Verbal Kint

I find the managerial decision more concerning than the signing itself. On the whole I think we've bought some decent players this summer (although it's still very early to tell), I just don't think Koeman is getting the best out of them (or even playing them)

We’re at home against a team that haven’t been playing brilliantly this season, and have had to reshuffle their defence so that their left hand side was clearly an area for us to target. Soares should not only have played, but also told to get forward on the overlap at every opportunity and try and put some pressure on Rojo/Blind. he should have been key to our gameplan of trying to exploit the opposition's weakness. Instead we made a defensive selection by playing a centre back out of position because RK is scared of Memphis, a player who has done absolutely nothing in the league so far this season. Nothing If that doesn’t sum up Koeman I don’t know what does. Everyone can accept us losing, but when we are so negative it becomes harder to accept

They were exactly as predicted. OK to start, completely silent when behind and decent when winning. Just like most away support in this league

Koeman is so negative it makes us frankly incredibly dull to watch. Mane is the only player that gets fans excited. Obvious and inexplicably bad errors for their goals but the overall attitude is so uninspiring. No intensity in the second half, no pressing. Just dull propaganda football

It's Koeman. That is how negative managers work. Get a goal up and go as defensive as possible

Oh wow. Is that seriously how these sites classify a chance? No wonder they're completely pointless

Do you think we created 14 chances at West Brom? We didn't, I don't care where the stats are from, we did not create 14 chances in that game. If we had done, we'd all be on here talking about poor finishing and wastefulness, whereas everyone is actually talking about a lack of creativity

According to the site you have linked to, 5 of the 16 "chances" Davis has created came against West Brom, a game in which, according to that site, we created 14 "chances". Forgive me for thinking that that is a load of ********. And it is yet more proof that most stats used in football are a load of rubbish

Smalling has been the best CB in the league, and I can't name two full backs better than Darmian and Shaw currently

The style isn't that important, it's the ability to inject pace that is important, whether you're doing it on the counter attack or if you prefer slow possession with the ability to up the pace quickly in the right areas (as Barcelona used to do). Most of the top sides are capable of playing one touch football in and around the box in tight spaces. We don't have the players to do it which is why everything stays quite slow and we inevitably play the ball sideways and backwards too often

It's a defensive mindset. When you're in front, keep the ball. When you're playing against the better teams, keep the ball and frustrate them. But otherwise it is not going to help you create chances no. Do you you think Tony Pulis cares about how much of the ball they had? Of course not, teams are organised in this league and you have to have the spark to break teams down and create things. Passing slowly sideways and backwards will not do that

FFS. Passing accuracy doesn't create chances and it's not hard to get a high passing accuracy % if you only ever pass sideways or backwards 10 yards. It is the most overused and irritating stat in football. It's a load of rubbish

If you'd offered RK a point before the game he'd have taken it. When you see us playing pretty dull football away from home in a 0-0 draw without much urgency or creativity you think we need to change something, he thinks we're sticking to the gameplan

When they're both losing you rarely hear either

I actually have more time for Man Utd than most. Lived in Manchester for 10 years and appreciate their history and stature, and I think they have retained small but important traditions that I quite like. I just happen to think most supporters in this country are very similar, so don't see any one set as particularly better than the other. The only supporters in the league that offer something different is Palace, and that style of support seems to have a marmite effect on people. Support in this league is crap throughout and until ticket prices are halved it will continue to be this way

And I'm sure I could find you a video of Sunderland fans singing when 8 down against us. Or a video of our fans when getting thumped somewhere. Pretty ridiculous to take a freak one off game of that nature to generalise from. You'll see it next weekend. They'll sing a bit whilst it's level, if they go behind they'll be silent, if they're in front they'll sing. Just like the support of 99% of clubs in this country. The same as Chelsea, Spurs, Villa, Everton etc etc. It's the nature of supporters in this country. Sing when you're winning. Just about every club is the same, so I find it strange why threads like these get started

I don't disagree, I'm just saying you only hear it when they're winning, which is broadly true for most support in this country

When they're winning. I remember being at SMS when they won 3-2 (RVP hattrick) and their support was summed up very well that day. Ok to start, go behind and complete silence. Equalise. Go behind again. Complete silence. Win in stoppage time and are then very loud. Always the same with them. They sing when they're winning, and because they've had very good sides for a long time they have been winning quite a lot. No different to the majority of away support in this country

A myth. They fit the "only sing when you're winning" category better than any other set of fans around, and will prove it next week. If we take the lead you'll be able to hear a pin drop in their end

If you don't want to take into account two massive anomalies then fair enough, but i don't think those results were a fair reflection on our style over the season. I'd rather trust my eyes in terms of what we're seeing every week than the basic stats, and 90% of the time we see negative team selections in the third midfield position. Davis will make 30+ PL starts this season and he should be making 10 or so. JWP will make 25+ starts and should be similar. I don't think we're getting the maximum out of this team by playing one (or both) of those two every week in that position, and it will get even more frustrating hearing Koeman complain about a lack of cutting edge when there ARE things we could try to solve the problem. Juanmi might be one for starters

Slightly distorted because of the S'land and Villa results it has to be said. Last season was also the best squad we've had in the PL era, so I expect us to break those sort of records. Not saying Koeman is a bad manager, far from it, I just think his style is pretty defensive in general and it will lead to a lot of frustration

Koeman is just a very negative manager so we have to just get used to it. More games than not JWP and Davis will start, we'll only have 2 players on the pitch offering any sort of goal threat and he'll continue to be bemused as to why we don't score anough goals. He's more interested in clean sheets than scoring goals

Didn't Howe turn us down before we got Adkins? Not sure why Monk would come to us to be honest, he's been at Swansea a long time now and I imagine it would have to be a big step up for him to leave, which we are not

Newcastle (did we subsidise this year?), Sunderland, City, United. There are 4 for you where the money would be better spent

I would have thought it better to use it for games at the other end of the country, particularly for City and United away where the ticket prices will be almost as expensive