derry

Make it up as you go why don't you! I didn't say favourite game but it was a brilliant turning point, with perfect tactics helped by that spectacular bender from Martina. Favourite might be 3rd div Saints 5-1 third round cup win v 1st div Man City, Fight back v Forest followed by the replay, Celtic winning the European Cup, Real Madrid beating Eintracht 7-3 and Saints winning the cup as just a few.

Mane was seen by Koeman in a big Salzburg win in a EUFA cup, Pelle played for him at Feyenord, Tadic was described as the best player in Holland. Seems more to do with Koeman than Reed.

Redmond, Tadic, Davis, JWP will not score goals or even control games as their only aim in life is to unload the responsibility to someone else, hence the rabbit in the headlights reaction when in sight of goal. Boufal is a luxury we can afford because of a solid back four and Romeu/Lamina. Play Boufal plus at least two strikers or even all three and at the most only one of the others. It has to be better attack wise than where we are at the moment. I was impressed by the boy's composure after a lung bursting 50 yards and finishing in the only place he could without being blocked. Ok I'm sold at the moment and open to see whether he can give us that extra dimension that the others never will. The over cautious MP probably will not as he won't get his 60 meaningless passes out of Boufal.

I was sorry for Nigel Adkins as he did a great job getting us into the PL and was turning the season around. MP was a great coach but he walked out on his contract and not only left us in the lurch I'd like to know if he was an unsettling influence on those players that walked out and Rodriguez and Schneiderlin who were blocked. Koeman came in and was a good manager for us. It couldn't have been easy and we could easily have collapsed. He brought in decent players and rebuilt a team that finished well. Although the early part of his second season wasn't that great he and the team went on a fabulous run until the end of the season finishing sixth. I'll always remember beating Arsenal 4-0 which could have been eight with Long and Mane tearing Arsenal apart on the break, what a feeling that was. Then came Puel, unnecessarily changing everything and imposing possession above all else and at home gave us a season that made a lot of us question whether we would renew our season tickets. I'm pleased he is gone, what he represents isn't what I want to see. Along came Pellegrino and lo and behold more obsessive possession. If Gabbiadini and Boufal had made a couple of passes instead of scoring three cracking individual goals we may have been sitting where Everton are now. For me either he changes and sets us up as an attacking team and drops the obsessive possession or he can go sooner than later. Stoke 28% possession beat us 2-1 FFS. Possession statistics should only be counted in the opponents half. As far as I am concerned Koeman is in a different class to Puel and Pellegrino and I'd have him as manager in a heartbeat over the other two. Having said that I think he is an arrogant *****.

We yet again played close to 600 passes and created no end product. It's not possession it's an obsession. The goals this season have come from players individual brilliance and running with the ball, Boufal, Gabbiadini with a one two with Redmond against WHU and against Newcastle. Two of the goals from runs on the break from our half. Surely that should tell the management something, somehow I think not.

I really have little confidence in the manager because of his stubbornness in making the same mistakes time after time and expects things to change. Listen, you chump, pick at least two strikers one of which has to be Long because he has pace and challenges for balls in the air. Gabbiadini and Austin without Long won't work. If you pick Redmond or Tadic, play them on their natural sides and absolutely insist on players making runs through the strikers into the box even if it hurts. Football is an easy game. Play a team that works together not pick a system and put players in to play your way not their way. Pellegrino and Puel are theoretical coaches not practical managers there lies the problem.

No wondering about it at all. It isn't. Take City as an example, how often do they overload defences and take easy tap ins. That is their end result through getting plenty of runners into the box. Tadic, Redmond, Davis, Boufale, JWP etc spectating thirty plus yds out from goal with one or two in the box won't ever do that. Passing back to full backs and centre backs ten yds inside our own half after breaking half way into the opponents half as Redmond and Tadic both did many times on Saturday because they can't go by players on their wrong side won't either.

Back to the football match. Another manager that is obsessed by possession even if nearly all of it is in our half. What impressed me about Newcastle was their ability to break quickly and get runners up in support causing the defence problems. Redmond, Tadic were hopeless and made no effort to make runs just waited around to receive the ball. Long was the only one to make runs, Gabbiadini drifted into space as expected nobody else made any effort to get numbers into the box because whenever Redmond and Tadic received the ball they were on their wrong foot so just turned and played the ball back to the full backs then to the centre backs for another pointless pass it around while Newcastle got their team goal side. I know that it's the vogue to play off the wrong side but that is to achieve what Gabbiadini did when he was cornered on the right pulled away across the box and hit a reverse shot into the bottom corner with his natural left foot. Neither Tadic or Redmond who are pretty one footed ever make that move to open up a shot on their strong foot so there is absolutely no point in playing them on their weak sides. Boufal might but doesn't, so in my opinion we would get more out of those players on their natural sides. The one thing we have to get is full backs and forwards/midfielders making runs and getting the ball up to the runners quickly before they run offside. We are painfully slow and 72% possession across the back four losing 2-1 is a bloody nonsense as at Stoke. Winning is all, the manager needs to get real and forget about this control the game by possession crap, It is the opponents that are really controlling the game by letting us make 500 plus passes sideways and backwards in our own half. You are only controlling the game if you are making opponents uncomfortable and overloading their defence.

I watched Spurs v Bournemouth on ManiaHD, worked fine no buffering. I use ExpressVPN. Didn't try without.

Would have to join through the EFL who only take the top two clubs in the National League who have three divisions. They probably start at Southern League level. Won't happen. 14 turkeys won't vote for Christmas.

621 passes, 3 shots on target. That's what you get playing five non scoring midfielders. The manager picks the team, it's a fact that we had the most non scoring matches last season whilst failing to score in 5 competitive games this season. We have scored one goal from play at home, two penalties and two away one from a centre back up for a corner. Making nearly four thousand passes and scoring three goals from play is total nonsense and proves that most of those passes were played with no attacking intent and were nearly all backwards and sideways. The manager is responsible and by leaving two strikers on the bench is proving worse than stupid. Long a goal every five games, Gabbiadini one every two games and Austin one every two games will get more goals, cause defences more problems and take pressure off our defenders than any of the tippy tappers for possession sake only midfielders we have posing as forwards. The manager has to change his selection and set up a team that includes the goal scorers rather than picking a numbers system that Brazil played in the 1970 World Cup Final albeit with Jairzino, Rivellino and Pele behind Tostao because it suited the players. Ours doesn't so change it. Citing that top teams play that way is stupidity because they all have players behind the striker that get goals regularly.

The manager just doesn't make any sense. Whilst rotating three non scorers behind one striker he says more strikers won't score more goals, if he believes that why are we seeing two and three strikers on to try and rescue a game. Madness is doing the same thing time after time and expecting a different result. Long works hard and did flick on a good ball to Yoshida for a spectacular goal. Would any of the so called forwards have scored that, no fear of that. Time to go with Long, Gabbiadini and Austin and go 4-3-3.

Long was a handful against MU, leave him there, because when Gabbiadini and Austin came on without Long there was no cohesion and they were ineffective. Long needs players to get up and anticipate the breaking ball that he creates, Tadic, Davis and Redmond haven't a clue how to do this and lack scoring instincts. Gabbiadini is a natural left sided player and a goal scorer play him there, play Austin who is only a goal scorer to get in and around the goal area looking for Long's knock downs, play Redmond, Tadic or Davis off the right to balance this. Go longer if necessary as over 3500 passes this season has produced two goals and two penalties. 61% possession against MU, 71% in the second half, no goals. As long as we play three inept forwards when it comes to goal scoring and one striker it will not bring goals. This manager keeps playing the same way hoping for a miracle, it isn't going to happen, just rotating three out of six who have no goal instinct. They might get the odd goal but that is nowhere near enough. We already have two competent midfielders in Romeu and Lamina, we don't need three more non scoring midfielders in positions that need a goal scoring instinct. I fear that it will be later rather than sooner before it finally sinks in that his one trick pony approach isn't working. Why throw on two strikers to try and score a goal with ten minutes left when his favoured system isn't capable of scoring. Play the strikers from the start.

He can play one striker, who, because of those behind, will struggle to get more than double figures. Then behind him three players out of the six or so candidates that have all proved totally inept when it comes to scoring regularly. All I can say is good luck with that and I just hope we achieve enough clean sheets coupled with the odd goal to get us enough points to stay up. I fear another manager stuck with a pet system without the three midfield players that can score their share of goals. When he gets desperate he throws on two strikers with fifteen minutes left to try and rescue points, too little too late. His comment about the top teams playing one striker makes little sense as it ignores the fact that all those teams have plenty of players other than strikers that regularly score whilst we have none. Nothing shown so far this season gives reason for optimism.

4-0 non existent defence with two international CBs, how does that work?

I said three or four of the six. As long as we continue doing that, we won't score enough goals with one isolated striker tearing his hair out. Two or three strikers plus a maximum of two of the six non scorers is what we are left with. I can see us descending into crisis through a lack of goals. We have failed to score in more games since the start of last season than any other team currently in the PL. Continuing to expect any of the six to suddenly start scoring regularly is stupidity or that the defensive players will make up the shortfall at set pieces.

Anybody mentioning any of Boufal, Redmond, JWP, Davis, Redmond and Tadic as a solution to our lack of goals is missing the point. They might each get an odd goal during the season from play but they won't score enough often enough. Only Austin and Gabbiadini have the ability to score enough goals and Long is the only player we have despite his very average one goal every five games that has the strength, pace and energy to rattle defences enough to get the best out of the other two. The manager was waffling away on Saturday but mentioned 'The Striker'. Jesus wept if he cant see the problem of one striker isolated by any combination of three or four of the six he is a basket case. He needs to get it sorted and quick. Supporters won't be half as patient this year having put up with the previous season with it's magnificent 46 points albeit with a losing cup final appearance, a cup we are already out of, knocked out by a Championship reserve team.

Not even as good as that, talking statistics because he scored in his first game against Man City. So it's 8 in 12703 since, every seventeen a half games still only two a season, pathetic. Bottled a lot more tackles though.

So that's what he was doing.

Yes, try something different. What we are doing, recycling three or four of those five week after week isn't working and won't work. We didn't have any blend or balance. What we have got is a lot of midfielders with no goals, no pace, no strength, easily bullied and incapable of winning matches. Nine games out of the last eleven failed to score and don't look like scoring. Lemina has been put forward by the manager as a box to box midfielder whilst Hojbjerg hasn't been given a chance. As for a load of centre backs and holding midfielders, VVD and Hoedt who Reed says has been bought to play alongside VVD are the only two centre backs mentioned and Romeu is the only specialist holding midfielder. If we don't come up with regular goals and playing four of those five won't get them, we are going to lose a lot of games against any team that manages to score against us unless we get our goal scorers onto the pitch together. It's no good throwing Long and Austin on in desperation and taking Gabbiadini off and expecting them to save or win the game with fifteen minutes left.

Stupidity is doing the same thing time after time and hoping for a different result. It's down to the manager, four lightweight non scoring non competitive playmakers won't win matches. Replace JWP with Tadic, more of the same. Replace Gabbiadini with Long, FFS bring Long on and take a lightweight off. JWP, Davis, Boufal, Redmond, Tadic haven't scored goals, won't score goals so leave them out, recycling them expecting goals is stupidity. Time for the manager to earn his millions, stop recycling 4-2-3-1 and think out a formation that get's the goal scorers on the field and put the energetic high tempo Long up with them. Get VVD back in alongside Hoedt, and Lamina next to Romeu. I don't care whether it turns out to be 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 4-3-1-2, or any other combination, all I want is to see the players complementing each other and a balanced team with pace and strength unlike the turgid crap served up today. And as predicted the cow's arse had a pain free day again.

Looking at the same non goal scorers being endlessly recycled with the expectation they might fluke a goal between them is depressing. Unless Gabbiadini pulls a rabbit out of the hat, the referee intervenes or a defender scores I fear the cow's arse yet again will escape punishment. Sooner or later unless the incumbents suddenly find their shooting boots, Pellegrino is going to have to explore different tactics.

I want to see 100% from VVD. great defending, towering headers then I'll support him 100%. If he falls short and doesn't give his all he'll get it point blank.

I saw enough to think we have bought ourselves a big strong defender that has a good left foot and passes well. Not particularly quick but could be valuable in both boxes for set pieces especially if we get VVD back with him.

I personally think that the reason there were no bids from the clubs that could afford to bid, was that they were all in the tap up club. Therefore not only Liverpool but the others were going to face the wrath of SFC and the possibility of a transfer ban which LFC had a close shave with. Until SFC invited bids nobody could put a bid in without exposing themselves to possible sanction. All they could do, use their pet publications, pundits and ex players to keep pushing VVD into trying to force an exit which only hacked off SFC even more.