Consigliere

Yeah. Ten Hag seems to have improved Wan Bissaka. His passing range is always going to limit him especially against teams where we dominate possession and he has to be more active in the opposition third, but now he's looking to be a solid backup RB whereas previously it didn't look like he fit in at all. AWB is still better than Dalot defensively imo, especially in 1v1s so this game and tactical setup suited him nicely. Also, a shoutout to another player who gets a lot of stick from United fans - Fred. He was immense today.

That was a good performance. Much better tactical setup from Ten Hag compared to the first game. We are not at the point where we can go toe-to-toe with the likes of City for possession - we tried to do that in the first game, but City's pressing is just more polished and they wrecked us in the transitions. Today we didn't try going toe-to-toe for possession, looked more compact defensively and were the ones causing City big problems in transitions. We created the better chances and deserved to win the game.

Reports that two Saudi clubs (Al-Hilal and Al-Itihad) are interested in signing Messi and are prepared to offer him a contract worth €350 million per season.

Benjamin Mendy found not guilty of six counts of rape.

Leeds reach agreement with Hoffenheim for Georginio Rutter.

It got to 21 pages so quickly because the people who insisted they don't care ended making among the most posts in the previous thread.

I don't get how Elanga has been given opportunities instead of Pellistri. Pellistri at least has good technical abilities (and it's not as though he shirks in the work rate department either) whereas Elanga looks like another Chong to me - a player with poor technical skills who just runs around a lot. He must be as good in training as Roberto Martinez is in interviews.

Pellistri is the one who is pushing for a move (either loan or permanent) because he wants to play regularly. Can't really blame him when it looks like Ten Hag doesn't rate him considering last night's 10-minute cameo was his first appearance of the season.

Neither Arsenal nor United were going to pay that much for a 6-month loan. Especially when Arsenal already have Odegaard (with ESR as cover) and United has Bruno (with Eriksen who can play there too). Even with the reduced ask, it's still costing Chelsea €17m for 6 months (€11m loan fee + €6m in wages). Felix also operates best as a creative secondary striker rather than as a CF. He's more creator than goal scorer as his scoring record would attest, so I'm not sure how Potter will fit in another second striker who doesn't score much. Doesn't seem as though Felix is going to help solve Chelsea's scoring woes any more than Havertz does since they are fairly similar players.

A 5,000-year-old Galadriel behaving like an angsty teen was worse than the swimming thing. The high king had to send her to her room (Valinor) because everyone was sick and tired of her. Made a character that was supposed to be one of the lynchpins of the show unbearably annoying and unlikeable for me. Then there's the bit where the people of the Southlands are looking in awe at the "Commander of the Northern Armies" and all I could think was, there's nothing actually portrayed in the show to inspire such awe. What Northern Armies? The rag-tag bunch in the first episode who promptly deserted because Galadriel was such a shit leader? There's also the part where the town made out of wood was hit full on by a massive pyroclastic flow and most of the people there just got a bit dusty - that was also worse than the swimming thing. A big budget to buy some pretty CGI didn't distract from the poor plotting, dialogue and pacing.

City have made short work of Chelsea. This game hasn't been the least bit competitive. It's like City are playing against lower division opposition.

FA Cup 4th round draw: Preston vs Spurs Southampton vs Blackpool Wrexham vs Sheffield United Ipswich vs Burnley Manchester United vs Reading Luton Town/Wigan vs Grimsby Town Derby County vs West Ham Stoke City vs Aston Villa/Stevenage Blackburn Rovers vs Forest Green Rovers/Birmingham City Walsall vs Leicester City Sheffield Wednesday vs Fleetwood Town Manchester City/Chelsea vs Oxford/Arsenal Bristol City/Swansea City vs Chesterfield/West Bromwich Albion Brighton vs Liverpool/Wolves Fulham vs Sunderland Boreham Wood/Accrington Stanley vs Cardiff City/Leeds United

Didn't the same thing happen previously this season? If I'm not mistaken, it was the Arsenal/Liverpool game where VAR couldn't do an offside check for a goal because Saka(?) was out of the frame from all the camera angles so VAR had to go with the onfield decision which was onside. One would have thought that after that incident, those responsible for setting up the cameras would have addressed the blindspot issue.

Juve have been on a pretty good run in the league. Since losing to Milan, they've won 8 in a row and without conceding a goal. Nah. We spent the De Jong money on Casemiro who cost less than the fee we had agreed with Barca for FdJ. We blew any budget we might have had for January by paying double what Antony is actually worth. Years of horrendous transfer business (both incoming and outgoing) as well as years of paying out bloated wages to an underperforming squad has caught up with us.

Deschamps' contract has been renewed to 2026.

Mudryk may or may not prefer Arsenal, but Chelsea entering the race does strengthen Shakhtar's bargaining position, and they'll be more confident about getting a fee closer to their (reportedly) £85m valuation. Chelsea have been very fucking lucky when it comes to ownership. First Abramovich bankrolled them during the era of no financial restrictions giving them the biggest spending advantage of any football club ever. Then, during their sale, Abramovich was forced by the UK government to write off the £1.65 Billion owed to him while Boehly and consortium had to agree to the "anti-Glazer clause" i.e. committing to investing £1.75 Billion over 10 years while also agreeing not to take out any dividends during that time as well

Confirmed now. He's joining on loan until the end of the season with an obligation to buy - fee not yet disclosed but said to be a club record for Brentford.

Howe has impressed a lot and his defensive organisation looks to have improved significantly from his Bournemouth days. His Bournemouth team played pretty football but tended to be way too open defensively. His Newcastle team plays pretty football most of the time and are also rock solid in defence. Newcastle will be that happier side - away from home against the most in form side in the league, and they executed their game plan to near perfection. We were decent enough in our game and won fairly comfortably. However, I do think we were a bit too open at times and a better side would've taken more advantage from the space between our lines. Ten Hag pretty much summed it up:

Wilson should start though. At worst he comes off the bench. Isak has also returned to full training and reports are he could make an appearance against Sheffield Wednesday on the weekend.