even though both were indirectly at fault for the equaliser you can't really blame them since they practically both were fouled at the free kick and goal respectively.

I knew this would get dug out after Mou mobbed him away. I was not a fan of his when he still was in his prime due to his constant inability to maintain his peak form for more than 5 games per season (there is a long post from about him earlier in this thread) . Now it is even worse, he simply is done. Has played professional football for about 15 years now and similar to Rooney is simply over the hill. And this at an age where his great idol just came off a season scoring 30+ goals for club and country.... squad player for 200k per week? no thank, spent force, even though the way Mourinho has ousted him is utterly disgusting.