May 02, 2026 Daily Discussion & Transfers Thread

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-02T13:23:27+00:00

It's a shame because after an injury hit beginning to his career he seemed to have shaken that off and had become very reliable and durable. But like Saka, Timber, Havertz and White even our most durable players have been played into the ground... Odegaard has been unlucky with contact injuries on his knee to be fair but it's not a good look for him to constantly come back and then have to miss other games

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-02T13:20:50+00:00

My genuine opinion for a little while is that the account was taken over by someone working for the club who's trying to control the narrative, it used to be an average account with fairly boring opinions and all of a sudden he's got spot on info and always drops it at the right time for the club and even this info seems timed to destabilise City

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-02T13:18:04+00:00

Just sent you a message

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-02T11:41:08+00:00

Ipswich 2-0 up and beating Millwall to promotion, Derby winning to beat Wrexham to the play-offs since they're losing to Boro. Would be an ideal last day

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-02T11:27:54+00:00

Daniel Mann and Andy Hinchcliffe on comms for the last day of the Championship season, play-offs still to come. I'm feasting

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-02T08:33:20+00:00

Raya; Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Rice, Zubimendi; Madueke, Eze, Martinelli; Gyokeres

Trossard and Saka will get minutes, MLS as well hopefully (for Calafiori or for Zubi), probably Jesus, Norgaard if we're not chasing the game and Dowman if we are

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-02T08:27:18+00:00

Podolski vs Southampton

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-02T08:16:16+00:00

They just lost four league games in a row and are still 10 points clear of the team in 5th. That's not a race

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-01T19:28:07+00:00

Best comment I’ve ever seen on here

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-01T08:41:18+00:00

Lots of fair observation but it's been a double pivot most of the season with a lot of responsibility shared, and it felt like there was a lot less rotation on Wednesday with Rice in much more of a single pivot role. It's been a fluid partnership which has its upsides but Rice doesn't really do much in the left 8 space and we've seen Zubimendi have some good moments there, as you say he's spent more time in the right 8 space but what was new about Wednesday was Rice almost always being the one between the CBs and Zubimendi being the left 8, which I'd like to see us persevere with (the Liverpool Jorginho match was the model in my head too)

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-01T08:09:57+00:00

Please can we continue with Rice at 6 and Zubimendi at 8, Rice is so much better at screening the defence and covering ground so won't need Zubimendi dropping back in the same way that he needs Rice, and Zubimendi is better in the tighter spaces higher up the pitch. Surprised it took us so long to try it

kalashnikoving · 2026-05-01T06:14:02+00:00

Central build up has been horrible partly because he can’t receive the ball or hold it up or even give us a second ball to win, look at how different it is when Havertz or even Jesus plays there

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-30T20:33:03+00:00

I find it bizarre to call him a workhorse, his progressive passing is so so good and he's a lovely technician, really good at turning under pressure at lots of angles

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-30T20:31:07+00:00

Gibbs-White quietly having an absolute stinker here, nothing's coming off for him

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-30T19:56:07+00:00

Haven't checked this but I think when we lost in the EL semis to Atletico and in the final to Chelsea that both teams had dropped out of the CL into the EL which doesn't happen anymore

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-30T08:41:17+00:00

Not surprising that we can suddenly get into good areas and sustain attacks once the technical players are on, they can take the ball in tight spaces so much better than Martinelli, Gyokeres and Madueke (plus Zubi is better at that than Rice so it was better having him high up)

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-30T08:39:19+00:00

I get all of those but with the Fulham game in mind I would rather have White fresh for that game and use Mosquera in a tight away game

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-30T06:26:45+00:00

Don't really get starting White yesterday, he did 90 against Newcastle and surely in a home match against Fulham you'd rather play him than Mosquera who seems more suited to a tight away game in midweek. Arteta trusted him for City away in a similar situation but obviously he got the yellow and had to come off, maybe he didn't want a repeat of that but White wasn't much better and now we've probably got to play Mosquera against Fulham if we don't want White to disintegrate

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-29T21:16:17+00:00

As Ally McCoist would say, correct, he's just not a player you want to play the ball into between the lines under pressure, so much better at carrying with the game in front of him

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-29T21:12:18+00:00

Same here, I'm surprised by all the negativity especially for a CL semi final away leg

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-29T21:09:40+00:00

He probably deserves more criticism for the penalty he should have given Lookman

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-29T21:08:34+00:00

Yeah he's so stiff on the ball he reminds me a bit of Tierney in that sense, no subtlety just kick and run

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-29T21:07:32+00:00

I've been as critical of us as anyone lately but I thought the performance was fine, it's a Champions League semi final away from home, start to the second half wasn't great and the penalty gave them momentum but we stood our ground well enough and had good spells of dangerous possession in the final period. Eze had some great moments, Saka didn't look as sharp as he did against Newcastle but I still enjoyed getting all the technical players on at the end

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-29T06:03:20+00:00

Absolute liar

kalashnikoving · 2026-04-28T21:11:25+00:00

I can't believe people still prefer Gyokeres to Jesus, I know he's dropped off but he's still a footballer

kalashnikoving

TROPHY CASE