Vagabond

Good, will be important since Kante still seems to be missing.

Why is this thread about Jorginho for the last 10+ posts? Any news about the injury?

I watched it and thought he was good, but I also thought he was superb in Pre Season and that he will explode in the PL. I really don't know what to think about him anymore.

Strange, didn't Kovacic play on the right and Barkley on the left? Your screenshot also lists Azpi as our best defender against Sheffield and Zouma above Tomori. Seems like rubbish, though I agree with your point that Jorg played better than Kova.

You are wrong and your strawman won't help. I never claimed that passing accuracy is all I care about as you are trying to imply, I said a midfielder with a 93% accuracy is a very unlikely factor for not having the upper hand in midfield (*edit* Team accuracy was @ 90% in the first 45 minutes and dropped to 85% the second half). Since you somehow can't provide a single example where Kova lost the upper hand and the stats are proving you wrong as well, I will go on. No problem. Much respect to your gut feeling though.

I'm sure you can point out a specific example or a situation where he didn't have the upper hand against Norwich, since with a 93% passing accuracy against Sheffield it doesn't seem like he was the reason for us giving away posession or losing control of the game. It will also be quite hard to scapegoat him for the Sheffield equalizer as he wasn't on the pitch anymore, though I don't doubt you'll find a way. I hope that's not too much to ask.

I'm not interested in blaming individuals in a team game either, but I believe our defense is looking terrible mostly because of our defense itself, not the midfield. Jorginho and Azpi both don't have the pace but are experienced and intelligent enough to compensate with positioning (I'll overlook Azpis mistakes for the sake of this argument) and passing the ball around safely. The problem in posession is that Zouma is panicking under the pressure because of his inexperience on such a high level (this is what meant with "too young"). But I have to say despite that I feel quite safe in posession and this will only get better in time, we also held our own against Liverpools high press not too long ago. To me the real problem is our defensive play out of posession, since quick counter attacks make us look like amateurs at times. The reasons for this are the same I mentioned above; Azpi&Jorg lacking pace while a tandem of Christensen and Zouma is not ready yet to compensate for that with smart positioning/decision making. I agree that our defensive stability will massively improve when Rudiger comes back if Azpi can stop making mistakes. Kante has to play obviously and will provide additional stability, but I don't feel we need him as much defensively as many people think we do. Fair enough, Mount had a very good game as well imo (I had Tammy as MOTM with both Kova and Mount as honourable mentions in the matchthread). Just because people are praising Mateo doesn't mean Mason played worse, the way he cut inside for his goal was very impressive. However, you can read through this thread: many fans were opposed to Kovas transfer. According to one poster he had 2 good games in total last season, another was claiming it was only about 20 good minutes and not worth a buy. Compare that to the delirium our fanbase got into everytime RLC or CHO did anything positive in a game last season (apparently they are both world class already) the term "over the top" becomes very relative.

Most of the goals we conceded were due to Azpi or Zouma sleeping or making bad calls, not because of Jorg or Kova being ripped through. There's no midfielder in the world that can stop his defenders from playing the opposition onside. Judging from your posts in Azpis thread you find it too harsh to criticize Azpi for his direct mistakes while you are at the same time blaming the midfield for the defensive weakness? Also, your first reaction to Kovas Norwich game was that he doesn't do anything significant despite putting in some good work, at least one crucial tackle (he snuffed out the Norwich counter attack after Azpi got fouled in their box) and an assist. Our defense is bad at the moment, which was to be expected since Zouma is too young, Azpi is too old, Christensen is not a natural leader and Emerson is too far up the pitch for offensive reasons. Which is fine imo, they need time to get to know each other better so they can react to each others weaknesses. I just wish people would stop blaming the midfielders for it, especially since we are bleeding goals from wide attacks, not from the center.

This is what I was thinking from the start, it is absolutely perfect for match fixing. VAR can overturn bad decisions or mistakes, but what happens to the mistakes that it doesn't correct? After the games the refs will defend each others decisions like they have always, only now they will not only defend the guy on the pitch but the ones in the VAR room as well.

Tammy MOTM with Kovacic and Mount as honourable mentions. Our defense needs to get their positioning right, I have the feeling like there's always one playing the opposition onside. Except for Emerson maybe because he's too far up the pitch for that most of the time.

I think most of all Kovacic wants to play finals, since he sat out a few of them (CL finals and the world cup final because of a shoulder injury apparently). Last season he played one and played well I thought, so he should be happy for a while now.

Ronaldo and Robben were absolute world class. The top of the top. Ruben is 23 now and the highlight of his career is a hattrick against Bate Borisov, so let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I honestly don't care who is playing as long as team performance is where it should be. I always thought Barkley was a decent player. He has a lot to offer in the right setup. Last years posession based playing style was just not fitting for him, because keeping posession too much of a priority last season and that's where he struggles when he is gets pressed. I agree that Ruben is a quicker thinker which is good in tight spaces and he did show glimpses of the world class you are attributing to him, but against teams that give us space I prefer Barkley. @mwblue10 : If we would've had this conversation back then I would've told you the same thing about Ross; he has to get fit and stay fit. Giving him a spot in a regular starting lineup when he never had it before and when his body seemingly won't allow him to play on a regular basis doesn't make sense.

Completely disagree. It's puzzling to me how so many people rate a player so highly that can't even stay fit for half a season. Ruben has a bad back. Dropping a good performer like Ross in favor of a player that will be injured again after 5 games is a terrible thing to do, it would completely disintegrate team morale and rightfully so. Point is, first Ruben has to get fit and STAY FIT, then we can talk about him being a potential world beater.

Most Bayern fans I spoke to don't want CHO. Their argument is that his performances last season were bang average and that he suffered a serious injury, so it's far too great of a risk. I doubt any club will offer him more than CFC does.

Wishful thinking. People were saying that last season as well, yet Kovacic and Barkley were playing while RLC kept warming the bench for most of the season, same as people were moaning about CHO while Willian and Pedro were playing. I seriously doubt Kova would've signed without some kind of assurances on game time, he didn't leave the RM bench to be in the same position at CFC. Looking at our midfield performances right now even Kante will have to share some game time, and Ruben definitely isn't getting past Ross if he can keep performing the way he did in pre season. Since those are nice problems to have for a team I don't understand why you are so cynical though.