kellzfresh

I knew he was a very good crosser of the ball from his videos, and I just found some stats to back it up.

I just watched Brazil vs ecuador and from what I saw, Gabriel Jesus is some potential. Two fantastic goals, Definitely better than anything I've seen from barbosa and he has a good technique both in his first touch and shooting technique. Mancity have got some player in him.

I've watched about three different videos of Alonso and also this one up there. I know that videos are not as good as watching him in the match but from what I've seen of him, he has very good attacking qualities. He can cross very well, he has better linkup play than any fullback in our team (Spanish guys are usually fantastic in this area) he can take freekicks very well. He can play in a 3 centerbacks system as the leftsided centerback. For the defensive side of his game, he is big for a fullback so he's not getting bullied easily. And he doesn't back off with hands behind his back like ivanovic when tackling, he actually closes down the opponent quickly like Azpilicueta. But because of his size, he looks slower than I thought. He doesn't have that initial acceleration, but he's still faster than ivanovic. He could be beaten by pace, especially in a faster Premier League.

I agree we should have got the defensive reinforcements in a lot sooner, so that they have some pre-season too. But at least we got it finally, I would have been annoyed if we didn't get anyone especially as we loaned out our defenders and have only 4 senior defensive players in the team (We were basically 2 injuries away from a disaster) But looking at the positives, Luiz is better than many of the other centerbacks we were linked with, and can also step into midfield easily if need be.(especially in a 4-2-4 formation beside kante where we need mobile CMs to play the formation. He's more mobile than all our midfielders bar kante) We're hoping Conte can reduce some of his mistakes as he did for Bonucci. Also if Marcos Alonso turns out to be a hit after so many players experimented in the leftback spot I'll be very happy.

They've done well, considering no champions League football, kante and batman are excellent buys. Especially as they got a quick left-footed leftback and a quick ballplaying centerback over the line and made efforts to address our biggest weakness last season. Good job. Now time to challenge for the title till the last day.

Found this somewhere 20 reasons we want luiz: 1. Pace 2. Cover for other positions 3. Physical 4. Arsenal 5. Sublime passer of the ball 6. Puts one of our CB’s on the bench 7. Tactical flexibility 8. Stamina 9. Will fight for the shirt 10. Won trophies including (CL) wearing the shirt 11. Good teammate and locker room presence 12. Free kicks from distance 13. Scores amazing goals 14. Not much fun to play against (ask Costa) 15. He won’t knock us out of the CL next year 16. Seeing him play against Jose and Zlatan will be a hoot 17. Cool Hair 18. Roman likes him 19. We love him 20. Geezer

I remember when we looked solid in midfield with him and Matic. Now with Kante beside him, it'll even be better and he can step into the defence at any time. We might have killed two birds with one stone with this signing.

Luiz + Costa + Conte = Passion + Madness

This is unreal. I thought it was some bullshit rumor since daily mail broke the story but luiz is coming, it's actually happening out of nowhere

OptaJoe Verified account @OptaJoe 2h2 hours ago 43 – Alex Sandro (49) is the only defender to create more chances in Serie A than Marcos Alonso (43) since Aug 2015. Supply. WhoScored.com Verified account @ WhoScored 2h2 hours ago Marcos Alonso : Only 1 defender has scored or assisted more goals in Serie A since the start of last season than Alonso (7) 119 retweets 76 likes Reply

I'm not even that worried about ibrahimovic. I'm more worried about anyone fast enough to get in behind our back four. (we'll soon play liverpool lol)If we had zouma at least in some one on one situations he'll compete but I don't know if he'll be the same after that injury. I'm happy we're signing a fast left-footed leftback so that our team can look normal with overlapping fullbacks in attack. Hopefully he's a better defender than baba, and can cross properly.

I heard he went off injured again

It's good we have Conte then who has the record for highest points in a 38 games league and has gone unbeaten a full season before. We'll keep up.

I'm in love with N'Golo We got him for the low low I'm in love with N'Golo

So many times under Mourinho, there was this sense that we were so narrow and would be passing slowly through the middle where there's no space, it was so frustrating. Conte seems to be different, we spread wide and made the pitch big, Burnley couldn't mark the whole space and this made hazard have much more one on one's with the fullback compared to being double marked before. We're pressing more as a team instead of being disjointed and attacking as a team with the fullbacks high up and we're even shooting more from outside the box When we completely blend to the system, we'll be much more fluid and hopefully more clinical in finishing.

Exactly. So many people were happy and satisfied with his unselfish nature in the past, I'm having none of it. Let opponents know Eden f****n hazard is on the pitch.

You can clearly see how everyone is playing according to how they feel like. No patterns, no practiced moves just random movement from their attackers. Even martial has become rubbish. Compared to our off the ball movement and patterns against Burnley and Bristol (first half) we're already showing much more chemistry. If we get a centerback and leftback we could easily finish above them if hazard maintains his 14/15 season form.

Much more one touch passes instead of holding unto the ball sluggishly made the difference

Matic lost his powers vs Burnley last time, he's got it back now. The cycle is complete ?

True. Like for example, no fabregas to create... Hopefully Oscar has one of his 6 good games of the season here

I hope so. You can't play attacking football without dribblers and attacking fullbacks. Hopefully we learn this fact

Mane showing our right wingers how to be daring and make attacking impact on the game

Exactly. Getting a starter at this point will be nearly impossible because no one will have time to replace whoever they sell us, we have pretty much just screwed our defense up. It’s a shame too, because this started some promising with Batshuayi and Kante. We have such a huge gigantic glaring hole in the middle of our defense and LB. Azpi is competent there defensively but offers absolutely nothing going forward. If we had a LB that was even SOMEWHAT capable of going forward and providing a cross, it would open up so much more for Hazard. As it stands right now, nobody respects Azpi and they know that even if he overlaps he’s no threat to cross the ball, so they pretty much ignore him knowing that even if he gets the ball he is just going to cut it back and play the ball back towards our end or right back to hazard. I have seen this happen COUNTLESS times and it is sooooo frustrating. It’s not his fault of course, he isn’t very good with his left foot and he’s being played out of position. Even if you do consider him a good left back, there is still next to nothing behind him except kids. Then of course Bran is just awful through and through on the right side. Signing a good left back would kill three birds with one stone. It would add another CB to the mix (Bran), Strengthen our RB position significantly (Azpi), and strengthen our LB position (new signing) At least our flanks would be safe for the season instead of that last season ivanovic nightmare.

If hazard is on his game and Costa doesn't get banned too much, we'll still narrowly make it if Conte's astute enough. Leicester and Spurs are occupied in the Champions League, their squad will be stretched and they won't be lucky with injuries as they were last season so I don't think either will make top four. Manchester clubs will finish top two as it stands so our main contenders are Arsenal and Liverpool.

No he won't be sacked. But if he was planning on playing any attacking football then he'll have to scrap it this season because we can't play a high line with this back four. Attacking football with the slowest back four among top teams is impossible, AVB tried it and failed, RDM tried with mazacar and we eventually got exposed once people started getting in behind our tortoise defense, Mourinho tried in his second season and when our attackers lost small form we got destroyed by Spurs 5-3 and till this day we've been parking the bus or risk losing with any high line. So I expect Conte to eventually tweak his tactics as a tactical manager (at least he's not naive like wenger) when our defense ships too many goals for his liking, even if he does his favoured defensive 3-5-2, and we'll scrape top four with one goal margin victories. If we don't add any quick, ballplaying, tackling centerback this summer, I still expect us to finish in the top four but at the cost of much attacking football. Hopefully hazard shows up or even this will be a struggle.