verlaine1979

Romeu was outstanding I thought. Probably our most creative midfielder as well as our best DM.

Well, that was a vastly better move than pretty much anything we've put together all season.

Is that three or four times Tadic has gotten to the byline inside the box for a pullback or cross, and each time we've failed to even fashion a chance from it?

Heh, Davis.

Tadic, Boufal & Redmond on the pitch at the same time - is that a first?

It's because it excuses him for being largely ineffective.

Right, but based on the most recent Forbes list, the Leibherr family, who are the sole share holders of the Liebherr Group, a huge multi-national covering everything from cranes to trains to hotels, are worth about $4.5bn. Mali Group on the other hand don't appear to have had anything like the footprint of Liebherr Group, so while I suppose it's possible that Markus managed to both hand back his shareholding in the family company (which if he'd kept, would presumably be worth the couple of billion all the newspapers seem to think he had) and build up an entirely separate entity that happened to be worth almost as much, but without having anything like the same profile (despite also being in the heavy equipment manufacturing space), I tend to think that in reality, the estimates of his wealth are just the result of lazy reporting and poor initial information. All that would be needed for this situation to arise is for one newspaper article to be written early enough in his life that estimated his wealth in ignorance of the fact that he handed back his shareholding, and every subsequent article would end up perpetuating the error.

Ake, Zouma and a pile of cash, and I might be tempted.

Quite. If the story about him handing back his share of the Liebherr business was true, it always seemed unlikely that he'd sauntered off and built up another billion pound business in the meantime.

Yup, there's a strong hint in the article that her reported wealth has been wildly overstated. Selling the club to diversify makes sense if it was one of the most valuable things you inherited, but less so if it was just one element of a multi-billion estate.

Right, because we let Lallana, Lovren, Lambert, Clyne, Wanyama, Mane & Schneiderlin go, but Davis was so vital to our squad that we drew the line when the big boys came calling. Yes, that does seem like an equally likely scenario to no one else wanting him.

Nope, that wasn't the point I was making. Simply that if your argument devolves to 'well, we've been picking him for x seasons' then pointing out that no one else wants him is a legitimate rejoinder.

Weren't those both first half? I meant literally between scoring in the 52nd minute and Boufal firing wide in the 91st. I don't remember us really testing Lloris in that time, despite our improved performance after the break.

Did we create a meaningful chance between JWP's goal and boufal's shot that went wide a few mins before the end?

Meh, bit of a straw man argument. Might as well say that the legions of superior managers at bigger clubs are on my side by virtue of the fact that none of them have ever tried to buy him at any stage in his career. He's nothing special and never has been (honestly, someone above claims he's only one attribute away from an 'all time great').

As illustrated by this forum, you don't get criticised as a manager for playing a hardworking but limited home-nations carthorse who is broadly identified with by much of the fanbase. Let's call it the Wotton-Schneiderlin effect.

I was bang on two years ago, and nothing he's done between then and now has proven me wrong. Utterly, utterly dire today in every single phase of play.

Can we just bring on Boufal now? I'd rather have a bit of entertainment than watch Davis contribute naff all for another 60 mins.

Davis passing even worse than usual.

Watching Monaco last night gave some interesting context to JWP's progress. Fabinho and Bakayoko are 23 and 22 respectively, and absolutely dominated the midfield aside from a twenty minute stretch for City at the start of the second half. Both broke up play, passed intelligently (and progressively when the moment called for it), and both scored goals. JWP has done well out on the right, and his dead ball delivery is excellent, but in his peer group internationally, there are players already capable of controlling a champions league knock-out round game.

Ah, didn't realise we'd been linked to him before. Was utterly immense tonight, and so composed on the ball. When Monaco sell off some of their young players, it's going to make our transfer income over the past few years look like peanuts.

Monaco were superb in the first half. Wonder how much we'd have to pay for someone like Bakayoko in the summer.

Not sure if it was a one off, but Ederson made several incredible saves yesterday for Benfica against Dortmund.

Pace - Sterling is very quick, whereas Redmond almost never seems to beat anyone for pace over short or long distances.

We presumably knew all about Boufal's attitude when we signed him (a French friend said he's brilliant, but an idiot who doesn't care about the team when we signed him), so we probably should have known that playing him in a reserve match wouldn't go down well. And before anyone says 'he's a professional' or 'he should be proud to put on the shirt' etc etc, allow me to welcome you to the last decade of world football.