derry

He is not a lone striker. The manager is a pillock and needs to play Gabbiadini with him and Long on the right. give the poor **** some help FFS. JWP, Tadic and Boufal aren't going to help him. And to JWP head the ****ing ball down.

Stephens isn't good enough in the air or even quick enough and shouldn't be keeping Yoshida on the bench. Another management mess up, we haven't replaced Fonte adequately yet.

Dave Merrington yesterday said Pellegrino couldn't motivate him to cross the road. No wonder the players say they back him, with a motivator they might have to bust a gut to get picked.

Lamina was sick, vomiting on the pitch, Pellegrino on Solent.

I couldn't believe the Echo this morning. The Cowardly timid manager quoted, calling for the players to be braver. The man is an eighteen carrot gold idiot. I went to the first match of the season with an open mind having bought into the publicity about attractive attacking football and find myself looking in disbelief at five midfielders and one striker and no goals. Twenty seven matches later, third from bottom, the idiot is still playing five midfielders and one striker. All he has done is play one striker and rotated the pedestrian non scorers. Surprise, surprise, we are still only scoring from set pieces. Personally I want to see four forwards because we are going down, maybe even bottom if he keeps playing the way he is. There is only room for two central midfielders from Lamina, Hojbjerg, Romeu, JWP, Tadic, Boufal and Davis because none of those are forwards that will get enough goals. Boufal or Tadic could conceivably play as a wide player on the left of a 4-4-2 but if Sims is fit he should be brought at least onto the bench with Hesketh replacing the useless Davis on the bench. If we play only two defensive midfielders then the other contenders including the pedestrians have to be left out irrespective of JWP's so called expertise with set pieces. If he doesn't rate a place as a midfielder leave him out. We had 52% possession FFS, what's the ****ing point if nearly all of it is in our own half. The nine non strikers passing the ball backwards and sideways maybe floats the managers boat, but it is the most meaningless way of playing because it demonstrates a negative attitude. No forwards, no pace, going nowhere except down. This manager made three substitutions, Boufal 58mins, Long 71mins, Davis WTF 81minutes. they were all meaningless and accentuated the shapeless mess we were in. 2-0 down, the notoriously fragile Liverpool defence completely comfortable, radical change was required not timid tinkering. Half time, Gabbiadini and Long on, JWP and one of the midfielders off (Lamina sick) and start sticking the ball over and behind and put runners onto it. At least go for it. What bloody silly tactic, two goals down, was bringing Davis on, to wave his arms duck tackles and contribute less than nothing. Why not Gabbiadini? If we are going down, let's go down fighting not falling out of the league because the manager is too frightened or too stupid to change.

Newcastle went 4-4-2 today and beat MU 1-0, food for thought.

I love watching Rugby, I watch Leinster as a club as I have a young cousin that plays for them who came on as substitute for Johnny Sexton in the second half for Ireland yesterday. tipped as possibly Ireland's next big star. Nearly messed up yesterday, pass on intercepted but bailed out by a brilliant Robbie Henshaw chase and tackle. I watch Hurling and Gaelic football which I played in my youth.

Somebody sent Solent a text " As useless as a cat flap on a submarine"

Liverpools's first goal was scored just after we took a corner, how bad was that. Tactically this man is inept. Liverpool had a very high defensive line, what do we do, two pedestrians and a lone striker, plus a player that should have been in midfield. You can't score goals except from set pieces if you don't play proper forwards and some pace. What should he have done. Played Long, Carillo and Gabbiadini and maybe Sims with the forwards pushed up then put the ball over the top of the high line. Forget about playing 500 passes going nowhere in front of them. Their goalkeeper is awful and would never catch, again stick the ball under his crossbar from all the set pieces. Every time he passes the ball out we should have stuck a marker on him to stop them passing it back. Unsettle them by pressing hard and forcing mistakes. The manager can't just keep picking the same system and shuffling his slow non scorers. We have to go for broke and start in the cup next week then carry it on. Play four forwards and forget about playing one forward and five midfielders. If Pellegrino wants to carry on with his timid stupidity, sack him now.

Not in this case. It was sorted until Everton came in. Think Sanchez with MC and MU. Nowhere near the amount but far in excess of anything we would ever contemplate paying.

He was offered rediculous money by Everton after we had met his financial criteria, through wages and fees. A lot more than he was on at Arsenal. He snatched their hand off.

0-1 didn't create much but looked like a very young side.

I think it happened pretty quickly and if you want to believe me the sum was ridiculous and a lot higher than his Arsenal contract and his demands.

From a source within SFC- Walcott came to Southampton, wanted to sign and a deal was agreed, wages within our cap and his contract made up with other fees. Everton came in with a ridiculous salary offer to Walcott and blew us out of the water. If we wanted Walcott then surely we were serious about Promes. I've heard that the VVD fee was being paid over the term of his contract. If that is true we wouldn't be getting that massive lump up front that everybody is assuming. Therefore we may not have been in a position to pay the £28m approx. for the release fee up front without borrowing it.

I think it's time to ditch Davis and bring Hesketh in on the bench as an attacking midfielder (10) to bring him up another level. He has filled out and looks much stronger now and avoids sideways and backwards where possible. Johnson and Sims are coming on nicely and Obefemi is very young.

Stephens wasn't physically bullied he made a cardinal error whilst man marking. The same error Hagazi made whilst marking him for his goal. He looked away from Hagazi to see what was happening with the ball and whilst he was looking away Hagazi broke free. Hagazi looked away and was caught flat footed as Stephens made a near post run. Either watch the ball and attack it or position to see the ball, mark, but attack the ball in front of mark, or watch the mark completely, ignore the ball and block any movement by physically staying between mark and goal. Pick one from three and don't change. Stephens didn't he got mixed up and distracted. It happens all the time. A matter of understanding, discipline and concentration. Man marking is the most difficult.

Seager at Yeovil

Tyreke Johnson looks a handful, Hesketh looks very classy and looks a lot stronger now, Sims is getting there looking useful.

It's not only Long, only Austin heads the ball down, but then apart from Long he is the only player that wasn't part of somebody's academy.

He can play wide, ref his laying on goal chances with his pace at Watford. Play him as the third forward.

With due respect it was a bad shoulder injury that was caused by being clattered while jumping and landing heavily on his shoulder in a Europa tie last season, not his knee. This time it's his hamstring.

That is arguably our strongest team, I'd prefer Gabbiadini as a goal threat to Boufal or alternatively Long for hard working physical support for Carillo. I'm not sure that Yoshida isn't a better defender than Stephens but Jack has the goal fever at the moment. I'm also erring on the side of JWP against Liverpool despite his lack of pace. He has four goals now, takes free kicks and corners and is less of a risk which gives us a solid midfield but we need two strikers on the field. Against the lesser sides I'd like to see the midfield three plus Long on the right, Carillo as the tatget man and Gabbiadini free role off the left.

Our coaching appears to be based on the theory you can't teach an old dog new tricks. It is a fundamental fact when attacking a cross in front of goal, head the ****ing ball down. How many times when a ball comes in it gets headed high even though the player was over the ball. Long missed yesterday because he didn't head it down and back across the goal. It needs to be picked up on and everybody with that sort of header heads it down. We will get more goals than trying to head into the top corners.

I think if you look at the Hagazi goal and the Stephens goal and indeed a few others yesterday and every week at set pieces there is a common denominator. If the man marking player can't see the ball because his positioning is faulty and he is setting out to stop a player there are only two things he can do. Firstly set up to attack the ball and beat their mark and anybody else to it or blocking the opponent. to do that the defender has to ignore the ball and physically put himself in front of the opponent. The latter is what Stephens was trying to do however he made a mistake, instead of watching his opponent he looked away to see where the ball was coming from and in that instant Hagazi who could see the ball got away from him and left him for dead. Stephens did the same to him for his goal in similar circumstances. If you are going to stop an opponent from getting by then you cannot look away if you have positioned yourself without a view of the ball. That also happened in several other matches yesterday and happens regularly.