striker

Funny, even though we were outscored 2-0 I thought the 2nd half was a lot better for us than the 1st half

At least Swansea are keeping up their side of the bargain.

At least we are showing signs of life now

5-4-1?

We look much better attacking, Lemina needs to come off

Expect to see more of an attacking player come on for Lemina, like Tadic or Redmond

Looked a little better at the end of the half

Thats the game plan, hit Long over the top. Austin is playing deep, and out there for some more scoring punch in the chance we get some possession. Otherwise he's really playing midfield.

Burnley just barely missed the game winner at the whistle. 1-1 Final.

We have a very defensive setup, even with 2 strikers on the pitch. Austin seems to be dropping pretty deep, and the mids are basically our best defending mids.

Hughes got it all wrong. Played the same "counter attack" team that worked against Arsenal and Chelsea, when he needed a much more direct team that can score goals (rather than just punt it to Long and hope). Should have went 2 or 3 upfront with Austin and Long.

Shinji Okazaki, Daniel Amartey, and two others (I forget who)

So it looks like Puel is without 5 players for our match, including his goalie. 6 more injuries and we may be in business.

Putting my Austin bias aside, I'd take Gabbi and Austin over Jay any day (post injury). I'd also think hard about Long over Jay too. Sorry if you like him so much, the stats say he's a low-level PL striker at this point. I bet a lot of players could have done the same, or better, this season at WBA.

I think Hughes will be using players in the roles they succeed in best, there is no time for working with players (so to speak). We have watched these guys for a long time now, and we know (just like Hughes) who is best at what. Lets not kid ourselves. Long is best at the game Hughes played against Chelsea and Arsenal, the counter attack approach. This gives him a lot of space to use the advantage he has, pace. This worked well and Long created problems. He even had a goal. I expect this will be the approach against Man City also. However the next 4 matches should (fingers crossed) allow us to have a lot more possession of the ball, and a lot more in our attacking end. This means less space, more crosses, more direct passes into the box, more scraps around the goal, more corners, etc. This is Austin's world and where he shines. Its also where Long tends to disappear as it minimizes his strengths. That is why I bet Hughes selects Austin upfront. It has nothing to do with how Long has played, he has done exactly what he should have. Its just we have all seen this movie before and there are reasons why he has 2 goals. He isn't suddenly a different player. So no more than you'd want to see Austin leading a counter-attack formation, you really don't want to see Long leading this formation. At this stage you need to play players into their strengths. If Hughes decides to go 2 or 3 upfront, then I'm all for Long being out there (as long as he is ready to go). In fact its a good thing we have two guys who complement each other like Austin and Long.

I think you need to look a level deeper. Jay has been on the pitch all the time, every match, because they have no one else. He has had a lot of opportunities. He has scored 7 PL goals in 2505 minutes (33 games and 27 starts) of playing. That translates to 1 goal every 357 minutes (or roughly every 4 matches). Our guys have been hurt and/or rotated. To be fair lets compare our strikers this season: JRod - 1 goal every 357 minutes Austin - 1 goal every 101 minutes Gabbi - 1 goal every 250 minutes Long - 1 goal every 700 minutes So you can see that both Austin and Gabbi have been more effective thatn JRod, and if given the same playing chances would likely have a lot more goals (especially Austin). Long can't score as we know, but does bring other things to the table that JRod doesn't. So considering his injury, his performance (before and after the trade), and his relationship with the club (sometimes it is just time to move on), I think letting him go was the right thing. I don't think JRod would have added anything to this club.

Newcastle just won 4 in a row I believe, why not us?

Two reasons. First he just went 90+ on Saturday. Second, I think Hughes was playing a different strategy against Arsenal and Chelsea than he will against other teams. In a defend heavily and counter squad, Long is the right choice for obvious reasons. Against others like Leicester, I think Hughes will play a more direct team (if you will). This will include Austin for scoring punch. If he goes two or more up top then yest Long, but I pulled him because I figured with all the running around he does he won't be ready. Long has pace and does make the defenders think, but he is not a scorer. In a slower, more final 3rd based attack, Long is much less effective than in a wide open counter attack

We need 9 points in the next 4 matches to get through. These teams are beatable. Its tough but can be done if we get on a run.

I think Austin, Lemina, Stephens, and Davis if healthy all start. If Hughes wants 2 up top then also Gabbi.

These last two matches were tough, competitive losses to top teams. These past two matches aren't the issue, its all the crap we gave away versus the middle and bottom teams that are killing us. We're not down yet. If we play the same, we can win against any of the next 4 opponents. We still have 12 pts to grab, and IMO 8-9 may do it. I certainly don't want to wait until the last match against Man City to have to get points.

We likely need 9 pts in our next 4 games to stay up (or have a chance too). Not impossible, all these teams are beatable, but draws will not do it

Not replacing Fonte and VVD. Stephens and Yoshida (and Hoedt) are not a PL CB combo. Our play instantly dropped.

Well we pretty much need to get 9 pts out of the next 4 matches or we're down. Really should have had 4 pts from Arsenal and Chelsea.

our D seems to have no real spine. Once something goes wrong they just mentally crumble