Saint_clark

Something like touchline etiquette is bad enough, the worst one was when they changed the handball rule midway through the season.

Scrappy relegation fight will make a good story for the doc before pushing on next year.

Sounds like someone that had the game on in the background and looked up when the goals were scored.

Another right back? Guess KWP is off then. Good shout. Stewart is dead in the water I think. Agreed though that i'd want to see him and someone else.

Would anyone take Assombalonga on a free up front? Struggled for a couple of years but has a history of getting goals in this league.

I should also say that I think what Smallbone showed in conceding that goal is inexperience rather than a lack of physicality. He's never going to outmuscle someone that size, so it's all about staying away from the guy, running in and jumping at the right moment to intercept the ball/put the attacker off.

Bednarek and Stephens actually won 100% of their aerial duels which surprised me when I looked. I agree, there isn't enough elsewhere. Get Charles in midfield for Alcaraz and either Adams up top or another proper centre forward and we'll be much more solid. I would also be training Bazunu on coming out more often.

It's really not that hard to do. Fourth official has a stop watch, as soon as a flag is waved or a whistle blown he stops it, as soon as the ball is thrown or kicked he restarts it again. Fourth official also blows the full time whistle in this scenario.

"other than the shot for the goal Tella has been pretty anonymous, I still think their valuation is high for him." Then why do you want him!?

I too was very sceptical, not so much for who he was but how it came about. It was all a bit of a farce. If the performance last night is anything to go by and he is properly backed with transfers, I could see him being a good Prem manager as well.

It really wasn't, and the camera was on him the entire time you can clearly see him say "he ran into me".

£150,000 a week living in London and challenging for Europe?

I didn't see it so don't know the context, if he was using it to directly address him then yeah that's weird, if he was just discussing him with the other pundits then they usually use surnames for people they don't personally know and first names when they do personally know them.

Fair enough, I don't read back the entire thread when I check in just the most recent few posts.

Unless West Ham get desperate as the window draws to a close, I don't think he's going anywhere.

Similar to KWP though, unless someone is paying £20million it isn't really worth letting Che go. He would get 20 goals in this team for us, what strikers are we going to sign who have scored bundles in this league before for less than that?

Completely agree, last night was not meaningless passing at all. Actually much more excited for the season after last nights performance - and not just because of the result, I was resigned to a 1-1 opener and was still feeling good about our prospects.

I agree, the Tella one was overzealous enforcement of the rules. He simply waved his arm around and said "he ran into me!" when he was penalised for a supposed foul.

In this league he'll win us a lot of freekicks and penalties before we even get to whether he can actually create for us. Personally, I think he'll get better and better the more he plays.

Didn't Bednarek always play left CB for Poland?

Wasn't totally solid last night. His position and up front (and keeper but we won't sign anyone there) are the ones that will be easiest to make big improvements in. Hopefully he turns it around, but I'm hoping we aren't planning for a full season with Bednarek and Stephens as first choice in front of Bazunu.

Every season they have some new initiative that they clamp down on in the first month or two and then it dies a death. I can remember at various times... Not stop starting during penalty run ups (happens all the time now) Nobody but the captain speaking to the ref Clamping down on shirt pulling in the box And I'm sure there's more if I hadn't just woken up. I actually dont mind this new approach. How many times have we said that they should clamp down on dissent and time wasting properly, that we'd end up with a huge amount of red cards for a few weeks but players would soon learn? With regards to the time though, I'd much rather they stop the clock when the ball is out of play than add on 25 minutes of additional time across both halves. With this approach you'll end up with evening games ending past 10 o clock, it'll be a nightmare for away fans who get the train.

Few candidates but I went for Smallbone, very impressed with him. We've been blessed having two quality Championship players to slot into the side without having to spend anything.

Looking forward to seeing how many in total. We may have broken 1000 passes there.

Adams starts and I reckon we win that by 3 or 4.