Jonty

Yet another performance that makes the notion that he is a clumsy brute without finesse and brilliant ball control laughable. He was turning those CBs inside and out all afternoon.

Fortunately Luiz was on the bench yesterday, so our defence didn't make any costly errors leading to goals.

It's not just because of his mistake yesterday, but thinking back I struggle to remember amazing saves or things he's done that have won us points, like you could say about Cech or De Gea or Lloris.

United also had a piss easy list of fixtures, both us and City have gotten the same record against (slightly) more difficult opposition, but I agree the fact Hull have a single point let alone 6, and almost had 7, is phe(la)nomenal.

I wonder how much profit we've actually made though, sure we sell some of them on for a tidy profit, but a lot of them we end up releasing them for free. And it's not just the transfer fee, there's the wages, the signing on fee, agent's fee, coaching costs, medical costs, food, kits, transporting them around, and so on. Would be a good idea for a WAGNH article.

Bertrand should be our LB right now so i'll give you that, but but I can't help but wonder whether our scouts and coaches would be better served focusing on the development of the few who actually could make it, this entire system just seems pointless and is probably doing more harm than good to most of these young lads. I also struggle to believe we really make much if any profit out of this factory.

Well from what the Juve fans have said of him, seems like a sensible short-term option given the potential for both Terry and Zouma to miss a lot of games this season, which would leave us with no CB cover behind Cahill/Luiz, the latter of which will probably be needed in midfield if Kante or Matic pick up an injury.

If I remember correctly Drogba never even won one, it's a load of bollocks really.

Well we'll get a good idea this season when he's coming up against Barca and City in the Champions League.

And given the staggering number of supposedly promising youngsters that we've churned through our system over the last decade, that really says something about either the quality of our scouting or the quality of our coaching.

Right i'm sure they would much rather have Baker than Ryan Mason, an England international who they have just signed for a club record fee in the same position. After all, who could forget the notable top flight loan spells of some of our other youngsters, such as Van Ginkel, Bamford and Chalobah. Each of which arrived at their loan spells with more experience and bigger reputations than Baker, only to end up spending their loan spells warming the bench.

Lewis Baker wouldn't get a minute at any PL club

I have to disagree with the implication that Zouma isn't up to scratch, he is far and away the best tackler in the squad and his physicality is unparalleled. While he does look a bit cumbersome, lets not forget he did play in midfield in a couple of games early last season and actually played pretty well, showing he's more than just a tackle and hoof style player. I think he and Luiz will complement each other very well when they become our first choice CB pairing from next season.

On paper it's strong, although it is still largely the same team was was absolutely sh*te last season, then again it is still largely the same team that won the league the year before. In conclusion, I have no f**king idea what is going to happen this season.

What happened to the good old days when a player could sulk their way into leaving a club?

I wonder if the solidity offered by having essentially 5 defenders on the field would allow us to play Fabregas over Matic.

Not that I even saw any evidence of his supposed talent here either, he could barely run without the ball without falling over.

Yeah would have to be 2005 for me I think.

There are some positives being overlooked. Firstly if either Kante or Matic picks up an injury we either have to leave ourselves exposed by playing Fabregas, or use Mikel. I think Luiz is a far more balanced alternative than either of them in the 4-2-3-1 we've been playing. Secondly Conte has shown he has no qualms in making big choices, eg. Leaving Fabregas out of the starting line-up, dragging Hazard off when we were chasing a winner against West Ham because he was starting to get into cruise mode (I think Neville and Carragher covered this on MNF). We do have 3 other first-team CB's so Conte certainly has the option of pulling him off if he's unhappy with how he is playing, and i'm sure he won't be afraid to use it. All that being said, he is an erratic defender but certainly not a sh*te defender, he is physical, capable of a tackle and generally knocks in a few goals each season, it will be interesting to see whether his goals end up earning us more points than his occasional lapses cost us.

On the bright side, we now have a direct free kick taker from the halfway line.

We should adopt a policy of not loaning out these players who have no future in the squad to the same team two years in a row, it's like going into a newsagents and reading the whole f**king magazine without buying it.

Oh well, i'm sure at least once this season we're going to lose points through some bizarre Luiz mistake, but at least it will be fun to watch.

Are there any clubs left in Serie A who have not taken the absolute piss with us this window yet?

I still think 30 million is a lot for someone who still has barely even played, considering we had Bertrand who is if not as good, at least almost as good, plus Luis who is clearly a very good player and was purchased for half the price. Unfortunately both were shunned so that we could continue to play our best defender out of position so that we could play bloody Ivanovic at right back...

This wasn't the first result that sprung to mind, but having read your post you have managed to re-infuriate me about this absolute bullsh*t and yes, definitely this result.