Pretty sure I said the summer mercato was not good enough.

You're always right, Danny.

I detect mild sarcasm!

For me Pioli is the problem. Not the players.

The midfield right now has a big hole that we should have filled but otherwise we're fine in all the other areas.

The muscle injuries are typical under this coach. His staff should have been fired even before him. But he is our biggest problem. Look at Empoli today against Inter. Arguably the worst side in the league. They've held their own and a wonder strike is the only difference between them. While we got mauled 5-1 in a carbon copy game of all our previous ones against them this year. It is not rocket science.

For me, we have the 2nd best squad in the league. Inter are the deepest both in quantity and in quality. Napoli have become worse, Juve same as last year. And the Roman clubs are just not there imo.

Yes, there's more to do. But in terms of one summer window. A lot has been done.

And so far we've won 4/5. The Inter game is the one that smarts the most, but combine that with yesterday's game, they reek of Pioli's incompetence and limitations

I still do not understand why we went so gung ho on investments without removing the root-cause of the problems we had last season; which is a coach that has reached his limits and won't take us any further than he already has.

Or he could just use our best defence?

Florenzi, Kjear, Tomori and Theo. That might help.

PS Newcastle destroyed Sheffield, the EPL equivalent of Empoli 8-0 today.

I stand by the Geordies being a big problem in this group.

That's not something to brag about if they're the Empoli of the league

I go by what I saw against us and the other games I watched against better opposition.



Disagree about Kjaer being good enough to start. He's done. We saw what happened against Inter and it will keep happening against any attackers who have any sort of pace. Thiaw is the future. Sure there will be errors. He's still very young and learning the ropes. But he's got everything to be a top CB

I wasn't? I was relating that to you pointing out how hard they pushed Inter (who this forum seems to think are a top side), while England's version gets lamped 8-0 by Newcastle who you personally think aren't a good team.



You know no one on the pitch had more defensive contributions than Kjaer? He made 10 tackles/blocks/interceptions, won every single one bar one of his duels (both ground and aerial, 6 of 7) and wasn't dribbled past or beaten even once.
I even remember him flat out lying on the floor intercepting because no one else could do it.



Thiaw won 2 of his 6 duels, was beaten/dribbled past at least once, and had 3 less defensive contributions than Kjaer.

He's weak and mediocre, and Tomori is a tonne better, he and Kjaer worked great before, to suggest the latter is finished ignores the facts.

I stand by what I said.

Thiaw is miles better than Kjaer. The only good thing Kajer has going is his experience, but other than that the guy is finished. He can barely run.

Thiaw unfortunately had the bad luck of facing a fast player like Thuram, who should have been marked by Tomori/Kalulu, but both of them were not available.

But make no mistake, for a 22 year old Thiaw is impressive. He's the future of our and Germany's defence.

Interesting starting 11 for today. Looking forward for adili and oakafor

If Newcastle are so impressive then how come they did absolutely nothing against us?

Shots on target 8-1
Shots off target 11-3
Blocked shots 7-2
Corner kicks 6-1

I mean, come on. Those are rookie numbers. And we're not exactly a dominant team in the very sense of it.

They're a decent side, but far inferior to us and PSG. And their inexperience in Europe was evident.

Can't say speak for Dortmund cos I don't watch the Bundesliga.

Yep. For the first time in a while I am very much liking our starting 11, especially the midfield. A quality midfield for once.

That was a PK wasn't it?

My god, if Krunic is considered slow, then Adli is Krunic in slow motion. Maybe Pioli was always right about him.

Our players are too static. There is zero danger in our attacking manoeuvre.

I restate my opinion, Pulisic is absolute trash.

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