SNSUN

#thrashing

Heart - 2-1 win. Head - 1-4 loss. Would realistically rip your arm off for a point. Not liking that team again. Those 3 central midfielders will never light up the stadium.

I was probably at home, sucking on my mummy’s titty. (Because I was a baby not because I have a weird Oedipus complex.) I don’t remember it though. Weirdly Ido remember where I was when we signed David Hirst. Mablethorpe, Lincs, playing on the Amusements.

While I would agree JWP is out of form, you can’t fault the manager for continuing to play a midfielder that was joint League top scorer last season whose goals helped us to 14 of our 39 points. I would look to change things and possibly drop/rest JWP on current form, but you can see why Ralph sticks by him. Even Hojbjerg has been out of form, so you could make a case for dropping him too. We all accept that JWP and possibly even Hojbjerg wouldn’t be anywhere near the team if we had better central midfielders, but we don’t, so unfortunately they get the game time.

Palace is close to his heart, he's been there since he was a kid and was a local lad. VVD had no ties to us besides paying his wages and putting himself in the Premier League shop window. Zaha is 27 next month, he probably feels it's now or never to try again at the top, but credit to Palace for keeping him and credit to him for knuckling down. I still think he'll be gone by the start of next season, but Palace will be a lot richer for it.

Read it. It’s not, it was to see where people’s views were, and refreshingly, almost everyone backs Ralph to continue and feels other factors are to blame. We need a bloody good transfer window in January, but god knows where we are going to get the finances. At least we need a defensive midfielder. It’s hard to know what to do with the centre back situation when we already have so many on the books.

I know the fix, we aren't playing enough players. ------------------------------------McCarthy------------------------------------ Valery-----------Bednarek----Vestergaard----Yoshida-----------------Vokins Cedric-----------Stephens---------------------Danso-----------------Bertrand ---------------------------------Romeu----------------------------------------- -----------------------JWP----------------------Hojbjerg----------------------- Djenepo---------------Boufal--------------------Armstrong---------Redmond Long--------------Ings-----------------------Obafemi-------------------Adams Subs: Gunn, Lewis, Ramsey, Klarer, Slattery, Smallbone, McQueen, Tella, N'Lundulu Mind you, we'd probably still lose with Stephens included... Seriously, Chelsea despite losing Hazard are a decent side, they still have a lot of quality amongst the experienced players but they also have probably the best crop of youngsters of anyone in the "top 6" (followed by Arsenal IMO who I think will thrive in seasons to come) so today's result isn't disastrous. I personally think the Spurs result was poorer than today, even though we were at home today, as they were down to ten men for a large chunk of the game and were there for the taking, particularly on current form. Onwards and upwards, easy game next against... ah, the team that just beat City at home. Lovely. Respect to the travelling fans...

All sounds good to me.

I don't firmly believe our predicament is Ralph's fault, and if he's willing to stay with us for a long term project, I support him. For me our troubles lie with a very average set of players on the pitch. But everyone knows the easiest person to sack when you want to make a change at a club, is the manager. Where do you stand? Back him or Sack him? And if we sack him, who do we bring in?

Yes, what I don't want is to be fighting relegation every season. Mid-table obscurity in the Premier League may be boring, but I'd take it hands down right now. I look at Sunderland, Bolton and currently Stoke from recent years and do not want to end up like them. I genuinely thought under Hasenhuttl we'd have a decent season this season, but it seems we just don't have the on-field personnel.

Djenepo on crutches would add more to this team than any of the current lot.

I'd even give Armstrong a go at present. Something needs to change, I just don't think we have the on-pitch personnel.

Long running at inexperienced defenders, I get it. Just not for Boufal. At least when he comes on he’ll be fresh and willing to make an impact. Back 4 is correct. Need Redmond to put in a 10 out of 10 game.

I wonder if we will ever see Danso as a defensive midfielder. Partnering Romeu they could provide a decent shield to the defence. (Like a 4-2-3-1 style central pairing.)

If I want to beat my daughter, I'll bloody well beat her! At Monopoly. When she's old enough. My daughter is 16 months old but I try to teach her discipline using words like No, which I tried to drum into her from a very early age as a word when she was doing something she shouldn't (and which she now understands, although conversely she still does naughty things, she just smiles at me as she does them because she knows they're naughty...) and displacement, where we move her to a different place or to a toy (for example if she's hijacked my iPad AGAIN) so she realises what she's doing is wrong. My daughter is the greatest gift I've ever received, I can't see why people would want to smack their kids. (And this is coming from a man with a natural temper, just one I'm fully in control of around other people. Inanimate objects occasionally feel my wrath.)

Reading the Villa forum, it sounds like Targett had a stormer today...

Wesley in my Fantasy team scores twice then misses penalty. FFS. A quick look a the table and a win puts us on 10 points tomorrow which isn't too shabby. (Taking the positive view on things today...) Everton are a shambles. Silva in trouble?

I don’t think Spurs’ predicament is Poch’s fault but surely his job is in jeopardy...

Ah but this is experience over youth! Redmond will clear one off the line in the 96th minute, then at the final whistle Hasenhuttl will knee slide in celebration across the pitch, through the Kingsland, through the bike racks outside, across the train lines and straight into Yates's where he will party the night away. It's all fantasy. (But I have put Boufal in my Fantasy Premier League team which is why I crave a goal from him!)

1-0 Saints. Boufal wonder goal breaks the deadlock in the 85th minute, too late for them to do anything about it. Bednarek MOTM. don't Put a monkey on it.

Strikers are judged on goals, but as long as he appears to be working his arse off for the team I don't have a problem with him. I know some people don't like the hard-working, little end product-type players like Ormerod and Long, but Adams still has time to come good. He just needs a lucky deflection or flukey tap in and he'll get a bit of confidence. Ings is still in front of him on current form though, unless they are played together.

Let's see how they cope after Brooks, Wilson, Cook, Ake et al and even Howe get poached by the big boys. It happened to us and we're still recovering from crappy attempts to replace our better players.

Not that I would want him anywhere near our club again but I feel Lovren would be attainable and would improve us.

It depends if you're glass half full or glass half empty. Even despite the Bournemouth and Spurs defeats, we're only 5 points off 3rd, or the other view is we're only 2 points from the relegation zone. I'm normally glass half full but with tricky fixtures coming up, we could be edging further down rather than up. The most annoying thing about that this year is that have probably the best set of attacking midfielders we've had in ages and if it weren't for our shaky defence/midfield, we could achieve so much better. As soon as I saw the back 4 line up today, I was positive. Then I saw we'd lost Cedric for Vestergaard when we had Valery on the bench, and I knew we'd bottle it. Up front Redmond, Boufal and Ings should be more than a handful for most teams, it's getting the balance of the team right elsewhere. I hope Ralph turns it around, I'd hate to see him lose his job around Christmastime with us floundering around near the bottom. This is a long term rebuilding job and it's not his fault we have a lot of chaff on the books.

I'll take a draw. IMO Raplh will resort back to 3 centre backs. Something along the lines of: Gunn Bednarek Yoshida Vestergaard Cedric Hojbjerg Romeu Bertrand Redmond Boufal Ings subs: McCarthy Valery Danso JWP Armstrong Adams Obafemi Although I'm not sure JWP is easy to drop, the only way of including him is playing a back four and going 4-3-3 or not playing one of Redmond or Boufal, both of whom I think should be in the first team right now. Obviously the centre backs are interchangeable, I wouldn't be surprised to see Danso start.