Greedyfly

As was the case at Alaves. Third lowest scoring team the season he came 7th and basically had Real Madrid's reserves at his disposal. Awful, defensive minded manager. And not like Rafa Benitez defensive where it's an art form, but someone who hasn't got a clue how to properly set a team up defensively either.

This. If we want the big man up top, which I think we do (and IMO should be looking into because it just gives you a different option, a decent defensive option at corners etc) then I'd plump for Slimani. He can actually score goals with his feet and head, and has scored well in the past. Carillo does not inspire confidence in me.

Would you like some of his historical stats to help you understand?

3 of the 6.

He's done more than Long. Over two full games less than Long in terms of total minutes yet two more goals. He has also accumulated his minutes through late sub appearances, not through 90 mins of being utterly useless.

This. Not every 6.5ft player is an adept footballer. His strike rate is **** poor. We already have the king of **** poor in that position. Not sure why people are wetting their pants over this transfer.

So you don't disagree at all. Player for player, Bertrand Hoedt and Cedric are plenty good enough for a top half table team and Stephens had plenty of potential. However, as with all facets of the team except attack (who don't have sufficient personnel), it's the setup (or organisation for arguments sake), that is the issue.

Hoedt is an adequate replacement with Stephens a young CB with potential. Unfortunately if the other 8 outfield players are trained to invite pressure onto them, they will crack regardless. It's the setup in this instance, not the personnel, as is the case in most positions. Up top being the exception.

Who the **** said that? Please tell me you're quoting someone on here and not someone actually involved with the club!

That defence is tragic isn't it. For all Yoshida's improvements he should not be a first choice CB. Perfect third choice and consummate professional but still... Hopefully Cedric will be back and we can move Stephens into CB. He's hardly the finished article himself but at least there's potential for improvement at his age, and he's had some very good games.

Nope. I agree. Strike rate is probably the best we can hope for at our level but it's not as impressive as people think. His highest scoring season total is 15, in a second rate French league. His totals whilst over there are impressive however, with 25 in 36 games. In reality he's a 1 in 3 scorer which isn't that bad but he drops to 1 in 4 in the prem, and unfortunately we do need something slightly better than that right now. Also, he's bat **** crazy and we should have learnt our lesson there.

Nope but all 3 had decent strike rates at their respective clubs.

A 'target man' or 'hold up' type striker is all well and good if your midfield is busting a nut to get forward in support. We don't play like this, preferring to defend with a flat back 9 or trotting forward like ponies. Thus, unless he has a good goal scoring record (which he hasn't), I don't really see the point in this one.

Ok, his success at Alaves was underpinned by having at his disposal a ton of loanees from Spain's top clubs so his 'success' there was a result of some astute board dealings. He's not had some glittering managerial career so can we stop pretending like he has. He may well be a good coach but the two don't always marry and in his case that appears to be the case. In fact, with the players at his disposal he possibly should have done better there (his team were the third lowest scorers in La Liga - shock) You can also see this the other way, however, in that he can't actually polish the terd that is our first team squad. And for that one part the blame lays elsewhere, it's not his fault he's got the likes of Long and Redmond to work with. However it is his fault he spent 8+ games to start Austin up front instead when it was clear Long was basically ****ing useless. He also appears to be compounding the lack of quality by targeting other equally as bad replacements. It's not all his fault. Granted. But enough of it is to make him complicit in our poor final season standing. I also think whether that is in the Prem or the Championship will be down to how long he remains in the job. He's been shown to be tactically inept, defensively minded (but not defensively organised) and he still doesn't know what his best first team is...or does and thinks that includes some very average footballers, again see Shane Long.

Should it? It's genuinely awful. That defence (minus Bertrand) is the worst I've seen, and Shane Long is still not the answer to any question.

Given recent 'successes' then I'd suggest they take the Wikipedia route from now on.

"Highly rated Paulo Gazzaniga"...I couldn't take him seriously after that line.

And Long stays on and on and on and on and on...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

At least this week I'm bored BEFORE the match starts. What a truly uninspiring line up with just the dropping of Redmond the only positive. Here's hoping I eat my words.

Firstly I am not picking on you on purpose but this keeps coming up and it's just plain wrong. Whether you are intimately familiar with them or not is irrelevant, the stats speak for themselves. As for the Premier league years quote - you're wrong again. He has, so far, been injured for just one premier league season that he has played (the one with us last year). He is fit this year and he played 35 times for QPR of the three full seasons he's had in the top flight. As for the failed medical at Hull, it was apparently down to a dicky knee...Unfortunately for Hull and fortunately for QPR he signed for Rangers a week later, played 31 games and scored 17 goals....Not bad for a dicky knee. I do agree about your comment regarding 'luck' though. What horse ****. And he should be given a chance with us. Baird of the Land is possibly correct BUT I'd take a few more goals and a lot less movement at the moment over workhouse Long who is what 11 games and counting without a goal and even more if you add in his international performances.

Cracking little myth this. He's made less than 25 appearances, in a season, only once prior to 2016 and the one big injury he got with QPR. Then one injury hit season with us. He has not been, and is not, 'injury prone' nor has 'injury followed him everywhere'.

Lol. Quite.

And winning the corner that came of that goal. And creating a goal scoring opportunity prior to that. But yeah, apart from that!

Thank God. Boufal has been mostly effective as well, so glad to see that