Ilya

Yeah, I saw that. It does sound reasonable. He concedes himself, but downplays the point that pressing and winning the ball higher up the pitch is crucial/valuable to Sarri's system. So may be that's enough. May be that's going to be main Kante's contribution and it is so important for the team that it's OK that the actual attacking threat will have to come from elsewhere. Or may be he is right and Kante is wasted in this system and doesn't quite have a good place in it. Which would be a great shame. But Jorginho is clearly the one player that definitely has a place/position nailed on in this team. So may be - and this sounds unthinkable - Kante is more valuable to somebody else, than he is to us... And may be we sell his soul to the Devil in exchange for Frank Lampard becoming 15 years younger.

This thread feels like it's making a collective case for doing the false 9 thing. Our centre-forward is a bit rubbish and so are all realistically available ones on the market. Perdo or buy another "attacking midfielder". Feels like it would yield more goals than playing Morata. I could be wrong.

As in most cases in life to me style is more important than substance. :) To some people certain things are taboo: shagging your wife's sister, slagging off Chelsea players, voting Tory... And to some - it just isn't... And may be something else is. Moral indignation is pointless and boring. But here's the "style" bit. "Stinkwater"? Really? What are you, 12? I mean, you gonna insult Chelsea players - can you please not be so lame and unfunny about it. Thought I'd chime in... :))

I like that with my job as well. Always crying in the office. That's why people respect me and value me as a colleague.

Pots are an interesting consideration. But Pot 2 - unless you are really unlucky - should land you in a group where at least 2nd place is fairly straight-forward. It all kinda depends on how confident one feels about the state of the team in a year's time. If optimistic (Sarri will have had a year to implement his methods; we'll have a couple of windows to fill in the gaps - e.g. to buy a striker; so next year we should be back as a major power home and in Europe) - then it really shouldn't matter that much. We should - at least at group stage of CL - be able to kick ass whatever pot we get in from. If pessimistic (Hazard goes to Real, we don't adequately replace him, a couple of other players deteriorate due to age, Sarri's methods will be OK, but will not quite make us invincible, etc) - then yeah. These subtle differences could seriously affect chances of getting out of the group. I mean we could, of course, not finish top 4 and not win EL. Also a possibility. :)

Well yes, quite. 2 points per game average is enough to be in top 4 most seasons. So us having a run of 2 ppg on the back of a run of 3ppg - would generally speaking be quite decent overall. :))

Yes - amazing start. Yes - too early to make predictions based on our form so far, need to play more, harder opponents. But what is lovely to see is that Spurs, Arsenal and Man U - our competition for top 4 (and predicted to finish above us by, say, the Guardian) - are not looking exactly scary, are they? So winning PL is fantasy land for now. But top 4 finish - which for me was an optimistic prediction before season started - is now looking reasonably comfortable.

I've noticed people talk about Europa League in the same breath as domestic cups - a nice consolation trophy if you can't get the big ones (PL & CL), but not too precious and thus an opportunity to give some kids and/or fringe players some games. Given how tight it will be getting into Top 4 (and a lot of people are predicting that we won't) - I would treat EL as a way to get into CL next year. And would treat it really f***ing seriously. It's so much more than a domestic cup.

This is the best thing I've seen on internet in ages.

Sorry, had to do this...

I can only assume that Sarri has decided that if/when the process of giving Morata a chance is over - he's gonna play a false 9... Otherwise I don't get this.

In the process converting Pogba, Sanches and Martial into hard old-school tackle-a-brick-wall centre backs. And Rashford, And Lingard. And Lukaku. Yes, some will say that playing with 6 centre backs is a tad defensive, but who is the serial winner here?

This dude is sharp. The Big Bang was big. It's very rare you get bangs that big.

Overall we improved the squad to a much greater degree than I expected. The only real gap is CF. But: (a) I am not aware of anyone having been available this transfer window (b) It's quite a big ask to expect club to write Morata off after one season. So fair enough, I guess. We'll just have to wait for him to confirm beyond reasonable doubt that he is useless. (Having said that I was seriously tempted to pick him for fantasy football. Who knows... :) Only having a limit of 3 Chelsea payers stopped me.)

And seriously, I don't think Sarri football relies on players' height much. And Kovacic looks like he can take care of himself in a shoulder to shoulder challenge.

I'm joking. coco had him at 17 meters tall, got corrected, I made a silly joke. Ignore me.

It was correct first time round. He's a tall lad.

:)) Or better still - to Sunderland.

So were footballers.

imo everyone overestimates Spurs. They will do much worse than last season. And I don't see why Arsenal would do much better... :))

I really don't get why so many people are findiing fault with this. Do we really have to feel like we screwed every club we do a deal with? Bringing Kovacic in for a year is an extremely good thing for us right now. Extremely. This transfer window we have neither time, nor money, nor ability to attract highest calibre players. Kovacic has a very high chance of being useful - if not as an attacking midfielder in addition to Kante and Jorginho, then as a replacement to one of them for rotation, for injuries, etc. And to have that with no risk and no crazy cost is awesome. And next year Sarri will have had a year to assess the squad and will have a full window to look for players that he needs. And if it's also good for Madrid - well ... whatever. We are not in direct competition with them for anything.

We do, and there was talk of bringing him back this season and then he suffered another bad season-destroying injury - all fairly recently, about a month ago.

So - knowing what we know about Sarri's ability to improve players and fit them into his system - the question, I imagine, that is on everyone's mind - can Morata play in goal?

I have a feeling that people are projecting their own ideas of what good football is onto this mysterious "Sarriball". I for, instance, think that the crucial part of Sarriball is having a big striker who can head the crosses in.