Danny

It's a shame that Raheem Sterling's England career seems to be coming to an end. He was a stand-out player in all of the youth sides he played in, someone who genuinely excited you to watch. Went on to have two massive tournaments for England in 2018 and 2020 (2021) where he was our second best attacking player at both tournaments. Completely integral to how Southgate had England playing and he managed to step-up in a time where we lacked options on the wing. Those two tournaments have arguably been the best I've experienced in my lifetime for England, Sterling was integral to all of that. He will definitely go down as an England legend and I hope he can move on from Chelsea and re-ignite the final stages of his career as he is still a quality player.

The last two seasons our injuries have been okay, we've had them, but not to an unmanageable level. This season is just crazy.

Who knows how we improve next season, you can never really tell with our ownership. But I would say the main thing we would focus on is having strength in depth and probably adding more pace to the squad. Kevin Schade has been injured for 6 months and counting, Henry the whole season, Hickey 5 months and counting, Dasilva the whole season, Mbeumo three months, Ben Mee most of the season, Damsgaard 3 months, Lewis-Potter about 2 months, Ajer a month, new january signing Yunus Emre Konak instantly out till the Summer and then of course Toney's suspension and Wissa, Frank and Ghoddos' AFCON/ASIA Cup. What has been made very clear is thar without Henry, Schade, Mbeumo and Dasilva we have no pace and no direct attack. Lewis-Potter and Wissa can be thrown into that too, but Wissa is a very much a number 9 and Lewis-Potter has suffered so many injuries since joining it's difficult to get consistency from him. At mostly full strength, without Toney, and of course taking into the occasional injuries you may suffer in a 1-2 month period, we have a team that could easily fight for midtable and try to slip in for the Conference League spot should anyone above have a bad season and the Premier League get awarded an extra Champions League spot. That was my hope this season, and honestly until around early December we looked good for that. We had performed really well, were taking results and just had a couple of games where freak incidents gave points away for us. But with the consistency we built the team was going in the right direction. What has become unmanagable almost is the scale of injuries that we have suffered and the pace of the team completely shattered. We can sit back deep, defend well and then hit teams directly with Mbuemo, Dasilva and Schade on the pitch. Then you have Wissa who is still pacy and was scoring goals, you have Lewis-Potter who can grow into the wing position. But since losing the pace we have largely played a back 5 with no wingers. Improvement next season has to be in making sure even when we lose players, we still have pace across the squad. And then of course it's just trying to improve the first eleven with good signings.

Bit hit and miss no? They have an easily more talented team but their season hasn't been great.

Posted in the wrong topic, but great to see Raya proving why he is night and day ahead of Ramsdale and #3 in the league. Personally I like Porto’s style. I thought they were aggressive, made life difficult for Arsenal and created a great spectacle. Just like boxing styles make fights, I want to see sides like Porto and Atleti go up against your Arsenal’s, City’s etc. Arsenal done well to go through but I think they’ll struggle against City, Inter or Real.

Been saying Raya is the best keeper in the league away from Allison and Ederson. Just superb.

But which league Stan

Is there a league thats actually got VAR spot on since its introduction? Or close to? I feel like the Hawkeye nature of it was great, specifically call an offside, especially the automatic offsides. But dont take the piss with everything else

We have just come out of a run of games that has included Spurs, Man City x2, Liverpool and Arsenal and it went as badly as you'd expect it to. Still without 6 of our starting eleven, still without any degree of pace going forward which is why we've looked so bad in attack against the teams we've just played. The plus side is that we should have Bryan Mbeumo back for the United game, at least that's what we're hoping for. If we get him back then it's a game changer as we can actually hit teams on the counter. We now get to play Burnley, United, Brighton, Villa, Sheffield United, Luton Town, Everton, Fulham, Bournemouth and Newcastle. A couple of games we should expect to win there, looking specifically at Burnley, Sheffield United and Fulham. Then you have sides like Luton and Everton who should technically be winnable but it'll be difficult to take a result away at Goodison Park and Kenilworth Road. Then you have the rest, Brighton, United, Villa, Bournemouth and Newcastle. Teams who have performed well for periods this season but ultimately they can be up and down. I think 15 points is salvageable out of that, hopefully we can get players like Schade, Hickey, Pinnock and Mbeumo back into the team and I think the closer we get to full strength the more likely we are to put in a good run of performances towards the end to veer away from what is the current bottom 3 and then Nottingham Forest.

What makes it worse is that the ref was stood directly in front of it lol

Have to disagree with your last comment. There was a point this season where you were thrown into the title race by most pundits and the pressure of that culminated in 3 of your first 11 massively losing their heads against us, and since that game your results have dropped off considerably. I think you prefer being the underdogs and I think Emery’s style leans towards that, but not sure it’s because you’re more grounded. In fact I’ve just seen McGinn’s red and that is even more headloss

What's everyone think about the VAR call? Can't lie I'm at a loss as to how studs down someone's chest/belly isn't a foul. Probably a yellow card anywhere else on the pitch

Probably important to remember that any new coach will want to bring their own players in who know their style inside out. Liverpool will probably sign about 5 players in the Summer that should fit the new style. Then on top of that you still have Allison, VVD, Trent and Salah who are all clearly world class (though may not all stay…). And then you have players like Robertson, Quansah, Mac Allister, Szobslai and Jota who either have it in them to play at that level or already have done so. Probably also good to remember that Klopp himself said Liverpool were ahead of schedule and didnt expect to be fighting for the title.

Not watched the whole game, sounds like there is issue regarding Havertz? To push a title challenging team that have spent the amount Arsenal have whilst being mostly at full strength when we have 6 first eleven players out is a great effort. To go toe to toe with a team that can spend £100m on one player, what a team.

That went how we all expected it to go

It’s that point of the season I don’t miss, first couple months of the new year is a disaster in terms of fixture congestion. As long as you keep yourselves in the race all will be defined in the final month or so when you can get some momentum and mid-week training together. All the training atm is just recovery and slowly going through the motions of potential tactics that you cant 100% train or put into action

Self-imposed or a setting?

Have you tried sliders? I got to a point on Fifa 23 where I had s treble winning Aston Villa team that were unstoppable. Tried sliders on a new save and it brought the competition back

Tbh it would be suicide not to include Walker at RB

I hope Catterall gets the win, massive robbery the last time out that has set his career back by a couple years now.

Still think Joshua will knock out Ngannou out

I think I'd like the below, with Foden and Saka rotating wings and Foden essentially being given freedom to drop centrally. The focus in midfield has to be on Jude Bellingham, by far our best player. I think Trent has had such a great season that we can't leave him out, but I'd like to see him just drift more as a half back almost and let Walker bomb forward and give Saka the freedom to cut in. Then we're still left with Rice playing DM, Trent playing a similar role to what he does at Liverpool and then Foden, Saka and Bellingham just causing problems drifting around and swapping positions. Honestly I don't think Foden needs to play as a cam, I think he's just at a point now where as long as you give him freedom to attack he will do it from either side of the pitch, and again if you give him the freedom to rotate with Saka and Bellingham, the latter who does find himself in various attacking positions for Madrid, then you're still giving him the chance to play in his favoured positions whilst making it hard for the opposition to mark their man. Foden - Kane - Saka Bellingham Rice - Trent Chilwell - Guehi - Stones - Walker Pickford To field a second eleven to show depth. I know Phillips is controversial but the fact remains that England only have two players that can play as a #6 and that's him and Rice, and you need depth in every position. The 23rd player for me would be Ivan Toney, I just think it would be mad not to take arguably the best penalty taker in the league and someone who is a direct replacement for Kane stylistically: Grealish - Watkins - Bowen Maddison - Palmer Phillips Lewis - Colwill - Dunk - Trippier Pope

I think where he’s made some mistakes this season, understandably so considering the lack of consistency in any position, some of your fans have jumped on him. But I think he’s been decent overall, not a world beater, but a good utility man who can put in a good shift wherever he plays.

Two great strikes but City should be 3-1 up before Foden scores. Not sure what Ten Hag is complaining about, clear dive from Rashford, lucky not to get a yellow. Even then, game probably should have been stopped moments earlier to give Evans a yellow for timewasting.

Yes the man who has not played football for months on end will be back to full fitness straight away. But 4 in 7 is exactly the record that gets him 20 a season.