sydney_saint

Absolutely in agreement with Djenepo. At the very least he may win us a couple of freekicks. He's only played 3 games really in 2023 and has a goal and an assist, both against Man City. That's the same amount of goal contributions than Elyounoussi has had all season. I'd go with a 4-3-3 (we never do, but I think it gets our best players on the park). Keeper (still not against dropping Baz) KWP-ABK-Bednarek-Peraud Lavia JWP Alcarez Djenepo- Tall paul or Che- Sulemana Really important we get KWP getting forward. It will leave us a little bit exposed, but fuck it, we need to actually score and we don't have the talent to do it playing conservatively. I'm not going to even switch on if I see Moi in the starting lineup.

Please please please, if there is any sanity left in this club, no more Elyounoussi. Did you see how easily the City defenders outpaced and outmuscled him? I know it is Man City, but every club easily outmuscles and outpaces him. He wasn't good enough four years ago, and he's not good enough now. He may do okay in a slower pace league, but in this league he is so many miles off it. We need to win games. Draws are not gonna be much use now. We need to find a way to score some goals. We need more than a player who has registered a single assist in the league all season, despite having ridiculous amounts of playing time. Djenepo now has more assists in the league this season than Moi! And he has played about a quarter of the playing time, plus lots of that was playing left back in a back 4 earlier in the season. It really shows just how poor Moi is.

Enough is enough now with Elyounoussi. Djenepo should start. He does pretty well defensively, is actually capable of attacking.

For that one, the City line was really high. Any ball in from that angle was gonna end up straight to the keeper, or one of our players would be offside if they managed to get to it. So he made the right call to draw them out.

How many goals and assists have that front 4 managed over the last 12 months? Elyounoussi must not start in any game which requires a win. I don't care about his defensive work. He doesn't get goals or assists and his so easy to play against. Armstrong is just done, and has been ever since he got covid unfortunately (not saying it is related, just highlighting when his form fell off a cliff). Sulemana has to start every game. He may be raw, but at least he has something about him. Alcarez wasn't good, but I feel he is a player that needs to start to get into the flow of the game. Walcott I don't mind, he has earned his way into the team. But at least 3 of the front 4 today should not have started. Getting that wrong in a must win game killed us. Can get away with it in games we want to steal a point, but not today.

My mate (a spurs fan) just messaged "why does it always seem to be the players saints bring odd the bench always seem to be several levels better than the ones coming off the pitch". Mate, preaching to the choir here.

Moi's performances are always in a range of 3-6. In is 70 odd league matches, how many 7 or higher performances as he had? Today was not actually his worst game. Which says more about the bar set for him then the performance

Poor Lavia. Don't worry mate. Only 9 games to get through and you can get out of this shitshow

Yeah fair. I've put it down to his attitude and thought there was a decent player there in his first few games. But he might just be shit as well.

Unfortunately DCC probably shouldn't play for us again. Shame as he's our best centre back. But us fucking him around when Jones was here I think has led to him not giving a shit. That first half was not the performance of a player who cares.

Our decline really started to speed up as soon as Moi became a regular starter. Whatever mild improvements he gives the defensive shape is completely offset by his complete lack of attacking output. He must be so easy to play against for an EPL defender. If you are a fullback, you can afford to really push up cos you can catch up to moi and shove him off the ball

It would be nice, just for once, to start with our best attacking players. I know that even our best isn't a high standard. But give us a chance of scoring some bloody goals. Every single fan would have expected Sulemana and Alcarez to start. I'd have personally have played Paul, but can understand the Mara solution. Armstrong is done, at best he is now a player you bring on the final 20. Elyounoussi has 2 assists and 1 goal in his last 38 EPL matches and that doesn't look likely to change. You could argue 3/4 of our front players shouldn't have started in a must win match.

Honestly if that was us scoring, I wouldn't want it disallowed. We were always likely to need to score 2 today. I'm glad we have renowned attacking threat l elyounoussi to make sure we do.

In a must win match, we start an attacking player who has 2 assists and 1 goal in his last 38 league matches...He's not even good enough to win us some freekicks which looks like the only way we are gonna score

It's been 15 EPL games since his last goal or assist. That assist against Arsenal came after 16 games without a goal or an assist. And is his last 38 matches (equivalent to a full season) he has 2 assists and 1 goal. As terrible as we are, that is just utterly diabolical from an attacking player. It's not coincidence that our attacking output collapsed from the moment we somehow decided he should be first name on the teamsheet.

Easy to say when you aren't on the receiving end

I get what you are saying, and I absolutely agree that they are overinflated. But that overinflation does mean that the EPL can hoover up the talent. Antony, Sancho, Nunez and Richarlidson probably aren't the best example, as they all went to the biggest clubs, which the big clubs in Europe are all paying big money, just look at Felix. But end of the day, if West Ham bid 30m for a player, and Valencia can only afford 15m, West Ham will get the better player, even if they did pay over the odds. Can only guess on how most of 'the rest' would go in Europe, as most of the time they do not qualify, but my gut tells me most of the sides would do pretty well in the Europa. Put another way, Rangers got to the final last year, and I think if we put that team in the EPL they would have got relegated. Aribo was one of their stars and who the fuck knows where he is now. I also think Spurs are a great example that the EPL does have decent quality. They are made to look average alot of the time because they are regularly playing decent sides. If you stuck them in La Liga, I think they would comfortably be beating the likes of Cadiz, Osasauna, Valladolid, Vallecano, even Betis.

Is the league actually lacking quality? Or is that there are just lots of teams with similar quality squads? Most teams now have a squad costing well over 100m and all but a few sides have a side costing over 200m. I know cost doesn't guarentee quality, but I'd back most of the sides in the league to do pretty well in Europe. West Ham did well in europa league last season and are cruising the conference league, yet are seriously struggling in the league.

He tries to ref every game. It's probably why they have 'given' him the captaincy now.

What a bunch of whingeing cunts. The three big calls the ref has got right. 1. Red card. You don't go studs up anymore. You do that, you risk getting sent off 2. KWP got the ball 3. Didn't hit ABK arm

True that previous keepers have had far better defender in front of them. Currently he has decent players though in KWP, ABK, Salisu, Lavia, JWP and I guess Elyounoussi seeing as the managers all seem to think he's some defensive genius. With the exception of left back, it isn't the worst defensive set up you will see in this league. It's at least equal to most of the teams around us, and better than a couple as well. This isn't like Blackpool 2010 with defensive chaos all around him. Certainly it isn't so shocking to excuse Baz number of errors and I think he is operating at a level below the rest of the players. If you take a marginally more competent goalkeeper who let's say kept us 4-5 of the goals we conceded this season, our defensive record would be pretty in line with most of the bottom 10 clubs. It's the issues up front that are killing us. The most recent defensive set ups you refer to are for a team that finished top 6. Baz absolutely would be miles behind that level and would not deserve to play in that side, so I don't consider him unlucky really. He's very lucky that he's been able to retain a place whilst performing at a level below the rest of the defensive players.

We are basically willing to get relegated to protect his feelings.

There have been some points over the last decade where I have had no idea who will play as there were so many players pushing to be in the first team. This weekend I also have no idea who will play cos there are barely any who I want to play. A couple of selections are important on how seriously we want to win. KWP is a more attacking threat at rb than AMN, even if KWP is out of form. And whilst Moi might have some okay defensive stats, his attacking ouput is terrible. If we want to actually score, neither AMN or Moi should start. Hard to know who else to start, but I guess I would go for something like McCarthy KWP-ABK-DCC-Perraud S.Armstong-Lavia-JWP Moussa-Big Paul-Sulemana Moussa I know most won't like, but think he does occasionally make things happen accidentally and scored one of our few goals from open play this year, and the rest of the options are just shit

If we went down? Usually when relegation is confirmed, you see the players slump onto the ground, some emotional, some teary. How many of this lot do we think actually give a flying fuck? J Definite JWP Maybe SArmstrong Moussa KWP Perraud I think actually gives a shit, he's just a bit limited. The rest of them will probably just shrug their shoulders and be on the phone to their agents. Though I certainly don't blame the Jan signings one little bit, this was a mess when they arrived.

Is he well ahead of Djenepo? For defending, we've conceded less goals with Djepeno, he's made more successful tackles and more blocks in less minutes. Defensively Elyounossi is far better in the air but I would hardly say that is well ahead overall defensively, and actually for that position further up the pitch, I would think tackles on the ground are more important. For attacking play, Djenepo shades it for minutes per goal and minutes per assist. Elyounoussi has far more through balls, but that doesn't tell the full story as we don't know the quality of those balls. I would also say Elyounoussi has an advantage as he starts more games, whilst Djenepo comes off the bench and has to get up to speed far more quickly.