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hopefully we’ll be doing all our business super early again.

Would love to see Isco arrive, he is one hell of a player

john68 wrote:Not sure I understand what’s strange about it Peter,
Whatever the strengths or weaknesses of our defence, we won the Prem with games left to play. Domestically we were fine.
I still think that it is against World clas players from the top European sides that we could be found out.
I don’t suggest our players are poor, but question whether they arr solid enough to dominate as our owners want.

It's just that we were good enough domestically but got knocked out of Europe by a domestic rival, John. I think it is the style of play that we struggle to defend against, rather than the quality of the actual players the opposing team possesses.

Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:

john68 wrote:Not sure I understand what’s strange about it Peter,
Whatever the strengths or weaknesses of our defence, we won the Prem with games left to play. Domestically we were fine.
I still think that it is against World clas players from the top European sides that we could be found out.
I don’t suggest our players are poor, but question whether they arr solid enough to dominate as our owners want.

It's just that we were good enough domestically but got knocked out of Europe by a domestic rival, John. I think it is the style of play that we struggle to defend against, rather than the quality of the actual players the opposing team possesses.

Fair point Peter, but despite being very successful, there were time when our defensive weakness was very apparent, even in our domestic games against relatively poor attacks. Times when the likes of Stones was caught doing ridiculous stuff or not focussing and times when Otter was found wanting for pace.

Luckily, we were of such quality that these weaknesses were usually masked by our genius at the other end of the pitch.I am not suggesting these players a not good players, nor that they had moments of greta class, however, I do feel we could suffer against the very top teams we seek to challenge and overtake.

john68 wrote:

Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:

john68 wrote:Not sure I understand what’s strange about it Peter,
Whatever the strengths or weaknesses of our defence, we won the Prem with games left to play. Domestically we were fine.
I still think that it is against World clas players from the top European sides that we could be found out.
I don’t suggest our players are poor, but question whether they arr solid enough to dominate as our owners want.

It's just that we were good enough domestically but got knocked out of Europe by a domestic rival, John. I think it is the style of play that we struggle to defend against, rather than the quality of the actual players the opposing team possesses.

Fair point Peter, but despite being very successful, there were time when our defensive weakness was very apparent, even in our domestic games against relatively poor attacks. Times when the likes of Stones was caught doing ridiculous stuff or not focussing and times when Otter was found wanting for pace.

Luckily, we were of such quality that these weaknesses were usually masked by our genius at the other end of the pitch.I am not suggesting these players a not good players, nor that they had moments of greta class, however, I do feel we could suffer against the very top teams we seek to challenge and overtake.

It was the official's decisions that cost us those games against Liverpool.
Those decisions had a knock on effect on how we played i.e. defended, etc...
IMO you cannot judge us on those games because the dodgy decisions affected how we played.

Dimples wrote:

john68 wrote:

Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:

john68 wrote:Not sure I understand what’s strange about it Peter,
Whatever the strengths or weaknesses of our defence, we won the Prem with games left to play. Domestically we were fine.
I still think that it is against World clas players from the top European sides that we could be found out.
I don’t suggest our players are poor, but question whether they arr solid enough to dominate as our owners want.

It's just that we were good enough domestically but got knocked out of Europe by a domestic rival, John. I think it is the style of play that we struggle to defend against, rather than the quality of the actual players the opposing team possesses.

Fair point Peter, but despite being very successful, there were time when our defensive weakness was very apparent, even in our domestic games against relatively poor attacks. Times when the likes of Stones was caught doing ridiculous stuff or not focussing and times when Otter was found wanting for pace.

Luckily, we were of such quality that these weaknesses were usually masked by our genius at the other end of the pitch.I am not suggesting these players a not good players, nor that they had moments of greta class, however, I do feel we could suffer against the very top teams we seek to challenge and overtake.

It was the official's decisions that cost us those games against Liverpool.
Those decisions had a knock on effect on how we played i.e. defended, etc...
IMO you cannot judge us on those games because the dodgy decisions affected how we played.

sorry but the officials did not cause us to concede 3 in the first 30 in the away leg. you can't blame the ref or for that matter the attack on our coach. the fact is, we sh1t our pants there every time we go. pep's failure to solve the klanfield riddle is the only thing i've been disappointed by since he took charge.

john68 wrote:

Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:

john68 wrote:Not sure I understand what’s strange about it Peter,
Whatever the strengths or weaknesses of our defence, we won the Prem with games left to play. Domestically we were fine.
I still think that it is against World clas players from the top European sides that we could be found out.
I don’t suggest our players are poor, but question whether they arr solid enough to dominate as our owners want.

It's just that we were good enough domestically but got knocked out of Europe by a domestic rival, John. I think it is the style of play that we struggle to defend against, rather than the quality of the actual players the opposing team possesses.

Fair point Peter, but despite being very successful, there were time when our defensive weakness was very apparent, even in our domestic games against relatively poor attacks. Times when the likes of Stones was caught doing ridiculous stuff or not focussing and times when Otter was found wanting for pace.

Luckily, we were of such quality that these weaknesses were usually masked by our genius at the other end of the pitch.I am not suggesting these players a not good players, nor that they had moments of greta class, however, I do feel we could suffer against the very top teams we seek to challenge and overtake.

The thing about our style of play is that we are such an attacking/defend from the front team that I wonder if any defender would look consistently comfortable playing for us. It may well be that the occasional fuck-up is the price we have to pay.

Look, Salah‘s goal at Scousepool was initially offside, close but the linesman was out of wack too.

Sane stupidly played the crossfield ball to Milner who immediately hoofed it upfield. The defenders were set up at the time to assist in putting pressure on scouse. Sane got it wrong .

These things happen so fast . Poor defending ? at least our last line had the wherewithall to get Salah in the offside position - not given . Even then they got back and Walker was damn unlucky not to clear it . Komps was on the line and Salah’s toe poke would have been blocked, quite possibly. The goalie who managed to get down to the shot, didn‘t help in deflecting it with his hand over Komps shoulder .

A set of events we don‘t see when Razza beautifully sets Jesus up for a perfectly clean goal against spuds at wembley ( our new second home).

Look at the second goal, a defection lands perfectly for the ox, who takes it well and shoots the 1 in a 100 , like Walcott , that seems to do it against us. Didi Hammon, the tosser , was on German Sky after the game saying the six city players were poorly defending. Tosser,they had no chance to get at the ox. Nobody could see that happening.

These events are not Poor or Sloppy defending.

It seems like a mind thing v Vigilpool. It'll be solved...we are way better than them, what's the gap? 17 points to date? The officiating was a disgrace though, anyone can see that. Might not have made a difference but it sure seemed like it did. Scabby bastards.

A 3rd striker.

Sideshow Bob wrote:
sorry but the officials did not cause us to concede 3 in the first 30 in the away leg. you can't blame the ref or for that matter the attack on our coach. the fact is, we sh1t our pants there every time we go. pep's failure to solve the klanfield riddle is the only thing i've been disappointed by since he took charge.

True.

However, the next three times in the tie that the ball hit the net, it was City that scored. And two of those were wrongly ruled out, including the vital away goal. Getting those decisions correct means we are three all on aggregate with an away goal. Do you seriously think this had no impact on the tie as a whole?

Refereeing decisions are costing us our response to the inevitable mistakes. And let's be absolutely clear here, ALL defenders make mistakes.

^^^^^^ TB,
ALL players make mistakes. Some mistakes are critical because they lead to goals against us.

Tokyo Blue wrote:

Sideshow Bob wrote:
sorry but the officials did not cause us to concede 3 in the first 30 in the away leg. you can't blame the ref or for that matter the attack on our coach. the fact is, we sh1t our pants there every time we go. pep's failure to solve the klanfield riddle is the only thing i've been disappointed by since he took charge.

True.

However, the next three times in the tie that the ball hit the net, it was City that scored. And two of those were wrongly ruled out, including the vital away goal. Getting those decisions correct means we are three all on aggregate with an away goal. Do you seriously think this had no impact on the tie as a whole?

Refereeing decisions are costing us our response to the inevitable mistakes. And let's be absolutely clear here, ALL defenders make mistakes.

Don't forget the first Scouse goal was also offside.

Tokyo Blue wrote:

Sideshow Bob wrote:
sorry but the officials did not cause us to concede 3 in the first 30 in the away leg. you can't blame the ref or for that matter the attack on our coach. the fact is, we sh1t our pants there every time we go. pep's failure to solve the klanfield riddle is the only thing i've been disappointed by since he took charge.

True.

However, the next three times in the tie that the ball hit the net, it was City that scored. And two of those were wrongly ruled out, including the vital away goal. Getting those decisions correct means we are three all on aggregate with an away goal. Do you seriously think this had no impact on the tie as a whole?

Refereeing decisions are costing us our response to the inevitable mistakes. And let's be absolutely clear here, ALL defenders make mistakes.

fair point but at 3-0 the dippers sat back a bit, as one would expect, and only then did we start to play. why does their stupid early press seem to take us by surprise?? every f*cking time! i just can't get my head around it. we gifted them control of the tie, and we paid the price for it.

Sideshow Bob wrote:

Tokyo Blue wrote:

Sideshow Bob wrote:
sorry but the officials did not cause us to concede 3 in the first 30 in the away leg. you can't blame the ref or for that matter the attack on our coach. the fact is, we sh1t our pants there every time we go. pep's failure to solve the klanfield riddle is the only thing i've been disappointed by since he took charge.

True.

However, the next three times in the tie that the ball hit the net, it was City that scored. And two of those were wrongly ruled out, including the vital away goal. Getting those decisions correct means we are three all on aggregate with an away goal. Do you seriously think this had no impact on the tie as a whole?

Refereeing decisions are costing us our response to the inevitable mistakes. And let's be absolutely clear here, ALL defenders make mistakes.

fair point but at 3-0 the dippers sat back a bit, as one would expect, and only then did we start to play. why does their stupid early press seem to take us by surprise?? every f*cking time! i just can't get my head around it. we gifted them control of the tie, and we paid the price for it.

It didn't, we controlled the opening stages of the game until Sane's fuck up. We then had an incredible chance to equalise on the counter which unfortunately Sane fucked up again. Once the second went in the heads dropped and they took control.

we had some decent early possession without creating much. and then the first goal went in ~10', and we crawled into a fetal position. again! nothing winds me up more than losing to these candle waving f*cks. i would rather lose to the rags. dead serious.

Based on what we saw, who do you think, beside Messi and Tranny, is the most expensive (real money, not cash inflation like Pogbas and Neymar) player

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:

Cocacolajojo wrote:A solid left back is a must. Either from the eds or bought. We got away with it this season but if we want to retain the title or play in the cl final we need another left back. Considering we're now attacking mostly down the flanks it's a must IMO.

Angelino to challenge Mendy? For me that would be the sensible option. If Angelino doesn't cut it we always have the fall back of Delph/Zinchenko/Danilo and then next summer we can dip back in to the market for a left back.

Yes, something like that could work. It needs to be someone that at least has the potential to be better than Delph and the Zinch. We also don't know what type of shape Mendy's going to be in when he comes back from his injury (as NT pointed out). I remember Noolie writing something here that it'd be madness to go into the season with only one proper left back but we did and we won the title, so I guess it's possible that things'll do with the players we have. But on the other hand, both times when we won the league previously, a lack of fresh blood has cost us the opportunity to challenge for a second title on a row.

Cocacolajojo wrote:

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:

Cocacolajojo wrote:A solid left back is a must. Either from the eds or bought. We got away with it this season but if we want to retain the title or play in the cl final we need another left back. Considering we're now attacking mostly down the flanks it's a must IMO.

Angelino to challenge Mendy? For me that would be the sensible option. If Angelino doesn't cut it we always have the fall back of Delph/Zinchenko/Danilo and then next summer we can dip back in to the market for a left back.

Yes, something like that could work. It needs to be someone that at least has the potential to be better than Delph and the Zinch. We also don't know what type of shape Mendy's going to be in when he comes back from his injury (as NT pointed out). I remember Noolie writing something here that it'd be madness to go into the season with only one proper left back but we did and we won the title, so I guess it's possible that things'll do with the players we have. But on the other hand, both times when we won the league previously, a lack of fresh blood has cost us the opportunity to challenge for a second title on a row.

Ha ha, you caught me out. I did say that and I sort of stand by it even though Delph and Zinch have deputised fabulously and pretty much proved me wrong. Still, they're not quite as left backs, but more inverted full backs / extra midfielders.

Angelino is much more a proper left back and would be a like for like backup for Mendy. However, with two proper, attacking, wide playing full backs, our tactical set up would need to change, and one of Sané/Sterling would have to be dropped.

I expect a bigger tactical diversity next season with us alternating between 3-5-2 and 4-3-3 depending on opposition, so Delph and Zinch might still be utilised as full backs every now and then. Or Fern on the right.

Get this wonderkid from Fulham Sessengnon scored again tonight v Millwall.