Liverpool best 11 vs Chelsea best 11

City will win the league at a canter, I think they'll break the records they set last year.

 

I suspect they will win too, not sure about breaking their records, that will take some doing, but I cannot see us, Liverpool or Arsenal keeping up with them.
And definitely not United, this will be Jose's last season.

 

me neither, your squad is a bit thin, especially when it comes to striking options, Giroud was a panic buy and Morata just doesn't quite cut it at the top in the prem imo. It'll be that squad depth when the games come thick and fast during March-May that will be the difference, Man City could lose 3 or 4 of their best XI and not really notice the difference, eg. De bruyne has been out since game 1 and they're steam-rollering most of the opposition.

 

Yeah we lack a quality striker, and are still trying to balance our midfield, it is getting there, but its not the real deal yet. Sarri has done much better than I would have thought, but we aren't ready to seriously challenge yet I dont think.

Liverpool are in a similar boat, they have had more time to settle to Klopp's tactics, and have made a couple of decent buys of late with Salah and Van Dijk, but I still think they are lacking the squad cover and overall quality of City.

Arsenal are very much a work in progress, and although they have a decent forward line, they are suspect as hell at the back against teams who come at them.

Spurs have not improved their squad in 2 seasons now and are looking a little stale and jaded.

United are on the verge of imploding.


With all that being said, i cannot see past City winning the league again.

 

I disagree about putting Kante at DM.

Admittedly, he's pretty useless at being creative and fashioning chances/finishing chances but he allows us to press effectively and he has the energy to make decoy runs.

Most importantly, the DM for me has 2 really really important roles. One is to cover that space and not go wondering around (Kante would be great covering on the counter) but would mean we lose his effectiveness pressing but the bigger issue for me is this DM is a playmaker and is meant to be calm on the ball and help us play it out.

Having Kante there who:

1. doesn't play on the half turn
2. isn't very good on the ball when his back is to goal and is not great at controlling it under pressure
3. isn't that aware when he's not got space to run into.

That was part of our problem with Conte in that our midfielders couldn't play out effectively with the defence and we ended up hoofing it (also under mourinho).

If we had to replace Jorginho who i wish was a bit more energetic/mobile (at least hes got more legs than cesc), then it has to be kovacic cause he can dribble, shrug challenges off, has that awareness and can pass it off.

Unfortunately i'm not sure Kante will ever be 100% great against the teams who sit back and park the bus when we need creativity but he's a must when it comes to the big games to get the ball back and to make us all solid

 

Fair enough, but Kante is such a special talent and maybe the current worlds' #1 at what he does best. With that talent I think we should be thinking of him as we do Hazard, set up the team to use that talent to its' utmost. Bakayoko was supposed to be our go forward DM, but that didn't work, Jorghino doesn't surge forward, Barkley sort of does, but is not there yet, RLC looks the most likely to me , Kovacic is a complete player but he's not ours and he doesn't have power.
Then you need to consider who's in front, and have the midfield play for them. So far the striker is the one position being ignored in my opinion, because Hazard and Willian/Pedro are expected to do the attacking and score.When someone parks the bus they run in circles on the edge of the box hoping to find a gap, but not giving anything to the striker that he can use.
Bit simplistic, but hopefully your views and mine combined show up how complex Sarris' job is to try and find all the answers.
He's getting there, and quicker than I expected, so well done him and the squad.

 

There is already a playmaking dmf,Kante is pretty much lost under sarri as a cm infront of a dmf,he is no longer the god he was.

Milner being a natural CM gets in and also due to his good form

All is one and one is all of homosapiens

 

You forget your pills today mate?

 

Yeah I'm still trying to work that one out. Lost in translation as they say.