Argo

If Tuchel gets sacked at the end of this season I won't post for an entire year, simply won't happen.

That's the risk we have to live with, they could quite as easily get injured training. People bemoan that friendly in America in 2019 but my stance on that was it was a crucial part in why we were much sharper than Arsenal in Baku.

That would be the absolute worst thing to do, our players will have no match fitness going into that game in Portugal. The one positive last night brought us is due to 2 or 3 no room for error games coming up we will effectively get dress rehershals for the final while City are basically playing friendly's until then, it's a big advantage in competitive sharpness we must take full advantage off.

They picked up 4 points out of 9 in the corresponding fixtures.

Apart from Falcao (third time) and Zlatan (second time) I wouldn't say any of them were past their best, Dinho (when he went to Milan) was in hindsight but at the time people thought he needed a new challenge. I think with our location, the packages we offer and the fact most current players grew up seeing us as nothing other than successful means we are still a pull even without CL football. If it lingered for a few years then it would be a problem but i don't think it will on this occasion if the worst happened.

Off the top of my head Kante, Pirlo, Ronaldinho (twice), David Silva, Tevez, Suarez, Aubameyang, Pogba, Kova, Di Maria, Zlatan (twice), Falcao (three times), Vidal and Ribery all signed for clubs without CL football. Not to mention Werner, Ziyech, Havertz and Pulisic agreed to come here with CL football very far from secure (all bar Kai from secure CL clubs). It's a big myth that CL is the be all and end all for player recruitment as that list above clearly demonstrates. If we consistently fail to make it then yes, but one season will make little to no difference.

Last night could inadvertently help us for this final. We have got atleast two do or die games coming up whereas City have been playing glorified friendly's since the semi's, that should give us the match sharpness advantage.

This obsession with top four is exactly why this superleague came along.

Under Sarri Jorginho was a regular part of a team that picked up 57 points out of an available 66 against teams 10th and below, also our best football under Lampard came with the Jorginho/Kova axis in the middle and it was actually breaking that up that caused the lesser sides to start getting good results against us, so the narrative we're incapable of sweeping up against the fodder with him in the team simply isn't true, we did it systematically for the first season and a bit he was here. What's needed now is a balance and one that hasn't yet been properly found for years really, we see

Apparently it's because the UK aren't making sporting excemptions for people in Amber/red zones.

There's been rumours surfacing today that Portugal won't let Brits in even after May 17th. Hopefully it's bs.

My whole point was about the microanalyising part, it's being done with TT in a way it wasn't with even Sarri, and in regards to him treating young players differently the guy that replaced Billy was a youth player while two of our big summer signings stayed on the bench, also Mount stayed on the pitch while our record signing (who was being selected ahead of Mount early on in the season) was hauled off. Don't get me wrong all in all Lampard's youth policy overall was great which is kind of the point.

Maybe not (although it wasn't a one off as Gilmour should have been playing over Kante on merit at that moment in time but wasn't) but the point i was making is if his decisions got microanalysed the same way he'd have quite a big "rapsheet" aswell (and that's without factoring Tomori in my thought process). Also if it was all about pricetag why is Mount the one attacking untouchable out of all the array of expensive superstars? Why hasn't he found an excuse to make Kepa number one again? Especially with his run of clean sheets before tonight.

I actually agree it was the wrong decision but why is his decisions with the young one's being microanalysed all the time? Against Leicester in the cup last season Lampard also took Gilmour off at half time aswell as Mount and James and left on senior players just as complicit on.