Verbal Kint

Just try and get someone in to cover Austin's injury. In the summer it's different though. I'd release/sell Martina, Targett, Fonte, Forster, one of the central midfielders and one of our strikers. Sign: GK, CB, CM, ST

He's about to sign a new deal for significantly more than that. They have the investment now to offer 100k

Which is why he won't be going to WBA. He'll go to Everton, who will pay him that sort of money. Just because he's better than some of our midfielders doesn't mean we should be signing him for huge money on a huge contract

Because we already have enough midfielders offering no goal threat. And we don't have to pay any of them 120k a week

He just wants one last big contract. He has spent most of his career in the lower leagues not earning enormous (relatively speaking) money and he's therefore trying to secure the big pay day for his family. I don't blame him for it and I don't blame the club for saying no. He'll go somewhere for 5/6 million either in January or the summer and we will replace him

He's been absolutely brilliant the last few weeks

That just isn't going to happen surely. Bailly and Smalling to come back in the next couple of weeks and Rojo and Jones are in fantastic form at the moment. They won't be paying that sort of money for Fonte and I doubt anybody will in reality. 5/6 million at the most and even then I'm not sure any of the big 6 would be interested. Everton at best

Much better performance and credit to Davis when he came on as he had a great game. The first goal came from Bertrand being prepared to take on his man rather than play the safe easy pass sideways or backwards. The second goal came from Davis playing a first time ball FORWARDS and then driving into the box. He doesn't do it enough and it paid dividends. The third a great strike from Jay, if we can keep him fit he has all the attributes to be a brilliant centre forward as he's a decent finisher, has good pace and looks a lot stronger than before his injury. I'm really optimistic about him. Take players on and look to play incisive passes and we look a much better side than just keeping possession for the sake of it

Because they have a massive chip on their shoulder. Still very bitter that after getting promoted they spent fortunes under Pulis and finished midtable playing dire football (they hate that everyone thought that about them) whereas we got promoted and went past them in the space of a couple of seasons whilst balancing the books and, in the eyes of others, playing attractive football. And because Jack Cork dived once and no Stoke player has ever dived of course. Ever They're generally bitter towards everyone. Arsenal, United, Us (it was Swansea before us), they just hate everyone for some reason or other. You only have to look at the (still to this day) booing of Ramsay to know what they're all about

I wonder if City would consider loaning out Iheanacho once Gabriel Jesus arrives. He needs regular games now

I really don't understand people that say we are playing good football. We're not in 90% of games (although I thought we did ok for the first hour last night). The tempo is far too slow and we spend most of the game passing it sideways and backwards. How is that good football?

He can sacrifice one of the 3 defensive midfielders for another attacking player, so 4231 as opposed to 433: .......Romeu Hojbjerg Redmond Boufal Tadic ............Jay/Long Worth a try

I have no idea if he's finished or not because he hasn't had a chance to get any sort of rhythm going. With Austin out we have to give him a run of games and then we'll know if he's worth sticking with or not

Completely agree with this

I've been critical of Puel for playing dull football but I can't fault him much tonight. For the first hour I thought we played with a pretty good intensity and tempo but we have a huge problem in that only Boufal and occasionally Redmond are willing to take players on. When a team is as well set up as Stoke were tonight then we have to take more risks and that means the likes of Davis and JWP doing more than moving the ball sideways. They have to make runs into the box, attempt more probing passes, take a few more shots. They worked hard tonight but we need more from them, and at some point you have to just accept that they will never change. We desperately need to start looking for a different type of midfielder, because we keep buying and producing boring midfielders without the ability to do something different. The positive is Boufal is looking like a seriously good player

After Liverpool's they are the most tedious and boring by far. They just constantly feel hard done by and wronged. So does their manager

Agreed. He isn't worth 120k a week which is why we won't be interested

I agree. He needs a run of games which hopefully he will now get. Having 3 strikers in the squad is probably enough and they have all shown they're capable of scoring goals if we play to their strengths. It's up to the manager to get the best out of them

I thought it was another pretty **** performance. The first half was awful but we had started to improve before Boufal scored a brilliant goal out of nothing. The game changed after that with us being able to play on the counter attack slightly and we defended well, as we have done all season. The performance hasn't changed my opinion of Puel whatsoever, all it has done is highlight what a talent Boufal is and just how important he will be for us now. The criticism of Reed's transfer dealings I've always thought unfair mainly because our record signing has still to get himself full fit from his injury and adjusted to the league. But he will be a more than capable Mane replacement given time. Everyone has given up on Rodriguez but I don't think Puel has helped him by constantly changing the team. With Austin's injury we need to give him a proper run in the side and let's see if he can get some of his old form back. I'm still hopeful for him

Targett should be sold in the summer. Third choice now and has never looked like being a PL player

No. He sold Mane and Juanmi and bought Redmond and Boufal. We sold Pelle and had already replaced him with Austin who made minimal impact last season as he was injured for most of it, and we had Rodriguez coming back as well. What Koeman did was get the best out of Long (eventually) and also Tadic (playing on the left), something Puel has failed to do and is a large part of why we're struggling so much up front. You're an idiot if you think Koeman was responsible for signing all of Mane, Pelle, Tadic, VVD and Alderweireld. We don't have the 6th lowest wage bill in the league anymore. Where do you think the transfer profits have been going? We gave 8 first team players new long term contracts this summer, with a lot of them getting big pay rises, that's where the money has gone. Our wage bill will now be comfortably in the top 10 in the league

In Les Reed and the club's mind, midfielders aren't supposed to score goals. They're there to recycle possession and nothing more

33 goals sold off? Pelle got 11 league goals last year, Austin already has 6 and will very likely end up beating Pelle's total. Reed presumably thought that between Redmond, Boufal and a returning Rodriguez they could cover the loss of Mane's 11 league goals which isn't an unreasonable thought. Tadic and Long between them got 17 goals last year and so far have 1 this season. Why isn't Puel getting more out of them?

He needs taking out for a few weeks as his confidence is very low. But there is some talent there and we can improve him. I'm not sure entirely why he is seen as the Mane replacement as opposed to Boufal?

https://www.whoscored.com/Articles/ljExBNu7IEOxujqhO1WGcQ/Show/Are-Bravo-and-Karius-as-bad-as-they-have-seemed There are many different aspects to goalkeeping and stats can be misleading, but considering shot stopping is his strength this is rather worrying