Reddish-Blue

If that's the case, then we should have moved on from Christensen & Rudiger well before they ran down their contracts and left on free transfers as well. Kante was the vital cog for our midfield, it's no surprise that our midfield is getting over run and absolutely hammered by most PL teams this season as they know it's a free for all, Kovacic was like 50% fit and RLC should have been sold off in the summer, the guy offers nothing when he is asked to play from deep. I can see why the club didn't sell off Kante as it is hard to part ways with top class players like him.

Considering no team has looked like the standout so far, I'd say Japan vs Croatia, Morocco vs Spain and Portugal vs Switzerland will be quite interesting to watch. The other last 16 ties look quite simple for the stronger side (on paper)...

Alot of that will depend upon the fitness of players returning from injuries (James, Fofana, Kante) and what happens with our squad players who aren't really clicking with the team but look very good for their national sides (Pulisic, Ziyech). I get the building towards the long term but that won't happen till next season, feels like we're almost at that point where we should just rip the band aid off from our midfield and just head into next season with a clean slate (probably means that Kante may end up walking for free). Potter wasn't helped by the fact that our best player went down with injury just before our run of fixtures heading into the world cup break. Definitely some interesting months ahead. Wonder if Mount does get moved to the midfield with a new contract.

I think the bigger problem is that no-one knows what Mount's best role is, and that's a significant concern for the club, going into contract extension talks with one of their best academy products (Reece being the other). We say he's better in a midfield 3 but that's the same as saying Havertz/Pulisic/Ziyech are best utilized in a free role behind the striker. Feel like we have too many players who want to play a specific role in the team. Azpi had to play at LB when he started out at Chelsea, Ivanovic was playing RB, Essien had multiple games at RB/LB. Until we get our midfield situation sorted (both Kante & Jorginho are available on a free at the end of the season as things stand), I don't see Potter making any drastic tactical changes for the 2nd half of the season.

You do realize that one of the best talent scouts in world football (Piet de vissier) who was a consultant for Roman for many years basically said "don't sell KDB" as this kid will one day go to the very top...and that was after watching him for half a season at the Belgian club he was playing for... It just wasn't meant to be as KDB had ambitions to be a first team player and he asked Mourinho about his prospects and Mourinho said he preferred to develop Oscar as he was more well rounded to the tactical system at the time. As for your example on Pato, it was just injuries and getting too much acclaim at the young age which destroyed his career. People forget that a very young Pato went to Camp Nou with AC Milan in those days and he was destroying one of the better Barcelona teams of that era, then came the pressure, then came all the injuries. I'm not saying that Mount is a bad player, I just think he's not worth the reported figures of 300k a week as he doesn't have a skill that stands out on a consistent basis. With Lampard, you knew you were getting goals, with Hazard, you knew he would embarrass the opposition fullback, with Fabregas you knew he had that killer pass in him. When I think of Mount, nothing really comes to mind...but I guess you could say pressing?

I think a significant improvement would be needed to make him an influential player, I don't recall him taking over any games this season (other than the goals he got against Villa). To me influence means you're taking over the game like Lampard, Drogba, Hazard and co. The problem with Mount has always been him drifting out of games, he has flashes of brilliance where you think he's about to turn the corner and take the next step and then he is back to being bang average for the next 4-5 games. As for the comment about City, let's be honest, you could stick alot of players into their starting XI and they wouldn't look out of place challenging for the title. You look at our top 4 rivals and the question becomes, is Mount a guaranteed starter for Conte, Ten Hag or Arteta?

Let's put it this way, no other top club would be offering Mount anywhere near 200k a week. We really are becoming a mid table side by overpaying average talent...

Feel like Pulisic has actually done relatively well on the LW for USA in both games, shame they don't have a solid striker up top...

It's more than pain in the eye, it was a pathetic performance. How does a team with so much talent not even try to attack the opposition? It was like the tactical instruction before the game was: "play it safe, pass it sideways and backwards". England were just lucky that USA didn't have another gear in attack, could of easily been a loss today.

They really are a monopoly in the Bundesliga. Didn't they get Sabitzer for a minimal fee from Leipzig as well? Even Gnabry was some shady deal where Bremen officially bought him but he was apparently moving to Bayern the following summer. Imagine if they somehow lure that young Dortmund striker as well...

They got the right age profile of players, Bellingham would fit in perfectly with the likes of Saka, Saliba, Ramsdale, Odegaard, Martinelli. Gut feeling is that Liverpool will be out to make a statement signing in the next transfer window and Bellingham is the one they want.

I just hope it's not another Fofana situation. He only just got back from a bad injury and then we splashed all the cash on "potential".

I don't think the new ownership group wants players to leave on a free, we lost out on at least 60-70 million from the Rudiger & Christensen contract sagas...

Lol, to think that fans actually believe Tuchel built that team. Klopp explained it best when he heard we were getting Tuchel, he said Congrats on the Christmas gift Thomas, you've been given a very nice squad by your new club. The only Tuchel signing that springs to mind is Mr. Lukaku and we know how that turned out. 90 million in the drain after 1 season at the club, Inter laughing all the way to the bank with a 8 million dollar loan spell and the player they were "forced" to sell back on the books. I get the criticism for Potter but the fact that he hasn't had 1 game with our best midfield trio available at full fitness should speak volumes about the lack of quality he's having to deal with right now. The sooner people realize that RLC is nothing more than squad filler and he should only be starting games based on the opposition...the quicker they will understand just how awful our midfield is at the moment compared to the rest of the traditional top 6.

Definitely looks a raw talent but I get the feeling it may be a signing similar to Carney (the young mid we got from Villa). If we can get him across in January, it gives him 6 months to be eased into the side as a possible rotation option. Would love to see us get someone ready made (in that 23-25 age group) who can come in and have an impact, shame we didn't go after that Portuguese fella who ended up at Wolves, he looked like he had the raw tools to be that progressive midfielder in our tactical setup...

He could do that but not sure which top class CM would leave their current club in January... Feel like the only signings possible in the January window are top up players like a backup RB, backup winger as a replacement for Ziyech.

Let's put it this way, Potter was next in line for a top 6 club role, it was a question of when he would take that step. As for Chelsea being classed as a powerhouse, I would say, we haven't really been a powerhouse since the days of Conte and winning the league with a guy that could destroy the opposition by himself (Hazard) and some top class players in Matic, Willian, Costa and co. Just because Tuchel was able to get everyone on the same page and motivate them towards an amazing UCL run doesn't make this team a powerhouse, it actually just papered over the cracks because we didn't have injuries to pretty much all of our top class players at the same time. Now we have no depth, our top players are either out injured (Kante, James), carrying injuries (Kovacic, Jorginho) or they've left the club on a free transfer (Rudiger, Christensen, even Alonso was solid depth). You take 4 starting XI players out from the rest of the top 6, I bet they would look bang average as well. Imagine City without De Bruyne, Bernardo pulling the strings, Imagine Arsenal if Xhaka & Partey were out, Imagine Spurs without Lloris, Kane, Imagine United without Eriksen, Casemiro.

I think the most recent transfer window should be looked at as pure panic and chaos. No Director in charge, Manager at odds with his new ownership group and we ended up making our problems worse (50+ million on Cucurella, 60+ million on young Fofana coming off a nasty injury, 30+ million on Sterling who seems to have forgotten how to dribble and 30+ million on Koulibaly who will likely get worse with age). It's quite obvious that our lack of a midfield and rubbish attack will cost us a top 4 place this season. We really were spoiled for that period of time where we had Kante, Kovacic, Jorginho fit and firing in midfield. Now you look at the lineup of Jorginho - RLC or Kovacic - RLC and you know the game's gone. Massive transfer window coming up in the summer, wonder if Boehly & co have the balls to sell off half the squad?

Not just time, half the team needs to be sold off to get any improvement in performances. This is what happens when you buy players that don't fit every tactical system, it leads to performances like these as the players only know how to play their preferred style, their preferred role on the pitch and when they are asked to adapt, they fail miserably (Sterling, Ziyech, Pulisic, Havertz....so much attacking talent but we can't score a single goal) Time to pull the band aid off and rebuild, starting with our non existent midfield. If Jorginho/Kante get amazing offers elsewhere, we should let them go as they'll only get worse in the coming seasons.

He had 1 win between Matchdays 12 and 22 last season...it was definitely a process, even Eddie Howe spoke about that, how difficult it was to implement his ideas with the players for over 2+ months

Hopefully with proper recruitment personnel now on board and a Director of Football in place, we can make good transfer decisions and stop overpaying for average players like Cucurella.

Wouldn't the buy back clause technically include first refusal? Like let's say club X bids on Lavia prior to the buyback clause kicking in (normally it's a set date like 12 months after the transfer), Southampton would notify City as a courtesy that club X is trying to purchase Lavia and they would be asked whether they want to match the offer. Even if it is just a sell-on, it actually helps City in the negotiations as let's say Chelsea was to bid 50 million for him and City had a 20% sell on clause, they would only have to spend 40 million for him to get him back to the club (as the sell on clause would be taken off from the transfer fee).

That's the problem right there. The two losses to Leeds & Southampton were major red flags as the players threw in the towel way too early in both games and looked like they had never played with their each other. As for all the other excuses, let's not forget that Tuchel agreed to the Lukaku transfer (like I highly doubt Marina and the club would sanction a 90+ million transfer of a player without getting the manager's approval). Tuchel didn't get along with the board, isn't the first time and won't be the last (Dortmund, PSG & now Chelsea). There were stories and quotes from other managers saying that Tuchel was a bit of a control freak who wanted everything his way....and that sort of makes sense now as to why he was told to go from both PSG & Chelsea as you still have to listen to your owners. It's like someone getting a new manager at work, you don't immediately go into their office and say that they have bad ideas. You try to get to know them, work with them and then see if it's worth sticking around or moving elsewhere.

Will probably be their normal XI with the likes of Ederson, KDB and a few others getting the breather. With the way our injury list is, they can probably afford to play a few more kids and still be in control of the game...

Probably a good thing, less chance of him making that injury worse.