Verbal Kint

He turns 33 in a couple of weeks. He's been offered a very fair deal and if he wants out then I think we should let him go. He's been colossal for us over the years but it may be time for him to move on and to let VVD take the armband permanently. His best years are behind him

Forster has always looked like he has that sort of mistake in him as he just never looks comfortable with the ball at his feet. It's pretty astonishing a premier league footballer and England international can make an error like that to be honest, but it just shows how low the bar is now set for goalkeepers. Apart from making some incredible saves now and then Forster doesn't do anything else particularly well. Distribution is poor, he's always rooted to his line and he never looks like he is commanding his box. He's one of the biggest keepers in the league but plays like he's 5 ft 8 not 6 ft 7. I always thought Stek's all round game was much superior but he wasn't capable of making the sort of saves that Forster can. I guess it comes down to what you want from your keeper. If we got offered 20 million or more I wouldn't be disappointed to see Forster sold

And Puel has dropped his diamond formation. Last two games we've played with proper wide players and a centre forward and we've been much better as a result. Tonight was similar to a Koeman performance from last year as we sat fairly deep with men behind the ball and looked to kill them on the break. Great football and even better to see the young lads getting chances which would never have happened under RK. I thought Harrison Reed was particularly good tonight and we need to trust him more

If I was VVD's agent I wouldn't have let him sign a 6 year contract without assurances we'd let him go for a realistic figure to the right club. I think we'll probably be slightly disappointed when he goes for less than we'd like

A "key pass" is defined by most of these stats sites as a pass that leads to any attempt on goal. That definition alone shows how meaningless these stats are

0-0 or 1-0 defeat. We won't create a decent chance in the match but Puel will bemoan bad finishing

Spot on. Our midfielders have got away with it for far too long, you only have to see the love in for Davis to realise how low the standards are now. BUT, I don't think the club would have it any other way as that's how they think midfielders should be playing. Pass pass pass sideways sideways back. We wouldn't be producing or buying such similar players if it wasn't what the club wants from midfielders, nor would we have appointed a manager like Puel who encourages players to be risk averse. We're stuck with it

I don't remember us creating many good chances against many teams this year. The only games this season where I've thought we looked scoring a few goals was Burnley at home, Swansea at home and away at West Ham. Burnley got beaten 4-0 on Monday and have the worst away record in the league, Swansea are bottom of the league and West Ham have the second worst defensive record in the league. I'm inclined to think those chances and wins were as a result of the opposition being so poor rather than our own abilities

He's not going to do it without regular games, and if we aren't prepared to do then we should send him out on loan

It's been that way since the first day Puel took over. The problem is that Les Reed also thinks that's how football should be played, so we're stuck with it for a while unfortunately.

I think that would be a knee jerk mistake on the sort of money he is on and considering how injury prone he has been throughout his career. Whilst we probably could do with another striker at the moment with Rodriguez showing no form whatsoever, part of the problem is the way the team plays as a whole. NOBODY (except Boufal occasionally) is prepared to take a risk on the ball. Everything is sideways and backwards and you simply aren't going to break down organised teams by taking 3 or 4 touches and then offloading to the fullbacks. We need Tadic and Redmond playing wide and midfielders who are actually going to offer us something in attack, because we are creating very few good quality chances at the moment

We have been very average so far this season and everyone who watches us regularly knows it

He's done **** all with our current squad so I'm not sure why we'd expect him to do much with Sturridge

I'd be surprised if the vast majority didn't think this was our best lineup. There should always be room for slight tactical adjustments depending on the opposition though, particularly up front where I think some games we should use the pace of Long, and if Rodriguez ever gets near his old self he'd be our best all round striker IMO

Since Cortese's ego signings I don't think we've made a bad one. It clearly isn't luck when they keep getting it right

Because it's highly likely that a big selling point of us v other similar sized clubs is that we tell them they can move on if an acceptable offer is made. VVD didn't sign a 6 year contract here without getting assurances from the board that we'd let him go to a big club at the right price. The only question and doubt I have is if the club will get the right price, like Everton did with Stones. Virgil is a 50 million player and we shouldn't accept less next summer with so long left on his contract

There has been a lot of praise for Puel on here but I don't see how he's playing to the players' strengths. Austin thrives on crosses into the box but we don't play with enough width, Redmond is being played out of position and not showing signs of adapting, Tadic has been taken away from the left where he has been most effective and we continue to play with 3 midfielders without any attacking threat whatsoever. It's not surprising we are struggling to score goals. .............Forster Cedric Fonte VVD Bertrand ......Hojbjerg Romeu Redmond Boufal Tadic .............Austin I hope we see that team at some point in that formation and start using Austin and Long tactically depending on the opposition. We are rock solid defensively but we have to start showing more attacking intent if we want to get near the top 8 in May

I thought we were dominated and only got a point due to their poor finishing. They had 4 or 5 great chances and we only created 1. Lucky. We are so boring to watch

Excellent post

None of the above is that impressive when you look at the actual results that have got us to those positions. We've beaten Swansea, West Ham and Burnley in the league this season. That's it. CP is I'm guessing a very good coach and an ok manager but his style is dull. Keep the ball at all costs and don't take any risks with the ball ever. It leads to very predictable, one paced, dull football. To be honest though that's exactly the sort of style Les Reed and the club wants us to play and it's not a coincidence that we've ended up with midfield options including Clasie, Davis, JWP i.e. slow players with high pass completion stats. All of the top sides have midfielders that are prepared to run past players, make runs beyond strikers, get into the box, attempt passes to get in behind teams. But they've all got it wrong, what they really need is Steven Davis playing it back to the defenders 90% of the time, that's how you "control" games

We have a manager who is more interested in possession statistics than creating chances. We also as a club have had the wrong profile of midfielder for far too long. Davis, clasie, ward prowe all they do is recycle possession rather than looking to probe and create or get in the box and look to score goals. As long as we have midfielders like this in the team we won't go anywhere. We are totally reliant on Austin to score our goals from open play

2nd time this season we have conceded the first goal in a game due to Davis ball watching and not going with runners, and then making half hearted attempts to recover by dangling a leg. Not good enough for a player of his experience

I loved him as player but think he's a bit of a knob frankly. He's spent his whole career to get his big move and once he got it I think he lost his edge. I question his motivation, although i also don't think his game is particularly suited to playing for a big team. He's not playing in the league and not playing for his country but I don't see any tweets spouting off about it. Funny that

His all round game is better than has been made out, but there's no doubt his main attribute is his finishing. He is the only fit player we have you'd back hit double figures in a season. He needs to start when fit and to keep getting in the box, not being stuck out wide

And the last week we have seen what some of us were screaming for, Charlie Austin on the pitch and in the box and we won the game because of that. I thought we were very poor today in the first half, passed it far too slowly and consistently slowed the game down when we had great opportunities to counter attack at pace, but we went in 1 up because our goalscorer was on the pitch and in the box, and he scored a goal none of our other strikers would have scored. That goal changed the game as we could pick them off in the second half and only the usual woeful finishing stopped an embarrassment for West Ham. But let's be clear, Austin won us the game with that goal and if we had gone in at 0-0 I'm not sure we'd have been able to play the way we did in the second half, and who knows what would have happened. If Austin is on the pitch and in the box, we will have a decent season.