verlaine1979

We look better in the press and build up, but their play around the box is light years ahead of ours.

Get another Salisu? Bednarek and both of our current first choice GKs have their flaws exposed because of the style we play. We really need all of the back five to be comfortable passing the ball around at the back, and Bednarek pretty much sh*ts himself every time he has to pass the ball more than about five yards.

I can't see it. After Morata, Werner and Lukaku all struggled after headline moves, I can't see Haaland's people risking a career setback there.

Lambert, JRod, Ings, Broja. Broja hasn't 'earned' it the way the other three have, but top tier pace, top tier strength and top tier finishing are vanishingly rare in the same player (at a club like ours, at least).

Diallo superb today, as others have said. Even without the own goal it would've been a near MOTM performance - got through so much work alongside Romeu and JWP.

When was the last time we had a striker who played like that? Far too much build up went through Ings to consider him that kind of player. Moreover, when was the last time we had a central attacking midfielder who could support a player like that? It's not like we have Madison or Tielemans cooling up through balls.

Perhaps, but as the game wore on there was so much space against the back line that Diallo, Long, Elyounoussi and others all had moments. You'd imagine if Armstrong actually had the technique to push on he'd have stood out against such stretched opposition, even slightly out of position. Instead, he was completely anonymous.

Absolutely woeful tonight. If Shane Long can impose himself on a game, Armstrong should be able to.

Hopefully we've now got enough cash to speculate in the market for young players with potential alongside the likes of Dortmund and Leipzig. There's always a high failure rate with speculation, and you need enough of a buffer to absorb the (hopefully still comparatively small) cost of those players that don't work out, which we haven't had up to know. Could be exciting times if we've got the cash, confidence and competence to lean into that model fully.

Wonder if they'll have a Scandinavian club on their shopping list, or will be leaving that linkup to Brentford/Midgetland?

Owners can put in 35m a season for three years without triggering ffp. If you're worth 1bn, you might balk at putting an additional 10% of your net worth on the line. If you're a sovereign wealth fund worth hundreds of billions, it probably means less.

I mean in terms of at this stage in their Saints careers. No one was writing articles about Bertrand during the first few months of his loan with us. He was a (failed) Villa loanee, not a future star.

Bertrand's stock wasn't high when he came to us. Think most were pleasantly surprised by his loan performances and were glad to get him on a permanent deal, but his profile wasn't anything like as high as either of our Chelsea teenagers has been.

There's value out there in the transfer market if you know where (and how) to look. I just want us to be in a financial position where taking a gamble on Livramento doesn't mean we can't afford to buy a goalie when it's been obvious we need one for two years.

Only that it sounded like the club had to accept a punitively high interest rate to get the loan. A more stable owner might be able to self-finance, or at least refinance at a lower rate (which was about 9% I think).

If we were available for £125m I'd imagine there'd be plenty of people interested. That's a fair amount of upside on an asset that was valued at close to £300m only a few years ago. I can't imagine Gao would accept taking that much of a haircut though. Since we haven't seen any cash taken out of the club to service the debt he incurred, he's probably also paid out multiple tens of millions of loan interest on his borrowing.

Broja will probably do another season on loan in Europe at somewhere like Sevilla where they challenge for honours but don't have a lot of cash. Then Chelsea will either judge him ready for their squad or suitably fattened for the transfer market.

Was Walcott as much of a passenger as he looked on tv? Great win, but bearing in mind how careless we were in possession, feels like a smash and grab.

Tino has played a few good passes here and there, but over the past few games his crossing has looked pretty ordinary. He'll be a top player just with what he's got, but he already looks a step behind James and TAA in that department (and certainly not at the technical level of Bale, who strikes a ball about as well as it can be struck). As such, a very good striker like Broja is going to be worth about twice as much as a very good fullback, assuming both fulfil their respective levels of potential. I can't see Chelsea being interested.

Fair point on the subs appearances - didn't realise he'd started 60% of their games. Finishing was poor yesterday, but he was a handful and got two assists. If his touch is off, his pace and strength still cause problems. That's what I mean about having more weapons.

Whatever Long does, taking Broja off is a bad call. Makes no sense at all with the flow of the game.

First actual attacking move of the game. Superb hit.

Incredible. We had an overload on the left of their box and managed to run all the way back into giving them a goal. Cowardly.

Two points: 1. There's no statistical significance to the difference between Armstrong and Edouard's performance based on these numbers. 2. Being able to gradually introduce your new striker because your other ones are playing well is a GOOD thing. Note the way Leicester are easing Daka in too. Inevitably, when most of your minutes are substitute appearances, it's harder to have as big an influence on games as someone who is starting regularly. Again, this is content that the numbers we've been talking about just don't provide.

He's played a lot fewer minutes than Armstrong (698 vs 1089). Assuming 'goal involvements' is just goals plus assists, he's quite comfortably ahead of AA on a per minute basis, though behind Che. But really I'm just talking about having watched him play a couple of times. To me he just seems like he has more weapons at his disposal, more ways of imposing himself on the game than Armstrong.