Xfaxtor

Bout time Luiz came off. Really hope tjts the last we see of him in midfield

Azpi just doesnt look himself, even Dzeko outran him. Would surprise med if we find out later on hes been playing injured

This midfield trio really isnt working, Conte needs to make some adjustments sooner rather then later

You cant have it both ways

The gaps in midfield are HUGE. Its like we are purposely trying to hive away as much space as possible

The thing is, he isnt playing well. Hes all over the shop positionally and already made a few very silly fouls. He looks so uncomfortable in midfield. It was a cracking goal though so it will probably all be glossed over

Its amazing how we still havent found a way to deal with it

Luiz also is a lott better at taking the ball past the first line of pressure, with the limited passing range of Bakayoko and Kanté this is usually quite critical and a huge part of the way we play. As said in hindsight it was the wrong call, as we had Fab dropping quite deep and Andreas defensive skills would have been handy. Was a weird game to be fair, whole team looked completely disinterested and even the ever present Azpi had a stinker.

Actually the powers that be are desperate for any academy player to break through, its the managers who are under constant pressure to win that really couldnt give a sh*t as. They are gone in 2-3 seasons anyway so they arent going to sacrifice short term success over long term development. But its quite clear seing how the board operates during the transfer window that they would like more youngsters to get a shot and they would rather loan them out to get experience then have then rot on the bench.

Outplayed and outclassed on the night. Lost to a better team with a better gameplan and better execution. Need to so better, have had a rough start to the season with fixtures and injuries but we have a soft schedule coning up after the international break, should be able to go on a run, only two tough ganes in the next 11. Utd on the other hand are looking at some very tough games

Spot on. Conte got the tactics wrong today and Guardiola outclassed hin for sure. Not many days ago Conte took Simeone to school so Im not really worried. Its the nature of the beast.

Prime James Milner was a much better player then Ox will ever be. Severly underrated imo

If we were to go for a German attacker I would take Timo Werner over anyone. Would be a terrific player for us

It has to be. Fair play to him, he got a few bites

Ive heard some stupid reasons for trying to critisize Emenalo, this might be the dumbest. And thats quite the achievement

Not sure how anyone can say we "missed out" on Lukaku. Morata was clearly Contes number one choice and according to Lukaku we never showed much interest or even placed a bid for him.

In the end I thought we did fine. We have a good mix of youth and experience with a couple of academy grads looking likely to get considerable playing time. People need to stop forcing the narrative that we got "lucky" with injuries last year. We have a top class medical team and we havent had significant injuries in ages

Emenalo is doing great and so is Marina, really dont get why the are being scapegoated here. Marina has come in to do a job for Roman and that is to lower the amount of money spent on transfers and increasing the amount of money received for transfers in while still being competitive. We have one of the smallest net spend of the top clubs. Shes done a great job in that regard and its quite clear Roman is happy with her. This scenario were the board with Marina and Emenalo in front are refusing to spend Romans money and he is somehow fine with that is so stupid that I find the whole idea intellectually offensive. As for Ox, he has likely received insuranves of a starting role and is (quite justified) scared of spending most of the season on our bench.

We arent signing Barkley, we are just being used in an effiet to drive up the price for Spurs

Thats the first time Ive ever heard someone call Xhaka a ballet dancer

Yeah we are going in circles here. Guess we will hear what Conte says abou him and whether he plays anything at all. Would be a huge surprise to me if this was something the board pushed through as I said it would be completely out of character.

Or against PSG? Agreed to disagree I guess, I think hes a fantastic player, always have. Sure he goes missing from time to time. All the best do. Hazard went missing for an entire season and rarely has had few matchwining matches in the CL, hes still a cracking player. Kane goes missing for months on end, same with Lukaku, Sanchez etc.

Maybe we should force him to sign? Maybe Marina can call some of her Russian associates and put a gun to his head? Clearly he hasnt signed because he is still weighing his options and whether or not potentially sitting on the bench for us is the best move for him.

So you think the board, who have been trying their best to save money with recent transfers, getting cut rate deals, buying players preferably from abroad who has a lot of sell on potential would all of a sudden rather sign an overpriced CM from a team that has no reason to sell and are flush with cash, instead of a cheaper (likely at least) option from Seria a? Just because he is English? I mean when was the last time we pulled a move like this? Have we ever? Certainly not under Emenalo. Only one I can think of was Cahill, but we got him for peanuts and Bolton really needed the money. I mean youre entitled to your opinion, I just think its a bizarre one, considering it would be completely out of character from our board who loves a bargain from abroad.

Their best player is debatable I agree, but hes absolutely ome of the best attacking players in the league. Unless your definition of one of the best means top 2.