Magic Lamps

He’s phenomenal. Cole has not even remotely exhausted his potential yet, still he creates and gets to the end of so many chances it’s incredible. Just compare how hard it was for us to even create anything before he joined. His football intelligence and technique is second to none in the team. but it does not mean anything if we don’t win titles with him. He won’t get any recognition outside England unless we win a CL/PL he has shown he can deliver on big occasions as well cf. euros. Just hope we get into that position again asap. The cups are always a matter of luck but in the conference league we have so much more quality than the others we have to win it. Absolutely no excuses.

Good one. No issues with Mudryk leaving. Admittedly, It is a tiny bit of fun to have a player with such rare pace playing for us yet without providing any meaningful impact he is but a circus pony. That being said we have given him ample chance to improve and make his mark but he has hardly progressed. I don’t blame him given his overall situation but I doubt he would have been given this much time anywhere else at this level. Fans, owners, coaches, fellow players have been very patient compared to the hate other clubs downsize flops have been endured. He would be fun to watch in a pure counter attacking team but with the number of chances he needs to complete a successful dribbling, he will hardly blossom in a team that sees little of the ball too. If any, 2nd Bundesliga, Netherlands, MLS or maybe Eastern Europe would suit him best. Less tactical, defensive leagues, teams leaving space in behind, maybe there is a club willing to make him the star and focus their game on sending him on his bike. Still would need 2nd speedster for mudryk to square to cos he can’t finish

His goal this season have been vital opening ones and the two vs West ham where the exact kind of clinical one on one finishes he seemed incapable of last season. Clear progress there

Performance and result was basically what should be expected against a league two side. But take a step back and just look at what is hands down our 2nd string lineup with a couple of C listers in there as well. The squad we have is absolutely insane. Yes we spend about 600m too much and still need a proper CB, a wc gk and possibly a DM and RB backup if injuries continue like this but still... without even tapping into like 12 of our regulars we are able to field that quarter billion pounds offense vs fkin Barrow. More importantly, they appear to be happy to do the job. In that infamous interview KDB said he had already mentally packed his bags when Mourinho played him vs Swindon. Now we have the 2nd most expensive teenage signing in football history casually chip-assisting a prime Bundesliga allstar vs a 4th tier side and actually enjoying it. Credit has to go to Maresca for managing such a big squad full of expensive signings and making them look like something resembling a proper team in a few short weeks.

Happy for him, he is finally able to show how classy and clinical he is. Before his injuries, in his last 2 seasons at RB Leipig he was probably one of the best players in recent Bundesliga history with the impact he had and his influence on RBLs play. He may not be this force of nature anymore or might just not need to be. but he remains the best finisher in the squad, so an absolute luxury of a backup striker to have. More so than Jacksons improvement in form, Nkunku can be the reason why we dont need another striker if he stays fit.

Best result for us imo. We don’t know what will happen down the line. Unlikely we will compete with either but if there is a points deduction or arse choke surprisingly, they could be between us and 4th place so the fewer points the accumulate between each other the better

If he is fit enough I would try Chilwell at LB and Cucu at right back. If he inverts anyway it’s not a disadvantage to have his strong foot on the inside . Same time Noni has to track back a lot obviously

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. The sample size in Duran is still small and this season he has shown nothing we did not already know. He remains a powerful, energetic young striker that is still raw but with great potential. He is a different profile to Jackson but the latter has been leading our line on his own for quite some time while Duran has mostly come on fully rested vs tired legs. His goals look great, many of them Jackson could never score but he has his fair share of misses plus I am yet to see the same industriousness. the outrage was also bc many rightly felt we need an experienced striker not another prospect plus a ridiculous fee was quoted by some outlets

Bc it is. The new ownership has been a complete mess from start to finish. We will not win a PL/CL with them It has been evident after hiring clueless potter and their 2nd transfer window latest. but there is some blessing in disguise. Glory hunters will stop caring about the club and also leave this forum. The board will stop with their scattergun transfer policy so there will be some stability on the personell side. Third, only the players who truly want to be here will stay. As we have more than enough on long term contracts plus academy graduates coming through this might be enough to maintain our current mid table position for the foreseeable future

Out of position is a bit of a stretch. He played CDM before. I see those 2 huge mistakes which luckily did not get punished but also 2 great tackles where he broke up Bournemouth and initiated the counter. Mind the boy is 20 yo and has almost 0 top level experience (Swiss league is dross) . I think he did well overall and looked very comfortable on the ball.

Having had accepted beforehand that grinding out a close late win at Bournemouth is our new level for now, I was actually able to enjoy this game a lot. Celebrated that Nkunku winner like mad. What a nice sneaky fox in the box goal that was . Sanchez was great for once. Motm. Made all the stops he had to smartly, decent in his passing but finally what a penalty save. Not a great shot but not too shabby either. perfectly timed leap there Also happy that Maresca listened to me and played Nkunku as striker. He is simply most effective in and around the box where his sharp football brain and instinct sets him apart from others. I still don’t trust Fofana. Disasi was the worst player on the pitch, really not a RB either. veiga and Caicedo were okish in that double pivot. Some great tackles paired with weird turnovers. Bournemouth were quite good and marking Neto, Palmer and Noni tightly, so when they got tired Sancho got to play out his strengths and change the game.

When we hired Maresca it got pretty clear that he does not want a plan B and thus the idea of signing someone like Fülle was always a nonstarter. Personally I like old fashioned big man CFs and their ability to unlock deep defences like Giroud did so many times for us. However, Fülle is not exactly the same quality as Giroud when he was in a similar age range and also not that ice cold a finisher as I would have hoped at the euros so I am not too disappointed here Still, in general I do think we would greatly profit from someone like him but the market is just not that rich in quality atm. history shows that only very smart or very technical big man CFs make it in this league at top six clubs. They were a dying breed for the last few years but there is some re emergence esp in PL with new ones like Larsen, Igor Thiago, fülle etc. joining. Let’s observe how they adapt. Maybe even Maresca or more likely his successor sees the light soon enough

No one would have noticed but perfectly in character for our signings. He was never gonna play anyways just hope gusto is alright. If there is one player we can’t afford to lose it’s him

Good job. Only 36 more points for survival. Seems Jackson doesn’t want sancho as teammate next season

The last quarter of the game is exactly how I predicted Maresca ball would pan out here. Lots of possession and chances but no clinical edge or goals .

It is 36 teams in one group with 6 matches drawn at random (with some constraints) Top 8 or so will directly qualify for 2nd round while some others play another stupid playoff mini tourney to make up the remaining spots in the actual knock out phase

Right bc Maresca is gonna come out at a presser like „you know guys, I am just the puppet and mouthpiece of a bunch of stupid Americans. Ask away“

About that, what are we gonna do with Chilwell? If he sits around a year that’s not only financially a catastrophe, his value will tank but also he really is not that bad. He would still be a good backup at LB and playing that inverted role can’t be so hard. Cucu and veiga are hardly technically or tactically better and picked it up in no time

Saka Havertz Sterling will be an absolute pain for the rest the league. Only good thing is we won’t compete with them and at least Sterling can’t play vs us. But seeing Havertz and probably Sterling succeed at Arsenal highlights even more how clueless our board is and what a toxic environment for players to grow. Granted, they are snowflakes, mentally tough players like palmer still grow here , but we make it unnecessarily hard for the rest. We will continue to chew up and spit our players by the dozen with this ownership

This the manager prefers this player of that is pure pretence. Clownlake know which players they want to sell and those magically fall out of favour with Maresca. He is their puppet. You are deluding yourself if you think disasi or Badi are better at plying out from the back than trev. That’s just coping. Clownlake are clueless, made a bad decision and just as they are trying to save face with this brainless loan you retrospectively try to justify that decision

This is indeed bizarre. I begrudgingly accept we have to sell our academy grads for pure profit bc of PSR but loaning them out makes absolutely 0 sense. Esp when they are superior to the options we are keeping in turn.

He is damaged goods. No one is ever gonna take a risk on his dodgy knee again now, even if he were not a tragic footballer anyway.

Surely some other Saudi club is gonna snap him up. Would be hilarious if he has to watch lukaku sending his first touches towards capri

So we are basically subsidising arsenal improving their squad significantly. Great. should have just let him rot

Not sure if sterling gone is better for us than for arsenal. He does help them a lot with depth. I hope they cover full salary and we snuck some advantageous clauses in there. He will likely now go the Lukaku route with a new stupid last minute loan every year