Spiller86

He has regressed a little as we have as a team. I thought he started well. That said he doesn't seem to be a guy who takes the game by the scruff of the neck. For example you would expect he to be the guy with the runs into the box not Kante (not that Barkley does this either). Injuries and our form aside we'll need more from him to finish top 4.

I thought he was fine bar the Lacazette goal, which was a bit of a screamer. Showed more endeavour than most in the second half

Costa being moved on I think poisoned that relationship with the Brazilians. The fact we had the likes of Kenedy, Luiz and Willian not playing and sniping didn't help. Wouldn't surprise me if Hazard is in this crew too. He was certainly an underminer of Jose along with Fabregas and Costa. We just have to be cleverer about our recruitment. Drogba, Lampard, Terry etc. fought managers because they were ruthless winners who demanded perfection. Remember they had issues that Scolari didn't train the team hard enough? This with apologies to Groundskeeper Willie might be a group of noodle armed choir boys not up for the hard work or the fight. Not the type you want around.

Hahahaha the Bayern Laundry Basket was true! Love it! That said UEFA will probably ban us from something now.

I'll say again Luiz and Willian chucked a wobbly last season under Conte and should have been moved on. Luiz is a leader in the dressing room but it would surprise me greatly if that was in the right direction. We've had this ever since our little Brazilian clique formed. I've maintained for a while that if we don't already we should pay closer attention to mentality when recruiting. We need a new generation of leaders and hardnosed pricks to add some steel.

All true of course. Our concern as our old guard has moved on is that we have prioritised recruitment around younger players who have resale value. They've become the core of our team and we have few leaders. I've been saying this for a while too, worst part is that those players who should be leading the team have been key in some of the worst behaviour. Luiz and Willian should have followed Conte out the door last season and yet here they are playing first team football. We need some grunt and fast. We were Arsenal tonight. It has come full circle from Jose's time.

https://twitter.com/beINSPORTS/status/1086691170393026560?s=19 Jose offering his thoughts on us.

I'm sure I'm not the first in here to note this but we were Arsenal today. Passing lots, tippy tappy, but toothless in front of goal and mentally fragile at the other end. Sarri needs to fix the ludicrous lack of movement. We're so static we don't ask the defender to make a decision. Sorry that's a rant, the sky is not falling, but lets not forget we sacked a Premier League winning manager for this dross, and that those that undermined him (Luiz and Willian) are somehow key elements of the squad. Lets also not forget the large investment in his own signings that our Premier League winning manager was never gifted.

Was I hearing things or did I hear an Antonio song towards the end? I know the songs are to the same tune but it didn't sound like Maurizio over the tele.

But we paid for potential. Same as we did with Pulisic... On Higuain he has a left foot which makes him an immediate improvement over Morata, also has a nice penchant for scoring from long range. But he is still capable of the big miss and seems to miss in the big moments. World Cup final comes to mind as the most obvious example. I'm on the fence but hope he does well.

Got the striker he wants. No excuses now.

"Transfer market is a refuge for the weak. It for those who can't train their players."

Signing of the season. I'd forgoe any player signings to have him come in

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/bundesliga-jadon-sancho-callum-hudson-odoi-premier-league-transfer-news-epl-a8729736.html May as well be written about us.

Key to all this is a total lack of direction at a footballing level. Someone said earlier that it is clear that business and not footballing people are making transfer decisions and it shows. We sell because the value is good without regard for the impact on the squad and we seem to buy (not always but often) with the notion of resale value first in our mind. Who is the person saying okay regardless of the manager this type of player is required and isn't being developed in the academy. Who is saying this player is 30 or this player is off contract in two years time so that is looming as a gap in the squad. Who was the person in the back office saying Bakayoko has a loose first touch and that actually Nat Chalobah who is much better on the ball could be developed into a similar player with some gametime and gym work? I suspect no one. So we land ourselves here with one of our best youngsters threatening to leave because of lack of gametime. We urgently need a revamp of our football board. Forget strikers or centre backs a technical director is the most glaring recruitment gap we have.