Useful Idiot

Pretty poor players result in a pretty poor performance. Austin and Long pretty much showing the strongest parts of their games again up front. Romeu is a holding midfielder not a box to box player and doesn't really have the legs to perform such a role. Stephens and Hoedt were actually pretty decent again. Lemina was good. Cedric was OK, Bertrand was pretty poor. Both wide players seem to lack speed of thought both in and out of possession. Slow to make decisions and generally want too many touches. Ings looks worse now than he did after he'd just arrived. Gabbi snatching at chances a bit, but still more effective than either of the non-footballers we like to play up front. I think the formation isn't the best, but the players are the real problem. Not sure anyone else could get more out of them.

Great defending by Austin there

Austin is having a great half. Well worth his place.

4-4-2 Lots of people on here were asking for it over the last few seasons, and now we have it. I think it leaves our defence exposed and gives up midfield too easily, but there you go. I think we'll have to ride out luck a lot to get anything while we play that formation. Hope that I'm proved wrong and that we manage to string a few passes together at some point.

Turkish's post is the most sensible thing I've read on here for a while.

You mean "Boring yet we scored more and created more while having the weakest squad" Puel

Great finish by Hoedt there

3-4 years ago i'd have agreed with you. Now I think there are a whole host of players who would walk into our team. Most of Watford's team is better than our's. Fulham's front 3 look more dangerous and Seri is at least as good as anything we have in midfield, Bournemouth's forward line + Frazer (even their terrible CBs look better than ours do), Brighton's defence, Newcastle's CBs and Shelvey, most of Leicester's squad, Palace have Zaha, a solid defence and good central midfielders, Wolves look strong throughout, Burnley's goalkeepers and CBs along with Cork in midfield are better than we have. Most of Everton's team is probably better than our's as well. We miss a player to change games, a leader in the midfield and guts throughout.

I dislike the way we surrender the midfield in every game, especially against teams with less quality in that department. I dislike the way our defence is so open. I dislike that we are not creating many high-quality chances. Lots of half-chances but few good ones. I dislike the fact we drop too deep when defending a lead.

2/10 Giving up midfield, rarely stringing more than a couple of passes together in the opposition half, completely disorganised defence, and shockingly weak character through the team. Look like a bunch of scared rabbits whenever anyone tries to get at us at all.

My two most disliked teams playing against each other. Against anyone else I'd want Spurs to lose, but this time I'm hoping that they nick it with. VVD own goal in the 93rd minute.

He is an immensely talented footballer who has the ability to turn a game in an instant. He's also got great movement. He had a few bad games along the way, but the stick he got for them was hard to believe. Koeman had a really great squad of players to work with and with a touch of luck could probably have won something with them. After Puel arrived the quality we had in the team took an immediate nosedive. I'm glad we have Ings now, as he provides something of what we lost when Mane left and I think our squad is probably overall marginally better than it has been for the past two seasons. I just hope it's enough to push us back to winning more than we draw and losing a couple less. I'm still a bit concerned that the team as a whole seems to be very fragile mentally. Need to get on a run and pick up a few points, if we can do that I think their confidence levels will get back to where they should be. Elyounoussi has a great range of passing and a good shot on him. Think after he scores or sets up a couple he'll shine. He's not the quickest over the ground but he could turn out to be a proper wide playmaker in the Payet/Tadic mould.

I don't think he'd like being called Danish much. He's from Norway, after all...

To be honest, I'd rather Long either started if fully fit or was rested if not. I don't think he's particularly useful as a sub in a match where we should have a decent share of the ball and our opponents will be hard to break down. If Austin's hamstring is doubtful in any way, I wouldn't risk him either. He doesn't need the chance to pull up injured for a month. Personally, I think if we go two up top they should be Ings and Gabbiadini and we should put Gallagher on the bench.

Chilwell is young and looks promising. Rose has been pretty poor most of the time I've seen him play. Not great defensively and prone to lapses in concentration. Quite good going forward, though. Bertrand's suffering from getting close to being too old to play in the next World Cup and I think that's what Southgate's looking to build towards.

That is an excellent finish, placed it past the keeper with power and precision.

This might depend how many free shots on goal we give Salah this time around. We seemed terrified to close him down last year.

Delighted with the win. Have to admit I was bricking it after Austin missed the spot kick and we started to drop deeper and deeper. PEH played very well, as did Long who I am normally not a fan of. Ings took his goal well and the defence somehow kept the ball out after a very nervy last half-hour. Well done to the team, and I hope this gives them some confidence going into the next match!

Think we've been pretty dire, actually. We've created no clear cut chances and we look toothless up front against a Palace side which has offered nothing except for a few Benteke dives. Long has worked hard and held the ball up well, Ings has been on the periphery of the match. Hoj has had a couple of long shots but apart from that we've not tested their keeper as much as their own defence has. It seems our plan is to whip in crosses for Long and hope for the best. No interchanges of passing to try to break their defence open, just driven crosses and hope for a flick on. Not convinced by it at all, to be honest. I'm hoping for a bit more movement in the final third in the second half.

Depends ho much they love the club. Zaha seems to thrive on being the main man and has already tried out UTD and things didn't work out for him there. Maybe he's just more loyal than the mercenaries that wanted to use Saints as a stepping stone?

Without Zaha in their side, Palace didn't win a single game last year. He changes games. He completes an incredible number of dribbles. He causes defenders to panic. Sessegnon has great natural movement and composure and, from what I've seen, strikes a football very well. He's good at recovering possession but doesn't seem to have Zaha's blistering pace or the same ability to take players on. Other than sometimes playing in the same position, they don't really have much in common. At the moment, Zaha is the more dangerous player, though Sessegnon has time to reach or surpass him in time.

Armstrong is more a natural 8 than a 10. Played most of his games as a forward-thinking central midfielder rather than as a playmaker.

Ref doing a good job of helping UTD out

He played a lot of his games at right wing back, though.