unpopular opinions

[just sayin]

I'm just fuming that Pep didn't get Alvarez on earlier.

[Harry Dowd scored]

I'm just fuming that Pep didn't get Alvarez on earlier.

That’s not a very exclusive club at the moment, along with Grealish too, wtf was a Pep thinking about, this from a guy always campaigning for more subs, yet rarely uses them, bets were being taken on match thread when the genius would make the first change 87th minute was favourite 86th won it, says it all about the arrogance doesn’t it

[Dimples]

Broken record time, I have been saying the following on a loop for ages:

Bern should only ever play in midfield.
Not only is he our best pure midfield player, he is our only pure midfield player. Gundo and Kevin are more like deep lying forwards who play off and support Haaland.
In addition, when Bern plays on the wing, the team becomes unbalanced and therefore open to quick counter attacks. When Bern is in midfield there is an extra high energy body to shutdown the counter attacks.
Our biggest miss is Lilo. Shit like today would not happen if he was still in place.
We are winning nothing this season if Pep does not get someone around him who will call him out when he gets it wrong.

[Dubciteh]

We were a better team last year without haaland.

[Mase]

We were a better team last year without haaland.

With Sterling and Jesus?!

[Outcast]

We were a better team last year without haaland.

Give over. Are issues is in defence. We haven't replaced Zinch, Walker injury left us unbalanced

[s1ty m]

We were a better team last year without haaland.

Give over. Are issues is in defence. We haven't replaced Zinch, Walker injury left us unbalanced

Absolutely. The defence is a shambles. Cancelo needs dropping, selling too, followed by Pep getting a settled back four. Walker, Stones, Dias and Ake for me.

[sheblue]

We've been inconsistent with up and down form. We're going for 3 leagues in a row. A very difficult thing to do, a factor that should not be overlooked. Hard to keep that hunger, very hard.

[Dubciteh]

We were a better team last year without haaland.

With Sterling and Jesus?!

Nah they wouldnt have started our best 11. We have so much more control with a false 9, harder to beat but wins arent as big as they are now with haaland. If you compare the first half of last season to the first half of this season we were better last year imo.

[Dubciteh]

We were a better team last year without haaland.

Give over. Are issues is in defence. We haven't replaced Zinch, Walker injury left us unbalanced

Absolutely. The defence is a shambles. Cancelo needs dropping, selling too, followed by Pep getting a settled back four. Walker, Stones, Dias and Ake for me.

Do you think its possible our defence is looking more exposed as we dont have as much control in midfield due to our shift to accommodate haaland? This isnt a sleight on haaland btw who is clearly a world class player.

[Mase]

We were a better team last year without haaland.

With Sterling and Jesus?!

Nah they wouldnt have started our best 11. We have so much more control with a false 9, harder to beat but wins arent as big as they are now with haaland. If you compare the first half of last season to the first half of this season we were better last year imo.

Sterling started roughly the same amount of league games as Foden last season. Sterling himself has put out this myth that he barely played. It was all bollocks.

[s1ty m]

We were a better team last year without haaland.

Give over. Are issues is in defence. We haven't replaced Zinch, Walker injury left us unbalanced

Absolutely. The defence is a shambles. Cancelo needs dropping, selling too, followed by Pep getting a settled back four. Walker, Stones, Dias and Ake for me.

Do you think its possible our defence is looking more exposed as we dont have as much control in midfield due to our shift to accommodate haaland? This isnt a sleight on haaland btw who is clearly a world class player.

Possibly. I'm more concerned with the quality of footballer that we have in Cancelo, a player so many rate very highly. I just can't see it, to my eyes he is dreadful most of the time. Any winger goes past him like he's not even there. Yesterday, a ball came over in the 2nd half and he was prancing about with his hands behind his back rather than pressing quickly, which would have forced the Brentford player to pass backwards. Instead, he had time to size up a really dangerous cross. Useless defending. There are countless examples just like that, and that's before you get to his generally horrendous passing.

Gomez, his alternative, is just not good enough either. JWE deserves at least a few ges to see if it improves us. Ake, not a natural left back, is the safer option, I think. Not buying a quality left back is mystifying.

Akanji looks good in games where we are crushing the opposition but a bit suspect when it comes on top.

We just look short of both quality and consistency at the back. We miss Walker, massively. The Stones Dias partnership is the best we've had, maybe ever, and Pep just doesn't pick them and putting Stones at right back is, arguably, almost criminal.

It is really frustrating. I'm not sure we've looked any good since relaxing after going 6-1 up against The Rags. Nuts.

Just thinking out loud.

[Outcast]

We were a better team last year without haaland.

Give over. Are issues is in defence. We haven't replaced Zinch, Walker injury left us unbalanced

Absolutely. The defence is a shambles. Cancelo needs dropping, selling too, followed by Pep getting a settled back four. Walker, Stones, Dias and Ake for me.

Do you think its possible our defence is looking more exposed as we dont have as much control in midfield due to our shift to accommodate haaland? This isnt a sleight on haaland btw who is clearly a world class player.

Possibly. I'm more concerned with the quality of footballer that we have in Cancelo, a player so many rate very highly. I just can't see it, to my eyes he is dreadful most of the time. Any winger goes past him like he's not even there. Yesterday, a ball came over in the 2nd half and he was prancing about with his hands behind his back rather than pressing quickly, which would have forced the Brentford player to pass backwards. Instead, he had time to size up a really dangerous cross. Useless defending. There are countless examples just like that, and that's before you get to his generally horrendous passing.

Gomez, his alternative, is just not good enough either. JWE deserves at least a few ges to see if it improves us. Ake, not a natural left back, is the safer option, I think. Not buying a quality left back is mystifying.

Akanji looks good in games where we are crushing the opposition but a bit suspect when it comes on top.

We just look short of both quality and consistency at the back. We miss Walker, massively. The Stones Dias partnership is the best we've had, maybe ever, and Pep just doesn't pick them and putting Stones at right back is, arguably, almost criminal.

It is really frustrating. I'm not sure we've looked any good since relaxing after going 6-1 up against The Rags. Nuts.

Just thinking out loud.

Just too much tinkering at the back, you can't win titles without solid centre back partnership. Dias not been at the races, doesn't help he's in and out, he and Laporte should start regularly and build a solid foundation, when attackers are having an off day, the defence steps up and save the day. We can't rely on Haaland to keep saving us alone. I'm sure defenders lose confidence if they're in and out

We should gone all out and got Hernades from Ac Milan.

Imagine this line up at back

WALKER____DIAS___LAPORTE ____HERNANDEZ

[Dubciteh]

We were a better team last year without haaland.

Give over. Are issues is in defence. We haven't replaced Zinch, Walker injury left us unbalanced

Absolutely. The defence is a shambles. Cancelo needs dropping, selling too, followed by Pep getting a settled back four. Walker, Stones, Dias and Ake for me.

Do you think its possible our defence is looking more exposed as we dont have as much control in midfield due to our shift to accommodate haaland? This isnt a sleight on haaland btw who is clearly a world class player.

Possibly. I'm more concerned with the quality of footballer that we have in Cancelo, a player so many rate very highly. I just can't see it, to my eyes he is dreadful most of the time. Any winger goes past him like he's not even there. Yesterday, a ball came over in the 2nd half and he was prancing about with his hands behind his back rather than pressing quickly, which would have forced the Brentford player to pass backwards. Instead, he had time to size up a really dangerous cross. Useless defending. There are countless examples just like that, and that's before you get to his generally horrendous passing.

Gomez, his alternative, is just not good enough either. JWE deserves at least a few ges to see if it improves us. Ake, not a natural left back, is the safer option, I think. Not buying a quality left back is mystifying.

Akanji looks good in games where we are crushing the opposition but a bit suspect when it comes on top.

We just look short of both quality and consistency at the back. We miss Walker, massively. The Stones Dias partnership is the best we've had, maybe ever, and Pep just doesn't pick them and putting Stones at right back is, arguably, almost criminal.

It is really frustrating. I'm not sure we've looked any good since relaxing after going 6-1 up against The Rags. Nuts.

Just thinking out loud.

Dont disagree with any of that. Our lack of a left back has mystified me for years. Mind you im glad we didnt spend big on cucarella, a good player but not a 60m player. Agree we miss walker hes abs crucial. We had nothing down the right yesterday.

I wonder is cancelos recent poor(or extra poor) form down to the world cup? He missed the last euros with covid and a stupid rule about even preventing recovered covid cases come back in so maybe hes protecting himself and making sure he makes it? Theres no doubt about it hes been very poor for a lot of the season and the odd outside of the boot assist doesnt mask it.

[Hazy2]

Selling Zinchs was stupid.

[Hazy2]

Selling Zinchs was stupid.

[Mase]

Selling Zinchs was stupid.

Replacing him with Gomez was stupid*

Zinch was given the opportunity to stay but chose to leave. We shouldn’t keep players that want to leave.

[stupot]

Saying Cancelo is shit a million times doesn't make it correct.
It's not just a few on here saying he's class, it's his fellow pros who play against him who voted him in the team of the year. We were bad yesterday but a lot worse when he went off. Gundo should have gone off in my opinion.
Cancelo gets the same grief as Grealish who funnily enough hasn't played a minute this season in the games we've dropped points- Newcastle, Villa, Liverpool, Brentford

[johnny crossan]

Given the great joy in some quarters on here when Sterling departed I suspect my opinion that we miss the stretching pace he had will be unpopular. Nevertheless, whether provided by him or some other similarly gifted player our team is now in sore need of genuine speed on the break and in transition. Foden, Alvarez & Grealish are quick but not quick enough. (Palmer isn't btw.) Haaland is quick off the mark but he needs the service provided by another jet-heeled team mate.

[Harry Dowd scored]

Given the great joy in some quarters on here when Sterling departed I suspect my opinion that we miss the stretching pace he had will be unpopular. Nevertheless, whether provided by him or some other similarly gifted player our team is now in sore need of genuine speed on the break and in transition. Foden, Alvarez & Grealish are quick but not quick enough. (Palmer isn't btw.) Haaland is quick off the mark but he needs the service provided by another jet-heeled team mate.

All due respect JC, but yesterday’s defeat was not down to speed on the break, it was down to rank bad play, and, the inability of the genius to make the subs that were obviously needed, Jack on the bench not used after his recent good form, Stones will never be a RB, what the fuck was Pep thinking, or not thinking yesterday, also Sterling has been shit for Chelsea, the fans do not like him.