The College Dropout

That Kang player is a Spurs signing. I would prefer Bryan

Its 90% dependent on the offside trap

I’m a Barca hater. But this brand of football doesn’t make sense and shouldn’t win the CL. No respect for defence. And it will break my ‘you need proper full backs to win the CL’ chat.

Most recent winning CL fullbacks have been lockdown defenders. DC at Madrid obviously and the CBs Pep has been playing at FB. Prior to that Chelsea had 2 of the better fullbacks win it. This season Barcelona aside the 3 other semi finalists have lockdown fullbacks. To win the champions league you need fullbacks to be able to shut out Mbappe, Vini, Kvara, Doue, Lamal, Raphinha, Saka etc. level players. The Madrid CL winning sides have been able to dig deep to win football matches in the CL. Can Trent do that?

Does Glasner have Forest battling for top 4? nuno has multiple top 7 finishes in the PL and La Liga. I like Glasner and he did well with Eintracht. Palace have finished 11, 12 in the seasons prior to Glasner. He’s not done anything in the PL that Nuno hasn’t done better. Glasner also seems wedded to a back 5 which people used to accuse Nuno of doing. Palace seem to be better on the back foot which doesn’t suit Spurs. I don’t see a big difference between Glasner and Nuno and they hounded Nuno out early.

Still a weird one

Joelinton will miss Arsenal too. We have to find a way and I trust Eddie to make it happen. Including wheeling out Joelinton one more time. We've beaten better Chelsea teams with worse sides in the PL at SJP. I believe in the boys.

Don't think he's done anything to suggest he's a better manager than Nuno. Not in the PL at least.

How? Why? Chelsea away form to top clubs: Liverpool (L) Arsenal (L) Man City (L) Villa (L) Newcastle home form to top clubs: Liverpool (D) Arsenal (W) Man City (D) Villa (W) Forest (W) Very happy to need to beat this Chelsea team at home to secure CL football. If we can't beat them we just aren't good enough and that's fine.

You need players who can play multiple positions. We won't have 22 players of the required level. We won't have 4 top quality fullbacks. We can have 3, including one who can play both flanks and Krafth. That's fine. We won't have 6 top quality attackers for 3 roles. We should have 5 (including Murphy in that), with Gordon and a RW that can play uptop, then Osula as proper backup. We won't have 6 quality midfielders for 3 roles. But we need 4 or 5, including a couple that can play multiple roles in midfield like Bruno can. Unles we can land a proper bargain like a Minteh, Duran, Rogers you need to make this type of sacrifice.

If we can't beat Chelsea at home, we aren't beating Arsenal away IMO. 2 draws leaves our destiny to others.

It's kinda always been this way for me - although not to the extreme. 68 points has been my mark for some time. I didn't think we would get anything from Amex, Villa Park, or Emirates, nor did we need to. So the Amex point is a bonus. If we don't beat Chelsea, Chelsea will get 67 points or more. City will get 67 points or more. Then we are reliant on Villa & Forest faltering. If we don't beat Chelsea, there's a world where they and Forest can draw and get them both qualified. Beat Chelsea. Emirates is a free hit. Beat Everton. CL secured. Simple.

Dan Burn mate. If we keep Tripps, we aren't signing another LB for the first team.

Nuno MK2

LB is fine. We have Tino & Hall. RB - if we keep Trippier and Krafth, we can probably get away with that for another year. Pacey CB & GK increase the ceiling.

Don’t think he suits Howe. Especially not with Miley around. If Miley goes on loan then Gomes is a good squad filler. I think we need a third powerhouse CM. That’s Howe’s preferred CM profile. That player can rotate with Tonali or Joelinton. Happy for Gomes to fill in for Bruno.

I’ll put it this way. For Chelsea would you rather have Trafford/a new GK in goal with Willock LCM or a back 5. With Longstaff and Miley on the bench. Or would you rather have the Atalanta Ederson in midfield/another CM and Pope in goal against Chelsea? I know which one I’d prefer. Villa have 4 quality CM options for 2 positions. Then they have Barkley as backup too. That’s a big reason why they are still in the race.

A new GK is a ceiling raiser imo. We would be a better team. a new CM is a floor raiser. It prevents us being a weaker side because of 1 issue to one of three players.

Think Trent is a major issue in Europe and at the highest level in general. He’s a unique profile and talent.

Those are the few. In the last 3 seasons they’ve only bought a handful of players for big fees and rarely in priority positions. Tchou and Bellingham have been the big signings. Guler, Endrick, Cama all opportunistic signings. Sold Benzema brought in Bellingham and Joselu. Lost Kroos, Nacho sign Mbappe and Endrick. I can’t remember the last 2 CBs they spent money on. Militao is one, who is the other? It’s been an odd approach to squad building for some time. It does feel like it’s time to spend some money on defence for once.

A 4th CM would play a lot more minutes than a second striker. Easy choice for me.

Think we are ok at GK. If we sign a top RW we are ok at second striker too imo. RW and CM is the priority for me. CB and GK we need long term replacements that could up our level. At CM and RW we need another quality body just to maintain our quality over a season. Not that fussed for a second striker. If we sign a RW we have 5 quality options for 3 positions. At CM we have 3 quality options for 3 positions. That’s shit.

Cant go into a big European campaign with what we have at CM.

I’m not sure Madrid will spend big on a CB. Their policy in recent years is exploitative in the main. They needed a CB and RB last summer and didn’t get one. Lost massive squad players in Nacho and Kroos and did nothing to address it.

CM is a major priority for me. You can get a higher calibre CM than striker because they will play more minutes and imo is a more important position.