S-Clarke

I do think our best 4 is KWP - ABK - Salisu - Perruad. Stick Lavia and JWP in front of them, Aribo and Armstrong in the 10's and then a toss up of who partners Adams. I think Ralph is onto a hiding to nothing if he keeps trying to persist with the same old failures. Moussa, Valery, Bednarek, Armstrong, Redmond etc. We've done a lot this summer but looking at the team we still have to put out, we do still have some significant work to do. But Ralph needs to stop making it harder for himself than it already is. Some of his decisions in game are baffling and they're getting worse. Sometimes the best rule is to keep it simple, especially when some of the players at your disposal are so incredibly limited.

Yep, agreed. I don't think we have the right players for it anywhere on the pitch. You need all defenders to be mobile really, Bednarek let's that '5' at the back down every time. And then we're having to shoehorn players into their unnatural positions to make it fit as well. You need an outstanding attacker playing that way as well, arguably a couple - then you have a way to break out of that back 5 and make it a 3, but we don't really have that. We keep trying and toying with 3 at the back and I just don't think it will ever work against the best teams with the personal we have. It probably looks good on paper, but like you said not with our players in the cold light of day.

I liked to show faith, I wanted to stick with him and let Sports Republic show their hand and see what he can do. I wasn't happy with last season, it was by far his worst with us. He's been backed this window more than he's ever been backed so time will tell if this improves things longer term. I don't want to read 'too' much into one game, but the concerning bit is that it's all very much groundhog day. I want to see who we get through the door in attack as that will make a huge difference. (and I still think we're in the market for another CB, just a hunch). He's got until November though, if we head into the world cup in the bottom 3 then he's got to go and we can use the world cup to prepare with a new manager. It's probably quite telling that as a PL club we'll only have 1 guaranteed player away, good for us but it does show up the lack of real proven quality.

Not in this league, and not with the attackers we have!

Can't disagree with anything you've said there, well summed up.

It does, but it's quite depressing that I'd still take McNeil, Doucore, Gordon, Tarkowski and Mina over what we've got. (and DCL when fit)

I still think Vergini's OG at St Mary's was the worst ever OG i've seen, but this one pushes it very close. It wasn't just the OG in it's self, it was the fact that he'd got himself in the wrong position to start with and then couldn't sort himself out. He's not been the same since he was tracked by Newcastle (assuming it was true).

What is Dean Hammond on? How can he stand there and say he was happy with what he saw, there were positives, lots to build on. Feels like he's been fed a club script to read. I'm all for having bias people on your own club social channels, but don't fluff it up like this. Fans want to hear the truth and honesty from former pro's who have been there and done it, not a load of wet propaganda.

Hmm this is all very miserable, there's no way to swing that one. For me at HT the changes were obvious - Romeu for Armstrong and Adam Armstrong off for Adams, but Ralph has tried to be clever again I think. First half was 'ok' when we got the ball to Aribo, the problem was the lack of movement or quality up front. So the logical thing would have been to keep Aribo where he was and bring on Adams up top (I'm assuming he hasn't got an injury). But what happened by putting Aribo up top is we lost any attacking out, we didn't have anything and Spurs were able to stretch us - Aribo was covering quite well in the first half on that right hand side. The 2nd half was a total tactical shambles sadly. Pulled all over the pitch, stretched in behind, no cover for the full backs. Then when you add in individual cluster fucks to it, it makes for a really difficult situation. Salisu's head has gone, it's been gone for months. He's got a brain fart in him every game at the moment, so his partnership with Bednarek has clearly matured. Onto the few positives....Lavia looked tidy in the middle, keeps the ball well, moves it well, seems strong. He can't do it all on his own though. Aribo in the 10 looks decent, coming in from the right. I see some positives in a partnership with him and KWP. Let's not kill him by trying to pretend he's a striker. Other than that I'm struggling to see anything. I wasn't expecting to get anything today, but you want to see some chink of light and some decent things to build upon. But this was all to similar as to the Brentford away game, the Leicester away game, Burnley away, Villa away. It's just like groundhog day. Another season of not watching MOTD.

So now we have no striker, fair enough. What has Adams done to Ralphs wife??

I'd say the biggest issue stems with the attack, as it did last season. We give the ball away as soon as we attempt to play it into Armstrong as he has the presence of a feather, although that's probably being harsh on a feather.

As predictable as night follows day, we give up a lead. Feels like we've given a decent enough account of ourselves, but the same old issues haunt us. Lack of presence or quality up front, so we have absolutely no out. And dozy in defence. That sort of mix is a bit of a disaster to be honest. I'd bring on ABK and Adams for the 2nd half, maybe Stu Armstrong for Romeu. Need to get more going on when we get the ball, as bar Aribo there is zilch in attack.

It's a big chance for AA, as long as Aribo plays close to him then it could work. But I equally wouldn't be surprised to see Adams come on 2nd half. If anything it just shows how desperate we are for a focal point top quality CF. We don't have that.

Probably the right call. I like ABK, but it would have been a bit of a baptism of fire for him. Ease him into the team. I'm not a massive Valery fan, but I don't think I'm alone in being impressed by how well he's adjusted to that third right sided CB role. Provides the pace and recovery, which someone like Lyanco or Stephens wouldn't

Why are people saying this is a horribly negative line-up? ''bizarre formation''? If you're basing it from the BBC Sport formation pic then just ignore that. We played all pre-season this way, all the media chat has been about 5-3-2. The talk is to make us more solid. Why has this come as a surprise to anyone? Do some of you want us to open up and go for the throat of Spurs and get absolutely destroyed on the break? And on the attack this isn't a particularly negative line-up, as the WB's will push up very high to provide the width. I Imagine Aribo will play very close to Armstrong to provide the support and physicality he needs.

Surprising to see the best full back in the world (tm) being done defensively again.

Congrats by the way! By all accounts we're looking at a guy called Pol Lirola on loan from Marseile. Attacking wing back by the looks of it, 24 year old, not too old but has a bit of experience behind him. Loan makes all the sense for the 'full back' cover. I was always confused by our supposed bids for hat Pederson fella at Feyenoord, as it would have created an overload by mid-season.

Palace's attack is very dangerous, lots of power and pace with Eze, Zaha, Matetta, Eduarud. My only gripe with them is that they don't seem too clinical. They create a lot of 'craziness' and they look fun, but they seem to lack that clinical striker. You could put that description over alot of teams though to be honest. I didn't realise they'd got rid of Benteke, so I expect they'll be looking for a striker.

Fulham have a bid in for Vestergaard apparently.

Everton would be so odd, he's a Liverpool fan. From their academy. I can't see how that will ever work out.

£35m, in what world!! I'm not surprised we ran away from that deal!

As expected, a pointless statement by Brighton. Made themselves look very daft, and Chelsea have bantered them too. Fail.

Yeah, FFP too - that is a bit of a sham though, I think. Some clubs are taken to the cleaners because of it, meanwhile Barca are able to do what they're doing. But as we're an honest club then yeah, we'd need to increase our marketing a hell of a lot to be operating in that wage budget. And as soon as you offer that to one new player, agents of any new potential addition will get a sniff and will want some of that for their own client too. A single player on that wage would throw our model out of the window.

I can't see us ever offering a player 200k per week, it would create such an odd wage gap in the squad to everyone else. Our highest earner is on 100k p/w which is JWP, not really sure we'll ever go above that on new players - maybe renewing existing, but certainly not new players. Much the same way we'll never be spending £40m-50m on transfer fee's on single players either.

It'll be interesting to see how he does in the PL, but the fact that it's a straight loan with no option is probably suggestive that Chelsea are valuing him at silly levels. He's perfect for the back 3 they adopt at Brighton and will fill that void left by Burn. It's probably going to be a Broja situation for Brighton at the end of the season though - as I think he'll do well there.