qwertyell

Not surprised. Release clause rumoured to be as low as £7m (or as high as £11m). Creative teenage attacker - it's almost a free hit for a club like ours. If he's remotely decent, he'll be sold on at a huge profit (he's got Home Grown status, which is going to become increasingly valuable in the post-Brexit PL). And if he's only so-so, well, it hasn't broken the bank and we can probably recoup most of the outlay. Suspect we're already out of the running, though. Olise will have plenty of admirers.

It'd be interesting to hear Semmens and Crocker's defence of the frankly pitiful state our youth setup has fallen into on their watch - and what they're going to do about it. And whether they still believe imprinting Hasenhuttl's one, basic tactic right across the age groups has been a resounding success. Developing young players is the only thing we've historically been good at, and now it's a joke.

It has little to do with the result - we wouldn't expect to beat a top 4 team very often if at all. But what we should expect - especially with substantially more rest and preparation time under our belt - is a far better level of performance than we've been throwing in lately. And, perhaps more importantly, one that can be sustained over the majority of a game. If we can't play for 90 minutes with 11 days rest, if we can't get properly organised into less of shambles with 11 days preparation, then what's the flipping point? How is this manager going to turn things around? How much more time does he need? But thanks for adding a few more excuses to the list: confidence and luck are also against us. And the referees, of course...

No hiding place for the manager and his apologists with this one. Not saying we should expect to beat a team in the top 4, but with 11 days rest compared to their 3 days, the old excuse of our players being tired, of the schedule being against us, of not having enough time to prepare, is off the table. If we still can't turn up to a second half and put in a proper shift over the whole 90 minutes, the jig's up.

They'd probably be flattered.

We're literally in the bottom six. After we lose, Newcastle will jump ahead of us into 15th on GD.

I mean, there is a quote function so you can highlight exactly what I "stated" rather than your own misrepresentation. For the record, I was chiming in a conversation around the hypothetical question "Of the 13 teams above us, which should Hasenhuttl be disappointed not to be higher than?"

You don't think the highest paid manager in our history should be doing a little better than losing 9-0 twice, setting records for most consecutive defeats, and dragging the team to the bottom of the league in 2021 after a run of 12 defeats in 15? He certainly has more than his fair share of white knights throwing up all manner of excuses for his limited tactical ability and dwindling performance that none of our previous less-vaunted managers were ever afforded. Our "vastly inferior squad" got steamrollered by Championship-bound WBA last week - and lost to 9 man Newcastle a few weeks before that. And the manager's getting "a better tune out of this team than could be expected"?

Allegedy on £6m a year and the 8th highest paid manager in the league at the start of the season (although Lampard was below him and has been replaced by Tuchel who is probably on a higher wage). So anything much below 9th is probably not a great reflection on his value for money. Finishing below 14th as he probably will most certainly isn't.

Scored 6 this season. Che Adams has scored 7 (from more appearances).

It's just hipster 4-4-2. Only our wingers are too shit to actually do any wing play, so they all congregate towards the middle and instead do fuck all there in amongst the traffic. The trouble with hiring a "philosophy" manager is, what if his philosophy is a complete joke? Or so simplistically wafer thin that even a 29 year old caretaker manager who has never taken charge of a side before can figure it out in 45 minutes? Where do you go from there?

12 defeats in 15. The worst team in the league in 2021. Outfoxed by a 29 year old YTS manager and a team phoning it in before a cup final. The guy's fucking clueless. ANY manager with something about them would've found a way to halt the haemorrhaging by now. Might not be pretty, might be parking the bus and grimly picking up draws, but it'd be something; a reaction; a proactive response to atrocious, unacceptable form. But not the Alpine Klopp. Not the tactical maverick, reinventor of the beautiful game. He's got nothing up his sleeve. He's got the tactical depth of a puddle of jizz. Who's still making excuses for him? Hopeless. Still not convinced we won't go down this season, but we've got no chance next season.

Leicester weren't phoning it in with a cup final a few days away. Even so, we're far more energetic and committed than anything we showed on Sunday. Obviously Forster must have been weighing everyone down...

Fucking Adams. All the finesse of a breeze block. Every finish with him is hit-it-as-hard-as-you-can straight at the keeper or whatever defender is in front of him.

Palace chairman Steve Parish was on Monday Night Football last night, and kicking out the Six Splitters is absolutely not on the agenda for the remaining 14. The Splitters have the rest of the league over a barrel and they know it. The deference is embarrassing. Parish's implication was that they'd all put their heads together and try and work out a solution where everyone wins - i.e. the Six get precisely what they want, with a few minor, superficial alterations. The only way this thing is getting stopped - aside from government intervention - is if the players revolt. There's no Super League without them. It only takes Messi or Ronaldo to take a stand (aren't they rich enough already?) and the whole charade collapses.

Set the stadium on fire or fuck off, you cowards.

Wow. Leicester didn't even turn up - and they still won without breaking sweat. Didn't lay a glove on them. Just abject surrender from first to last. Where do we go from here? It's the same predictable shit every game. I don't care if the manager has "lost the dressing room" or not - the bottom line is that every team has figured out his one dimensional approach, and it's like taking candy from a baby for them.

Well, we're still alive. Playing the usual rubbish; slow passing moves that inevitably end up back with the goalkeeper who hoofs it. But we haven't lost yet. Lots of mistakes being made though that Leicester will surely take advantage of eventually. Not really clear what the plan is - we're not pressing much in attack or sitting back defending deep. Or anything really. We're just sort of there.

One point - a draw against Palace.

I'm old-fashioned and have never liked the two-man midfield. I think games are won and lost there, and we are all too frequently outnumbered and overrun. It certainly doesn't help that Romeu and Ward-Prowse have not a lick of pace between them. I'd play three in the middle of the park all the time. Even when it was a stodgy and uncreative three like Wanyama, Schneiderlin and Cork, that solid base allowed us to attack with more freedom from other areas whilst still keeping control over the middle of the park and not leaving the defence exposed. Remember those days before The Alpine Klopp reinvented football tactics, when we scored goals and kept clean sheets? Diallo's a good signing, long term. He hasn't got to grips with the physicality of the league yet, but he'll learn to use his upper body better in time. You don't need to be a bruiser to compete in the midfield in the Premier League - Ngolo Kante seems to do just fine. The rest of Diallo's game is in pretty good shape - with scope to improve. It's true, though, that he and Prowse are not a natural fit. I'd prefer to see a combination of Romeu, Prowse, Diallo, Jankewitz, Armstrong and Smallbone as a trio week in week out. We'd obviously then need to focus investment in the wide attacking areas, where our creative options are poor. Michael Olise at Reading (rumoured release clause £11m) would be one I'd check out.

Fair play to Maitland-Niles. He didn't want to come here and be back up full back for our rabble because he wanted to play in his preferred position in midfield. Took the absolute piss out of our midfield today. Good decision by the lad, I guess.

3-0 down and we make our first sub on 75mins. Best manager we could possibly get, though...

Second worst team in the league playing us off the park.

He's sort of lost in no man's land as a player. Too weak defensively to be a permanent left back; too basic and uncreative to be a winger. What is he? Nothing, really. When he's played for Spurs he's looked like a guy who knows he shouldn't be out there. So timid. I can't see what he'd bring to us other than the potential of youth (that we no longer seem to develop very well).

That's the rub. Vestergaard has timed it perfectly to suddenly start showing Premier League quality. Before this season, he was absolutely mince and we'd have been lucky to sell him for parts. And now, with a year on his contract, he holds all the aces. Not sure the club could've predicted his remarkable resurgence. Hopefully he'll stay on, but if he takes advantage of his situation, you can't really blame him. It's a short career.