Club watch

I’m not so sure. I think you need a bigger squad for the CL than you do the EL.

A club of our size and quality should be able to utilise some youth in earlier rounds in the EL, something that’s impossible to do in the CL. Plus players like Gazza, Sess, Winks and Sissoko should be ok against the Macedonian farmers of the world and a new striker will surely play/ start most Europa games anyway - just need to make sure we do indeed get that this window, whoever it may be.

 

I feel the same as you but have not seen the evidence from Poch or Jose , maybe a bigger squad was the wrong thing to say , perhaps a change of squad would be better, as for using youth , both were reluctant to use them , times we were 2 or 3 up and poch would not take Kane off are numerous and who remembers the FA cup at tranmere 6 up and on came Kane , Skipp coming on for 2 mins are just ridiculous

 

We need a better balanced squad, which was true regardless of the outcome of yesterday's game.
Mourinho's old spiel about two players for every position is still true and we don't have that.

 

he can only be rested if the club buy another striker as you say

 

In Europa we made some good changes under Poch, the FBs were often Davies and Trippier, whilst Townsend, Kane, Wimmer, Onomah and Carroll all got chances and I’d imagine we'll see that sort of stuff with Jose too in the earlier fixtures with the likes of Gazza, Sess, Tanganga, Cirkin, White etc. The odd thing Poch done though was take a B team away to Dortmund in the knockout round first leg which was just odd (odd being the polite thing to say) and it’s in those moments where I hope Jose can take it more seriously.

 

Considering we were chasing the title at the time, sacking off the Europa in the hope of winning the league makes a lot of sense

 

And that’s where our problem lied. We put all our eggs in one basket.

 

Better that than spread the team so thin they end up in the running for three trophies and ending the season with none, as Bayer Leverkusen can attest about the 2001-2 season

 

We also ended the season with none. So it’s neither better nor worse.

 

Michael Ballack's "so near, but yet so far" season.
2nd in the Bundesliga, lost the German Cup final, lost the Champions League Final and then got beat in the World Cup Final with Germany.
Quite a kick in the teeth.

 

Actually it is

The reason Leverkusen's season collapsed is because maintaining a challenge for both the Bundesliga and Champions League pushed their squad to breaking point, which resulted in them picking up four points from their last four games that saw Bayern winning the league by a single point, slumping to a 4-2 loss to Schalke in the Cup final, and then getting easily picked off by Los Ladrones in the Champions League final because by that point they were mentally broken

In comparison our slump in 2015-16 only happened after Mark Clusterfuck decided he wanted a Premier League winner's medal, and was exacerbated by suspensions to both Moussa Dembele and Dele Alli during those last few games

 

I wouldn't say so.

Both teams ended up with nothing yet we went all out for one competition, Bayer went all out for three.

In fact if we're to nit pick, them finishing as runners up in the Bundesliga, CL and DFB Pokal is better than us finishing third in the Prem.

 

And I would say there was, because Leverkusen were directly responsible for their season falling apart by flogging their team to death, while we looked to preserve our team's stamina and our season only fell apart after the league slipped away with a pair of critical suspensions adding to it

Most importantly, though, look at how Leverkusen did in 2002-3, which while it would be remiss to mention they had some key players spirited away - Ze Roberto to Bayern (because of course...) and Michael Ballack to Chelsea - but the level of their slump was alarming

Bundesliga: 2nd to 15th (or missing the title by a point to avoiding relegation by four)
Champions League: final to second group stage
German Cup: final to semi-final

In comparison, look at our 2016-17 compared to 2015-16
Premier League: 3rd to 2nd
Europa League: last 16 to not having to book hotels in Baku or Tiraspol
Champions League: DNQ to group stage
FA Cup: fifth round to semi final
Season Killer Cup: third round to fourth round

We had improved results in literally every single competition (and just so happened to bury the "Poch doesn't care about domestic cups" Narrative that got endlessly repeated by people who don't know how to use Google properly...) entirely because we didn't flog the team to death not just physically but also mentally - that didn't happen until we went all-in for the Champions League only to come up against our greatest foe: a Slovenian ****wit who can't tell his armpit from his elbow, let alone understand the handball rule

 

On the other hand, if you don't want to imagine DT off AFTV watching this with his trousers around his ankles, avoid it

 

Read an interview with Danny Rose today by Alisdair Gold, He said he would love to play for us again and to thank the fans for our support over the years , what do you think ? Would you have him back in good shape or is there no going back for him ? I have mixed emotions about him .1: before his mental health problems along with injuries he would have run through walls for us and he knew what the club meant to the fans
2: at times he pissed me off badly by opening his mouth to the gutter press and the like but was that the MH problem surfacing
My head says no to him returning but my heart says come back and prove that you can still do it ( and pass the Mars bars )

 

He wants to play out the last year of his contract and go on a free.
Sell him on now and replace him with somebody better than Davies.

 

I wish him well but am not convinced an aging FB who relied on pace is what the club needs right now. I'm hoping Mourinho commits to giving Sessegnon a run of games at left back. Young players have got to start coming into the team.

However, I'd welcome Danny Rose as third choice, if he really wants to be third choice. He can still be a useful player.

 

No way do I ever want him back...that interview was unforgivable imho and on so many levels.

 

He says he wants to say farewell to the fans

Funnily enough, the feeling is mutual...