Dig Dig

He's not a good option to come on when we're under the cosh a bit. He seems to get flustered and bis tackling is woeful. Zero aggression. He's best played in the Davis position from the start and when we play teams which let us have the ball.

It's a great model but the academy needs to continue to produce for it to be sustainable and we need to keep the best young players for longer. We can't really afford to have significant gaps in producing players who can cut it at the highest level without achieving something which raises the profile of the club whilst there is a chance.

As with the Suarez bite thing, and having once had a my leg broken by a bad challenge, I would rather be bit or spat at then have someone go in shin high. Spitting is disgusting but clearly not harmful.

I used to work with him at TK Maxx which was my first ever part time job when I left school 15 years ago. He regularly had to go home as his trousers would split whenever he had to bend down to pick something up. He wasn't there very long

The build up is too slow and there is to much sideways passing. I'd start Long over Pelle as well, not sure why he was on the bench?

How was it not made by JWP? If he wasn't on pitch we may not have scored

Toby was the main contender before his injury but have to agree with others that it has to be Fonte. A great captain and never misses a game. Solid.

He does come across as a nice fella. I remember when saintsweb decided that he was terrible and worse than Ali Dia

We should ban the Echo from St Marys

If there is one thing which we should have all learned by now, never rule anything out. There were loads of "why would Pochettino so go to spurs under that ***** Levy" kind of comments when he was linked throughout the back end of last season.

You haven't explained why we only have central striker options at all. The club knew that Rodriguez wouldn't been returning anytime soon in January, they said so themselves. Gallagher isn't good enough and is not rated by Koeman according to a few snippets of info I've heard and Long has never been prolific striker and has rarely been deployed as one by Koeman. So we're left with the situation in the striker dept that we have today. Well worthy of people discussing on here without having to provide a database on strikers and our parameters.

Why is the onus on him to suggest an appropriate target? If you asked him about players this time last year , he probably wouldn't have mentioned players like Tadic, Pelle, Mane etc but that's who we have signed. There are lots of players in the world. Even clubs towards the bottom end of the table have strikers who are into double figures for the season. We have one centre forward option. Just one . Someone pointing that out isn't an act of dissent or mutiny against the board. It's just a fact.

It's got nothing to do with him not being arsed. He has a few limitations and is low on confidence. The main issue is a lack of an alternative option.

Benteke plays in a far inferior team overall and Rooney has been playing in midfield for a lot of those games. Granted, there will always be strikers not scoring but we are very weak regarding options compared to those we are competing with at the moment.

We don't need a world class/top 6/30M striker but someone who can strike a ball cleanly most of the time will do.

Of course.

Mane has to start unless he has been late for dinner again. He's our best chance at unlocking a tight defence

White and Gold

Fair enough, if he has agreed to go there, I wonder how much impact it has on him knowing that we are currently directly competing against them? It's not a common scenario as players tend not to move around the big clubs very often.

I thought you said Shaw was going to Chelsea?

I don't think a anyone can dispute that but a continued cycle in the same vain of last summer and this summer in all probability will mean a constant threat or risk hanging over us. We seem more equiped than most to deal with it but stability is important and shouldn't be underestimated.

Maybe this should be the case, as long as the shove is above the waist and below the neck, should prob be a yellow. However, if at the moment it's seen as violent conduct and a red card is a 3 match ban, they should stick to that and not reduce to 2 matches such because Jose went on Goal on Sunday and spent the morning being Peter Reid. Otherwise, it looks like they make stuff up as a they go along....

West Ham fans sang ‘Harry Kane talks like a **** and plays like one too’

I'm not sure that anyone is whinging or being overly critical. Surely fans are just commenting game by game which is how the management and players are dealing with this season? I think the fan base are fully behind the side but it is good to keep some perspective on where we are now vs where we could have been after last summer.

I don't think it was a racist incident though.