S-Clarke

Haven't we been looking for a number 10 for years? Boufal, Ramirez spring to mind. Tadic wasn't actually signed as a number 10 really, he played on the flanks for us most of the time. And we do miss his quality and guile in that attacking third for sure. I don't even think our formation suits a number 10 per say, especially if we play two up top. We have two inverted wingers who come very narrow towards the middle - so adding a number 10 there would just congest things. What I think we need is just a much, much better attacking wide player. Someone who can play the flanks and play that inverted role equally as well.

He's what i'd call a patchy player, he's liable to go on huge stretches without a goal, but when he does get a goal the door opens and he pops up with 5 or so in a short space. But even during his runs of no goals, he's not ineffective by any means. Assists, hold up play, stretching CB's etc. He's still doing all of that. It's not worth underestimating his partnership with Ings either, which has really flourished since the Lockdown football last year - the period between June - Dec. From December onwards Ings has just had injury after injury, so that partnership has been disrupted a lot and it's all fallen on Adams shoulders. 'If' Ings can stay fit next year there is easily 30-35 goals in that front two, IMO. And for a club of our size that's huge.

But do we need two of the the quality of Vestergaard and Salisu, who can't actually play together at CB by all accounts? Not sure we can for a club of our size. So if we need funds, Vestergaard looks to be the most sensible place to generate them given our ready made replacement there. In my opinion. Then we can go and get a loan CB to fill that 4th spot. Did you not agree that our attack looked markedly better then? He was stretching the game and doing things from the 'up front role' that Redmond should have been doing from the wide role. There's no defending Redmond's lack of attacking impact on this side.

This will be a much tougher game than the last two. Trying not to get too carried away because Palace and Fulham are new levels of shit. Leeds are actually a decent outfit and will provide a test. I reckon we'll get a draw here and I'll take that.

Solid performance yesterday, still some glaring issues but probably as comfortable as you'll get at this level. Fulham are diabolical, so let's not get too carried away. Armstrong was excellent again, all over the pitch, box to box, driving and opening space. KWP equally great down the right hand side. Those two were the stand outs. Adams seems to be getting his standard end of season goal flurry, but if you look at his record it's actually very respectable and not worth the posts ''he's a championship striker'' - he's not, he's a decent PL forward. Salisu looks good doesn't he? So mobile on the ball, reads and intercepts so well. Very strong and wins a lot in the air. My only concern is where do we play him next year? He can't play right sided CB, and neither can Vestergaard - so it's one or the other. Sell Vestergaard for as much dollar as we can get? Attack was ok, although it improved markedly once Tella came on. It makes such a difference when you have an attacking player, you know, attack? Redmond is defensively sound, tracks back well, gets up and down well. In an attacking sense is is a shambles and always has been, bar 1 purple patch every 18 months. If we are serious about progressing he needs to go. He's been here fro what, 5 years now, this is him and it's an absolute mess trying to watch him create for us every week If I'm honest. It's nice to end the season well, but Leeds at home will be a much sterner test.

Loftus-Cheek has born the brunt of a lot of fan frustration from Fulham this year, they've had enough of him. I've seen the terms 'washed up' 'waste of space' '10 men' posted quite a few times when he's playing on twitter and their forums etc. He's a player who seems to sit on the periphery of games, doesn't particularly put himself about and seems to react rather than proactively press. What on earth do we see in him based on that? I don't get it, nothing adds up there in terms of type of player we'd be interested in. It does feel make or break for his top level career though, maybe he'll take this as his last chance saloon.

What a game that was. Great fun.

Why on earth do a top flight club want Valery? Would be a weird move for Newcastle.

I don't think he really said anything? He knows he made a mistake against united, Ralph believes he can one day play at a very high level. Hard to get into the team due to Diallo, and Armstrong adapting well to that role - and with Romeu around usually etc. Needs to take his chance when it comes. Not sure what's bizarre in any of those comments really.

I think he's equally as adept on either side to be honest, obviously being right footed helps the attacking element from that side, but I think he's perfectly capable of producing a similar game at left back. I think we will also buy a natural left back though, but someone with an eye on the future rather than a ready made starter (Our market will be the Diallos/Salisu's etc). Williams would be the immediate addition on a loan whilst the new permanent signing grows accustomed to this league and our ways.

To be fair, he's improved massively with playing out of defence. He was a big factor in Ings equaliser as he sprayed the ball left to Redmond in the first place. He's pretty average, but he's probably suited to our level right now more than anyone. He struggled a bit last night I thought with Benteke but I genuinely don't see how we're going to get better than Bendarek, a polish international, with our budget.

True, he does suffer with fitness issues but that's because he does expel a lot of energy in games. Buzzes around all over the place. Maybe he needs to manage the games a bit better? I don't know, but he does have periods in games where he is just full of it.

28 WTF. Where has my life gone.

Our best approach is to keep him, buy someone this summer for £10-15m (or a loan with a view to buy) who can use a season to grow into the side with the idea of them replacing Ings. Still risky, but probably the safest way of doing it. Selling now and pocketing £20m would put us in as worse a position as letting him go for free without a replacement.

I don't think we can count on Will having a pre-season or being avaliable for the start though, so I don't think we can count on him. I reckon he'll head out on loan in January to get some game time. I do genuinely think we will see another CM arrive, esp if Jankewitz leaves. Two full backs, a CM, Theo and depending on things, maybe an attacker late on in a loan deal is what I can see.

I remember when we signed him, there was collective uproar on here that we were replacing £32m Shaw with a freebie loan who had been relegated the season previous with Villa. I guess it's a lesson to give everyone a chance, no matter where or what they're coming from. We have enjoyed Bertrand at the peak of his career and I'm glad that he was here throughout that. He has provided us some wonderful memories, particularly in the Koeman years. It was probably one of the best £15m we've spent in recent times, an absolutely no thrills full back who rarely provided any glaring issues. We've been pretty comfortable for 7 years at LB because of Ryan being around. Sadly his legs have started to go a little, he cannot get up and down the pitch with the same vigour that he used to. That massively impacts our game as it requires the full backs to press hard and stretch, so he's struggled a little bit with the intensity over the last 12 months I've felt. Overall though a great servant for us, lots of good memories - but now is the right time for both the club and himself to follow different paths. Hopefully he finishes his career at a decent club and maybe one day comes back here in a different capacity.

He can play anywhere in the midfield really, he has such good energy. Absolutely perfect player for this kind of high tempo game. Easily my player of the season. I think he's been someone who has stood up throughout the season, even during the bad games/bad runs he has been someone who could always hold his head up high.

There have been links to Arsenal for a while now, cropped up in the last few windows so probably something in it. Arsenal fans must be close to mutiny though, Bertrand isn't a signing who is going to take them anywhere bar where they are now, maybe lower. All a bit strange really.

Credit to Leicester on that one, I didn't see them getting a result here. Must frustrate them that all the media seem to care about is that Man Utds defeat handed City the title. That was a great result for Leeicter and they've beaten both Manchester clubs on their own patch this year. They clearly deserve top 4, from looking ropey after the Newcastle game I think after West Ham losing and them winning tonight it's all but done.

Yeah, possibly. Certainly Jack didn't stay at LB though, Vestergaard didn't seem too comfortable as the right sided CB. That throws up a conundrum as to what you do with Salisu - I don't think you drop Vestergaard as he's our best CB and he's our left sided one, and seemingly Salisu can only play left side as well.

We shuffled it quite a bit in that 2nd half. It seemed to start with Vestergaard as the right sided centre back and Salisu on the left, with Jack still at LB. But we looked quite uncomfortable like that I felt. It seemed as if we switched to a 3, with Redmond and KWP playing the wing back roles. That seemed much better and all 3 centre backs were much more comfortable on the ball.

Good pair those two. They assist each other too, it's not just a one way relationship. It's something that's evolved massively over the last 18 months. A fit and on-form Adams and Ings partnership gets us top half imo.

To be honest if he doesn't sign, I'd still refuse any bids. What could we do with 20-30m in terms of replacing him immediately? Absolutely nothing. Might as well keep him for another year, evolve the team a bit more, see where we end up. Maybe get in a clever striker this summer with an eye on him being an Ings replacement, but provide him a year to play the second fiddle role.

For the majority of that game that was actually a pretty good performance I felt. I thought we attacked well for the majority of that first half and certainly reacted well to going behind so early. We stuck to the game plan and eventually got our rewards through Ings, probably one of his best finishes this season. Eye of a needle stuff. Palace were still in the game though and I didn't think Bednarek was dealing with Benteke at all, in fact Bednarek was having one of his 'I can't defend' performances so I was glad to see him subbed. 2nd half we started on the front foot, got ourselves an early goal and I thought we'd take it on from there. But credit to Palace, the period between 55-70ish mins was probably their strongest spell. They probed well, stretched our centre backs and were worryingly winning a lot of 50-50's. Our attackers such as Minamino and Redmond were on the periphery of the game and we just couldn't get a break. Couple of really lucky escapes as well, with Jack Stephens moment and an absolutely horrific flap from Forster at one point. The third goal came because Palace opened the game up, they pretty much removed their midfield and we exploited that space through some clever passing with JWP and Adams - and there's Ings with a goal of a level much higher than anyone else we have. From that point on we just controlled it, Palace had committed to their 'all guns blazing' approach by this point and we just kept picking holes in their midfield. Arguably this was the period where Minamino saw more of the ball as there was more space, but he still disappointingly didn't do a great deal with it. But overall, that was more like our performances from the first half of the season. Sure, there were some moments where they pegged us back a bit but I thought we saw them out quite well in the 2nd half and took our chances when they came. Important to finish the season strong, let's see where we end up.

He's got good energy, buzzes around the pitch. But ultimately he's too weak and cannot impact at this level. He's 26/27 now I think, he's not 'one for the future' - this is him. I don't know what Liverpool are holding out for either, he needs to go to a league more suited to his obvious technical talents.