Consigliere

That game highlighted just how pants we still are against a low block. Ponderously slow in possession and struggling to create chances while our defence struggles to play a high line and loses concentration very easily when they have little defending to do. Sancho was useless as he has been for a few games now and needs to be dropped. Ronaldo was rubbish again as he has been all season. Hopefully he fucks off in January. Shaw, Rashford and Martial changed the game. Bruno and Dalot annoyed the hell out of me, playing like star-struck fanboys rather than professional footballers when Ronaldo is on the pitch – both of them consistently ignore better passing options in order to pander to Ronaldo. I'd rather we play a pivot of Casemiro-Fred/Mctominay and move Eriksen into the attacking midfield role – Bruno can be backup to Eriksen until he realises that he plays for Manchester United and not Ronaldo FC.

And Southgate will still ignore Maddison to pick his underperforming favourites.

21 goals in 23 games. But the service he gets at City is vastly superior to that of the national team or at Dortmund (where he scored 86 goals in 89 games). City create boatloads of chances and were scoring 100+ goals every season in all competitions without Haaland.

Haaland is 9 goals short of last seasons golden boot winning total with 30 games left to play.

Don't want to kill brain cells listening to Gary Neville's verbal diarrhoea.

Chelsea and Liverpool have won during Guardiola's time. I also don't believe this is a permanent decline for Liverpool. They've struggled this season but there's every chance Klopp turns things around because unlike his stint at Dortmund, at Liverpool he has much greater resources at his disposal and isn't forced to sell his best players. City are not miles ahead of Liverpool; that view is just down to recency bias of this season.

Liverpool have given City a run for their money, losing the title by one point on two occasions with 97 and 92 points so this hasn't been quite the procession of Bayern. The Bundesliga was, is and will continue to be a one-horse league which is the epitomy of dull. With Liverpool struggling there's no-one to challenge City this season though since Liverpool are the only other side in the league with the capability to churn out results week after week and go on crazy winning runs. The playing field was never even. Liverpool and United were the best sides in the country during their era's of dominance. It was also boring unless you were a Liverpool and United fan during those era's.

It's been the norm in England for decades. Liverpool won 13 out of 20 league titles at one point. That was followed by United also winning 13 out of 20 league titles. City are dominating now under Guardiola.

I don't think we played that horribly. KdB, Haaland and Foden were simply far too good for us today. I was expecting us to have 30% possession max and sit in a low block but we tried to play more progressively than I though we would. That left us more exposed though and City were ruthless but Ten Hag has to keep trying to implement his preferred possession oriented system with a higher line. Varane getting injured was only a matter of time. He's a bit like Thiago - a quality player when fit but you've got to expect him to miss 8-12 weeks of every season due to injury.

Leao is a baller. Serie A is going to be lit this season. The title race and top 4 placings are wide open. Most entertaining of the top leagues.

Klopp has a contract through to June 2026. I don't see him walking out on his contract so unless he gets sacked, this won't be his last season. I don't think binning a no.2 is going to make that much of a difference tbh - Lijnders works under Klopp's direction, not the other way around. It's like when a section of the Liverpool fanbase were shitting themselves when Buvac left as though he was primarily responsible for the coaching and tactics and Klopp was just a glorified cheerleader. What FSG need to do is make enough funds available to revamp the midfield – Ox, Keita and Milner need to go.

Kicker reported that his new contract does not have a release clause coming into effect next year. We'll have to wait and see though. There were loads of reports about Haaland's release clause from normally reliable sources and they all turned out to have been wrong.

Nkunku is a good player but needs a very specific system in which to thrive. Any club signing him needs to have a manager who has a clear idea on exactly how to use him. Leipzig have changed their system a bit in order to accommodate Werner this season and that's had an impact on Nkunku - his creative play has taken a hit and his performances in general (so far) have not been as good as last season.

And Boehly wants to follow the City Football Group and Red Bull models by buying multiple football clubs around the world.

Add Portugal to the list along with England and France of most disappointing national teams. So much attacking flair being wasted on managers who choose to implement the most turgid of tactics. Fernando Santos appears to be more interested in trying to get Ronaldo to score a goal than he is in getting the team to play well. Also, Ronaldo looks to be finished. He was never a monster at pressing but his movement up front was always exceptional and he had good pace. Now, his legs have gone. He's static up front and has lost that turn of pace as well and can't beat anyone 1v1. Lucho needs to bin Koke, Sarabia and Ferran Torres – they've been rubbish. Busquets, Pedri and Gavi should be the starting midfield and Nico Williams ahead of Ferran Torres on the wing. Ansu Fati (if he manages to get fit in time) and Williams should be the starting wingers at the WC.

And this German side is hardly in the tier of the top German sides of the past. They are having problems too and England should be looking to not just go toe-to-toe with them but actually dominate the ball. Instead Southgate set the team up to play as though they are minnows. This has been the story under Southgate - whenever England has come up against decent opposition they've mostly just retreated into a defensive shell and don't even attempt to play on the front foot. This does not suit the squad as most of these players are used to playing in pressing possession-oriented systems. Southgate has been bailed out by the individual talent at his disposal but his luck seems to be running out and his substandard tactics and coaching is being exposed.

Maguire is hardly the biggest problem but he should be dropped for Tomori. Southgate should get the sack anyway because of his shit tactics and coaching. For the most part, England can't press, can't defend, can't play out from the back, midfield is invisible and attack looks clueless. Southgate has one of the most talented squads in international football playing as though they are inferior relegation fodder.

Actually looking to play aggressively on the front foot is the biggest difference. Too often Southgate has one of the most talented squads in international football playing as though they are Middlesbrough.

Well, that was unexpected.

Tomori and Maddison are much more egregious omissions. England are stacked at RB/RWB and Reece James is at least as good as TAA. Both James and Tripper have also performed better than TAA in the NT setup. Maguire has been atrocious for a year while Tomori has been among the best CBs in Serie A. Even though Maguire has been better for England, there's no reason to not give Tomori a chance and integrate him into the squad. Similar story with Kane. He plays until he's run into the ground while Southgate refuses to give others a proper chance to integrate themselves into the squad. Maddison has been in excellent form and doesn't even get a call-up.

England and France are the two most disappointing national teams. Both are brimming with so much attacking flair but play some of the dullest football.

Carvajal is Spain's best RB. Lucas Vazquez converted to RB a couple of seasons ago and he makes a better fullback than he did a winger – I'd put him down as Spain's second best RB. Then there's Sergi Roberto and Odriozola too. None of them have been selected in tonight's squad though.

RB Salzburg confirm that Christoph Freund will not be joining Chelsea. https://www.redbullsalzburg.at/de/aktuelles/news/christoph-freund-bleibt-sportdirektor-in-salzburg

It's only Dortmund and Leipzig that realistically have the squads to mount any challenge over the course of a season. Dortmund aren't exactly flying. They're struggling in front of goal a lot more than Bayern and are only 3 points ahead of Bayern. Leipzig have been rubbish and Union Berlin doesn't have the depth to go the distance and will most likely start to fall away soon enough. I expect Bayern will be top by the time the leagues break for the WC. Also expect that Serie A and La Liga are going to provide the best title races in the top 5 leagues this season. The rest of the top 5 leagues are just going to be Bayern, Man City and PSG processions to the title.