revolution saint

Team looks set up to try and keep a clean sheet and a draw would be a good result. KWP will need to watch the inverted fullback stuff as Brentford love to exploit those gaps. I'm guessing Armstrong got the nod as RM trusts him more on the defensive stuff but both him and Diaz will need to make more of the limited chances we create.

6 seems too low and 7 too high, so 6.5. Defence is much better with Ramsdale and Sugawara looks to be a good buy especially for the money paid. Taylor is a solid signing with experience so that looks a good deal too. Not sure about Edwards and Wood - definitely very cheap but not sure they'll play much and if they ain't playing then it's hard to argue they've improved the starting 11. Signing Downes was essential but doesn't feel like an upgrade cos we had him last year. Fernandes looks like he could be decent although I've got a slight concern whether he's physical enough. Big Les didn't impress me too much against Cardiff and for a player of his size I expected him to dominate much more - needs to show more workrate. Dibling impresses me a lot but he should be an option from the bench. Lots of questions out wide and up front. BBD, Archer and Cornet could all be decent and at least one of them will need over perform if we're to survive. Main doubts are whether we have enough creativity. There's a few that could step up but none that are nailed on to do it and I can see us huffing and puffing a fair bit, controlling possession but not creating enough clear cut chances. Probably an 8 out of 10 window for what we've done for Goztepe though.

Jeez, you seem to think one performance against Cardiff reserves and Big Les is the second coming. Kind of thing that's worth bookmarking for later.

With the exception of Downes, take your pick. Big Les didn't look that great to me against Cardiff reserves so that spot for a start.

I'm not the biggest fan of JWP but of course he'd have started.

Yeah, but not a major injury and back in training now. Probably isn’t off but not sure the injury is the reason why

Cornet signing could mean Sulemana is off, might give us some cash for a striker…. Cutting it fine though

I'll take the injured one please

Don't know. Do they still have that big lump of a forward who only ever scores against us? German or bought from a German side anyway.

Yeah, left wing too. Burnley did move him up front at one stage and I thought he did quite well and scored a few crackers. Not the kind of thing we should be looking at right now though.

Everyone says Oasis are a Beatles tribute act but honestly never really seen it that way. Can't say I'm a massive fan of the Beatles but most of their songs sound completely different to Oasis IMO. Anyway, fair play if they want to reform for a few gigs - it'll make quite a few people happy.

Agree, didn't impress me much either. Given YouTube often makes players look better than they are then it doesn't bode well. I guess if it's a loan and only an option rather than an obligation to buy then it's low risk financially but I don't see it solving any problems scoring goals.

Worth remembering at that point that was our midfield for both central positions, not just the "6", and we were expecting to go through the entire season with that. Diallo was shit, Jankewitz thankfully left shortly afterwards for a stellar career in Switzerland.

You said "For the 'number 6' role? Ward-Prowse, Romeu, Diallo and Jankewitz is fine for depth there." Pretty clear cut I would say, and shows your judgement is, well, a bit shit.

You bloody well did. I remember it very clearly although I can see why you would want to forget it.

Is that people like you? I still remember you talking up Jankewitz (he played for the Swiss U21s, he'll be fine as midfield cover!) and Valery.

Yeah, there's a definite tendency to think possession for the sake of it is the goal and takes precedence over scoring them. We had a spell last season where the players drifted into a comfort zone of passing it around the midfield and afraid to take any risks (Barnsley at home springs to mind). TBF to Martin he did call that out eventually and we started playing it a bit more direct once we beat the press. Need to start doing that again although, as you say, there needs to be better quality options up front to allow us to do that. The funny thing is, if you look at the highlights of people like THB, Big Les, Fernandes and new Dutch keeper, we have the players who can do those long passes to the front.

Yes, he did alright and was obviously keen to put a shift in and impress. There was one bit on the left where he played a quick one two with someone that didn't quite come off but that was down to a lack of anticipation from the other player (can't remember who) but showed he's good at quick passes around the box. Also stood up and wanted to take the free kick so he doesn't look the type who will hide away. Looks like we're going to have to hope he becomes a bit of a standout this season but he'll need a bit of quality in front of him.

Thought we were second best virtually everywhere today. First time I’ve really seen Dibling and he looked good. Fernandes looked ok and has a decent eye for a quick pass. That’s about the only positives I’ll take from that game

I believe you Nic. Some of the numpties on here astound me but just to quieten them down a bit, it might be a good idea to explain why you don't support Trump. That'll shut them up.

Plus they've lost Lallana.

It's quite difficult to regret signing Jack Clarke, when we haven't signed Jack Clarke.

I'm fairly hopeful we'll still bring in someone with a bit of physicality and power. We were in for Delap, possibly Broja, and inquired about Ioannides so that indicates the kind of profile we've been looking at. You can also argue Matt O'Riley too as he often played as a 10. I don't think we get knocked back and go fuck it, let's sign Archer instead. Martin also likes having that option - he signed Stewart and played with Piroe who's a bit of a unit. It's all about options and having something different to what we currently have which will make a big difference and enhance the other players. Particularly if we play with three at the back and need someone to hold the ball up a bit, bring others into play and avoid the forward players becoming isolated. Someone pointed out that Martin still felt we needed something more in the forward areas last week so we should be expecting some movement in this area over the next week.

Yes, I edited the original but too late for your reply. End of the day I'm looking at it in the same way I would any transfer that was a player plus cash deal. Is the player being offered any good, and do we need him? It's subjective of course but he didn't impress me enough to think he was better than cash we could spend elsewhere.

Yeah, I purposely didn't mention FFP/PSR for exactly that reason. Whilst you can do a bit of sleight of hand with the books, the end result in cash terms is you only have 7M rather than 25M. Plus of course Victor Hugo who may (or not) be worth it,