Katyusha

useless fact - at school i was the only kid to never wear uniform, because the first day i tried one on at home, i was too chubby and the neck tightness made me gag. since then, i had a phobia of collars as well as the B words that go down the middle which i can't even use in clothing context without cringing. I can tell you about buttons on a remote control or rocket ship, but not B words on a top, never.

Indeed, for our system he works really well, but if we played 4 at the back like I thought we would be doing when we signed him, we really would slate him every game. He is not a defender. He's like Juan Vargas who had a really good time at Fiorentina too; clearly a wide midfielder, who's been squeezed into the defender role. Obviously leagues apart in terms of potential but, he's more Giggs than he is Ashley Cole. He likes to be forward. He likes to score. He likes to assist. Defending is probably a boring necessity to him that he'd rather do without. Regardless, his time here has already improved him, and he and we deserve credit for that. Whenever we end up moving him on, he'll really help his next club (I'd stake my life on him going to La Liga in a few seasons, probably Valencia.)

I despise all of our orange-weird-off-blueish-black kits from the last 10 years. The yellow one we had ages ago was jarring like marmite but that at least made me happy and inspired some feeling. This new effort we keep rehashing is just tepid and inspires nothing in anyone. It looks like a kit for a Romanian or Russian side.

I'm not saying any player we could replace him with would be as flashy, as nice, as endearing, as marketable, as lovable as Hazard, but there are players who are far more effective from his position, game in, game out. One player i'd be so intrigued to swap him with (theoretically) is Thomas Muller (best time to buy him; bad form; scores on avg. 1 every 3 games.) Such different players, but the latter is such a strong clog in an otherwise flawless machine (not the case if he joined us.) But my point is, Hazard contributes nothing to the team other than being an attacking outlet - there are players out there however, who play the same position, score more goals, AND offer more defensively + more. I don't want him to go, ever. I do love him. But, I also accept we've seen better players. Even Duff. But that's more to do with how underrated the latter is, than the former being overrated.

Watch us switch to 5-3-2 and barely lose a game again.

Imagine we kept Ramires and sold Matic. Ramires - Fabregas - Kante would have legs for days, lungs for days, and attacking intent for days. Goodnight. I miss our Brazilian with braces. I'll never miss our Serbian Eiffle Tower.

Koke is such a hard worker. He'd become a cult hero here so fast. He reminds me of Lampard actually. Kroos, he's basically a German Gerrard, and it's not like we couldn't use that. Top suggestions. I'll now fantasise while falling asleep.

His passing hasn't declined. He's never been the ball-winner. He can still shoot, still take corners, still score penalties. Why has he been benched again? For being slow? Matic is as slow. Sillly. He'd still be getting 20+ assists per season if he was at Barcelona. We don't have their forwards, I accept that, so cut that down to 12 or so for us. He'd probably exceed that if given the amount of game-time he deserves. Also, considering he has more accurate passing than literally any player on planet earth, why isn't he plopped into the Pirlo role like in Juventus, the 3-5-2 not so different from our own? His speed is then a non-issue, and he gets to control the tempo..

I now buy into the comments from yesteryear of how he's been played into the ground before even joining us. He does truly look like he's 29/30 on the pitch. I believe things would be different if we'd have groomed him for a central role instead of wide. It's far easier to become part of the play when you're in the middle. And there's nothing wrong with the old 4-2-3-1; Courtois; Azpilicueta, Luiz, Terry, Alonso; Kante, Matic; Pedro, Hazard, Willian; Costa. It isn't rocket science. Our defence would suffer, but our attack would thrive. I'd have full confidence of getting at least 1 goal more than each team we face in such a set up.

Agreed. Kante is the only defensive midfield player needed. If we had a playmaker, who just happened to be tall and able to head the ball to break up play, we'd be just as good as anyone. That is why I don't want Verratti. At this point I'd take Moutinho, but he isn't half the player this declined version of Fabregas is. Hardly any players are on Fabregas's level. I think the 1 player who'd elevate us to unbeatable would be Dele Alli, unfortunately. Not a world-beater, but in our specific set-up, tailor-made to dominate.

Gotta stick my neck out and say, we would've won if we had Vidal instead of Matic. Vidal is perhaps the only player besides Modric who's superb at breaking up play, and superb at initiating them too. One costs half of the other, and that one costing half, is younger. I really hope we did everything in our power to sign him.

Are we proud of that performance? Is the manager? If not, then what changes must Conte make? Is it formation? Is it personnel? A defence with both Azpi and Luiz is good enough. An attack with Hazard & Costa, should in theory, be good enough. Kante is good enough. Matic isn't *so* bad that by replacing him, everything will be fixed - so where are our biggest problems? Is it the fact we have solid, yet not exceptional players? Players of 6.5 consistency every game (Moses/Alonso) who rarely raise themselves to 8.0+ in the big games? I think it's the latter. I think we're solid all over the pitch yet spectacular in 0 areas. And actually, i'd start at the front - new striker, new winger for Pedro to compete with - then replace Matic, but don't stop there - bring in another top quality player so that Matic's replacement can be replaced on the bad days. And then defence, that's the least of our worries, as we've seen over the course of the season and even today. 1 man (Matic) is not enough to make a whole team crap, and the rest of our midfield has elite qualities - our attack is the least elite-looking. Yet it's got the most PR in terms of positively marketed players, so it's hard for a lot of people to see.

When you play in such a key position you can't afford to 'sometimes' be 'almost as good as before'. He isn't good enough. Stop making excuses. Get rid or become what we were just a few seasons ago; a team that stockpiles their players long after their best days, just because we're so nice like that.

Aside from his intercepting ability, eg his ability to read the game, what quality does he have which Ramires did not? Either Ramires was better than we knew or Kante isn't quite as good as we say. I think he's great really, so I think Ramires was perhaps better than he showed us. Neither are great passers, neither are great at shooting, both are fast, both have lungs made of iron, but Kante is committed to the tackles and knows he will win them. Regardless, amazing to get Kante in for 30m while letting Ramires leave for 25m. Even if I can't define it on paper, the upgrade is still incredibly obvious. It's like going from Torres to Anelka.

I agree with your statement, and I really wish people would take the psychology of players and their personal lives into consideration more often. There's so much to be understood about so-called 'bizarre' deals or bad patches of form, and that understanding comes from empathy of that player's situation. As a lot of people would say; footballers are humans too.

He hasn't even played under a very good manager yet, so it remains to be seen what sort of player he's going to turn into - and he needs that nurturing right now, before it's too late. I'd be very interested in seeing what we could do with him. I imagine a player very similar to Hazard, just less dazzling/consistent going forward and slightly more into the idea of defending. But who knows.

Willian said to ESPN after the match that Oscar has said his goodbye's, apparently.

Name a better manager.

Really, it's the best time for Diego to get that card. It'd be scary if he was missing vs Tottenham / LPool / Arsenal / Any of the top-ish teams, and we had to throw Bats in at the deep end. But Bournemouth? C'mon, this is nothing to worry about, and it's the best scenario for Bats.

Not for long; Tevez could be signing a deal in China for 600k-ish per week

Agreed. Verratti controls the tempo of the game but he doesn't put strikers through on goal.

I agree about Kenedy. And, if we're losing a game or it's 0-0, I imagine bringing him on as an attacker will bring us far much more reward compared to forcing him into an awkward left-back role (whose idea was that anyway? I don't want Conte to follow suit regarding that.) He has enough flair and trickery to get past anyone and then hit a ball in. He'll be good for us if he gets a chance.

From United to LPool to Arsenal to City, they all have not double but triple if not more firepower up front compared to us. I fear we'll start to be too conersvative, believe that all we need is a group of hard working players, and that'll be our downfall.

Our next captain. Calm and composed. It'd be lunacy to consider Luiz before him.

Ever since seeing him first play, I've thought Defoe could do a great job for us in a back-up striker role. I still think he can. In our system, he'd get goals against all the smaller teams. I feel like for those smaller teams, Diego isn't half as motivated, and giving him the day off knowing we have another poacher around, could only be good.