Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan

At least they don't have Werner now so he can't have his one good game a season making Bednarek look silly

He does seem to be back down south so at least geographically in the area. Queued for a table in West Quay behind Telfer about a month ago so he must be down this way too. It is all set up and ready to go! Lundekvam as player liason?

A few of the usual media suspects were on a "twitter spaces" chat yesterday, essentially a live podcast, discussing Jones' continued appointment, and one of the people listening at one point was Romeo Lavia...

Having seen all 3 have individually good performances I feel like Tuesday wasn't their fault really. The ideal for me is Lavia sat centrally, JWP to his right and Alcaraz to his left. If Alcaraz pushes up, JWP drops and Lavia slides over, and vice versa. This didn't seem to work on Tuesday because of the system around them. There wasn't much support from players ahead of them, and they should have been able to trust the 5 defenders to help them. Instead the runners were being lost, the midfield didn't seem to know where it was meant to be, and we really struggled for meaningful possession until we changed formation.

Ched Evans has had a career so seemingly clubs will bend their morals to whatever extent they see fit if someone can kick a ball well... Its a tricky case, Greenwood's, because there was a lot of audio evidence which really did make him out to be a coercive and abusive individual, but as you say a lack of evidence was clearly the clinching factor. He's technically not been found guilty or convicted of anything but that doesn't make him innocent as far as I can tell.

I think this would work nicely with Mara too, instead of Adams. Both seem to recently have taken to dropping a little deeper to pick the ball up so would enjoy playing off Onuachu as a focal point. You then let Sulemana push forward on the left, and on the right you have Alcaraz tuck in, to let KWP bomb past him. JWP can also advance a little knowing he'd have Lavia sat behind him, and Alcaraz for support.

`Think Crouch and Camara/Philips in 2005 might be closer. Lets just hope Paul doesn't get sent off in a crucial match and fail to hold the ball up in the corner in another... Will be interested to see if we try and play him with Adams at all, might be an option if we need a goal towards the end of a game

Welcome Paul…

I hate to admit it but they do seem to make a cracking atmosphere, imagine if st Mary’s was a tough or intimidating place to come and play rather than a lovely warm environment for the away fans and players

Strikes me as an odd one really, doesn't stop us from still starting either Adams or Mara really, and we've only recently signed Orsic. Does look like a quality player, but is it what we need

We've made a lot of money from left backs over the years (Bridge, Bale, Shaw) so it is a great plan, fill the youth team with left backs and sell for big sums. We don't have the same history for many other positions so why bother! What is more odd is that even with that hoarding, we seem to be starting a right back or centre back there most of the time for the first team

And the women are full-time pros now too, so another full squad training

I think Antonio may be a difficult one now Ings is injured again, as they are back to square one. If he was fit, Antonio is a peg down the ladder, but they may still see him as being needed

Not sure we have two u-21 centre backs worth playing that aren’t on loan or olly Lancashire

Would expect to see Morgan in the squad tomorrow then and maybe Luke Pearce too as he isn't involved. Shame if Payne and Ballard aren't near the squad.

Heard that Armstrong's surgery was with a specialist in Spain and went very well. Hopefully we see him back to his old self before the end of the season.

Beattie was interviewed at half time, couldn't we have got him to stick a pair of boots on for the second half and just tell him to hit anything that comes near him.

Also saw on LinkedIn (the height of all football gossip on there) that one of the staff for the women was asked to help with the process of him signing and settling because she has a degree in Spanish. Seems to me that we don't have many Spanish speakers knocking about. The boy was great yesterday in my opinion. Passed well, moved well and seemed to be genuinely positive with his play. The thought of a three man midfield of him, JWP and Lavia could end up saving us this season, if we can just start scoring.

Overall I didn't come away too disappointed. Newcastle have won a lot of games this season by doing exactly what they did to us, so we can't take it too hard. I did think we genuinely looked like an improved side. Alcaraz looked very good, took the ball nicely on the turn a few times and seemed to be progressive with his passing and movement. Not sure he gave Diallo the most support at times but Diallo actually had one of his better games for us I thought, just didn't quite have the composure needed for some more intricate passes. We did lack on the left side at times. Salisu seemed limited at left back, did an alright job tracking Almiron but was getting no help from Orsic who had a poor game. I'd like us to start a more attacking left back with him soon to see how they pair up (e.g. Perraud on the overlap). They had multiple chances from cut backs so their goal did look inevitable, we never seemed to be tracking Joelinton and Willock. Adams had the best chance by far and did exactly what we all expect of him by hitting it hard and hoping. I did think, would I rather that chance fell to Mara but I suspect he would have been offside... There seemed to be some discontent towards the end that we weren't going all guns blazing for a goal (especially bringing on Janny B when DCC was sent off) but I think going into the away leg only 1-0 down isn't the end of the world. We so obviously need a striker who can actually put the ball away. A more accomplished finisher than Adams or Armstrong and we're 2-1 up going into the second leg. Final thing to note, Aribo seems to have fallen out of the squad entirely now.

There is a very very small part of me that hopes Bednarek comes in and plays on the left of the partnership and actually plays a bit like he does for Poland. He won't, it is just another player to score some own goals

For me the blame for the actual goal we conceded falls with Lyanco. He plays Watkins onside, by being a foot or two behind the rest of the line, and then misjudges the ball and jumps under it. That being said, overall Bazunu isn't good enough right now to help stop us from being relegated

We don't have a keeper like him because of our choice, and our coaching. Martinez only cost Villa £8m more than Bazunu cost us (or just over one Larios), (20 vs 12) and his wages wouldn't have been that much more as an Arsenal squad player compared to Bazunu as a City player. We needed a keeper with experience to lead a young defence, and we have the draw of coming to England and the biggest league in the world as a draw, so reasonably we could have signed a better keeper. I really don't know why we aren't banging down Juventus' door for Mattia Perin, they really need wages gone right now and he's their number 2

I think part of their issue is not actually buying very good players with all that money. Their squad is the level they are, bottom of the top 6, enough for European football but not enough to really win anything. Hojbjerg plays every minute for them, and we all know he is good but he isn't going to lead a team to a title. The same with the likes of Davies, Emerson, Sessegnon, Bissouma etc. They'd all walk into most PL teams, but are they consistently good enough to get Spurs to the very top, probably not

I think this speaks more of how we've not had a set partnership for large periods. In the early 2000's Svensson and Oakley were good, but the likes of Prutton and Delap didn't necessarily provide quality. For me the gold standard is Schneiderlin and Wanyama, and noone comes massively close. Steven Davis helped the Romeu and JWP partnership in the early days, and there were points were I preferred Hojbjerg and Romeu to JWP.

Think you'll be alright if you make him a supporter number as "friends and family" through the ticket site, and book through your account. I had the same issue but it seems to be fine as long as the person making the order had the account before the 11th.