Chez

actually he started badly giving the ball away cheaply a few times, but has got into a groove now and has a fair bit of space to work in. The Skate up against him is one of the poorest Prem players IMO. Take him on son...

he is so middling. I like that he gets stuck in, but he's slow and not the best in the air and average with the ball. For me he's a fourth choice CB at this level.

is he the difference between us staying up next season and not? The idea that we sell for £20m is utter madness.

Redmond drives forward and causes Palace an issue. Defenders get dragged across, that creates space and he have half a chance. Why doesn't he do that all the time? He needs to take more risks more often.

Benteke is making Bednerek look a mug

Benteke winning headers with ease against Bednerek.

as shit as we have been this season, the fact remains, we are fucking leagues apart from the skates and long may it continue. Mind the gap.

When he came off the bench for Liverpool last night, he crossed my mind too, I was thinking he perhaps might not be in Liverpools plans anymore. I imagine as he is £40m player, his wages would be prohibitive, but putting that to one side, I also wonder what position he would play? For me, without question when he played right midfield for us, bombing up and down the line, that was when he was at his best. Arsenal and Liverpool haven't ever really played him in that role - which was a mistake IMO. I wonder if he still has that lung busting game in him. If he does, then I'd be very interested.

aha. But what's the solution? Could some good horse trading this summer change everything, or will the returning loanees hamstring us for another summer/season, so the best we can hope for is a very marginal improvement?

absolutely. The position has been a mess for a while. If we want to improve we need (more) players in the squad that the top 6 want. No one wants these keepers, which is telling.

They have constantly changed the back four with Laporte coming in and Dias or Stones sitting out, and both fullbacks have changed in most games too. Amazing they have been able to still win so many games. Pretty much the whole side was changed today to be fair.

Absolutely, but Turkish did say "the better sides keep a settled back four" which really isn't the case with Man City. They are perhaps very different from everyone else. I'm not overly concerned about the keeper changing to be honest. Getting the right back four is more of a concern.

He did look sharp and with limited funds he may be our options next season too.

dont City change their back four every single game?

fair point, but maybe its not easy to get that ball to strikers feet with a direct ball with CMs in front and defenders tight etc. We certainly should stick it in the mixer a bit more right at the death of games.

I'm not religious at all, so playing devils advocate here a bit, but are you saying that he should put his job before religion?

Absolutely. We got all our players back and there was no improvement at all. Would be good to finish the season with three wins to at least give us some hope for next season.

Chelsea have swapped theirs about a fair bit since Tuchel took over, but its a good point. Is Ralf working out who he wants to keep?

what does `more direct' look like? smash it long and hope to pick up the pieces? Perhaps you are right, but we could do with a Pelle or Lambert to make that work.

turns shit performances into great results. Even Ings has missed a few this season though. Need to score more goals, but at same time we need to be tighter by not having fullbacks bombing on an leaving us exposed to breaks as has been the case this season.

Think Ramadan might be a factor. KWP got caught in possession and from then on we were in big trouble. Not really the CBs fault for that goal. Need a striker. Not sure its on the cards though unless Ings goes.

certainly better, but Liverpool looked a bit fragile at the back and we didnt expose that much.

sure, but there were several minutes of injury time. Keeping the ball is still key. Boot it long and lose it and you may not see it for ages. Not sure we have the personnel to smash it long either.

No idea what game you were watching. Saints played like they were one nil down, but didn't want to leave themselves overly exposed to their pace up front. We are not a good side, but played pretty well