g3.7

Of course, but it isn't "one performance". He's having an excellent season.

f**k off. you're like one of those awful hollywood remoaner luvvies, prattling on about stuff that will never be of consequence to you. when those EU subsidies on brylcreem get rescinded we'll revisit this pal.

I think they're a good partnership and quite rightly are usually the first choices. I also think he's having a very good season. but it is probably true to say that beyond this season his is one of a number of positions where it wouldn't be hugely surprising to see us try and improve. although it will probably be huge money to do so.

I'll be especially sorry to miss the weekly abuse he received- it made it very easy to see which posters weren't to be taken seriously. anyway, cheers bran, you gave literally everything you had to the club. legend.

With respect, literally every conclusion you've made is wrong. It is clear that you think the way you judge a football team is by looking at the individual quality of the 11 players.

hazard, but only because he's better at football.

ugh. he hasn't set out to sit back in any match we've played this season. "sitting back" is a consequence of not being able to break through the press and get the wing backs high up the pitch. away to city, who have the best forward players in the league, we were able to meet them high up the pitch because they didn't press as well as spurs and liverpool do. conte approaches football the way guardiola does- the distance between the deepest outfield player and the most advanced one has to stay the same at all points- so the team can only get forward by passing the ball in a specific way and the whole team moves up and down as one. so if you cant get the ball up the pitch with good possession then the wingbacks will always be too deep to offer out balls. a manager like jose or ferguson would be happy to stretch the pitch and leave open spaces where the game can become end to end (if they calculate it is a risk worth taking), but conte won't do that (I don't think). with that in mind, they way to deal with a spurs or liverpool type press is by using long balls or by playing through the press. going long like that isn't something conte will do (and if you want to criticise him it is here), he wants this team to be able to pass through a press (which it struggles with at the moment). that is conte the other day. this is how he conceptualises football. he sees his job as to establish a way of playing and then make that way as effective as possible. if we play a game deep in our half then that tells you something about how far along the team is in its development (room to improve, but 9 points clear in feb) and how good the opposition is (against the top sides liverpool are probably the best in the country). every time I read you post I think "this is a guy who is watching golf or bowling or something". you certainly don't seem to appreciate that football isn't a solo sport where we are trying to create personal bests.

I mean, we can't ignore the other team- this isn't 2006. that was a league with one great team and 19 teams ranging from bad to good. we're one of six very good sides, but there isn't a team that is head and shoulders above the others in terms of first 11. for a lot of the season liverpool have been very good and it isn't easy to go to anfield under the lights when there is something really on the line for them. they've had worse teams get the better of better sides than this team in those conditions. klopps' a good manager, they have a team that is recognisably his and stylistically it is a bad match up for us. the way conte works, don't expect jose style wholesale changes in approach for specific matches. obviously that has its positives as well as negatives. conte isn't trying to make us a team that is a high class jack of all trades. he's trying to make it a master of one very particular style of football and that is something that we might well be on the way to but we're not there yet. p.s. I felt willian started over pedro because the latter struggled a lot against spurs and willian generally protects the ball better. he was better than pedro was that day but I don't think it was a total success- when we were pushed back we still struggled to move the team up the pitch.

I don't agree he HAS to start at all, but he was really good every time he got the ball today. he's been really good every time he's had the ball for a few months now. it's just making sure we can compensate when he doesn't have it. I am not convinced at all that he can do it in the two regularly but he is making a decent case for conte to look at putting him in behind the front two.

Quite a dogged performance, an improvement in some ways vs spurs away. Let's face it, good pressing sides are what we struggle with and we're not going to go from where we were to Barcelona in one season when to comes to playing through those teams. I saw a team today and it's a good one.

Didn't have his greatest game for sure and like the second half against Hull I thought he looked quite leggy, but then this was hardly the game where we were up the pitch often and getting the front players involved. Don't see why people would be that angry given the way the game went.

we've got conte. whether people stay or go, expect to see a team that is better overall next season.

I'd add I think overall hazard is having an excellent season and should be a contender for player of the year if the second half performances continue to stay at a high level. I would add that if we compare him to when we last won the title the team as a unit is relying on him a lot less to decide games and win us points on his own. which is probably a good thing ultimately. he can play games where simply making smart decisions over and over with his passing is enough for us to end up winning without the need for him to take the ball off the back four and beat 3 men.

What most amuses me about all this is that amongst Jose's worst traits is the way he rails against any slight or criticism he perceives with a disproportionate level of fury. You wouldn't catch anyone of his critics in this thread doing that though.

this is different but the same.

I read this bit in a loud quiet voice.

Also, if the linesman does his job, hazard creates a great goal for Costa yesterday. For some people though I know that it is as simple as judging how often he dribbles to determine how well he has played. He isn't Ryan giggs.

I thought he was really handy as recently as leicester away! I think he's been playing well in the last few weeks, but not at his very best. had a poor game today mind.

if they are talking about the listless, rushed back from injury courtois of last seaason then that is a fair point. but I think you and I can ignore that if they are talking generally- there isn't a whole level above the likes of courtois or de gea, be it currently or historically. it is fine details between them. as it would be if you put cech or buffon in at their peak. these guys belong in the same group, even if we can agree one is better than the others, I don't think it is possible to be better significantly.

come on- de gea is fantastic. as is courtois. I genuinely don't understand how people are unable to seperate that type of player from the likes of butland or pickford (at the moment) or given (in his day). the difference in class is so clearly apparent (to me). remember, begovic, judged against the latter group, is not notably inferior. and then notice the difference in our defence and quality as a team overall when he steps in for courtois.

I watch a lot of films in the cinema each year. upwards of 70 for sure. I found last year to be better than 2015 but worse than 2014. anyway I think I only saw one or two great films last year, and maybe five more that were close to greatness. what I am wondering is if anyone saw the film chronic starring tim roth? ultimately not a great film, nor close to it thanks to a last minute loss of nerve from the director, but the purest cinematic film I think I've seen for a long time. It felt related to lumiere or kuleshov in a strange way- there was a real understanding of the most basic building blocks of film, that I think are often forgotten or taken for granted now. It isn't long and I'd recommend it, with qualification, to anyone interested in films. roth plays a nurse who cares for people who are often terminally ill.

clearly ivanovic and pedro at wingback, loftus cheek and willian behind batshuayi. don't think it could be anything else- definitely not a back 4.

this is probably true sadly. but if conte wants him, we should try. and if he gets close to yaya toure at his best then I'd rather we didn't spend a decade kicking ourselves.

There isn't an outstanding squad in the league and the gap in quality between first and sixth is small. That's the nature of the league these days. It isn't 2005 anymore. This isn't a cause for concern. The challenge for conte, Jose, guardiola etc is to build a side that can stand up to Europe's best and that takes more than half a season. If it doesn't happen then everyone in the top six will continue to beat and be beaten by the others.

cant think of exactly the wording so I'm reserving this space until some knee jerk opinions formulate.