Flinkers

Thought that was the case!

Just by the by, are the FA still banning players for diving retrospectively?

Where's Diego Costa when you need him...

Having complained about our porousness and stultifying play in the few games prior to Cardiff, I think it's only right to acknowledge the good football of recent matches. We seem to have found a good balance in midfield now and Jorginho seems more in tune with the pace of the Premier League. He's working harder to close down the man in the first few seconds, plays his passes faster and has started looking for the quick diagonal ball over the top more often to open up space. With Loftus-Cheek we have size and skill on the ball and someone who's willing to run at defenders rather than pass round them. We also seem to be transitioning quicker and playing faster one-touch, two things I understood as being main tenets of Sarri's football. Other than Hazard, we're still lacking a consistent goal threat from our forwards but hopefully we can address that in the near future. Will be interesting to hear the result of our appeal on Thursday. We're still not playing what we all hoped to see, but IMO with Willian and Kovacic out of the team we look far more threatening.

I really like us ruining things for Liverpool - hopefully our proud record continues this weekend!

I don’t know why I ever expected anything different

There’s no way we’re winning the Europa League

Which is why I think that if he truly wants to leave, the offer from RB Leipzig is a better option for him than Bayern Münich would be. RB Leipzig has a good young squad, who since promotion have competed for a CL spot and have (new) money behind them. They play nice open Football, trust in their youngsters and they've signed Julian Nagelsmann as Head Coach for next year, who is well respected here tactically. Of all three supposed options (CFC, FCB or RBL) Leipzig is where he's most likely to get the most minutes and get time to iron the kinks out of his game. They've taken a couple of UK youngsters recently, with limited success (Oliver Burke was a flop but Lookman did well enough in his 1/2 season), but they still seem interested in what's being produced by English academies. Although Ribery and Robben are moving on/retiring, he still has to get past James (if his purchase option is taken up), Müller, Coman, Gnabry and whoever Bayern buy in the summer. Even if they sign Hudson-Odoi, I can't see them being happy with that AM selection. It might be enough for the Bundesliga, but not Europe.

I’d be looking at him pretty seriously too. We’re going to need at least 1 forward in the summer, it would be nice to get some shopping done early! Paredes has signed for PSG - ca. €40m plus add-ons. Now that Barcelona has bought de Jong, we should put a bid in for Rabiot. 6 months left on his contract with no buyers in sight.

If Luiz and Cahill leave at the end of the season (which is looking more than likely), provided he doesn't do/say anything stupid, Christensen will probably be first cab on the rank in terms of replacements. He's proven himself to be a good defender, is homegrown and IMO there'll be higher priorities than a new starting CB.

Hard to disagree with any of that Mark!

Disagree - he needs to drop a midfielder and add a forward. A flat two of Jorginho and Kanté allows us to play both to their strengths. Kovacic is a tidy player but we have so little threat in midfield it’s a wasted position. Barkley could give us something more, but it’s getting coached out of him. A forward, meanwhile, gives us a focal point to our attack and the three AMs that we have can feed off that. IMO, we need to get shot of Willian though, not because he’s a poor player but because he’s a ball hog and we have a better one in Hazard already.

Glad someone else thinks this - we‘re nigh on toothless at the best of times. Playing Hazard as a false nine is the footballing equivalent of trying to gum down an overcooked steak.

Soon as I realised that I gave up - that's just a cheap way of making the stick to beat us with bigger.

Forest facing allegations of homophobic chanting. First of many counter complaints, I hope... https://mol.I'm/a/6561131