Rimbeux

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Interesting choice for Chelsea, they themselves waiting on a replacement before potentially letting Batshuayi go to Dortmund, who might be Giroud. Will Arsenal help out another rival by selling them a player? Maybe Arsenal are playing a canny game, knowing their season has gone, but looking to make sure the PL looks more like a top 3 then another 3 if they can, rather than them bring the ones adrift, and we’re only too willing to help in our own way by sitting on our hands

It should happen, that’s surely the point in waiting for VVD & letting Coutinho go, properly funding priorities, not messing around

Now would be a good time to panic We’re down to two things to define a successful season and the fallout from not nailing at least the minor one will be catastrophic

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We need that player, would help immensely with the sitting on a lead issue and what to do against a packed defence when there aren’t oceans of space to feed the ball into and we need to pull them around.

Definitely miss an Alonso in that mix, need someone who can pass as well as the running

It would be far simpler if he had one injury like a knee complaint that meant he couldn’t play twice in four days. It’s just pot luck what will tear & when, and he’s nowhere near the player who you’d just play whenever he was available, pity. It’s difficult to argue we’d get him on the pitch a lot for the rest of the season, where his fitness meets opportunity, so keeping him would likely be in hope rather than expectation of anything, and it’s clear for him he’s got to be somewhere he 100% plays when available. Whether he goes or stays, the main issue is not having someone of that calibre regularly contributing from the bench, either themselves or because they put a top player out of the starting line up

If they went with no pay off maybe, and just agreed to terminate their deals and forgo any bonuses etc to take up more lucrative work elsewhere perhaps; but the issue comes if they’re not getting a better contract elsewhere. I doubt Markovic is still here because literally no other club will give him a game or because he thinks he’s about to crack the first team.

Put Mane right and Lallana or Ox on the left or visa versa. Salah through middle tho

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Completely different challenge though, Man City give you a target to aim for and gaps if you manage to press the ball from them. But yes the cupboard is pretty bare which is why dealing with games like this should be a priority

Lalllana can pass and attract players, but not to the level of Silva and KDB can do everything like run, pass, dribble to a real high level, Ox is a morues of v good, good & ok. It would help having someone other than Gini needing to get on the ball a lot and his spoiling & support runs aren’t as necessary against ten men sat deep. I think overall such games highlight how much we miss someone like Alonso or Gerrard who can see and make early passes through the lines, rather than rely on space opening up. Henderson is just ok at this, better than Can but it’s a big miss if you haven’t got Silva, KDB, Coutinho or Pogba to thread balls through from midfield. Would also be good to have a controlled head there when we need to take pace out of a game when comfortably ahead

It’s not form though, it’s the way he plays, he needs something to play off from the opposition, he’s nothing like a playmaker, rather his game is about getting around the pitch well into the right positions and making good decisions on and off the ball. Put a wall of defenders in front of him and he’s not going to thread a pass that throws them off. He should though be scoring a lot more for someone who’s played behind the striker a lot

Yep, an ex factor in breaking up such a low tight defence are late arriving fullbacks who drive hard at the edge of the box to the byline. Our guys ariived and provided varying degrees of ineffectual dross tonight

He’s good in a scrap, when we need a bit of presence, but when it comes to marshalling the ball atound he’s no Busquets

He was rightly being eased in and out, but now has to play every minute when his game is so up and down. Not ideal

Yep. That game didn’t necessitate patience or threading quick balls into clever runs in an around the box, it was about pressing them into quick turn overs and exploring the space. This was a game where we needed to be scheming overloads on their fullbacks on the corner of the box, or getting it into Firmino’s feet quickly from midfield, that sort of play wasn’t within that team.

Whomever can be dropped, we play enough games that some v good players should always be on the bench. Right now for example you’d have Firmino & Salah starting most games on form, and Mane in competition with another class front three player whilst a striker capable of commanding a regular place waits for a chance to start whilst coming on to change games.

Pretty much. We’ve got the money to be able to leave game changing attacking players on the bench, that’s the only reason to shift on a game changing player, to get more of them in. And we’ve not had a midfielder who can really pass since Gerrard

I think it’s mainly speed and ambition of passing from midfield, it’s not something any of our players really do, let alone to a high degree. It’s a consistent thing that’s usually covered by giving our attacking players any sort of service one v one or passing to Coutinho and asking him to help. We need such a player in midfield for more than just that though, also when we’re two up and need to manage the tempo with more considered use of the ball.

It’s standard form for us against a team that sits in. We lack perceptive passing from midfield, a real schemer, and now also lack a midfielder who can regularly attract two or three players. It’s not unlucky and it’s not an accident when good, bad and average teams follow the basic sit deep blueprint.

Can we disavow ourselves of this notion that we’ve got enough quality to get by. Yes we had games like this with Coutinho, the point is here that there was nobody on the bench capable of changing that game, and that along with injuries and form, even within a game is why aspiring teams need more than the first team lads and honest helpers. Waiting until next year to sort it out is folly.

Clumsy, meant we are worse off relative to some others in our league now as far as losing players goes, we weren’t before, things have changed for some