verlaine1979

Apologies, when I say 'bare minimum' I'm eliding the rest of the phrase: 'bare minimum not to voluntarily consign ourselves to relegation'. We could, of course, have replaced every departure with a 30+ year old loanee or an academy kid, but I'm assuming the club have slightly higher ambitions than the Championship.

We made three permanent signings, two of which covered huge gaps in the first XI (first choice RB after Cedric, first choice CM after Hoj) and a CB who we hope will make good a shortfall in quality that has persisted since the departure of VVD. Walcott and Minamino were both last minute punts, so yes, I'd say that replacing three players we literally had no choice but to replace and a couple of hopeful loanees was the bare minimum - especially considering how woeful the few windows before that had been.

We'll be lucky to get one attacking midfield addition over the summer, let alone two. On the basis that we've bought the bare minimum over recent windows, the highest likelihood is that we'll get none.

Even his biggest admirers on here seem to agree that he's a decent second striker at best.

Who said we would be? But with Ings likely to leave and the club having previous for not always recruiting one for one when there are options in the squad already, I'm not ruling out that we might at least start next season with Adams as our first choice striker.

He's a dreadful finisher who seems to rely on whacking it as hard as he can in lieu of attempting to place it. Every now and then one of those swingers will go in, but it doesn't change anything about his technical weaknesses as a player. He's also so scared of his left foot touching the ball that he gets himself into ridiculous situations either trying to turn or aimlessly flicking it with the outside of his right. To give him his due, he's decent as a hold up and link player, but if we have to rely on him for goals next season, I suspect our recent run of blank defeats will look modest in comparison.

Smallbone isn't a DM and Jankewitz only started being considered for the squad a handful of games ago.

His problem is that he knows his limitations and is very careful about playing within them. He's not fast and he's not tricky, so he never really tests himself in situations where he isn't odds on to win. He likes nothing more than an open lane in off the left where he can drift ten yards across defenders who don't want to give JWP a free kick opportunity and then spoon it over the bar from just outside the D. This would only make him as irritating to watch as our other conservative types, but what makes Redmond stand out is that he demands the ball and moans when he doesn't get it like a player who genuinely makes a difference in games, rather than another tedious, recycling nonentity.

It was a good window in the context of previous hugely disappointing windows. Filling three obvious first team gaps in the squad (dubious CBs, no established RB, departed CM captain) isn't backing the manager, it's doing the bare minimum to stay competitive.

If Fulham and our form over the last ten games continues for the next 13, we'll be separated by 0.2 points and what you can only presume will be their superior goal difference at that point. Of course, form is temporary, but it's not as if we've never seen clubs go on twenty-game runs of bad form over the history of the league.

Based on form over the last 10 games, Fulham are averaging 1.1 points per game and we're averaging 0.5 points. If that continues, we survive by an impossible 0.2 points. Their goal difference has also improved dramatically against ours over that period.

No power or pace in this side at all. We've been done the same way by Leeds, Newcastle and Wolves, and we can't do the same in turn because our wide attackers are so slow and weak.

Bednarek is a great last ditch defender. Most of his memorable work (aside from a couple of bizarrely good goals) is in the form of throwing himself in to block shots/make goal-line clearances. Ideally, you'd have a defence that doesn't give up those kind of chances in the first place, which is why he's a good candidate for upgrading. Then you have the question of his speed of thought and quality of distribution when we're building from the back. He doesn't suit the style we want to play, whereas Salisu is clearly very confident popping the ball about in the 10-20 yard range. It's not difficult to see which one of them has the better raw attributes to play in this team.

What if the playbook he came up with after the lockdown is the only one that'll work with our small, lopsided squad. It's not as if we have any strength or pace in the team, so energy and opportunism, coupled with a high-efficiency striker is really all we've got. We're not good enough technically to play like City (or even Leicester/Wolves) and we're not physical enough to play like Brighton or West Ham (or Burnley for that matter). Plan B would require players who can make a difference playing in a different way. We don't have any.

How many points did Bournemouth have at this point last season?

In addition to some good defensive work, he looked composed passing the ball out. Bednarek always takes an absolute age picking his pass (as does Stephens quite often) which definitely contributes to our slow and toothless build up. On that showing, Salisu and Vest are the better pairing for playing out from the back.

On that showing, Adams' link play is vastly superior to Redmond's. And since there's nothing to choose between the two of them in pace or finishing, it feels like the obvious change to make.

We've just got no threat or urgency through the middle. Makes us extremely easy to play against, especially as our wide players don't really frighten anyone into doubling up.

Mid-tier clubs don't typically generate a lot of excess revenue, so I'm curious about the time horizons for a private equity investment in football. I'd imagine they're hoping they can build a cheap global network of clubs and then flip it as a ready made set-up to a passing billionaire or Red Bull-type investment vehicle in 3-5 years. If that bigger fool fails to come along, I wonder what approach the investors will take?

Very little power in the team. Saint-Maximin brushed off Bednarek and then just accelerated away from him for their first. Our quick players aren't strong and our strong players aren't quick.

Redmond is a real propaganda footballer. He tries very hard to never lose the ball, and I don't think it's out of a devotion to possession. He knows his limitations (he's got no pace over more than the first yard) so he tries his very best to avoid that weakness ever being on show by never taking anyone on.

We became a championship club again 10 years ago, with a decent infrastructure and a good reputation. If our scouting/black box/yadda yadda was actually as good as we claimed at the time, our current crop of 16/17/18 year old players should presumably be top drawer. Ah, and having just checked our under 18 league placing, I see we're actually second bottom.

What was strangest to see was that we were defending a lot of the time with the cliched 'two banks of four' - but we were completely static in the formation. United just passed and ran through us at will while we kept to our allotted positions. I'm assuming that's not how that tactic is meant to work...

Does anyone have a plausible explanation for why Che's goal was given offside? Usually there's someone with an alternative view on how the lines are meant to be interpreted, but so far I've not heard anyone even try to explain how Adams was off, given that all the parts of his body that could legally play the ball looked to be a good 6 inches behind the feet and knees of at least two United players.

Now that he's gone on loan after hardly playing this season, is there any sense at all that can be made of the decision to give Long another 2 years last summer?