verlaine1979

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.

Very few sides have bullied us like West Ham over the past few years. They generally make our midfield look paper thin.

For the last four years, West Ham have dominated us home and away, and generally make us look like a bunch of asthmatic children wheezing about against a team of giants. Not sure I see that pattern changing in this game either.

So if he carries on that xG all season, we should expect Che to get around 3.8 goals over the 38 games? Sounds about right.

I still find it absolutely mind blowing that we've gone from a club with zero debt and enough money to invest in infrastructure to one where we're happy to believe that giving our goalie a long contract was almost enough to bankrupt us.

Gunn coincided with the moment when keepers started going for serious money (Kepa was over £70m that summer I believe). Club clearly looked at his age, his name and his club pedigree (plus the fact that he could be De Gea's twin), and assumed that £15m + two years in our squad and he'd be a £50m asset.

As we've seen over the last few years, £150m is peanuts at the elite level. The very top clubs are spending that kind of money on individual players, not their summer squad overhaul.

Suspect West Ham will prove to have had a good window. They were already a solid side, and have added strength throughout their spine at GK, CM and AM. They're a striker short, but suspect that will be less of a problem for them as they'll be very hard to play against and have plenty of goals elsewhere in the side.

Bizarre. There is no way Lyanco is replacing Salisu. The other two half-wits he may well do, but Salisu already looks a different class and will be more or less the first name on the team sheet after JWP this year.

Finnegan is 17. He'd have to be absolutely exceptional to be making a dent in the first team in the next 3-4 years playing in central midfield.

Why would Lille let Sanches go? Wasn't he a regular in their league-winning side?