bluedave

I'be been enjoying Godfather of Harlem lately, the true-ish story of Harlem gangster Bumpy Johnson. It has a great cast and does a good job representing civil-rights era New York, although I suspect they are taking massive liberties with the story.

I think lack of leadership has a lot to do with it. We know that Christensen, Rüdiger, Zouma and Dave (I'm not so sure about Emerson and Alonso), although far from 'World Class', are all capable defenders. The question is why, when we put them together, has it been such a disaster this season. It's easy to just say they're all crap and need to be replaced ASAP, but that's stupid, reactionary nonsense, imo. I was never in favour of having Dave as captain, I didn't see great leadership qualities in him and still don't. I have the same opinion about Christensen and Zouma. Rüdiger is more experienced and seems more vocal, but he comes across as quite impulsive/emotional... obviously I don't know him personally, that's just the impression I have from watching him on the telly. If I was in charge of our transfers this summer then signing one top-class, dominant and experienced centre back would be my top priority. Who that could be I have absolutely no idea, that's what scouts are for. 1-2 years ago I kind of hoped that would be Rüdiger but unfortunately it hasn't quite worked out that way.

Completely forgot about this match. Wow, 4-1 down to Munich. I don’t fancy our chances much, if I’m being honest.

This "he's not a prolific goalscorer therefore must not a useful attacking midfielder" argument is stupid and extremely tiresome.

I think he's probably prioritising his family life over the 'glory' of sitting on the Barcelona bench for a couple of years. Only a complete w**ker would hold that against him.

The problem with these still images is that you can't tell if the keeper has his hand on the ball, especially the bottom one that is blurred to f**k (what the hell did they do to it?). The fact that the bottom one has clearly been "enhanced" in some way means I'm reluctant to take it as proof of anything. That doesn't mean I believe the keeper did not handle the ball outside the box, I really don't know, but the picture looks like some kind of artist's impression.

Whether or not he's a starter would depend on the form of the individual players, which tends to fluctuate a lot over the course of a season. Willian was our stand-out player for a good chunk of last season (just ask Lampard). Pulisic only really hit top-form post lockdown. Regarding the Instagram thing from two years ago, personally I think that's a really petty thing to hold against him and it baffles me that people hold this up as 'proof' of a bad attitude despite seven years of evidence to the contrary. I'm sure if you asked any of his other managers if he had a bad attitude they'd laugh in your face.

Ok, so basically: Willian - not a starter, somehow has a bad attitude James - massively overrated Jorginho - too weak for the PL Zouma - crap but not as crap as the other CBs And this is you attempting to contradict Slojo's observation that you tend to be rather negative about our players. Fyi, he's not the only one who's noticed.

They showed a video replay and at the point they paused it, it was on the line.

That was a farce. We weren’t great but neither were they, and we could well have nicked it if it was a fair game. At least we’ll get to have the last laugh when we win the CL.

He's just seems like an all-round decent bloke.

It's hard to judge a defender fairly when they're playing in our defence. I doubt there are many defenders who would look great in this defence. People's opinions on here are always strongly influenced by recency-bias, and Rüdiger's made a few glaring mistakes recent that are fresh in the mind. However, he was excellent under Conte in his first season here playing in a proper defence, and was clear man of the match in the FA Cup final win over Man Utd. I'd rate him currently on a similar level to peak Gary Cahill. He could be (and has been, for us) part of a good defence. His 'crime' is that he's not the talismanic defensive rock that people hoped he might be.

You cannot argue with the facts. I believe the ratings are out of 8.

It was obviously Willian's year this year. Mount and Kovacic also impressed. Reece James too, although his form was not the same post-lockdown.