Reddish-Blue

Diaby, Watkins and the other runners they have vs our lack of effort team and Caicedo/Gallagher getting cooked in midfield I'd be surprised if we don't concede 4-5 against them as they'll want to prove a point after that poor Fa cup showing as well Hopefully Palmer gets on the scoresheet so that he has a chance at the golden boot race

If he turns out to be half as good as Drogba's career (goals in finals, silverware), we'll be able to sell him for a profit in 2-3 years time 😀 Right now, his conversion rate is horrific, think there was a stat out there showing his conversion rate as second lowest amongst strikers who play for a club in the top half of the table (Nunez was the one lower than him).

If that's the case, I do wonder if the other managerial targets have already said they aren't interested in walking into current mess. De Zerbi is the only one I see showing up here (considering he's got a bit of connection with Caicedo, Colwill, Mudryk). If they really do back Poch after that pathetic cup final display vs Liverpool, the owners have no clue.

Disagree with that, he'll get other jobs after Barcelona (unless he somehow gets worse next season and there is a 30 point gap between them and Real Madrid in the league) Lampard's issue is that it was too much too soon for him and I never really saw him as being a great tactician from his playing days. It's not like Pep, Arteta, Alonso at Leverkusen, you could see from their playing days that they would eventually coach at some point in their careers. The same can probably be said about JT, Thiago Silva....I just see them as coaches at some point in the future (whether they want to be the first team manager is a whole different question but both of them could walk into assistant coach roles).

Feel like the Liverpool players have checked out already and I'd be surprised if they don't make a number of changes to their starting XI heading into next season with Edwards back at the helm. The performance against Atalanta said it all. Might be the same case for our players after doing the hard work vs City in the cup but not getting the result due to finishing...

The 6-0 just made this lot feel like they were kings, the loss to Arsenal should bring them back down to earth, could of easily been 7-0 to them on another day.

The players should have to return their wages back to the fans after a disgusting performance like that. How do you go to your local rival and not even have a crack at it? Arsenal are in form and they were gonna take their chances against us, but that doesn't mean that you give up and let them stroll through and get a 5-0 win. Very similar to how we never showed up at Liverpool and they took us to the cleaners as well with Bradley becoming a star.

As soon as I saw Palmer and Gusto were ruled out, I knew we were gonna get a beating by at least 3 goals. The players just gave up after the 4th/5th goal and didn't even bother trying to get a consolation goal. Our attack without Palmer is like mid-table Championship standard....absolutely clueless and none of them know how to create or finish.

Solanke won't come back to us, he's still pissed as to why he was loaned out to Vitesse by us all those years ago. Saddest part is, Solanke runs rings around every other attacker at the club other than Palmer....that's how far we've fallen in attack since Hazard departed for his Spanish vacation!

No point getting to the Final/Semi Final of domestic cups if you're going to put rubbish performances like that and not win the trophy. Liverpool were there for the taking and there was enough there to trouble City as well. Progress isn't measured by scoring more goals or getting to cup finals, it's about whether the team has progressed and developed over the course of the season and as of right now, there's only 2 first team players that have actually developed under Poch, Palmer & Gusto. Caicedo was better at Brighton, Enzo didn't look this bad at Benfica, Gallagher will still run around like a mad man regardless of the manager and Jackson is just bang average, his Spanish club must be delighted that they got 30+ million for a raw player like him.

It will likely take multiple seasons and a better manager (maybe one that has actually won trophies or been part of a system that has won trophies) to get this squad anywhere near the European places. Just look at Arteta at Arsenal, he's building them, signing players for massive transfer fees and generally speaking, it's paying off in his tactical system. They have 2 solid CB's, quality in Rice, Jorginho, Odegaard through the middle, Saka/Martinelli/Trossard for the attack and Havertz appears to be a decent fit. The difference at Chelsea is that we're not building anything due to injuries to key players. 3 of our most technical players have barely played all season in Nkunku, James, Lavia and not to mention Fofana who appears to be carrying permanent issues. There is still massive question marks over: Who is the starting GK going into next season? What's the CB partnership looking like next season as Silva may walk for a free and all of Disasi, Badiashile, Colwill have had their mistakes this season What does our attack look like next season? Are we sticking with Sterling/Mudryk/Madueke as the wide men? Is Jackson the #1 option up front or are we going to get an experienced striker to fill that role (like a Giroud type)?

We had our own version of Saka but due to injuries and then managers who only wanted to use him as a wingback, he stopped developing and now he's at Forest. Academy players will definitely be given time to develop as they didn't cost the club anything. That's why we were all keen on seeing James, Mount, Gallagher, CHO and others succeed as they had the academy connection. Better than Anelka who had 17 league goals for Arsenal before the age of 20? That kid was a freak back in those days, bit of a shame that Real Madrid came too soon for him at that point of his career.

I'm actually relieved that we didn't make the final as it would hurt alot more to lose to that bang average United side.

After the antics he was trying to pull on the pitch vs Everton, do you really blame the fans? We really went from the likes of Drogba/Anelka/Diego Costa to the experienced Giroud to the inexperienced Jackson up front. No wonder why we are literally mid-table, we keep signing mid-table players. You think any of the top 6 would have Jackson/Mudryk/Madueke in their starting XI week in week out? They would all be bench players at best.

If we don't have a good defense, we won't be competitive in the premier league. Getting results like 3-2, 4-3 etc is not sustainable. Palmer is the star right now but you can bet going into next season that he will definitely be aggressively marked by the opposition players and they will start the tactical fouling (just like how teams used to go for Hazard with those nasty challenges). That would mean we remain in 10th spot for 2+ seasons and there is every chance players will start to leave without European football. Poch isn't the answer, he can help in the short term but if we want to get back to being in the mix for top 4, we need a better manager and a much much better defensive structure.

KDB could play a cameo role from the bench and he'd destroy our defense for fun. Either way, it won't matter. If City's players feel like turning up and putting in a decent shift, they'll get the win.

Exactly having Poch in a cup final is like starting the game with 10 men. Where's the fear factor, where's the winning mentality supposed to come from? Just look at what Real Madrid did to City, they absorbed all the pressure, had 2-3 heart stopping moments when KDB should have buried the game, completed the 120 minutes and then got over the line on penalties.

It would hurt so much more if we actually beat City, take momentum in the final....only to be given a lesson by Ten Hag and his boys in the final. United will rock up for the final with only 1 game-plan, mark Palmer for the whole game and wait for counter attacks. United gets those 1-2 chances on the counter and bam, Garnacho/Rashford/Fernandes becomes a hero.

I think if City want it badly enough, they will take the game out of our hands. It really is a shame that we had momentum in the other cup leading up to the final and then we couldn't get over the line and just played into Klopp's farewell tour.

We should have gone for Simeone around the time we had Conte...there was enough hard workers in that side for Simeone to thrive. Imagine the current squad with Simeone in charge, he'd last about 3-4 games before the players down tools and walk into Boehly's office

That would have been solved if Nkunku and Lavia could stay fit for 10 minutes.... How did we manage to blow that much on 3 players who all appear to be made of glass 🤬

I feel like he's more Foden than KDB. That's what Pep was mentioning after being asked why they sold Palmer and he's like he didn't really want to sit and wait for minutes behind KDB/Foden. Just glad that we did sign him, what a talent. Wonder if City have any talent at LB or Defensive midfield in their academy? I remember other forums and fans of our rivals laughing at us spending 40-ish million on a kid from City's academy....and now he's got 20 goals in the season!

Which is interesting as their manager at the time didn't even care about him, he basically said they got Santos for cheap squad depth and their preference was to play their permanent players. I doubt Santos 'pushed' for Nottingham, more like his advisors or the club agreed to that loan as they were willing to pay wages/loan fee etc

Will probably be the same as every other game Either we score first and they get the draw or they score first and probably hang on for the 3 points as we can't break down a compact team that defends half-decent

They won't leave anytime soon. Just look how long it took the Glazers to give up a part of United to Sir Jim Feel like we'll be stuck like this for another 5+ years and by that time, all the actual talent at the club will leave for better opportunities (Enzo will be in La Liga, Nkunku will go somewhere, Palmer will probably go back to City).