derry

Are you sure, could it be Hill of Don?

Celtic need a keeper, We are looking at Dembele, that would be a deal if we could bring in a replacement. Somehow I think Fraser's contract would kybosh that thought.

I haven't a clue how Carillo will turn out. May be it will depend who we play with him. As for Long, he was the only player to get on the end of Bertrand's free kick at full stretch and force the rebound off the keeper that Stephens knocked in. Good job he did. Two goals away at Watford scored because he outpaced the defence and got crosses in that were easily controlled. Yesterday he worked his socks off and was still strong at the end. Gabbiadini can't play on his own up front and Sims was a peripheral figure for the U23s in a big defeat at Staplewood. I've got a feeling that Carillo will turn out not able to play on his own either.

Davis was the first one that should have come off. He was a peripheral figure and when the long ball started was totally physically unsuited and had no influence on the game except to leave us a man short. Tadic had faded and should have been hooked at the same time, leaving Boufal on. Yoshida wasn't a mistake , taking Boufal off was. Carillo on was sensible but personally I thought Lamina and at the same time as Yoshida, leaving until the last ten minutes under siege was stupid and leaving Davis on, or even starting him was worse.

I don't think the criticism was bringing Yoshida on. The real criticism was taking Boufal off. Davis was a passenger by then and Tadic had faded. Both needed replacing. Leaving Boufal on and putting Lamina on with Hojbjerg and Romeu would have made it more difficult for Watford. Sending Carillo on was also positive but would have given Watford more problems if done earlier and Boufal had not been taken off. To relieve the long ball siege there needs to be an upfront outlet and threat. Long worked his socks off and was going strongly at the end, the same couldn't be said for Davis who was just bypassed because of his lack of pace, strength and not least his ability to stay out of the physical stuff. For the critics of Long, he did well at full stretch to get on the end of Bertrand's free kick and get a rebound off the keeper which was put in by Stephens. A bloody good job he did as it was the only goal we scored. Without his effort we wouldn't have won. He had a couple of shots but none were clear chances. All in all he was one of our better performers.

I've read the posts on here and I was at the game. The manager is a prat. The substitution was a nonsense. Initially we thought Soares who had taken some hefty knocks would come off and be replaced by Stephens with Yoshida at the back. Davis was a peripheral figure for most of the game and certainly not someone for a backs to the wall half hour and could have gone off instead of Boufal who was a threat all game. Hojbjerg and Romeu worked their socks off, Pied is not a left back but did a reasonable job. Long gave it everything and kept Watford occupied, including getting the touch that rebounded off the keeper for the goal. The manager only had two substitutes due to Bertrand's injury but by keeping Davis on removed a threat to Watford, didn't help us at all and effectively surrendered the last twenty five minutes to Watford. I was at that end of the Itchen and it wasn't pretty and very much self inflicted, we were just hanging on. Bringing on Carillo was a reasonable move but not so late. Tadic was ineffective by this time but Boufal had been playing well. It ended up with Long up front sometimes with Tadic but when Carillo came on he was forced to drop deep. He didn't really get in the game, had a couple of runs and a header, but we relied completely on Long to relieve the pressure. As happened in previous games we backed off too much. A better move might have been Lamina to reinforce the midfield leaving Boufal on with Long taking off Tadic and Davis..

Plus his international clearance, needs both by noon today.

Provided his international clearance as well as his signing on is received by the FA before noon today.

Williams had a nasty streak, JWP needs one and doesn't tackle anything like Williams, JWP is a pussy when it comes to tackling.

Thanks, De Vrij would be a good buy to play with Hoedt.

Charlie Austin, Ted McDougall or Derek Reeves. came alive in the penalty area.

That wouldn't be VVD's agent would it?

Make Bertrand Captain. I wish Pellegrino would stop this detailed briefing of players either at a stoppage or just before substitutions. You can see their eyes glazing over at the detail, give them a basic thought or a positional change and send them on. Firstly the training ground is the place for coaching and secondly very few coaches make good managers because they are wrapped up with the theory and lose the big picture and common sense.

His pointless running on the right and left opened up Watford for our two goals.

I'll take the point but our marking at dead ball situations is a cluster****. We need to beat Watford on Saturday and Brighton on Wednesday and we will be on a bit of a run. We need to bring in a couple up front. Tadic is best on the left. Our substitutions because of the bench weakened the team and meant we spent the last ten minutes backed into our box but with more forwards we were able to get out. JWP covered a lot of ground and had one of his best games. McCarthy, once he came off his line helped us immensely and is playing well.

All I can say is how many times have we seen this smoke and mirrors from the club and then the player goes somewhere else. It makes me think they were never that serious unless it was on the cheap relatively.

The worry is who is played in support because they have to score some goals and what formation we use. 4-3-3 would allow us to play Romeu, Hojbjerg and Lamina. 4-2-3-1 omits one but would allow Gabbiadini and Long to play with Boufal/Sims or 4-1-4-1 would probably see Gabbiadini or Long on the bench whilst 4-4-2 would be the most attacking with one of the midfielders left out. Despite his goals, as yet I can't see JWP as a forward and I must admit I have Redmond in the 'move him on' category. Tadic was much better on the left and his assist at Watford was precise. Long showed at Watford his ability to get down the touchline and deliver telling crosses. It will be interesting to see who else is brought in assuming that Carillo is on his way. To get out of this we are going to have to win matches, therefore beating all our direct competitors. To do that we have to win the mini league by scoring regularly.

Estudiantes

So suddenly the clown is going to play two up front, I can't wait to see how that gets ****ed up.

Boy, was that depressing! Where was the possession game? just gave the ball away all over the pitch, no cohesion, teamwork or balance.

I'm not advocating his piecemeal approach to fighting fires. My way was attacking with Sims and Long wide occupying the full backs, Gabbiadini up the middle, Put the three strongest midfielders, Romeu, Lamina and Hojbjerg together in midfield and press the ball ruthlessly not stand off. Putting quick players out on the touch line makes the defenders keep four back. The ball on the left, the wide right comes in with Gabbiadini, vice versa, the midfielders press up and force the opponents out of their space to deny the option of comfortable route one into our nine defenders as their forwards would have to come back to help out and our back four could push up. We are no longer backing off.

Play the strongest physical team, tear into them like a cup tie and go route one with three up. We sure as hell won't outplay them or sit back and hold out.

For me, the manager trying to cope rather than get on the front foot and into the Watford defence, restricting their ability to dominate and penning us in our last third, with, Davis who shouldn't have even been still on the field, giving the ball to them to score the first and finally surrendering a two goal lead to a cheating hand ball was a defeat because it gave away two points, one wasn't good enough. And MP admitting he dropped Romeu in front of the centre halves, but leaving Davis on was just incompetent. Who dares wins, somebody needs to lay it on the line. Pellegrino lost us that win together with a host of points because of his negative, scared tactics, he is like a mouse in the headlights.

This defeat was self inflicted after going two up. As soon as Deeney came on Davis should have been replaced by Lamina and as soon as we were struggling with Watford playing direct we should have taken JWP and Tadic off and brought on Gabbiadini and Sims to give the slow Watford defence a different problem, then, together with the front three, Romeu, Hojbjerg and Lamina should press hard into the ball rather than positioning up to ten yards in front of the ball and being easily bypassed. If nothing else, if Lamina had replaced Davis, that first goal may well have not happened and we might have snatched another goal with more forwards. We certainly would have relieved a lot of the pressure. Leaving one forward to attack and five midfielders backing into the back four conceded the ball and space to Watford. Three nippy forwards would have given the Watford defence problems and probably given us some control again. Putting more defenders on just concedes to the opposition, putting forwards on moves the pressure back on the opposition, as we could go route one through them on the break as we did with the second goal. The full backs would have been restricted and they were light in midfield. All right going forwards but very vulnerable to counter attacking.

McCarthy didn't even try to save the second goal because Doucoure hand balled it past him, he was as gobsmacked as everybody when the goal was allowed. Made some good saves, caught crosses good punch under pressure and is an improvement on the out of form Forster. The second goal was a disgrace. It took to post 74 before anybody pinned the blame for the first goal on the right culprit. Step forward Steven Davis, under no pressure dithers on the ball turns one way then the other and tries to beat a man and loses the ball seconds later it's in the net. 100 caps and doesn't have the common sense to move the ball on, he had loads of time. I've made it plain my dislike of Davis, he is a liability and keeping Lamina on the bench for him was just another selection error. JWP, fair play to him, took his goals well with assists from Davis and Tadic. Long did really well with the spadework for both goals and was perhaps a little unlucky not to get a goal.