I don't want them to win the Scudetto against us. That would be the big shame badge added to the season if we allow that. I think their draw against Cagliari today means that they have to win against us to make it mathematically a done deal. So just do everything to not let them win!

As for the Roma game, I don't think we should start with 4 attackers. Although RLC does make it feel that way anyway with how far up the pitch he's playing. But the fact that we don't have a natural DM leaves us too wide open in the middle to do this against a decent side.

We all know Okafor should start. But Pioli trusts in Giroud way too much. And he will rely on him again, and this time, he'll probably cost him his job.

Today again with a huge miss. His touches and hold up have been complete @ss lately.

Okafor is so versatile, quick, can interchange with the wingers, and he's been coming up clutch all season. We have to go with him in attack.

Puli or Chuck on the right doesn't matter to me, both are playing well. Actually gutted for Chuk today, a grand total of 1 inch combined in both offisde goals. The 2nd one for me was criminal. Should have stood.

Also, agreed about Pioli. I let the good moment and the fear of the unknown cloud my better judgment.

You are right, he must be given his marching orders at the end of the season, no matter what happens in the EL. We've reached the end of his cycle ang keeping him would just be beating a dead horse.

If we manage to keep Theo and Leao for another season, I want a manager who will get the best out of them. And that is not Pioli.

I think the Roma game is 95% tactics and 5% clamming up in the big moment. We've played big games before and did the job. As you said, a novice out-smarted Pioli's one dimensional set-up.


3-3 against Sassuolo, we can thank our lucky stars that it wasn't another big embarrassment. Kjaer and Thiaw man. The defensive phase has been appalling all season, mostly thanks to our wide open midfield. But Kjaer should retire, he's done. And Thaiw, not even a shadow of the player who burst onto the scene last season. Thinking he was a one hit wonder at this point. Thank god he's out against Inter with that yellow he got today.

We're actually staring down the barrel of an Inter Scudetto win in the derby and I honestly cannot face it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)


Let's see how we recover against Roma. No excuses. We should win that. If De Rossi neuters Pioli again...

One final though. Giroud... Thanks for the memories, but he should not be starting games anymore. He's been terrible for a while now, even his hold up has been sh!t. Okafor has shown that he can play there. Just give him the minutes, we all know Giroud is gone at the end of the season anyway.

Absolutely terrible today. Not to mention that fact that he's cost us big time during this season's entire European campaign. The misses against Newcastle, the penalty miss against Dortmund and that huge miss today all come blaring back into focus. I mean that one today, it was harder to do what he did than to actually score it.

Anyway, we've been sleeping our way through this competition, the only decent game we played was that first leg in the first round, all the rest we've basically rode our luck, had Slavia not gotten those yellows, we'd have probably already bowed out, and we were lucky to hold on in the 2nd leg in France.

Pioli is such a sh!t KO coach. We keep getting booted out of the Copa against sh!t teams each year. Were exceptionally lucky in the CL last season and every other try we had the EL under him we went out with a whimper

Forget what I said. You are right, mother f@cker needs to go

How do you play the most important game of your season like THIS???

Against Roma of all f@cking teams FFS!! They've been our b!tch for over 4 years now.

How are Giroud and RLC still on the pitch. Giroud with the miss of the season, when he should not have even been on the pitch by that point FFS!

An absolutely disgusting display, and Pioli asleep on that bench. Theo, Leao... Where the f@ck were they???

Another season down the f@cking drain. Giroud needs to see the bench next game, but obviously Pioli won't do that, same this with RLC.



Btw, not to make excuses but the refereeing killed us here. Their goal should have never come from that corner. Lukaku f@cking miles offside right next to the linesman, how could he not have seen that FFS!

Last game against Roma we used Kjaer and Gabbia. Lukaku did not get a sniff.

Thiaw has plantar fasciitis apparently so I doubt he'll be fit to play. And I personally wouldn't trust him to play this game atm, even if he was fit

I would assume that he will go Isma-Reijnders against Roma, he just rotated Isma out since he's more delicate than Tijjani.

As for the defence, I hope It's Gabbia-Kjaer. Gabbia has been great since coming back, especially when playing next to Kjaer. On the other hand, Thiaw has looked like he needs to relearn how to play football again since coming back from injury. The f@ck ups he's committing are truly bad. And Gabbia loses all his confidence when playing with him as well. So Kjaer is the obvious choice there and I assume is why he was given a few minutes yesterday as well.

Assist aside, he's always underwhelming to me.

His supposed best trait is his passing, and he rarely opens up play, switches play with quick/long passes. Always goes the easy route, holds the ball for far too long and makes dangerous speculative decisions, especially when playing so deep.

Agreed, but had chuk put his head down he's have taken a terrible hit with the studs. Very dangerous. Should have just been a yellow though

Chukwueze starting to show what he can do

I just don't see us spending big money unless 1 player is sold. Sure the finances look good, that's because the club has been run very shrewdly by Elliot and even more so now by RedBird.

The DM is one of the main reasons our defensive stats have been closer to bottom table numbers than top. We just don't have any control in midfield.

Bennacer was best as well when he had a more defensive player next to him in Kessie. He's not someone that can hold down the fort by himself imo.

I don't know where you saw the Mike wage demands rumour debunked. But as I said, if he's not renewed by August, he should be sold. We've gone down this road before.


The more I think on Conte, the less I wan him here. Motta would be a very interesting choice, but I can see Juve going in for him quickly

And yes, the Pioli change of opinion is results based, but everything is like that in football. We've gone through some very difficult moments and he's managed to keep the players on his side. We've gone through some really tough times as of late and now we're through to the other side. The grass is not always greener and I worry about who we might appoint instead of him.

The issue with Maignan for example is that we have to renew his deal this summer or he should be sold. He wants big wages and he's had issues with his performances this season, not to mention he's had one big injury each season he's been with us.

We cannot give him more than Leao/Theo imo. A GK can be replaced and is not worth f@cking up the entire salary structure over.

We might be in a healthy situation now, but things could easily slide if we are not vigilant. I'd personally sell Mike this summer if he does not renew by August.

We can think big while also being realistic, a relegated side in the PL will make more this season than Inter who will win the Serie A.

Tonali last summer was a smart decision, we can do the same with another player this summer. Otherwise we're not going to spend like we did last summer

I agree, the core is good, and we must renew Theo's deal at all costs, but we need to sign a top CF and a top DM next summer imo, and those are 2 of the most expensive positions to fill in football.

I think a DM is far more important than a RB, but that's just me. We lost points in games like the ones against Napoli and conceded so many goals this season because we do not have a proper DM who can control the play. Bennacer has not been the same since coming back, we have to be honest with ourselves on that one, plus he's very injury prone and not dependable.


You know I have been a huge proponent to the PioliOut brigade, but I must confess that I've been re-thinking my position on that. The managerial marry-go-round this summer is going to be ridiculous, with many top teams potentially looking to change managers (Liverpool, United, Chelsea, Barcelona, Bayern, Juve). I don't think we can be competitive in that market. Pioli has made me insanely angry for a while now, but he seems to have held the team together and kept the players behind him even through the real worst of times.

We're improving in our play and our form has been impeccable since the turn of the year, the only blemish being that Monza game where Jovic f@cked us over.

I think if the management give him a top CF and a DM, we'll be very competitive with him as our coach next season

Inter have been unreal this year, I think the season they're having is a one off. Yes, we f@cked up games we shouldn't have, and once again we were in an injury crises of our own making which contributed to said f@ck ups.

But, we made a lot of changes this summer an Pioli took it in stride and matched his best season with us so far, which ended with a title.

Pioli will still be under contract next season, I think we should let him have another season, with the right upgrades, I think he can deliver again.

And I never thought I'd say this after January 2023

What a goal Theo.

Man, if we have to sell anyone from the "big 3" this summer, it better not be him!

Maignan would be my pick

We've never seen him get a run of 2 games though. All stop start, comes on when we're not actively attacking anymore in mist games.

I'd like to see him given a chance under a different coach

Agreed re Bennacer and Reijnders. I don't understand what Pioli sees. RLC is good at carrying and putting himself about but his decision making is atrocious.

Musah I like him a lot, but we need to figure out how best to use him. When he plays in midfield he ends up too wide and he leaves a lot of wide open spaces. I don't understand why he's considered a DM. e's not disciplined in his positioning. Same with RLC, he's great at carrying the ball but he needs to improve on his positioning/decision making.

Our biggest problem this season has been that we cannot control the game through our midfield and our midfield doesn't cover the defense either when we don't have the ball. That is why we're conceding almost as much as a relegation side. For me this is all down to the coaching. Especially now with Benna back there are no excuses. I said in the summer, we're going to spend all this money and neglect the most crucial role in the squad, all because Pioli wanted to give the keys to Krunic. We conceded the season before it even started because of that.


I love Puli as well, but for me, Rafa is a top top player. And I disagree that he lets the off-field stuff distract. We play a system where he's constantly put in positions where he's double or triple teamed. Someone on twitter posted a vid of Arteta explaining how best to use the wide players by making the extra pass so they can get free. We never do this. We constantly feed the ball to our wingers when they still have 2 players ahead of them.

If we can get the right coach to free up both Leao and Pulisic/Chuk, we'll cook next season. We need someone like an Arteta/Spaletti/Sarri. Someone who knows how to get the team playing in a way that makes the best use of our wings by utilising the midfield properly in the build-up.

He rotated the midfield. And had that red card not happened we'd have probably lost that tie the way we were playing

I'm sorry, but Adli cannot be a starter against teams who press us. He's such a huge liability.

Musah and RLC as well were all over the place. We practically play without a midfield. Bennacer at least gives us structure.

We are riding our luck FFS

The sh!ttiest red card given to Slavia again. Feel sorry for them

Meanwhile we lose Mike to the stupidest back pass you'll see in a good while.

Our heads are not in these games. I do not understand how we could approach these games with such lack of concentration and effort. It's the only silverware we can win and we're throwing it away

F@ck Pioli!!!

Pioli once again f@cking up the rotation, while making Pulisic play again

Because he plays one way, and while it is very easy on the eyes. It is also susceptible to the usual reaming.


For me Motta is the more dynamic of the 2.

No De Zerbi pls.

Motta would be my pick

Conte makes me worry a bit but I'd take him

Sarri as well

A 4-2 win, a 2 goal lead going into the 2nd leg, and it feels like a loss FFS! Even the players looked like we had lost...

Unbelievable what t has boiled down to.

You just know we're going to lose all the battles, get pegged back and concede more than once in the 2nd leg. If we make it through, it will be by the skin of our teeth. We just cannot control games and as a consequence of that, we cannot defend either


Btw, Pioli needs to stop playing Kjaer now. Thanks for the service, and he's saved us these last 3 months considering we had no other defenders. But not that the others are back he should not be starting. Mistakes in each game, cannot keep up anymore.

Why was Gabbia taken off anyway? He's been excellent since coming back and it's not like he's played a lot this season. Just Pioli things FFS!

That midfield needs to be sorted out. How can a professional coach who has won titles not look at this midfield and how we're constantly exposed and backtracking, not look at these games and see that we have a bad shape??

The midfield is stretched wide and high. It's f@cking obvious. I just cannot wait to face a better side. We'll get reamed. Already having nightmares about when we have to face Inter as Champions.

How can you concede twice while having an extra man?

Unbelievable how sh!t we've been at defending

We need to push to have at least a 2 goal lead for the 2nd leg. Otherwise we'll get KO'd

Now let's watch him run the likes of Giroud, Leao, Pulisic, RLC into the ground and then we rest them all at the same time against Empoli and we lose precious league points for absolutely no reason.

Lazio in general are dumbasses


Case in point re midfield and general match control is tonight's game


Slavia were the better team before that red (deserved? Maybe. Not sure). How can we be aiming to win this competition playing like this against one of the worst sides left in the tournament?

Just ridiculous how we cannot control games. Even a man up, we somehow let them put pressure on us, force a corner and score.


Nah man. This season can't be over fast enough. Pioli is done!