Mole_Toonfan

I don't understand why he changed anything from Stoke tbh, i felt like Perez-Atsu-Ritchie-Murphy as a front 4 worked well against Stoke. I personally would have stuck with it, until we get better CFs we need as much mobility, work rate, pace etc etc in the team as possible.

Except for Merino I don't see the point in changing anything from Stoke.

I honestly would on the premise a replacement was immediately signed, but considering i don't trust that will happen i'm liable to agree.

It will happen, but possibly not in time for the January window Was the City takeover not late, with Robinho signing on deadline day? There's hope Wasn't that a different takeover?

To be frank it got tedious months ago.

As individuals sure but is he better in City's team ? i'm not so sure tbh, what makes City so good is they have two pacey as f*** wingers stretching teams allowing Silva and De Bruyne s*** tonnes of space. Sanchez likes to come inside and get on the ball more and does less work off the ball to stretch defences. If this happened last summer i would have understood it, City came off a disappointing season where they were incredibly wasteful in front of goal but now i'm not sure. Sterling has massively stepped up his game, Aguero has been more consistent and Jesus continued where he picked up from after joining last January. Really don't think he's necessary now.

That's your boiling point? there's been much worse done already.

Nice for somebody to put Mourinho in his place for once.

It's offensive like. He should get s*** for this, doesn't matter how old he was at the time he shouldn't be spouting crap like this Name me a person who hasn't done something stupid as a teenager? It's completely wrong and I hope he's learnt but I doubt there is someone here who hasn't said something stupid during their teenage years.

I'm not saying you don't, just Lascelles really because of how important he is. Play Merino, Ritchie, Atsu etc etc or ever else you deem important, i don't really think we have many important players tbh.

Never said anything about Iniesta tbh, i don't think he's of the level they are going to expect and Barca could do a lot better with 140 fucking million. He's not the only attacking midfielder who can drop his shoulder and dribble a bit on the planet, also as been mentioned there shouldn't be a rush considering he's cup tied.

Sorry, but f*** that, would like to actually have a go at the cup and try and win it. Win a cup or get relegated which leads to Rafa leaving and no takeover. I feel some don't understand the importance of staying up this season, i wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if we went down and a takeover got scrapped and Rafa left. It's an extremely possible scenario if we were to go down, in any other season i'm with you 100% but this year is an outlier and i don't think we should jeopardise the potential future. Where as if we stay up, Rafa is obviously going nowhere and a new takeover presents many different opportunities which weren't there before. I'm not saying completely throw games, in fact Lascelles is the only one i'd even consider resting in these games but we all saw how s**** we were during his period out of the team and if another period takes place like that relegation is very likely as is the impending scenario i described. Sure a cup would be fantastic, but honestly i'd take an actual future over it where cups are a lot more likely anyway.

Not sure they would be happy with more than decent mind, rightly or wrongly they have signed him to help Messi win another CL after this season.( i think he's cup tied) I obviously don't think he's good enough to do that, but that must be their mindset i imagine as they wouldn't sign him otherwise.

I still feel like he shouldn't have tbh, we need him as a matter of urgency. I'd not risk anything with him personally, but i'll apply this to every cup game moving forward to and my opinion likely won't change until safety is assured.

Doesn't he hate everything? it comes across like that

My knickers will remain twisted thank you very much.

Thank fuck.

I have the same question, doubt the club know the extent of anything right now.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't fit and Rafa played him anyway, we have to remember how last season went where Lascelles played half a season injured. Rafa is great we all love him but the reality is he's not perfect 100% of the time and we shouldn't assume because it's Rafa that he made the right decision.

Nope. He is though.

He's massively overrated, makes the Van Dijk deal look sensible.

Don't understand why people are being like this tbh, because you want to prevent possible relegation which is very possible if Lascelles is injured long term because it could lead to no takeover and Rafa leaving doesn't mean you don't care and want massive full scale changes like Pardew used to. It's not a black and white situation.

Like how he played Lascelles all last season when Lascelles was injured and Lascelles admitted he played through injury? Rafa is great but he's not perfect.

Aye let's get relegated because our best defender gets injured in a cup game, prospective new owners lose interest, Rafa leaves with no real future in sight. You can't be that short sighted. Aye All of that will happen because of Lascelles’ injury today. Lascelles could get injured in training, we better stop him doing that. I hope he doesn’t do anything at home, he might get injured. I mean it easily could do, don't why you dismiss it out of hand. We all saw how miserable this team was without Lascelles, relegation would be a domino effect which would lead to all those things happening. I understand why people want to win a cup, i do and we all do but in the current situation we have the prioritise as miserable as it is avoiding relegation THIS season is the only thing that matters.