The Kraken

I don't see that he'll change the central midfield 3. Rather than Lallana as the 3rd midfielder it was much stronger today with 3 proper CMs in there (and Cork yet to return to provide further competion). So, assuming that we'll use a similar formation against Arsenal, it'll be either Lallana or Puncheon to make way. Lallana is the skipper so it won't be him.

QPR lost their first 3 games (Bolton, Everton, Wigan). Norwich 2 draws (Wigan, Stoke), 1 defeat (Chelsea). Swansea 2 draws (Wigan, Sunderland), 1 defeat (Manchester City).

Puncheon will make way. Harsh, because he had a good game today. Not sure yet where Mayuka fits into things, and the JRod signing gets more and more bizarre IMO.

Shaw isn't up to it. Neither is Fox, sadly. The first 10 minutes especially he was very poor and it looked like we might get torn a new one down that side. I don't think it'll be too long before Davis gets dropped. Ferguson showed how its done by dropping de Gea for an error last week; perhaps NA will do the same with us. Distribution was shocking today, and could have done better with the first United goal, it actually struck his leg which was planted on the ground.

OK, zero points from the opening 3 games is worrying stuff, but we knew it was a tough start. How does it compare against last season's promoted teams in terms of the opposition we've faced? Manchester City 5 - 1 Norwich Norwich 1 - 1 Wigan Norwich 1 - 2 Manchester United Manchester City 4 - 0 Swansea Swansea 0 - 0 Wigan Swansea 0 - 1 Manchester United Manchester City 3 - 2 QPR QPR 3 - 1 Wigan QPR 0 - 2 Manchester United So from the same games last season Norwich and Swansea had 1 point, QPR had 3. Its up for us to go to Arsenal and get a point, then the season can properly get into gear.

Has made two goal conceding errors in the last 2 games, plus one against Ajax in pre-season. He'll surely be a goner when Yoshida comes back from international duty. The third goal today was unforgiveable, shocking defending to allow RVP a free header from 8 yards out.

Fonte must go. Needless corner for the third goal (sliced clearance) and he didn't even bother getting near to van Persie, just allowed him a completely free header. We gifted them that; absolutely gifted it to them. A bit of naivety from NA, I feel.

I highly doubt that. Can't find a great picture of the away end, but that empty block of seats ran across the whole of the bottom tier and there was also a small block of empty seats down the bottom behind the goal. So I'd suggest there's more than 300 empty seats in the entire stand, probably around 2,300 in total IMO.

Clyne is great, very happy with him. In PL survival terms I'm not sure if I rate Fox, I don't rate Jos (though he may be better alongside a more talented CB partner who doesn't make mistakes so often) and I definitely don't rate Kelvin (so hopefully Gazza will step up very soon). Those were the problem areas I thought most important at the start of the window; that and a winger which, lets face it, you'd be crazy to complain about in the slightest.

I have been over-impressed with the forward acquisitions this summer. In midfield we've done what we needed to do in Steven Davis, good signing. In defence and at GK we could quite easily have replaced all 5 players without batting an eyelid; we've definitely replace one, I assume Yoshi will replace Fonte so we'll see whether there's an improvement there. But I don't rate our back line and think its vulnerable; its a gamble to spend £20M odd on a couple of forwards and around a quarter of that on pacthing up the rearguard.

Again, I don't think so. Its usually part of the whole arrangement for a whole season unless expressly agreed otherwise by both parties. The loaning club need the security that the player will be there all season and will write that security into the contract, there are only a limited number of loans a club cen exercise per season.

No. But there's always room for improvement. I still feel we're weak at the back; Davis doesn't do it for me so I hope Gazza is good enough to break through soon. Centre back is still an issue, we'll see how good Yoshida is but I feel that was our major problem area at the start of the summer. Also left back hasn't been addressed, Fox is doubtful and Shaw isn't ready for PL football. Aside from that, no other issues, our midfield and forward acquisitions have been great.

I very much doubt it. Season-long loans very rarely have release clauses, its kind of a big part of the deal, knowing that you can plan for the whole season with a particular player without fear of him going back at any minute.

Don't agree with the winger and holding midfielder at all, we have those. Our forward line is pretty impressive now, that's to be applauded. But we have a 36 year old goalkeeper who spectacularly failed in his last and only season in the Premier League. And sincere doubts surrounding two of our senior centre backs and also our left back. I believe in a policy of building a team from the back; get the defence right and then build from that. SFC seem to have taken slightly the opposite approach.

I somehow fear this, yes. We put our faith and the bulk of money into a new look attacking line-up, I wonder if some priorities were better served elsewhere.

I think the picture of Adkins and Mayuka at St Mary's was a giveaway. Yoshida will link up when he returns from international duty. Both were confirmed on the OS.

Are you putting in extra effort to be a relentless goon? It seems you've gone into Mr Angry overdrive in a ,assive effort to appear outraged and edgy. Most odd.

I suppose if we get relegated we could have him back.

I understand what you're saying; but Billy Sharp is now a "victim" of his own success. He'll surely be on a decent wage, with bonuses topping it up etc. But he's deemed by us not good enough for Premier League (or at least not in our system). So this is a way for him to play. Forest may go up, and may decide he is actually one for them. But I think he's destined to be a Championship player on near Premier League wages; and we'll probably end up writing off the fee we paid for him. Which will have been worth it. And Forest have played the game well to get a top Championship striker with little risk.

Alpine, you're off on a wrong tangent here. We bought Billy Sharp as an aid to get us promoted. He did that. We then moved on. Notts Forest are looking for a striker to get them promoted. Exactly as we were. Why would Forest care yet about their Premier League team, they have to get promoted first don't they?

saint_clark mixing it over there and calling people "tard". Hope he infracted himself for it. The general feeling of indignation over there is quite something to behold though, they're absolutely apoplectic about it!

We also scored 2 goals in 30 minutes rather than 0 goals in 60 minutes, if you want to be that simplistic. In any case, I thought Guly was the better player on the left, and Saints were a better team with RL on the pitch. Its just my opinion, so you carry on and disagree with it. I'm off out.

I didn't think he was impressive against City, actually. I thought Guly did a much better job there when he replaced him. My point stands; if he's "not ready yet for it" then £7M is a hell of a lot of money for a newly promoted club to spend, and then play him out of position (not sure how that is going to help him become ready for it, if I'm honest).

If you figures are correct, then apparently Mayuka scored 23 goals in 21 games in season 2010-11 for Young Boys (Wiki lists his stats as 32 league goals in 55 league games over 2 seasons).

I say bizarre as we spent an awful lot on him (some might say overspent) and he's being billed as "one for the future". He may be a replacement for Lambert, yet against man city when Lambert was dropped it was Guly who played up front. JRod has only been played left wing where he is clearly out of position. For a newly promoted side, a transfer the size of Rodriguez's is a very significsnt investment for someone who apparently isnt yet going to be a first team starter in his chosen position. If that's the case that he won't usurp Rickie just yet, I think I'd have rather us looked to invest a significant sum in a first team keeper and to strengthen the defence. We'll see, of course. But for now I'll continue to see it as a bit of bizarre signing for us at this point in time (of course if we sign another left back, another centre back and a keeper before 11pm then I may change my mind!)