1. Chelsea 2. Man City 3. Arsenal 18. Burnley 19. Huddersfield 20. Brighton - just for you Biscuit - - @InBiscanWeTrust
I've thought about this. Looking at our first run of fixtures though, the best time to Bet on us doing the unthinkable and finishing below the red line would be after the Brighton away game. with Spurs, Hddsfield, WHU, Swansea, stoke and Brighton, I think we could get a half decent start, if we do, the odds will be massive. Therefore any kind of freefall would become enormously beneficial financially, but emotionally wrenching
Unless we have some drastic changes in the next month (3-4 first teamers) I genuinely think we're going down. Yes Huddersfield and Brighton are weaker (they relied on loans far more than us last season so were coming from a weaker position) but people who are expecting Burnley and Watford to finish below us? They both survived fairly well last season and are doing good business (Will Hughes, Charlie Taylor, Walters, etc). If they lose Deeney/ Andra Gray AND we sign some good players pronto then perhaps but at the moment they are a far far safer bet than us. Honestly actually starting to be concerned now.
Not concerned at all. The majority of our squad last year were PL players, despite not blowing teams away each week, we did the job. Last year teams sat very deep, made it hard for us to break down. This year will be completely the opposite, we will be holding teams out and trying to break on them using the counter attack. Players will come in and I think they will be more proven than Ince, Walters, Charlie Taylor and Will Hughes. Ideally we need a LB, RB and then creativity and pace further up the field. For me Shelvey's a starter in CM as is Ritchie on the Right. Gibbs could come in at LB, Gayle's gotta be worth a shot. We have depth, just need to get out some of the sh1te (Rivierre, saviet etc) and bring in some quality, loads of time!
Herrera to us is exactly the type of player Kante is to you mate, he's not a CM who'll sit in front of that back four and chop down attacks, he's a roamer who's constantly on the move, intercepting and tackling and playing neat passes into space once he gets the ball. Mourinho doesn't try to make Herrera his lynchpin. Having a solid back four that we can rely on will give much more freedom to players like Pogba and Herrera, who'll create chances all day long, two very gifted footballers. Mourinho has addressed that back four partially imo, if he can sort out Shaw or bring in an orthodox left back instead of playing Darmian down that side, then even better.
I think i said that? I mentioned that he's not that defensively lynchpin Jose likes, that's why he wants matic. I was saying him and Pogba play the same position, so unless you go with 2 of those box to box type midfielders (which i don't think works well) then i think you're going to lack that really creative force in that 3rd midfield role (i guess Iniesta) as i don't think Pogba can play that that well. That is if you play Pogba, Herrera and Matic
I thought you were inferring that JM'S been playing him as the lynchpin but doesn't trust him in that role. Creativity is something that really doesn't worry me, but we'll look again when the window slams shut. It's not like we're lining up with Jack Colback as our only creative midfielder
'I THOUGHT IT WAS A PRANK' Florian Lejeune thought he was the victim of a prank when Rafael Benitez called him to offer him the chance to join Newcastle. The 26-year-old central defender completed an £8.7m switch from LaLiga outfit Eibar earlier this week after belatedly realising the call was genuine. He said: "When I got the call, I thought it was a prank so I didn't say anything. After a few hours, I said, 'Yes, that's Rafael Benitez', so I had to say yes. "He was very important to my decision. For many years, my career was going up and down and up and down." That's convenient then
Watford have a top manager now though. Think Silva did brilliant job at Hull and with bit more money and better players at Watford should get them comfortable mid table.
They're still have EL football though which is often harder to deal with than CL just due to longer travels to Eastern European countries and the whole Thursday/Sunday playing catch up to the others.
1 City 2 Chelsea 3 Liverpool 4 Spurs 5 United 6 Arsenal 17 Brighton 18 Swansea 19 Burnley 20 Huddersfield
