Greenridge

I hope you have a tent. Seems he's injured and unlikely to play. Thankfully.

It's Friday and it's nearly Christmas. Maybe I started drinking a bit too early today.

I'm guessing this thread is not getting the support you had hoped it would Tom

5-0 to Saints. Pair each from Long and Redmond and a cameo appearance off the bench for Jay brings the up the 5th.

I wouldn't hesitate at all to play McQueen instead of Redmond. In fact I'm beyond surprised that hasn't been happening. Redmond offers nothing. He may come good in time with coaching but right now he shouldn't be anywhere near the starting eleven.

Several things worry me with Puel not least that he was claiming just last week he didn't know what his best 11 was. After 5 months. Whether that's a convenient foil to continue with this rotation policy I don't know but he ought to know by now. Whilst a rotation policy of sorts can have some benefits the one thing that is glaringly obvious with us is the lack of understanding between players. Other than some occasional link up play between Bertrand and Redmond the rest seem like strangers. Hardly surprising.

It clearly wasn't just one mistake which cost us. No shape, no balance, no pressing, no teamwork, no attacking threat, no understanding of positional roles or those of teammates. That's the beauty of squad rotation. Did you see Franny's post match comments? I think it's fair to say he probably knows his beans.

It tells you something when the captain of the night points the finger at Oriol for the goal in his post-match interview. Oriol, the man who has single-handedly held a disjointed midfield together all season and, along with VvD himself, have been the standout players of the season so far.

Or maybe have a different opinion to yours. I guess that is allowed?

The whole dynamic of the club has negatitive connotations right now. The team is playing poorly, the club is up for sale, player's using the media to voice their contract issues, historical youth team player abuse not to mention the Erik Black situation. As Ronan would say, life is a rollercoaster, and the trend is downwards right now. Very.

If folks are honest it's really no surprise. Other than a few exceptions this the same type of performance we've been churning out all season. Week on week it's seems the players don't know what their responsibilities are, where they're meant to be playing, what the tactics are and where their teammates will be on the pitch. That's squad rotation for you. Worryingly we'll be taking this form and lack of confidence into the forthcoming Premier games.

Trousers has used 39k of posts on this hilarious ranking system. It's sort of ran its course now. What do you think of the game so far?

Well, it's 0-0. Just about the only positive to draw from a turgid, incohesive, disjointed, laborious display.

Yours included?

I can see Puel taking offence to these offensive statistics. He'll be mortally offended.

Carter seems to be priming his pen for an onslaught if it all goes pear-shaped tonight. Maybe rightly so.

His biggest problem is his pace. Complete lack of it. Our long balls for him to run on to are comical, it's like he has is own personal area of quicksand underfoot. His strength is to be in the box. End of. Redmond should be doing his running but he's showing he's just not up to the job. We are woefully short up front and it's been biting us in the arris all season.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/14954021.Come_on_Claude___let_your_stars_shine/?ref=mr&lp=10

Striker Sandro Ramirez of Malaga http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/stoke-city-transfer-gossip-stoke-must-fight-spurs-and-southampton-for-sandro-ramirez/story-29961033-detail/story.html

I see Pochettino is denying that Alderweireld has a £25.4M release clause in his contract. Interesting that it's the same figure as being banded about for VvD.

Flicking through the Boro forum it seems he's had a few decent spells, a few flashes but largely not much of note. Similar to when he was here.

He was injured and deemed only fit enough for the bench.

It depends. Recent history suggests we won't but money talks. Just enjoy him while he's here.

That's four minutes (well, actually 2 as I turned it off) of my life I'll never get back. Blud.

Thanks for the link. Mind you, we never paid £21M for Sofiane though. I was surprised to see we only had 38% possession. Great result.