Hi Soc

I would bring Torreira in rather than Xhaka. Liverpool will start at a ferocious pace and the game could be quite frenetic for a while. I'd favour Torreira over Willock in those circumstances especially with the other two midfielders also being very young.

Morning Socrates. I know what you say is the logical way of looking at today’s game. But I can’t help feeling cautiously optimistic. We are going to have to play well defensively as well as offensively. From what I’ve seen of him on YouTube I found it impossible to judge how good a defender Tierney is, simply because every single clip had him attacking. In domestic matches I don’t suppose Celtic have an awful lot of defending to do, so I can understand that. But Monreal has been a fine defender for a long time now, and I was pleased to see him return to something like his old form against Burnley.

Celtic in their first 2 games of the SPL season won 7-0 and 5-2. Then they came up against the giants of Cluj and conceded 5 goals over 2 legs. Defence rarely seems to be tested and so we won't know about Tierney and his defensive abilities. Until he has played a number of games in the EPL team and other managers get to look for his weakness we don't know if he is good enough. I share your concern of his abilities. Monreal will not be able to play a full season without a rest and so he had better be everything that has been promised.

As for Liverpool game - a good performance is what i hope for.

I heard from a friend in the media that he has 24 hour police protection. It's a really serious situation allegedly. Not sure how that tallies with him training though. I don't know how they got caught up in this gang thing but it's really heavy stuff apparently.

Well that’s sub optimal.

That seems way more than a simple car jacking. Seems like he was targeted. That's crazy.

Chelsea

They’re winning!

Lampard ekes one out.

So far, I'm not impressed by Lamps. Was at 2-2 for a while. Their defense is a leaky bucket. Took them over an hour to get the goal. Hopefully we can finally start dominating them again. Fingers crossed.

C'mon Palace

Gonna miss Nacho
https://metro.co.uk/2019/08/24/nacho-mo ... d-10624249

PS: Hang on Palace!

So Čech was instrumental in Luiz coming go us?
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... -Petr-Cech

1 Leno
15 Maitland-Niles
23 David Luiz
5 Papastathopoulos
18 Monreal
29 Guendouzi
34 Xhaka
28 Willock
19 Pépé
14 Aubameyang
8 Ceballos

Substitutes
7 Mkhitaryan
9 Lacazette
11 Torreira
21 Chambers
24 Nelson
26 Martínez
31 Kolasinac

Referee:
Anthony Taylor - will decide who wins and who loses. Hope VAR is working ok we're gonna need it today methinks.

Man Utd

i'm reading Pépé and Dani to start.

MU falter at home. Nice

All the best everyone!

Liverpool come out like a train, pressing us high and fast. Who could possibly see that happening!!?

The diamond midfield is quite risky with Liverpool’s main threat often being their full backs

I mean we didn’t concede after 10 minutes. I think I’m happy.

Nervous stuff this

This passing out of defence is killing me. Why don't we vary it. Try t catch them out ith a long ball upfield.

Great run from Pépé, poor finish

Where's VAR when you need it.................

Has our defence got further forward than our 18 yard line yet???

Some of you might disagree but I thought that was a cowardly performance. Talk about park the bus. It was like we felt inferior and played like a bottom of the table club hoping to nick a goal on the break.

If I was Emery I would be ashamed for my team to play in such a gutless manner.

Zero composure when we do get possession under pressure.

The two Liverpool fullbacks have the freedom of the park.

The only one who looked decent was Pépé and he missed a real chance.

Ceballos is struggling. So is Pépé & Aubameyang & most of the team. Lacking confidence. Come on Emery, do your stuff.

Agree with you, very cowardly display

Should have bagged one first half.

Certainly can see your point. I was waiting for us to weather the opening salvo and then grow into the game. They weathered alright after 15 minutes or so but never got any kind of foothold. I feel like we need more in midfield on those second balls. If we could sub on good Torreira for Xhaka I’d say we need that. Ceballos has been anonymous.

Pépé should have scored- bad miss. Then fair enough Liverpool score, they deserve the lead. But we’re not finished yet, we can definitely score but we can’t go two down, so it’s a balancing act now.

I completely agree. Awful tactics from Emery and no attempt whatsoever to try and gain any kind of control of the game. Wrong starting 11 and wrong tactics. Unless he changes it, this could be a hammering.

And it is not serving any purpose. We are too slow when moving it forward.

Feel like he’s gambled a little on Ceballos putting in a possession keeping performance and playing out from the back and it hasn’t worked. I agree he needs to change something

Its all over

Hmm. If Mustafi had done that we’d have slagged him off rotten.

Luiz, you muppet!!!!