verlaine1979

Yup, the unfortunate truth of the matter is that neither of them are capable of putting in dominant attacking CM performances. They are both just conservative, ball-preserving midfielders, with Davis' better physicality and tenacity giving him the starting edge over JWP's superior dead balls most of the time. In recent weeks Clasie has shown signs that he might be capable of playing incisive passes from a central position, but until he recovered from his injury, the middle of the park was pretty much a creative wasteland.

No real crispness or accuracy in our passing. Some decent periods of possession, but the ball always feels on the verge of bobbling out of control or ending up as a 50/50.

Did the commentator on NBC just have to stop himself saying 'they have been rubbish'?

Didn't we go the entire season in Poch's last year without winning a game after going behind?.

I think this is more than just a one-game issue. It might seem especially stark as Stoke played well and punished us, but we've had some rubbish spells of football in the past month or two, most of which have been characterized by ponderousness and a lack of conviction in attack, coupled with an inability to cope with being pressed by the likes of Leicester.

At the moment, everyone seems to spend an age on the ball having a good look around before moving it on. Is this a deliberate possession-retention tactic, or a loss of confidence? We aren't a slow team, but we move the ball so slowly. Stoke played mostly on the counter yesterday, but in almost every phase of play they passed at a higher tempo and with greater accuracy, which is crazy - if you're going to take 20 seconds picking your pass rather than playing it first time, there's no excuse for the inaccuracy we saw yesterday from pretty much everyone apart from Clasie.

Clasie the only player we've got who doesn't need 20 minutes and a lie down before deciding whether to run with the ball or pass it. At the moment it feels like the coaching staff have been replaced by a tape recording of a red-faced Sunday league manager yelling 'get it wide!'... Long was abject, Fonte's passing was awful, Davis was back to his toiling, tedious self... Such a depressing game to watch, no movement, no zip in the passing, no vision.

Crazy talk - he's been our best player by far this half. His first-time passing is the only thing stopping us being completely mired in endless midfield tedium.

Well he did in the end, and judging by the angle he found, he probably shouldn't have bothered.

His dinked cross for Long's goal in the first Euro qualifier suggests he's got decent technique and vision, so there's definitely hope for him. Since we're set up to play to Pelle's strengths, our other forwards have to be extremely versatile, and at the moment I think Juanmi is probably struggling to make the transition from on-the-shoulder striker to a more all-purpose attacker who is expected to make chances as well as loiter up the field looking to sneak a yard.

Clasie, VVD and Tadic are all better passers than those two. JWP and Davis are both safe in possession (and to give him his due, once or twice a season Davis will play a genuinely phenomenal ball - his outside of the boot cross for Maya against Everton last season was great, along with a lovely scooped pass near the corner flag against someone like West Brom) but neither of them regularly stretch the game with their passing.

Clasie looks like he could turn out to be the central midfielder everyone mistakenly believes Steven Davis to be Dominated the game, but lots of unimaginative or just plain sloppy play in the final third. Glad we got a pen because we didn't look like scoring from open play. Still think the team has a creativity problem in the middle, but with Gaston missing again, perhaps time to accept that we just don't have the personnel to fix it.

Got to stick with the previous starting XI, but with Romeu in for VW. If that team struggles to break down a Sunderland side set out to pinch a 0-0 (and well they might - Davis has done well to get in the goals this season but I still don't see him as anything more than a water carrier creatively) then it would be good to have Ramirez on the bench as an option with 30 mins to go.

Also, Romeu may be slow, but Clasie aside, he's as good a passer as we've got in central midfield - would definitely start him ahead of JWP or Davis in that anchor position (though on current form, the latter will surely continue as the AM anyway).

Maybe we should stop trying to hit Pelle so often once we're comfortably ahead and the opposition are trying to raise their game? Putting the ball in the air to be contested is always risking possession, and it only takes Pelle's levels to drop a little for the CBs to start winning more than they lose. Obviously this isn't the only issue, as we were weak and slow to the second ball in the second half of both games, but fewer high balls to Pelle would create fewer second balls too.

I don't believe any of our other midfielders would even have attempted that pass into Pelle, let alone executed it. When Clasie received the ball there were two Bournemouth players directly between him and Pelle, and two easier balls open - either out to either Tadic or recyling it for Fonte to shunt on to Cedric on the opposite wing. Hopefully as he gets more comfortable we'll see more of that, as the ability to pass through a defence rather than constantly trying to pass around it is something we've been missing for a while now.

Had a few good cameos in the world cup. Very different kind of player to Gaston physically, free kick specialist too. Would probably to be a lot more direct than any of our current #10 options (aside from Mane, who seems to prefer receiving the ball wide and cutting inside when he's ostensibly in the #10 position rather than running with it from deep).

So far, in the few appearances he's had, Juanmi looks exactly the play-on-the-shoulder striker we were told he was when we signed him, and most definitely not the creative #10/Davis-alternative some of us were hoping he might be. At present, I can't really picture him replacing Mane's contribution across the front line when he goes, but he's got plenty of time to develop at least.

Substitutions were poor, but they weren't the reason we dropped points as Leicester started battering us right from the start of the second half. Mahrez in particular just completely dominated whoever he came up against and played some really lovely stuff. We definitely seem to be a side who rely on having a single outlet, both when we're on top of games and when we're under the cosh, and if that outlet ball to Pelle is cut off for some reason, we really struggle to find a way back into games.

Can't say I agree with that. They looked the better side in the first 20 minutes, then the rest of the first half was fairly even barring our good spell of set pieces.

Lovely finish, nice move.

Massive empty space between VW and OR on the half way line and our attacking players on the edge of their box.

So, he's not as good as Wanyama, but we should have made more of an effort to keep him in case we see a return to a mode of warfare that largely died out more than half a century ago. I think that should probably stand as the final word on the matter.

Sorry, I had no idea you expected to be taken seriously.

Bless.