verlaine1979

Vest managed to give away the throw, and then stroll out of position in the next phase of play. A special kind of awful.

Vestergaard and Elyooussi both mouth-droppingly awful that half. £34m spent on players who seem to lack even basic technique.

Yup, though judging by RH's comments as to why Gunn was the right pick for Chelsea, I can't imagine there are many games where it isn't an advantage to have a nimble sweeper-keeper type helping out the back line. Sounds like they are building a (probably entirely valid) justification for switching him to being #1.

Suspect it's more to do with Gabbi potentially having more significant resale value. If RH doesn't really rate either of them as suitable for his preferred style, it makes sense to protect the one you're going to try and flog to raise funds.

Maybe, but he's also got the best first touch of any player we've had since Le Tissier, and it isn't even close.

It was a good pass, but that's literally the only decent thing I've seen him do in a saints shirt. Other than that, it's just hitting the bar (was that against Palace?) and slowly dribbling into two or three defenders before losing possession. So far he's a long way behind both Boufal and Gaston in the disappointing-foreign-creative-player stakes, both of whom gave immediate, if ultimately unfulfilled, glimpses of unmistakable quality in their first couple of games.

Fantastic player.

For the role he was brought in to play, has to be among the most disappointing signings of recent years - not even half the player Boufal is. No pace, no strength, no vision. Whoever thought he could cut it as #10 or a winger in the PL should be assigned to less demanding duties.

Should've done better with second and third goals.

The plan is clearly to keep it tight, and then unleash Redmond to trot at them a little above walking pace for the last twenty.

WH had more speed and strength in every department, passed the ball quicker and more accurately, and had a player of significantly higher quality to finish off half of their decent chances (if Perez was sharper, the game would've finished in a drubbing). Anderson was expensive, sure, but he shows up Redmond's limitations quite dramatically. Our most creative player isn't anywhere near that level, either in pace or technique.

McCarthy's distribution isn't great. If he's passing towards the halfway line he only seems capable of floating the ball rather than pinging it.

Watching Celta against Barcelona, and still think its a huge shame that Boufal isn't here to work with Hassenhuttl. Think he'd suit both the style of play, and the style of man-management.

Although it was a good performance at the weekend, as I was watching I couldn't help think we'd look even better with Lemina's energy in the midfield. We should be looking to add more dynamism to what is, Lemina aside, quite a flat-footed central midfield - not reducing it.

Also he presumably wanted to keep a bit of pace and energy as an outlet just in case, rather than sticking ward-prowse or davis on to stodge us up defensively. Don't think any of our past three (probably four) managers would've made that choice if they'd a chance to stick on a 'seasoned pro'.

Need three players to build on today's performance - a CB with some pace, a utility midfielder with some pace & energy (Quina at Watford has been very impressive last two games and only cost them £1m), and an attacker with either genuine pace or genuine strength.

Good signs, but the lack of pace throughout the team is still a worry, especially if they start to tire second half. Our quickest players only seem about as fast as Arsenal's slowest.

Since it seems quite likely that the current Ajax team would comprehensively thrash us, it's hard to argue that he made the wrong decision in moving.

The fact that he's behind JWP in the assist table despite having played the equivalent of over 55 full matches more (14000 minutes vs 9000 minutes), says pretty much everything you need to know about what a mediocre player he's been for us.

Online video performance isn't measured in impressions.

Eh? He wasn't bad in that game, but I'm sure more than a few people commented that he wasn't quite as dominant in the air as they were expecting.

It's mostly because there is a consensus around JWP that he's pretty mediocre except for his striking of a dead ball. I largely agree with that verdict so there's no need to labour a point almost everyone shares. On the other hand I disagreed with the consensus that SD was one of the best/most under-rated/finest signings of recent decades, as I regularly saw him let us down defensively and slow us down in attack. I've never been on a wind up, just stating a point of view that I didn't see many others expressing based on what I watched week in, week out.

Only caught the highlights, but the contrast between Murphy and Redmond was quite stark on that evidence. One has pace, the other doesn't, and it seemed to make a big difference in transition and attack.

Ffs, you're not clinging to the fantasy that pep thinks he's great are you? He was having a go about our negative tactics, not singling Redmond out for praise.

Eh, this is just a load of cliche-ridden waffle. Both players have deficiencies and neither have really performed as well for the club as was anticipated when they were signed - you only like one better than the other because of his nationality.