Sounds nice. Maybe too nice.
Correction - 14.27 cameo
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This match will be intense. So we will need a team that can show them what intensity means. For me the midfield 3 starts with Fab, Hendo and Keita. Jota over Bobby. And Robbo over Tsimikas.
1-0 to the mighty Reds.
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Lots of talk that Chelsea may be team to beat this year. I’d love to go out and give them a good curb stomping. Might be aiming high, but that’s what I want.
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Should be a tight game, but when the teams are set out there isn’t a single one of their players I’d take over one of ours. We’re better all over the pitch. That doesn’t guarantee the win. It’s football. But this idea that they are suddenly the best teams in the country is nonsense IMO.
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If everyone fit and available…
…Alisson…
TAA… Matip… VVD… Robbie
…FAB…
…Hendo… Thiago…
Salah…Mane
…D. Jota…
Rather have that experience in midfield… Thiago was considered world class when we got him… It’s a Huge Match… Want him in instead of Naby.
Jota can’t be dropped.
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Tuchel does have form of shitting the bed against Klopp so I wonder.
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Chelsea are massively overrated.
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Fabinho and Robbo to come in for Elliot and Tsimikas the only change I’ll be making.
Expect Klopp to surprise us.
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I get the impression that people actually think we are the underdogs for this. That’s great - I’ll take that. 
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I asked this specifically of @KeillRandor earlier in the thread, and without turning it into Thiago vs Keita…
Everyone fit, what is our best 3.
Keita has so much about him, the promise of exceptional talent with an injury free run or Thiago, world class?
Or both? With Hendo or Fabinho at 6.
Or neither with Elliot or Jones in?
Amazing dilemmas that we should be salivating over, instead of seeking minute faults in players performances at the start of a long season…(boiled my piss seeing Thiago in the same sentence as Lucas for instance).
On reflection…
On Saturday vs Chelsea I would play Fabinho, Thiago and Keita with Hendo on at 60 mins for either to protect our 2-0 lead…
Fucking brilliant position to be in, all these choices and still we “need” to sign a midfielder!
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The midfield needs to be
Hendo Fab Naby I think
Jota also needs to start
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… and we are underrated, good!
TBF from what I have seen there’s 3 real class teams that stand out at the beginning of this season, Man City (even if they did lose against Spurs they controlled that game), Chelsea and us. So beating Chelsea would be fantastic however it won’t be the end of the world either if we don’t. There’s still a long way to go and remaining in the course is what counts.
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Fab , Hendo and Thiago for me. That’s why we moved heaven and earth to get him here and that’s our best midfield. Keita has had two ok games without getting himself injured after three seasons of nothingness. To suggest that he is somehow now a better alternative than Thiago is mind-blowing to me.
These are going to give us a real game , no doubt about that. But with the late kick off at Anfield and the crowd in full voice we’re as good as one up before it even starts.
Oh , and all this bullshit about Lukaku . Don’t people remember that he was that immobile lump who stood up front for Utd a couple of years ago and wasn’t deemed good enough by OGS ! Let’s see how much change he gets out of Virgil on Saturday. My guess : Not much.
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Just our biggest hurdle yet. I think we all know we can beat Chelsea however we also know Chelsea can beat us.
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Looks good to me. I’m not quite sure who best to put next to Hendo but we want experience for this one.
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I am looking at it the other way, and that a win, which we should be doing at home, would give us a big boost and knock Chelsea back a peg. Great time to put them back in their place and change the media narrative early of it being a two-horse race between City and Chelsea.
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Just had a look at Shed end forum and they aren’t overly optimistic, the way City and United fans typically are against us, no matter what. They do believe they have a chance to get something from this game, given the quality they finally have.
Interestingly, most have given up because Anthony Taylor is the ref…
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Fuck media narratives.
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My point with Lucas is that there were so many games where we were winning comfortably and then Lucas would come on for the last 15 and do his damndest to give the opposition a chance to pull one back, through fouls around the edge of the box, or losing possession in key areas. This was similar to the effect when Thiago came on. I would have hoped that nobody with a shred of intelligence would have believed that I was comparing the ability of the two players. The whole point of mentioning his debut match was to underline that we all know that he is a world class player because we have seen it in all it’s glory. But as happens all too often in here, words and their meanings are taken wholly out of context from the point being made.
My wider point, was that we shouldn’t be afraid of calling a spade a spade. If Thiago was off the pace for his 15 minute cameo, he’ll be the first to admit it. Pointing out when someone had a bad performance (either relative to the rest of the team, to their own usual performance or just in general) shouldn’t be automatically seen as anything more than it is.
Doesn’t mean the player is crap or should be dropped, but there should be no issue in questioning the merits of starting him in a big game against Chelsea. If he is off the pace, is this the right game to bring him back? We should be able to have that conversation.If you’re only supposed to pick the best 11 regardless of injury, fitness or form, then what’s the point of a pre-match thread since everyone will have the same players in their line-up.
Yes Thiago is a world class player, if he is fit then we should probably have him in the team this week. But questioning if he’s ready or should we stick with Keita for another week should not been seen as a slight on the player. It isn’t a case of seeking minute faults about players, it’s having an intelligent informed debate on which midfield to go with. Or at least it should be.
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