S-Clarke

I'm not a Redmond fan at all, and he didn't have a great game today (bar the assist) but he's not been bad this year, fairly decent when needed. But without question we need to invest big money in a quality immediate starting number 10, the lot we have at the mo aren't up to it. Just imagine if we had threat on the break through an Saint-Maximin type player along with Broja, it would give us an edge. We struggle to get out because our 10's are very, very limited. Tella is probably our best.

He gives us an outlet we didn't have last year, pace and power on the break. He's getting better with his hold up play as well. So many good attributes to his game. I didn't think he'd end up being the 'Ings' replacement in the summer, but he's streets ahead of Armstrong in everything.

He's progressing really, really well. From the first moment he stepped on the pitch for us he just knew where to be, he has this uncanny knack of sensing danger which isn't coachable. It's just part of his makeup and that's priceless. Add that to his unique physicality and pace and he has the potential to be a proper royals Royce of a defender. He's still rough around the edges in some parts of his game, but they're getting smoothed out as the months go on. He seems quite a switched on lad given that he turned down Ghana to focus on his club career first, so I'd like to think that he'd do the sensible thing and sign on here for the foreseeable future. We won't keep him forever if he continues his development, but it's important that we protect our asset as he could be worth VVD money to us in a few years.

That was exhausting to watch, f**k knows what it was like to play in. A miraculous point really against a team that just didn't stop passing the ball, they always found an angle or a touch even in the tighest of area's. You have to be mentally on it as much as physically. The goal was a great finish and KWP has threatened to do that many times, but the build up was equally as good. Really good football, switch of play, reverse pass, underlap etc. All top quality build up and an equally top quality finish. We held them at arms length for most of the 1st half in the main, we were able to shut them off with a low block quite well I thought. The only area causing us some problems was our left side as that's where their pace was (Sterling), his open goal chance was because Redmond didn't follow him in and Perraud was dragged centrally. 2nd half it was backs to the walls really, whilst we didn't get any noticeable possession we still should have scored a 2nd through Broja's header - it wouldn't have been ruled out. We play that high line for most free kicks we defend against and it really is a calamity waiting to happen, you need a front foot goalie to play that way really but we don't have that. That's not discrediting Forsters performance by the way, as it was his best in a Southampton shirt since the Koeman days. Overall that's a result I didn't expect, I thought we'd cause them problems but I didn't see us collectively shutting them down as well as we did for 90mins. That was a proper team effort and it's never fair to choose a MOTM on these games really, but you can't look beyond Salisu. Giant.

Is anyone really surprised by Watford? How can you create any sort of football club when they change their manager 2 or 3 times a year? I don't know what their owners expect really, they don't give anyone the chance to build anything. Must be a very empty experience following that club. It's a good example of how a football club would look if the fans took charge of it and knee-jerked at everything.

The drop off in quality with the bottom 4 lot is huge. They'll get a few sneaky results along the way, but I just cannot see how they can sustain anything in order to survive. It's like watching a Championship game.

That is staggering really. The PL really manufactured a truly pathetic situation here. But clubs like Newcastle took full advantage. Respect to us for actually 1) getting on with it and 2) not lying about positive tests.

To be honest, as an attacking full back in this day and age you need to be able to cover both sides. He can still offer a threat on the left, he just has to learn when to cut back in etc. Cancelo at City (obviously at a different level) does this brilliantly, he's naturally a right back but flops between left and right. It's not like KWP isn't getting regular first team football anymore, the LB spot is up for grabs and it's up to him to take it and become a name on the 11. (which he probably already is)

That's a blow, that would have been a good loan for him.

Too much of this cancel culture at the moment. There's not enough evidence to say either way if there was any wrong-doing on his part, so as it stands this is a non-story. The guilty party of the horrific acts in this has been put to account and been jailed. The club have put their hands up and admitted failings, these failings were in the past and under ownership and management who aren't around anymore. Ted would have been part of that, but to tarnish him with the same brush is incredibly harsh because none of the other people who were at the club will be treated in the same way. It's just the visibility I guess, but that shouldn't make it the reason alone.

Just..!

They're panicking, which is why you're seeing this really slap-dash, hap hazard player search. There doesn't seem to be any plan or strategy to what they're trying to achieve. When City got their millions there was a plan (with the Sheik takeover) they had the bonus of being somewhat established, but they went out and got up-coming players like Kompany, Zabeletta etc and experienced signings like Lescott, Kolo Toure etc. Then once they'd established themselves further, they went after the likes of Silva, Augero, Yaya etc to really push them to the next level. Newcastle's attempts at the mo has close parallels to QPR. They were also relegation candidates when they got their billionaire owner. So they were throwing money at so many average and over the hill players who just went there for one last pay-day. Loic Remy, Samba, Bosingwa, Cesar the GK etc. Exotic names at the time and I remember a poster on here called Flyer who was very excited by it. Didn't end too well though. Moral of the story is that you can have all the money in the world, but if you have no real plan of what to do with it then you might as well open a window and let it fly away.

Interesting list, most of those have been absolute disasters. I can count the successful one one hand - Van Dijk, Tielemans, Ings, Sarr (although he was a bit too much at the time). Jury is still out on the likes of Mwepu, Ajer and Buendia, but if those clubs want to keep progressing then those records will be eclipsed in forthcoming windows anyway.

They haven't played too bad tonight really, and Toney does have one now to be fair...! They just didn't take their earlier chances.

And that is why no one gave a shit when Vestergaard was sold. Awful defender, his every day job and he's horrific at it. Shocking from Tiliemanns as well, such a sloppy give away from kick off. But to have your CB's split by one ball with Vestergaard running the other way is just ludicrous. They need a bit of a defensive rebuild in the summer in my eyes.

If people haven't seen him play, this is an obligatory Youtube vid. He's an attacking midfielder who scores goals, oh boy don't we need that.

To be fair, this is one rumour which hasn't gone away in a long time. It crops up most windows, sounds like we've been all over this for a long time. Ralph said that we will be able to act 'quicker' on signings now as well, who knows...we may attempt to get him this month before he is available on a free in the summer. Fabio himself will know there is a genuine pathway here to be a superstar if you're good enough.

It'll be in Feb sometime, once all their new signings have bedded in and they're on a good run of form.

Well, that didn't work. Next game off - Burnley v Watford, officially off. Arsenal also pushing for their Semi Final to be postponed. What happens in a week or so? Oh yeah, the 'two week' break. Then in Feb when they come back, they'll have their AFCON players back and their transfer business done. Stinks so bad. Corrupt load of utter bollocks.

That's not exactly Martinez's fault. They were shafted by the EFL's FPPT.

Wouldn't get anywhere near our starting 11? wtf? For real? He'd be in my team without question.

That's the only hope I have, and to be fair they have exceptional form at being foolish with players. De Bruyne and Salah being two that stick out like a sore thumb. They were daft with Lukaku first time round too.

That's the worry, they've totally lost control now. The season has become an utter farce.

Sounds like it's Brentford who are the club trying for Christan Eriksen.

City do struggle with intense pressing sides, but I think most sides will get caught if a pressing game is executed to perfection. My concern with City is that they have the quality of player to quickly play around any press, and get straight at our back line with 1 or 2 passes if we commit too high. Defensively we've been much more sound this year, in my opinion. Not individually, but as an entire team unit. There are freak moments where we are a bit crap, but generally we seem decent. I hope and expect us to give City a good hard fought game, likely it will end in defeat but if we give it a good go I can have no complaints.