Rob B

We should steer well clear of both Rashford and Grealish IMO. Both decent on their day, but comparatively overpaid for their level and not sure they will run through brick walls for this team. Both have the hallmarks of Sterling 2.0 written all over them, and I say that as someone who doesn’t mind Raheem, just don’t think the economics work at all.

My issue with Varane is he gets a lot of injuries so once you’ve added the Chelsea Injury Tax to that he’d never be available! I’d also be inclined to keep Badiashille for another season. I thought he had a good game against Villa and showed enough last season to stick with him. Tall, composed, good passer, left footed. Let him battle it out with Colwill, but go and get a number 1 RCB who will play every week.

If Mudryk was a free transfer or a £5m signing I don’t think anyone would be advocating to give him more minutes. He is, quite simply, miles off the level we require. He doesn’t even do some of the basics like run off the ball to take a defender away or stretch the play, he doesn’t track back and put himself about and constantly turns over possession in dangerous areas. Madueke is a player you would describe as raw and needing of minutes and he has for exceeded Mudryk already.

Not what Poch will play, but my team would be something like this Petrovic Chalobah Disasi Silva Cucurella Caicedo Gallagher Palmer Chukwuemeka Sterling Jackson After the Arsenal shambles, Madueke and Mudryk should be nowhere near it. Save Alfie G the embarrassment unless he's played in his proper position at CB (which seems unlikely). Chalobah at RB only because I think he is a better 1v1 defender than Disasi. Would be nice for Carney to get a start against his former club.

A few have already said it, but I'd definitely be looking to rest Enzo tonight, play Gallagher deeper and bring Chukwuemeka in as the number 10. Something like this perhaps.... Petrovic Chalobah Disasi Silva Cucurella Caicedo Gallagher Madueke Chukwuemeka Sterling Jackson

He certainly needs a year away to play regular football. I honestly don’t get it with Mudryk. We have wingers in the academy that can defend and tackle better, find space more effectively, retain the ball better, achieve a higher attacking output. The only difference is none of them can run 36 KM/H and were signed for £68m.

Jackson had a really good game, misses aside. Caused them problems all game by coming deep and spinning the defender and also with his runs breaking the last line. The Man City defence couldn’t handle him. But, and it’s a big but, I knew he was going to miss those chances. He is horribly predictable when it comes to two things; 1 ) Scoring important goals against big teams. Other than his hat trick against a 9 man spurs team, his goals have come against Luton, Sheff Utd, Burnley, Everton etc, and rarely the first goal. 2) Scoring chances where he has time to think. I can’t remember him scoring a single 1v1 chance this season. Contrast that to his Everton goal which was brilliant, but instinctual. I’d like to think this can be coached though? Finally, on the subject of being horribly predictable, it was the most obvious thing in the world that Mudryk would mess that free-kick up at the end ! This isn’t based on emotion, but I would genuinely try and get him a loan to somewhere like Germany next season, at a team where he is good enough to play every week. This season should now be about giving minutes to the likes of Chukwuemeka, Mudryk, Casadei, Gilchrist, in order to help inform decisions on next season. Give Enzo his surgery, rest Gusto etc.

Cucurella is a player we should look to move on if we can IMO. Yes he’s been slightly more solid this season but the bar was low and I still think he’s a liability defensively, either through poor positioning (erratically pressing and leaving gaps) or just lacking athleticism. He’s not fast, tall, strong and adds nothing going forward. I’m not sure what his strengths are? I know it’ll be a difficult sell, but I wouldn’t put it past these owners to be honest. They surprised us all with the sales of Koulibaly, Mendy, Pulisic, Havertz etc and given he wasn’t one of their signings it wouldn’t surprise me if we tried to move him on. Despite popular belief, we wouldn’t necessarily make a huge loss either. A sale of £40m would clear his remaining book value. But what is more likely is a loan move for a season whilst another £10m comes off his amortised cost and we sell him next summer for a small profit.

My mind was fully made up on Poch during the Man United game. Until then, I'd been on the fence because I felt like the squad were behind the manager, we need stability, he'd had injuries etc, but the last two games have sold it for me, he has to go. He's tactically inept and the players aren't developing, in fact, many of them are regressing. The run we've had over the last 10 games (against incredibly poor opposition I might add) feels like it's happened on some occasional brilliance / talent alone. There is no cohesion, no patterns of play, no defensive structure and no plan. The starting 11 yesterday was awful - Cucurella and Gallagher on the left, Disasi and Madueke on the right, Palmer in the centre, none of it worked. But for some unknown reason, he refuses to change until it's too late. Which has happened time and time again this season, the game was crying out for a couple of subs around the hour mark yesterday - move Palmer back to the right, bring on Chukwuemeka in the middle, and introduce Mudryk or Sterling on the left to pin them back. Everyone can see it, apart from Poch. Despite having 8 days before the next game, I suspect we are stuck with him until the end of the season now, but surely enough's enough?

I’d swap Gallagher and Chukwuemeka personally but other than that, probably what I’d go with too

Palmer will do that with ease IMO. I’m convinced he has another gear yet. Everyone is aware of the huge goals he’s scored for us (United, City etc) but I heard a really interesting stat on Talksport yesterday where a disproportionately high number of his goals are the first goal in the game. Compare that with someone like Jackson (who I also rate) who tends to score the 3rd or 4th goals in comfortable wins against teams in the bottom half. Palmer is a phenomenon

Was going to make this exact point also. Cucurella and Gusto have been playing as wing-backs but in a full-back formation. With those two getting forward, plus Enzo, too many times it basically left Disasi, Badiashille and Caicedo to defend a counter attack. And you can cut through us with ease. It's pretty straight forward, in a back 4 if one full back goes, the other sits - Jose used to apply that rule all the time. We are incredibly exciting going forward, no doubt about that. A lot of that is to do with Cole Palmer but in fairness we also have Nkunku and Chuk to return - and Reece James even, but Poch simply has to strike a better balance between attacking and defending. It's going to cost him his job if he doesn't.

Is my feeling as well. Not sure the stats back this up given that Thiago played in the 4 goal defeats to Wolves and Liverpool before he got dropped though? From memory it also seemed to coincide with his wife's outburst on Twitter. I wonder if someone can validate whether we are now playing higher up the pitch?

And look at the players surrounding him - Terry, Ivanovic, Mikel, Ballack, Lampard, Drogba!! Regardless, my point wasn't really to be a good FB you have to be tall, and I'm sure we can all point to examples that buck the trend, but we have pretty much the smallest team in the league and I think it is the cause for a lot of the goals we concede (that and physicality generally). You've only got to look at the back four and CDM's that Pep and Arteta put out nowadays to see the direction things are going - Spurs and Villa are the same too. How many teams have genuinely outplayed us this season and either deserved a draw or a win against us? Only the heavy defeats to Wolves, Liverpool and Newcastle spring to mind. And then how many teams have robbed a point or a win by being thoroughly outplayed but scoring a header from a set piece, or a ball to the far post? Loads. We are the most naive team in the league. Genuinely think a couple of big, experienced, leaders would transform us.

Agree with most of this post, but I don't think it's entirely on the manager. I absolutely think that a different (better) manager could achieve more with these players in the same way you reference that Tuchel did taking over from Frank, but I think we have major gaps in our squad composition - namely leadership, experience, height, physicality etc. Individually, most of our players are very good, potentially world class even, but collectively they're a real problem and it would be the first thing a world class manager like Tuchel, Jose or Conte would call out. Take our full backs as a fairly trivial but real example - we had Gusto and Cucurella in the last game who are like 5'10 and 5'8, yet the teams above us have Ben White, Gvardiol, Udogie, Dan Burns, Joe Gomez, Akanji who are all monsters. And we wonder why we are conceding from set plays? You can't get away with not matching the physicality of teams anymore, the standard is too high.