Spiller86

Don't get me started on that. Although if we had have finished first, Atalanta would have probably scored 7 against us too. And given they gave a load of Valencia fans COVID it may have been for the best that he was selfish and took that penalty.

I think the point about us having to be open is well made. Same with the high press. We needed it because goals were going to be hard to come by otherwise. I for one am hoping that with some new attacking verve we might not see too many games where we have two players behind the ball which we did constantly this season. That won't help us in games like last night though. Defensive structure was non existent despite us having 30 percent of the ball.

Yeah and then got screwed with a ludicrous offside call to stop us winning it and finishing first in the group. Karma didn't even wait till the game was over.

I see not everyone agrees! No one was good tonight so I'm not blaming him for too much. For the few games we played 4-3-3 with Mount and Kante his movement was great, he contributed to goals and pressed well. He can also hold the ball back to goal which no one in the midfield can now Willian is leaving. I'm happy for him to stay Havertz or no Havertz.

It was bad wasn't it? Christensen pulled out of the defensive line and then for some reason decides to come back in and stand right next to Zouma. Meanwhile a midfielder ghosts behind them both and scores unmarked. Eveyone turns around and blames Emerson? I wonder how much language and communication is an issue. Across the back 5 tonight we had 5 different first languages spoken. Now surely all have a good enough level of English but in the moment just a slight misinterpretation can be an issue. If you remember at our height we often had a Portuguese speaking side Paulo/Bosingwa and Percy/Alex and an English speaking side JT and Bridge/Cole.

I thought he played okay tonight. He still makes dumb calls but I'd say post restart he was probably our most improved player. Happy to keep him around the squad next season.

Sarri getting the sack is a disaster. Means we're likely stuck with him for another year.

I like Koulibaly but I've said before he has some of the same challenges as our own centre backs when he is isolated and forced to make decisions and defend one on one outside the box which will happen here because our structure is a shambles. Last night was just the most recent in a long line I've seen with Carlo and now Gatusso in charge. It strikes me that he has struggled a bit this year without Albiol as well who was the defensive leader there. Makes me laugh to see us linked with players like Gabriel, Gimenez and Pau Torres who are benefiting/have benefited from playing next to great organising centre backs but we are never being linked with the organising centre back themselves. For me our signing this summer has to be a defensive leader. Possibly 30 plus who can organises the rest. Hopefully that is complemented by a decent keeper too.

Haha. Hope you had fun. I always know whether we won or not because the number of pages in the thread is always 3 times as long when we lose as when we win.

Glad that's over. I'm still trying to work out if Bayern are that good or we are that bad. That was a friendly for them in the last 30 and they still scored 2 goals. Some bright moments but our complete inability to be compact and defend when needed is maddening. Some of it is the personnel but most of it is the structure. 54 matches with only 13 clean sheets and 75 goals conceded. That's 15 more than the last two seasons and even worse than the Jose's last season where we finished 10th. It has to be fixed. I fear Frank won't get a third season if we concede as many again next year. But from losing 4-0 in our first game to 4-1 tonight I'm not sure our defence has improved at all.

Forget those three, what is Ryan Bertrand doing? He went alright last time at the Allianz. I fancy an open game more akin to a friendly. Fancy us to win on the night but to go down overall.

Feel for Hazard. Went there to win the Big Ears and it's just possible their window was closing as he joined. He has had an interrupted year, he'll be better for them next year but with Ramos, Modric, Kroos, Bale and Benzema all getting on they might be about to enter a rebuild.

I hear he's got cyborg hammies that never break.

I agree on most of that, particularly the muscle bit. We've hired too many weak technical footballers recently. Need a bit of size and power as well as pace and technique. I like Reguilon but he definitely another player in that category. Any chance we can clone a left footed version of Reece James?

Jeez I hope Sarri doesn't get sacked by Juve after that debacle. Who else will buy Jorginho from us?