Slojo

I thought the Guardian said he's out for 6 weeks?

I can't wait, after the international break we can regroup and sort out the problems we have in the team. We'll absolutely smash Palace.

Exactly me here, I'm a big fan of him and I still think people are being too harsh on wanting him sold, give him more time. I disagree that Willian has been bad for the past two seasons like many people claim, he's been one of our top squad players, but this season he has had one good game and that's it. But remember we've only played 10 games so far including all comps, still plenty of time.

It's mostly 12 year olds on twitter that know how to edit videos.

I said at the time of selling De Bruyne that was one of our biggest mistakes, even with Sturridge. I highly rated De Bruyne at Genk, if anyone ever watched him play in that league when he was 18 you couldn't say otherwise that he would one day be a world beater. He was never given the chance at Chelsea despite playing well against Hull and grabbing the assist for the Oscar goal, Jose got rid of him, absolutely shocking move. As for Lukaku, I'm glad we got rid of him, his attitude stinks and I can't stand his football ability.

Honestly Malouda was world class in 2010, I don't think we've ever had a better wide player than that Malouda.

Fantastic analysis, Bakayoko was more at fault than Fabregas for that goal and was very off this game, his concentration levels don't look top tier, he can be too rash in dangerous areas which are very costly and his distribution needs to improve.

KDB, David Silva, Bernardo Silva, Sane. A very very good attack, even Sterling who I find very overrated is having an amazing season. If we can get Pedro & Willian back on form to the way they were playing last season we'll be up there, but if we don't then we have a problem on our hands, Willian looks off.

I agree & disagree, I do love your posts regardless though. We set up defensively, that's not a bad thing, it was the right thing to do given the circumstances. It's also a very good way of playing against Pep, he's tactically naive against big sides and it was no different yesterday, we just performed very poorly and they were brilliant. But I also think you're overreacting, we got outplayed by many teams under Mourinho, the Spurs 5-3 one? AVB 5-3 against Arsenal? What about the time when PSG outplayed us with 10 men at home and ended up winning? It happens, you shake it off, it's a long season. But I agree with the last paragraph of your post absolutely, the team from now on must be on merit, Fabregas has to be pushed to the bench, so does Willian. The performances from those two players, in particular, are unacceptable, especially Willian. Even Pedro has been poor, I really wish we never loaned out Boga, would love to have been able to give him a run out with Hazard next to him.

I really don't think Conte made any bad decisions this game whatsoever, his gameplan was the correct method, just because we lose a game doesn't automatically mean the manager got the tactics wrong, even if we were outplayed. The blame has to go elsewhere, twice we've seen whenever we have played in Europe the players have looked like 80 year old men on the weekends, they were very sluggish against Arsenal, not themselves. Worrying signs, but not the manager's tactics (except for the Arsenal game he was naive in that)

I advise you to jump to the John Obi Mikel thread on this forum and see just how much he was defended, it was the same as Cahill, people were disrespectful to Mikel and were rightfully ridiculed, a lot of people criticised his performance and wanted him sold, people had different opinions. Most people on this forum know Cahill shouldn't be a first choice starter, I don't see what your issue is.

Because they're black!!! Jokes aside, Mikel & Kalou have been defended a lot actually. I can remember criticising Mikel & Kalou and sometimes outraging whenever they put in poor performances (I was a kid at the time) and I used to get a lot of stick for it. Most people on this forum know Gary shouldn't be our first choice at the back, but he deserves to have respect for what he's done. It was the exact same with Kalou & Mikel, always put in effort, Kalou would score that important goal every now and then, Mikel would raise his game when it was needed every now and then (CL final & plenty of times against United) but both of them were never good enough to start, incredibly inconsistent.

And we've played harder games this season than we did that season, people need to stop overreacting. I'll admit I'm concerned with the player fitness whenever we play midweek games, we seem to be a completely different team, other sides cope in Europe well, why aren't we?

He needs to sit out some games from here on out I think, he can't start with these performances, let him get his way back into the side, he usually does. Good squad player but he's horrible to rely on.

I don't recall seeing anyone complaining about the lineup before the start of the game, which is my point. Hindsight is truly a wonderful thing.

How many of you were saying the lineup is bad before the start of the game compared to the amount of people saying Conte got the lineup & tactics wrong?

He'll come short come January, United are the strongest, they can attack and defend, city can only do one but much better.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing at the moment, we start positively against Arsenal "Conte got his tactics wrong! Where was the cover against Arsenal, they had too much space" We've now started defensively against City with hopes to counter-attack and expose their weak defence "Conte what are you doing! How can we score if we don't attack"

How is playing 3 at the back showing City respect... That doesn't agree with the point you're making.

You are a miserable old bar steward at times but one of the few that can keep a rational head on here, some of the comments are ridiculous, how is the league over in September.

Disagree except for Rudiger & Cahill, Cahill had a shocker in terms of passing but Rudiger still has some way to go, he really struggled today but wasn't an easy game for him by any means.

Disagree with Cesc, he's just a lethargic player, still one of our best and best playmakers in the league. But Willian is really disappointing me this season, I'm a big fan of his also, if I keep seeing him play like this I don't know how I can enjoy watching him play or like the player.

Clearly Conte didn't expect the players to be so sloppy, neither did we. The gameplan was right, I would've died if I saw a 2 man midfield against City with 3 at the back, they're lethal, we have to shut them down. You can't say we are too fatigued then somehow hope to outplay them.

I'm a big Willian fan but I can't get on board with him at all this season, he's been atrocious bar the Everton game. Pedro has also been underwhelming compared to last season.

How were Conte's tactics bad exactly? What do you guys propose we do? Do we play with 2 in the middle against a City side we can barely even defend against with 3 in the middle? Have people even been watching City play this season, they're steamrolling teams, completely outplaying them. If we can't shut down their attack we have a tiny tiny tiny chance of winning.