I like your optimism but personally I don’t think this is some deliberate master plan to reserve our energy for the run in. I think it’s just opposition teams sitting deep against us that’s stifling our attack

This is true and I’ve often heard City games described as boring to watch, but their chance creation metrics are better than ours. It’s definitely something Mikel needs to figure out

Look, he wasn’t playing to the standard of a £65m player. He’s surely not playing to the standard of a £275k per week player. He’s a nice lad with a good attitude but let’s get real, this signing made & makes no sense at all

I mean, is it that bizarre?

Guardiola replaced Hart with Bravo who he then binned and signed Ederson.

Klopp replaced Mignolet with Karius who he then binned and replaced with Alisson.

Sign Koopmeiners in January 🙏

In all the games he’s played so far? I’d wager at least 1

This season feels a bit like deja vu.

• Last season we tried Eddie as the 9 for a while, he had some good games but overall we were worse with him in front. So played Trossard as a false 9 and looked much better

• This season we tried Eddie as the 9 for a while, he had some good games but overall we are worse with him in front. So now we’re playing Trossard as a false 9 again and have looked much better

I actually don’t hate this as a cheaper alternative to Toney. Could be a really astute signing.

Still I expect us to maybe sign a midfielder and that’s it this January

It’s more that Raya is not a clear upgrade, which he needed to be in order to justify his purchase

We’ve seen Rice step out of the block to receive the ball either from CB positions or from wide areas multiple times already this season because we have no space in the middle.

Not sure I agree with this. I think Rice steps out of the block because he’s not (yet) comfortable receiving the ball back-to-goal/on the half-turn like Partey is. It’s not something he was tasked with at West Ham.

Yeah as long as both are fit I don’t see this as a problem lol

I’m not a goalkeeping coach by any means, but I don’t think I’ve seen Raya do anything that Ramsdale couldn’t do

I miss last season when we were all just thrilled that we weren’t shit anymore

The point is though the Raya signing only makes sense if Raya is a clear upgrade. I’ll admit I’ve been too quick to judge and he needs more time but so far he is definitely not an upgrade.

He’s positioned beyond the near post. If the cross wasn’t spoofed we were still in a heap of trouble

Paqueta would have been a dream signing imo

Xhaka was/is better then any of our current options at LCM so we didn’t stand still we went backwards

Yikes bro. Relax, it’s a bit of bad form. In the short time he’s been with us he’s scored against Tottenham (twice), Chelsea (twice) and United (twice). Don’t let rival fans’ narrative cloud your perception.

Offered zero attacking threat around the box last night, created absolutely nothing too. In the end he scored when he was moved back to #6 and from 40 yards out 🤷‍♂️

He’s played DM his whole career, we should play to his strengths imo

I’m totally unconvinced by Rice as an #8 and last night reaffirmed that 🤷‍♂️ Play him as a #6 and pick one of Vieira / Havertz / ESR / Trossard at LCM