Agreed on this. He's still our most dangerous outlet though. We just need Rebic and Diaz back to take the focus off him.

If Rebic is back for Toro Pioli needs to consider playing Leao as an AM like he did last season when both Diaz and Hakan were out. Krunic is a no-go right now

After Torino on Tuesday we have Roma away, Porto at home and Inter at home. We really need to get back as many players as possible. Rebic, Theo and Brahim in primis.

Theo tested negative today

Excellent news. Wouldn't be surprised to see him against Toro. We are that desperate

@Han - Leao our most dangerous outlet? Man have you seen him yesterday second half? Bar that fluke goal he scored he went MIA and never returned. We were up by 2 man, Ibra tried everything, almost all of our players at least tried and failed (mostly), but Leao simply just wasn't there. No man, he's not our most dangerous outlet, he's the most unpredictable. But yesterday already shows how you can table that "clutch player" overreaction for quite some time.

@X-O - Ibra is garbage? Oh come on, let's be honest. He's 40, he's very rusty and injury prone. This is probably his last season and all problems are very visible. But to say he's garbage... that's really uncalled for. In his worst performance the man scored (even twice haha) and made an assist. No man, Ibra is good to have and valuable, if fit.

Re Han: I think one of our biggest problems in recent games was the midfield situation. Not only do we lack Diaz or a quality AM who can do his job, but also Kessie started the season rather badly, Bennacer is awfully inconsistent even during games (the last few matches he made some horrendous unforced mistakes and stupidities), Tonali seems to be dropping in for as well (Pioli subbed him off rightly because he was going to get a second yellow for sure) while Bakayoko seems to need more time to recuperate and get back where he was with us two seasons ago (even though last night he provided the pass for Bennacer's goal).

Buy what? What Kessie goal are you talking about?

ManUtd won on experience. Experienced and well rounded teams tend to do so. Half of the knockout games Milan won during Carletto's reign or even with Capello were such performances, decided by episodes, games were we had nothing on our opposition yet managed to hold onto the brilliance of Kaka, Pippo, Sheva, Serginho or whoever was in the right mood.

So you say the details, the real treasure of football is luck and episodes? This you call details? Man, I really don't follow you. I acknowledge all your interpretations. But in the end, you tend to choose one episode and use it as a pars pro toto argument, which is false. Milan got robbed by Cakir, there's not denial there. But this is something you cannot influence, this goes down to what you say - luck. But could have Kessie used his brain and avoid fouling with already a yellow card on his shoulders? Could Milan have defended like Bologna against us for the better part of the game and not like some shaky scared bunch of players who stopped doing anything but defending their box? Yes. More could have been done. Experience is what we needed. The botttom line to this CL campaign will be "experience needed, experience gained" and not "we should have won bot got robbed every time".

He's been hugely important in all our wins, and that is very far from an over reaction as he's been involved heavily in our goal scoring. Especially in these last few games when we didn't have Rebic and Diaz, we wouldn't have won the games if he wasn't on the pitch. And that is a fact

I concede that today he lacked his usual input, I thought he would grow into the game after the goal. Against Porto we simply couldn't bring him into the game as we barely were able to get the ball past the midfield.

What's important for me with Leao is that I see the willingness to improve, not just his attacking game, but his overall contribution to our pressing game, which he has done this season (this game aside - tiredness is also creeping in with a lot of our players and this is a factor into our dip as well)


Agreed about the midfield

We haven't see any consistency so far this season. Once again, another area were we continuously have players coming in and out of the squad. We're always changing the double pivot as well rather than having the set 2 as it ideally should be. We just need some consistency and the performances will come imo.

Both Tonali and Benna are better next to Kessie. Bakayoko can fill that role but he's another player that needs to recover match fitness + having the added issue of needing to integrate into a new team. We really need to find a solution for Kessie by January, we really cannot drag this out to the end of the season, either renew him or sell him in Jan and bring Kamara from Marseille early. This could be the difference between winning the Scudetto and fighting for 4th

Kessie had a regular goal removed for a non-existent hand ball. An away goal at that. We were much better against Man U in that tie. Overall had the better performance and were f@cked over by the ref. Man U were actually quite poor overall and did not deserve to go through ahead of us.

Some good news today

Kessie, Pellegri and Theo all trained with the rest of the team today

Hopefully we'll have Rebic as well for Toro. Fingers crossed

This was my initial comment after the Porto game:



I AM acknowledging everything you say. That this team is not ready for the Champions League just yet. I'm not pointing my finger at episodes and luck as the main reason why we have zero points.

I am claiming however that they are part of the issue. That's it. Tough group, injuries, bad refereeing, these are all factors that cannot simply be ignored. Greece won the Euros in 2004 because everything went their way, not because they had a great and experienced team.

Football is not an exact science, but an amalgamation of many, many factors. That's why the strongest team doesn't always win.



I read Rebic didn't train with the team today, and is in doubt for Toro.

If Rebic becomes available, we need to play him behind Giroud. Otherwise play Tonali or Bennacer as AM. Enough with Krunic!

Hopefully Brahim gets negative as well soon.

Atalanta 1-1 Udinese

Let's just hope Roma-Napoli and Inter-Juve also end up in draws (even though I would fancy very much a Roma win).

Agreed. Although i doubt roma would do well.

Agreed re Roma winning. They don't look good for the long run imo.

Napoli are doing amazing things, but I think they will dip a lot after christmas.

Juve-Inter is the most important one imo. A draw would be best in that one. Juve are gaining ground with their annoying 1-0 wins


This

They haven't been impressive imo this season and their soft centre against the big teams is still there to see, Mourinho hasn't really improved on what Fonseca was doing with them last season. In fact they look even shakier at the back this season


Atalanta's draw means we have a 10 point cushion on 5th. All the points we're taking now will be huge in terms of CL football, especially if we go through bad spells

Yep, Rebic probably won't be available

And I agree re the AM position. However don't think Pioli will go for it.

I want the scudetto (IMG:style_emoticons/default/king.gif)