qwertyell

There's nothing about Winks. He's scared to pass forwards, can't tackle or head, and has no physicality. "Better than Diallo and Smallbone" isn't really the watermark to measure what would be a club record £25m against. And I think Diallo has more potential in any case.

Well, that's certainly a colour. Helps with blending into the pitch when our players go missing under pressure, I guess.

We're close to a flush all right. A busted one.

They barely beat anyone of any substance all season. Drew a blank in all three cup finals; lost the league because they didn't win a single game against the other teams in the top 4; had perhaps the weakest run of opponents in the CL knockout stages anyone has ever faced to reach a final. I suppose they did beat Man City reserves in the FA Cup semi. As you might expect the greatest team since sliced bread to do...

He's simply not suited to this league. His footballing instincts are pretty good: he takes the ball on the half turn, cleverly manipulates it out of his feet and drives into space - and is then chased down, overtaken and dispossessed within two strides because he's slower than coastal erosion. He's the Vestergaard of number 10s: theoretically a decent player, but in practice a long way short.

We need a back up right back, because Livramento isn't expected to play again in 2022 - and there's no guarantees he'll return from a career threatening injury at the level he was at previously. At least not straight away. Wouldn't be a surprise if the majority of next season is a write off for the lad.

Eddie Nketiah about to resign for Arsenal - on a rumoured £100k a week! Four goals last season... We shouldn't even bother looking at English players, the market for them has absolutely lost the plot.

And it's still "not his team yet" in spite of bringing in 14 players.

It's been 4 years since he absolutely obliterated his knee - tore his anterior cruciate ligament, ruptured his lateral collateral ligament, damaged his medial ligament, and tore his lateral hamstring tendon clean off the bone all in the same tackle. The doctors said it was about as bad as it gets. He got back to playing after a couple of years, but he's barely been a part-time footballer since then - clearly nothing like the player he was. 29 in August. We'd be mugs to spend money on the memory of a player. We already did that with Walcott.

He said the same thing virtually word for word at the end of last season. Did the defence improve? I guess we went from 68 goals conceded to 67, if you can call that progress. Maybe the individual defenders are less of a problem than a manager who has two 9-0s on his record and hasn't got a fucking clue how to set up a defence. Just a thought.

Fair play to Jesse Marsch - Bielsa was taking Leeds down, but he's pulled a rabbit out of the hat to keep that rabble of a Leeds squad up.

Only three teams won less games. Only three teams had a worse goal difference. Time to move on. He's had a fair shake.

Not that surprising. Having Prowse and Romeu - not the most mobile players in the world, to be kind - as our wide open midfield two has left us completely overrun in multiple matches. With the personnel we've got, it's always felt like a self-defeating tactical approach. If you lose the midfield, more often than not you lose the match.

It's a bit early to be pencilling in Tino's triumphant return from what is a career threatening injury. Sam McQueen never kicked a ball again in anger after he did his ACL. Jay Rodriguez was never the same player. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is barely a part-time footballer now. It'd be foolish for the club not to plan for his recovery taking far longer than speculated. Getting back on the pitch is one thing, getting back to playing at pre-injury levels quite another. I'd guess that we'll sniff around Brandon Williams again as a season loan.

Great. So we're going to waste another transfer window trying to build a squad to fit an utterly flawed formation and tactical approach to appease a broken flush manager who'll be gone by November. I'll say this for Saints, at least they consistently spare the supporters from the dreaded phrase "it's the hope that kills you". The guy is done. All out of ideas, and he only ever had one. And the football is absolutely shite. As boring as Puel, but without the grim pragmatism.

Nice potential CB pairing out of contract in the summer: Dan Axel Zagadou (22), left sided giant at Dortmund, and Niklas Stark (27), German international right sided CB at Hertha Berlin who also plays in midfield. Former Man City CB and Belgian international Jason Denayer (26) is also available on a free from Lyon. Bit of value out there in the market, perhaps, for us paupers.

That's the game. Meek surrender.

I just don't see the point in us being so feebly passive and waiting for the inevitable one or two goal defeat. It's a meaningless game for us - why are we playing with the handbrake on? What are we scared of? At least lose having a fucking go.

Pretty tragic how much better Liverpool reserves are than our first team. We're not even trying to get on the front foot against them. So much for our "champions league final".

Bottle job, this. Even we won at West Ham. £100m on Jack Grealish is the most expensive haircut in history. Absolute tourist.

Didn't Sheffield United pay silly money for him? £35m+. He's out of our range. Edit: £22m (still more than our record transfer), and slapped a £35m value on him last season when bigger clubs started eying him up.

10 days rest VS 3 days after extra time on a warm afternoon. And still - somehow - they'll have more energy and intensity than us come Tuesday. I'm not saying there's something dodgy going on at Liverpool, but their ability to press for nigh on 90 minutes every game for 60+ games per season is certainly in stark contrast to every other team in Europe. We can barely keep it going for 30 minutes.

Talented kid, but poor injury record.

Not unready as in not experienced enough. Unready as in not prepared to bury the hatchet with the Ghanaian FA over a long running dispute carried over from his youth days - or so the internet gossip goes.

In that scenario, they will have lost to Chelsea so their goal difference to us will be at least minus 16 if not worse. They have won by more than one goal twice in 2022. 3-1 against Burnley and 3-0 against Norwich (at the time positioned 19th and 20th). And they're finishing the season against solid, in form Brighton (h) and Brentford (a).