verlaine1979

Didn't Broja play as a lone striker for both his starts? You wouldn't expect the expected assists to be as high compared to two strikers who have generally always started as a pair.

He's got such great timing. Plays very tight to his man and just always seems to get a toe in at the crucial moment. I'm sure the very highest quality strikers will have more luck turning him in those situations, but he kept the Watford attack in his pocket for most of the game today. Also worth noting from his cameo - Lyanco can time a clearing header, which makes a change after years of watching Vest scoop them straight up in the air.

If the money went on strengthening the squad, I'd sell in a heartbeat if they offer £50m or more. That's three high quality additions to the first team vs. a solid player who only really excels at set pieces (I'm aware of JWPs stats, but there is a huge difference between central midfielders who get through a lot of work, and central midfielders capable of seizing and running a game - I have yet to see JWP do the latter in nine years, having seen the likes of Morgan and Wanyama do it multiple times).

Buying Tino for £5m and seeing his value soar after only a handful of games isn't the problem with our recruitment. Spending £30m on Adams and Armstrong and not having a decent creative AM is a far bigger failing.

Can't be happy drawing against a winless team in the bottom three. They had the better chances after the equalizer. We looked lost up front as soon as Broja went off.

Has Walcott looked worth his place at any point this season?

Point taken, but AA is never going to be able to play as a lone striker or do much hold up play. On that basis alone, Edouard seems to offer more options, as they look pretty even for pace and finishing so far.

Be interested to see who ends up being the better buy out of Edouard and Armstrong considering they cost the same and we were heavily linked to both before opting for AA. Not a lot in it in terms of goals so far, but Edouard looks a more versatile player than AA.

In terms of beauty and liveability, all of the UK is a sh*thole compared to most of the bigger European cities where the top teams play. So there must be a reason why quite a lot of them still choose Manchester and London over Barcelona, Paris or Rome.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund is almost 3x the size of the Saudis' (about $1.3 trillion). Maybe Claus can put in a good word.

Their plan to woo Newcastle city council is almost complete!

Adam Armstrong scuffing one into the keepers hands from twenty yards might count as a shot on target, but that doesn't make it a chance. We don't know how to create in open play. Neither Romeu nor JWP have the mobility or instinct to play box to box. As a result our strikers are literally feeding on scraps except for when we manage to win a turnover. The problem is the system. We simply do not have the players to be successful with this formation now that the rest of the league is familiar with it. They know nothing will come through the middle, the ball will be cycled slowly out wide, and unless Redmond or Djenepo go past someone (which they rarely do) our only options will be a cross toward one of the shortest strikers in the league, a shot from distance from wide players not exactly known for their long range finishing, or recycling the ball back to our CBs for another try at the above.

His studs were up and he made contact at speed. The ball wasn't even there to be won. Made worse by the wet pitch, but it was reckless. Shouldn't have given them a decision to make.

There's hope in the head to head, but momentum matters in the league. If we get to ten games without a win, it won't matter if that technically puts us a point or two up against those teams compared to last year.

You might be right about Moi, but the heat maps I've seen from Redmond, Djenepo and Walcott suggest that for the most part those players do play like wide midfielders. Which is one reason why we create nothing through the middle.

I'd give this a try. It's not like playing with two banks of two central midfielders could make us any more turgid in possession than we already are.

Our entire front line is static, with players holding unthreatening space so they can safely receive the ball. A good central No.10 who can carry the ball or pass between the lines would create movement around them. At present, our pace of attack in possession is so slow that our players either have to be running in acres of empty space or standing still waiting for the ball to receive a pass. God it's depressing to watch, and aside from a handful of games last season where they seemed to learn the purpose of passing and moving, it's been that way for years now.

I think the 4-2-2-2 system just doesn't suit our players. We don't have any pace, drive or box-to-box instinct in the middle, our 10s invariably drift wide as soon as we have possession, and talking up Che's link-play is really just searching for positives in the face of his abysmal shooting and positioning as a striker. There's a huge swathe of the central attacking area of the pitch where we are effectively dead, with no one able to occupy that space, or to pass effectively into it or through it. At least switching to a more traditional 4-2-3-1 would fill that space a little better, though admittedly neither Armstrong nor Adams is really suited to play as a lone striker.

His link up play in very close quarters has been good, but his passing over ten yards today was poor. Tried several clipped balls and every one was over hit straight to their keeper.

Someone said above that we've got no finishers and we've got no creativity. That's it in a nutshell. Generally only the top sides can afford to have both, but to have neither is just such a failure of management at all levels of the club. Instead our crown jewel is JWP, the walking equivalent of a dull 0-0.

Was very optimistic after the way he struck the ball for his debut goal, but I haven't seen him hit a shot like that since. He hasn't had the best service and has been busy getting involved in other goals, but was hoping he'd have tested keepers a bit more by now.

Did you ever actually see Xavi play? 'Neat and tidy' perhaps undervalues the contribution of one of the most incisive passers of the past twenty years or so. As someone said above, JWP is important to us and very hard working, but you never see him running a game. Xavi didn't run games because he had better players around him - he ran games because he read the play better than anyone else, and he could keep the ball as long as he wanted until a pass opened up.

Seems to have the knack of just quietly getting his foot in and stopping an attack dead. A sort of anti-Bednarek, whose finest moments have all been last-minute lunges to block or clear.

Spot on. We know what we're going to get from Redmond, and we know it's not good enough.

Slightly depressing that our most impressive striker is a kid on loan from Chelsea, rather than the £30m of Championship strikers we've acquired over the past couple of seasons. If RH wants to persist with one up front, Broja is pretty much the only option, and on today's evidence he should also start when we play two up top. Redmond was dire after a nice cameo against Newcastle. Not at all predictable. Would rather have Tella in the side for pace on the break, since Redmond is both slow in terms of flat out pace and no more likely to do anything useful with the ball once he gets where he's going.