g3.7

he's started better than last season, and he's a fighter, but IMO we're more in need of a fullback than any other position in the squad. doesn't deserve the abuse he gets because his legs have gone though.

it is unrealistic to expect that you will get exactly what you want. and it is unrealistic to expect the team to be the finished article or for players to be at their best whilst they are still adjusting to the new manager and his style of management. I don't understand how you can continue to complain about players who have already been loaned out- I get that people might be tired of oscar, pedro, mikel etc but again I have to repeat that it is early days for the squad with conte and he clearly deems them useful. perhaps it is worth backing his decisions given his record in management? or given that he's three games into his spell here? exactly how soon do you expect everything to be sorted out? once the ink had dried on his contract? that isn't realistic. I would warn strongly against looking at bayern and making a false equivalence- I would suggest you read up about perez' zidanes y pavons project before totally committing yourself to the idea that you can gut a squad of its squad players and simply replace them wholesale with youth. just- yes of course I was responding to DF. although what I would say is that given the thinness of the squad I think at the moment it is impossible that we won't see them feature more than under jose. conte isn't fergie and has no record of actively encouraging kids into the team, but he probably is less risk averse in that aspect than jose. early days though.

my observation is that you (and others) deal in ridiculous absolutes and never pass up the chance to attack everyone and everything that you deem to be in the way of getting exactly what you want. no matter how realistic that is or not. there isn't any hint of practicality or appreciation of views that differ from your own. there's no empathy or understanding in anything you write. that is why you lack credibility. 99% of us want youth integration, the adults can get that across in a way you seem unable or unwilling to.

I've read your posts. 3 games in to his new job and you're whining like a spoilt child because things aren't exactly as you wish them to be. can I suggest you stop stamping your feet? this mixture of exaggerated outrage from you and many of the other kids who have joined this forum lately really is grating. every slight mistake or poor performance is woeful / awful / disgraceful. every player not sold or not bought is an example of incompetence. how can you complain about bandwagons against you when you deal- it seems exclusively- in these sorts of ludicrous absolutes?

so two youth players start and instead you choose to cry about the one that didn't get on?

I agree with every quote.

burnley are a classic 442 side, given their approach and result against liverpool we can expect them to be very deep and be extremely selective about committing more than 3 players in our half. perhaps given that we might be looking to play 442 ourselves. possibly even with a kante / fabregas central midfield.

Two games in, two wins and in the corresponding fixtures last season we didn't win either. Yet all I am reading is an unending amount of whingeing and moaning. I hoped last season would've have taught some of you to have a little more humility. Oh well.

I think he's a great signing mate. and the signs are good, but he's going from being in a side where he would get ahead of the ball a lot on counter attacks to one where he will need to be more positionally disciplined and he'll need to improve his decision making with the ball as well. those things should come with time but in the friendlies and the other night I feel that he isn't quite there yet.

waaa waaa waa ivanovic. hopefully that saves us a few pages. now that's out of the way, a dilemma for us to think about: after signing fabregas and costa, jose wanted to change the style of play and felt to accelerate how quickly the players would adapt he would not rotate much. conte is now in a similar position. does he keep the same players in or not? do we look further along in our development than we did two seasons ago or not? I think he will be a little more inclined to rotate than jose was. but only a little. he needs the results personally more than jose did and he has it all to prove to the players, the club and the supporters. I think we'll start with the same eleven. I can't see more than one change, and that would be willian out for one of the three options (probably pedro). I don't expect big changes until the league cup / signings are made. would like to see aina get some minutes if possible- as the only backup fullback in the squad the sooner he is assimilated into the squad, the better. we don't want to be throwing him into a big game later down the line without games under his belt.

yeah I appreciate that (thought you were comparing opening day last season to last night), but with respect I have to repeat that the argument you're making doesn't work for me.

that's the only difference in personnel, sure, but the manager was different, the system was different, the style of play was different and the level of fitness was different. and we were playing against 10 different players. I don't think there is any value in trying to argue that only one thing changed, and as a result of that one thing everything was better.

I should add that I think he's a really good player and I hope we keep him, just my observation is that if we're playing in a way where the central midfielders need to be hard running and capable of going beyond the striker, then fabregas isn't suited to that. for me it isn't a question of whether he can contribute defensively (in my view, depending on the shape and style of play he can), it is more about the type of football we played with and without the ball. without the ball he is a hard working player, but he isn't quick. he can't press like oscar. that is something that can be mitigated to a degree, but what he cannot do is sprint ahead of willian and costa repeatedly in a match. probably more than any defensive part of his game that is what could make it hard for him to start. he could play as the deepest midfield player depending on the opponent and he could play as a second forward as well. otherwise the way the team is set up would need to change for him to be starting in midfield IMO.

didn't think he had a great game. he was decent, and obviously playing on a yellow with a bit of nerves on his debut contributed, but I think he was a little hesitant and there is going to be more adaptation needed.

turn to page 13 for some good crying about ivanovic. well played bran.

have to say I disagree. a bit. I thought he was very involved and I think in this type of football the strikers are going to get a lot of touches. however, I don't think he did it well. he was too insistent on turning and trying to run collins rather than play the percentages. willian and oscar looked like they picked it up immediately but I think costa is going to need to be coached out of certain habits he has.

conte is adaptable, we've seen him use pirlo and we know that his ideas about how to play often haven't calcified this early in the season... but... already it looks bad for fabregas. he physically is not capable of playing the way oscar did today, and even when we needed a goal he didn't get off the bench. that could be instructive.

Gaz. That's how you play Carroll

I can do that mate.

I agree that it was an odd signing- we don't know what we'll get back from it (I assume it is some agent related favour), but ultimately he wasn't signed for the first team. I think including his name in criticism of our transfer work last summer is misleading. no-one can seriously or honestly suggest that jose wanted stones and the club bought him hector IMO. those two facts plainly have no relationship to one another and I think people using that line are being dishonest or a bit, er, silly. (not saying that we did good work last summer, mind)

I never understood why people had a specific problem with Hector's signing. He's constantly included in the list of players signed for Jose last season in error but to me he was always one of those signings that had nothing to do with the first team (in the short term). No one includes pasalic or any of the others in that list so I'm not sure why he gets lumped in with our first team purchases. Is it purely because he's a defender and it was done on the final day of the window ?

Obviously goes without saying that everyone has their own preferences

City look like they'll be great to watch this season. Which is not surprising given their coach I suppose

Pirlo was as good defensively as dimitar berbatov

and note this- mazzarri loves using 3 at the back. we could see kenedy have a full season as a wingback, which would be extremely useful for his development.