Dan Johnson

I can almost hear the PE teacher shouting at those 3 defenders “stop bunching”

On Balance it’s a decent point but we look disjointed. Been really disappointed with JWP form this season, he’s looked off the pace and hasn’t imposed himself on any game so far, we couldn’t move the ball through the middle of the park fast enough and that transition from defence to attack seems cumbersome and predictable and often breaks down because we have players taking 3/5 touches when 1/2 will do. Elyounoussi, JWP, Aribo all cumbersome at times, our wingbacks seem like the only ones willingly releasing the ball quick enough to form dangerous attacks leaving us vulnerable to counter attacks. That’s what Lavia did so well in the first couple of games, released the ball quick and kept the attacks looking dangerous. The minute you play a sideways ball allow opposition defenders to reset is the minute you make it 10 times harder to break opposition down. Che had a few good opportunities, fashioning them himself through his strength but otherwise he seems isolated. We should be playing off him more, drawing in defenders with his strength, back to goal with runners off him. Salisu is a good defender but a very raw Footballer, he can make some cracking tackles/blocks but often that hard work is undone by a sloppy 5 yard pass straight to the opposition! I’ve not been happy with Ralph’s performances as manager but the players naivety (brought on by their young age) is allot to do with those poor performances.

All the best to him. Think he’s been a good signing for us, I know some fans will point to his inconsistency but if he played at the top of his game consistently, he’d have never played for us in the first place, on his day he’s a game changer. Obvious he’s a confidence player and like some have said, he struggled when the fans were on his back but also he could thrive when the fans were on his side and get bums off seats. All the best to him and his family, feels like the right time to part company with him and I m glad the club are giving him that opportunity out of respect for his service, that feels right to me. All the best redders, it’s been a blast

Completely agree with this, I’m a big Che fan by the way and think he’s good for 10 goals a season, however that miss was inexcusable and it’s indicative of his composure and why we need another striker alongside him/to take the pressure off him, I worry the more pressure he’s under the more we may see instances like that. He’s better when he can throw his body at something, rather than having time to think, again the chance almost directly after where he attacked the ball was a fine example

Very happy with this. It’s a quality addition to the squad 👍🏻

Looked every bit a £60m+ defender in the last 3 games. An absolute steal at £8M Reminds me of John Terry. Some of the tackles he put in tonight and against Utd were outrageously good Hats off to the scouting department

Ings, Watkins, Bailey, Buendia, Coutinho yet they’ve now signed Sarr. be surprised if they didn’t move on one of the existing 5.

I’d class Che as a forward, because he offers so much more than just goals, although he’s good for 10-12 goals a season in the prem too! Legitimately I think he might be one of the best hold up forwards in the league. Outside of Haaland, who else can hold the ball up that well? That’s such a massive quality for a club of our level where we will need the ball to stick up top against the better teams/draw fouls to relive the pressure on the defence. I’d personally class him alongside KWP and JWP as one of our most important players. I’d be gobsmacked if he left

Don’t subscribe to the idea of those saying we were terrible for 60 minutes, thought we defended very well for that 60 mins, just lacked creativity going forward, Very much the same for Leicester. Both sides almost equalled each other out until the Maddison goal and it was quiet pedestrian until that point, although we also didn’t look like we’d concede and thought we looked comfortable, build Momentum from being strong at the back, which is exactly what we did today. Maddison’s goal was quality, the only bit of quality all afternoon from Leicester, we then went up a gear and Leicester couldn’t get near us for the last 30 mins. Could have been 3 or 4 in the end. im very happy with that performance, 3pts at Leicester is a great return, it’s a result that makes me think we’ll be alright this season. Rodgers has come out and said Leicester aren’t expecting new signings before the window closes, with teams looking at Maddison, Telemens, Fofana they could be in trouble, they were flat today, whether that’s because of their situation or because they struggled to break us down, I don’t know, but I worry for them.

He done his knee around Christmas and was ruled out for the season. struggled with injuries before that too, Got allot of stick for his early performances

In the 27 seasons the premier league has been a 20 team league, a team has been relegated on 40+ pts on only 3 occasions, 2 of those seasons 41 pts would have been enough to stay up, the other 43 pts. We’ve finished in 15th which is exactly where I’d expect us to be. 8 teams lost more games than we have this season, despite our awful run. Our downfall has been that we only won 9, only 3 teams failed to win more, the 3 that went down. If we carried more of a goal threat and turned even half our draws into wins, we’d have been challenging for a Europa league spot. Its been an odd season, because wins and loses have come in bunches, had they been spread out more evenly we’d probably be fairly satisfied with what we achieved, a solid cup run and survival.

I think Ralphs done a good job to be honest and I'd like him to stay, he's been limited by our lack of spend while trying to get rid of transfer flops over the last few summers, which makes the job even more impressive to be honest, it will be interesting to see how this summer goes. We've lost 11 games this season, which is the same as West Ham who are having a great season. It's 1 more than Arsenal and Tottenham, 2 Less than Wolves and 6 Less than Villa, all of whom are above us. We've competed in every game we've played this season, except perhaps Villa Away and Chelsea at home. We've drawn 13, if we'd have scored just 7 more goals we'd be up challenging for top 4, Seven goals off challenging for top four... I'd take that any season. The problem we have, some of our best performers can have a dip in form and we don't have the competition for places to pull them out. If Salisu, Broja, KWP, Romeu, JWP form dip our quality\strength is significantly weakened. For a club of our size that's something we have to live with, if they all performed at their best week in week out we wouldn't be able to hold on to them anyway, they'd be playing for bigger clubs.

Exceptional result given the circumstances. id be seething if I was a Hammers Fan, they offered very little and with 9 changes they were clear favourites. special mentions to - Valery, looks a great player at CB, completely different to RB. Found his position. - Perraud, everything that Bertrand wasn’t in his last 18 months. Storming performance, passion, commitment, work rate. incredible goal. He’s been a great signing, sets the tempo for everyone on the pitch. stephens - very capable CB these days and a real club steward, never seemed troubled. On the flip side, thought Diallo didn’t have his best game tonight, made silly decisions and gave the ball away.

Yep. A players talent and what they contribute to the TEAM performance isn’t always as simple as highlighting what they’ve contributed as an individual in the form of stats Brojas assets, his pace and strength are allowing Armstrong and Elyonoussi to exploit the oppositions attempts to deal with him. Watch how wide Broja will pull players leaving space in the middle for midfielders to run into and how fast teams drop back out of possession to allow us to flood forward and break quickly. it’s no surprise Armstrong and Elyonoussi have been the match winners the last few games.

Me too, Favourable run of fixtures, think we could over take West Ham too.

What a game!! Something really special about this team. Even when we went 2-1 down, which felt extremely unjust, I felt we were still in it. I wasn’t expecting us to come back and win though! You can sum up the difference in attitude from this season and the last couple by looking at left back, this team is optimised by Perraud and his bust a gut all action attitude, completely in contrast to Bertrand’s attitude where he rarely looked like he cared. It’s so evident that we have 11 players on the pitch who are giving their all, who are proud to be playing for the club and who desperately want to win, it’s so refreshing. Bring on utd. If we can pinch a point there, getting 5 points from City/Tottenham/Utd would be utterly exceptional!! our run after that looks favourable, could see us finish comfortably in the top half!

I agree, I would also say that the current list of players who've come through their youth ranks to become established members of the first team is a mis-representation of the habitual normal over the last 10+ seasons. Their transfer ban meant they couldn't spend money on players they otherwise likely would have. Would Mason Mount have been given the opportunity if A) he wasn't at Debry with Lampard the seasons before and B) Chelsea were able to spend the Hazard Money straight away? Andreas Christensen Ruben Loftus-Cheek Trevoh Chalobah Mason Mount Reece James Callum Hudson-Odoi I personally feel like we will either secure him on loan until the end of the 22/23 season, he'll then sign for a club who are traditionally challenging for the top 6 (but outside of the top 4) the likes of Arsenal etc OR we sign him, we enter a low buy back fee and he moves back to Chelsea once he's more established. Outside of Harry Kane, when was the last time a top 6 club trusted a player out of their academy to be their main striker? Rashford/Greenwood maybe?

Lambert 2012 > 2014 — 25 goals, 22 Assists. 2 great seasons and seemed everything he touched turned gold during that period. Goal on his England debut too. Was already a club favourite by the time we got to the prem, secured legendary status with these two seasons. Like every striker on this list, we saw the best of him. Couldn’t begrudge him his move to his boyhood club in what fast became the twilight of his career JROD 2013 > 2014 - 15 goals in 30 games his best and worst season in the professional game wrapped up in 1, frightening pace and was unplayable at times, could have gone on to be Harry Kanes level, then that injury. Never the same player after even though he’s still had a decent career. The move to Burnley suited both parties at that time. Pelle 2014 > 2016 - 23 goals in what was probably my favourite team as a saints supporter. Important goals, great goals, great understanding with Tadic in a team that was so entertaining to watch. Robbed a hatrick in our 8-0 win over Sunderland. Can’t fault his move away to become one of the best paid players in football history at the time of his move. Ings 2019 - 2020 - 22 goals in a season. Will we ever have a 20+ goal scorer again? Slightly soured by the way he left compared to the others on this list.

James Ward-Prowse, James Ward-Prowse, James Ward fucking Prowse!! What a monumental performance, utterly exemplary, the absolute optimity of what you want from a captain. Sensational. for me, he stays at the club the rest of his career he becomes the legend of legends, he really does. His fitness, work rate , Commitment, Desire, and Passion is unequalled and unquestionably. my motm by a country mile and that’s with some club best performances by the likes of Diallo, Broja, Perraud

Woods to Newcastle is odd all round. Newcastle fans will be hugely underwhelmed, it’s such a big fee for someone in their 30s, he’s very much suited to Burnley’s style of plate too, it feels like Newcastle are just throwing money around to see what sticks. They were linked with the likes of Dembele and they’re signing Woods! To be fair to him, his goal scoring record Isn’t that bad, double figures in the Prem over the last 4 seasons. Burnley fans will be worried, it’s a shocker from them even though it seems it’s a release clause that’s prompted the move. They won’t find a replacement and they’re desperately short of goals as it is, that maybe it for them now.

Our best hope is a 2nd season on loan. He’s an absolute worldy of a player, by the end of next season he’ll be a 20+ A season striker. He’s just unplayable at times. As an aside, Chelsea did let Salah and Kevin D B go, so they have history of letting good players go 🤞

After Valerys heroics against Tottenham I was hoping he’d start to push on, unfortunately he’s back down in the world of mediocrity today, feel it’s probably time he’s moved on now. JWP showed every inch of his quality today, exceptional at right back. thought we looked pretty comfortable all game today and felt we’d come out on top I’m the end. it’s a shame the sending off blunted our charge, otherwise I think it would have been a stroll

A while ago but I think everyone assumed we'd sign him as he did so well for us, he was only on loan. I think the summer we tried to sign him, Reading had an option to extend his contract which they took and made it harder for him to sign. Would probably be playing for Liverpool now if we'd kept him 🤣

Talks exceptionally well for a young lad.

I think this exact policy is why we should acknowledge that signings like Walcott are just as important as the signings of the likes of Small\Tino. Theo is an exemplary professional, his presence around the club will proved the perfect example to the younger players and a fantastic role model\mentor. We are now seen as the club that gives young players a stage to perform, a clear path way to the first team, we are the stepping stone club to bigger things but i am absolutely fine with that.