TRon

Then press seems to be prepping for a Man U loss here, even their manager is talking about how the stadium will be full of fear every time we get the ball anywhere near their goal. Don't like this at all, feels like we are being set up for an upset of some sort despite their squad having cost far far more than ours.

I think it helps that we seem to have finally clicked on our shape and the players look a lot more confident in what they are doing. There's been a real zip and intensity about our game since the Brentford loss. We look like we could get CL on this form, but I won't get too carried away while we are relying too heavily on Isak staying fit.

I was wondering if he'd mishit it or something the way it dipped and curved because he didn't seem to hit it that hard, but it looked like it was deliberate...which made it a wonderful strike.

Hard to imagine he's not one of the best midfielders in the world.

MOTM for me, outstanding in every aspect of midfield play, and topped off by a truly magnificent strike. That midfield with him, Tonali and Bruno looking world class right now.

Good game for him to have an off day tbh. Against good opposition you get found out if your touch isn't sure, and that's how it was going for the first half hour, then when they got a man sent off, it took the pressure off and he improved. It was a good cross for the assist.

Think they are winning the title by default, the gap at the top is getting too big.

Pretty sure we'll be looking to do that if the right player becomes available, Eddie is probably just being a bit cute.

Said this last week, although I obviously don't want to tempt fate. City are one of the few clubs who could probably afford him, I think any delusions the Italians had that he could end up back there have gone up in smoke.

Think we've seen too many of those now, it gets to a point where you start to think he just lacks a touch of composure in general, and it's not a confidence thing.

He was one of the biggest let downs today, didn't really deserve the goal.

Problem with that approach is, every single club is trying to do the same thing, and the cartel clubs have a lot more resources to make sure they are the clubs that do it best. But I guess what @HawK is saying, is that there really aren't that many other options available to us, although hopefully the APT sponsorship rule changes might help in that regard.

He'll argue over the toss of a coin, really not worth the bother. You'd need a contract and a lawyer to post opinions on here if it was up to some people.

I agree, but with us having been stung already by PSR you can understand why we are reluctant to go down that road.

Just on that subject there's an article today in one of the papers about young players Man City have let go which are spearheading Chelsea's push for the top. Cole, Adarabioyo and Lavia were mentioned. Pep really did seem to put too much faith in experience and technique and not putting enough attention on age and physicality.

We don't seem to do short term signings. Can't imagine there are many strikers of any standing available on loan, and we won't spend good money on a 30 year old.

You raise some good points. Even if his end product is lacking, he does still have qualities like pace and a fantastic work rate. I don't think that's enough in the Premier, hence the lack of interest. All the clubs in the PL believe they can find someone with the end product if they look across the leagues around the world. But in a less competitive league like the MLS, he could probably tear it up. They will be one of the few who can afford his wages as well.

If Jurgen Klopp had a hard-faced no shit-taking brother, that would be him.

People need to realise criticism of players isn't personal, it's just part of wanting to get to the next level. I was a massive defender of Miggy when Bruce was here, and for good reason. He was one of our best players then, and our expectations were low. It was the same for Wijnaldum and Sissoko when they were here. They weren't world beaters but they were our best players. Even the club knows that Miggy is no longer good enough for where we want to go. That's a good thing.

On another note, good to see some short corners being taken to good effect over the last few games. Got sick of the sight of us floating them high towards Burn and Schar with every one getting cut out by the defence or a weak header bobbling into the stand.

For some reason I always think Abu Dhabi is a city.

This is me as well. We've looked a confused side for a lot of the season, then we had a spell where we beat Chelsea, Arsenal and Forest and I genuinely thought we'd turned the corner. This does feel a bit different though as for the first time the midfield looked like it clicked with both Tonali and Bruno in it. And more importantly, with Tonali sitting deeper it seems like we are better equipped to recover if we lose the ball in bad positions with his pace. Saw it a couple of times last night for example.

It's an iteresting take like, but didn't the Qatari owners spend a lot of money regenerating parts of the city? If the owners wanted to pump money into the club and it was coming from outside, isn't that a benefit for both Manchester and Britain in general? Or would we have been better if those areas had remained run down and Man City just stayed a shit-stained shadow on Man U's doorstep?

Tbf we don't even know if the Saudis really wanted him, or if they were ever going to do us some special deal because of our links with PIF. Let's just pretend they were never in the picture and get whatever his real value is worth. If that's £8m we should take it happily and job well done.

I agree, Emery's position is more like ours last season when we were playing CL, except they have qualified for the next stage whereas we went out. I am quite surprised to hear he is under pressure after a couple of poor results in the league. He's been brilliant for them, you would only really expect doubts to surface if they had a poor season. Don't see how you can judge that when they are still in the CL.