JM7

Looking at the state of the squad and that we have no quality striker, a non goal scoring/assist Willian and an ageing Pedro (who’s played 3 games straight), the board/club have really failed to invest quality into the squad. There’s no way that we should be relying on these second rate players. In my view, the players who need to step it this season are: - Dave (I’m hoping he’s just tired, lots of minutes) - Barkley - Pedro - Willian - Giroud The youngsters have been fantastic and given their all but they can’t be expected to do it all. It is the senior players that are letting the side down at the minute - I expect more from them over the next few games.

Never understood why Bats rarely gets played. I know his hold up play isn’t great but he can finish. Now we’re a lot more creative, we just need someone who is clinical to put the ball in the net - Bats can do that and he is a natural finisher.

I did think he should rotated given 9 of the 11 played 120 minutes in humid conditions. Seemed abit much to ask for them. Thought today showed our lack of “star quality “. Apart from Kante, we have no stars who can pull us out games or tricky moments. Transfer window can’t come soon enough and I’m not convinced that CHO is the answer to our problems. Mount looked great though in the 3 games.

Tough game, definitely the worst of the 3 we’ve seen so far - I am hoping that it was the ET that killed us. If we were tired, we probably should have shut up shop and tried to kill it at 1-0. Far to say most of the team were poor after 30 minutes. 9 of the 11 who started in Istanbul started so it may explain it but I’m worried it might be more than that. Willian was awful but it was first game so might be rusty. It sums up the squad though doesn’t it - sending on a half fit William to get us a goal. Going to be a long season but we’re playing well in patches. Just need to be more consistent.

Got away with one then. We look tired and disorganised

There you go. It was coming

Were’s the midfield gone?!!

We need to be really careful. Leicester getting some really good half chances. I’m sure the extra time will be a factor.

I suspect that we will take the same sort of the game plan as what we saw at United - high press. Maybe slightly tweaked to avoid the counter which we will need to be very careful of with Vardy on the pitch. I don’t like Leicester, Rodgers or Vardy so I’m hoping we stuff them!

I was very nervous when Christensen went off but I was really impressed with him when we came on. Never dazed or out of control. Only time I’ve seen him is when we played derby last season and he scored an own goal. That skewed my view of him - but he looked good. Probably controversial but with Luiz gone, I wouldn’t have minded keeping Cahill. Think his experience would have been valuable. At the same time, I can see why the club moved him on.

The look in his eyes when he took the first penalty. So focused.

Yeah he seems weak when he’s stretching to save shots. Quality keeper though. He will be right up there with the top keepers in the world.

As soon as the ban is over, we do need to invest in a proper quality striker. It’s our weakest point.

Shame for Tammy but at least he had guts to take it. A striker should be taking pens. He worked hard to win the penalty though. Unfortunately I don’t think he quite has at the top level - seems to need too many chances to score. Tamori looked surprisingly very assured - was impressed with him. Zouma looked ALOT better. You can see he looks nervous with the ball though. Kante, Jorginho and Pedro were incredible. Proud of the lads, they gave it all and it was luck of penalty shootout. Puts any doubts of Lampard to bed.

Looks a solid line up defensively. Just not sure where the goals will come from though. Looking at the line up, you could see us being abit more defensive.