S-Clarke

I'd have ditched Cedric in the summer, but I doubt there'd have been any takers. He was helped out when Virgil and Fonte were in the side, but he's now shown up massivley. Very, very average.

We have assembled a team of bottlers and fragile personalities, they are so brittle it’s ridiculous. The spine of this team just melts at the slightest adversity they face in 90mis.They can't seem to manage a game, always doing dumb things at some point. But just take a second to look at the state of this squad, hats off to our famed recruitment team for managing to assemble the most samey bunch of uneventful players I've ever seen, all with pretty meek personalities it has to be said. Apparently it should be lauded that we've got such a deep squad of players now, but when you've got £20m, 18m, £10m signings out on loan and £15m signings not even making the squad, you've got to look and say it has been a massive fail over the last 3 years. Why Ross Wilson is still here, walking around like he’s some sort of god is beyond me. He’s failed at his job and should be sacked immediately. But if we’re honest, is anyone surprised by this result really? The same issues we had last season (Hoedt, Cedric, Hojbjerg, Long) all there to see and all starting. Continue with the same crap and you'll get the same results. I'd have shifted all 4 of those out in the summer if it was up to me, but I imagine we're paying them all a mini fortune in what has been another epic squad management fail. Moan about the manager all you want, but the players are the same and have been now for ages, all continue with the same failings (this will be the third season for a lot of them). Still waiting to see what all the fuss is about Hojbjerg or Lemina - both failed players from big clubs and if we're honest, showing us everything as to why they were failed players at big clubs. This isn't just an issue with today, this is 3 seasons of diabolical recruitment and self-lauding of ourselves which has meant we have completely lost control of the entire squad.

Stoke are having a serious hangover for sure. But I'd have thought more frustrations should be aimed at that Saido fella surely? He is a striker, they spent £16m on him on an investment in their forward line, and he hasn't scored since 2016 FFS (and that was for WBA). That makes long look like a worldy.

This is just another small-scale commercial partnership I think. Nothing to really see here.

That's what £32m quid gets you. Although he'd still have Stephens and Hoedt for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

2002 called and wants its hairstyle back.

Mourinho has lost his way, overtaken by a fresher breed of progressive managers. He keeps bleating on about teams 'buying' the title, but this is a Utd team who spent £95m on Lukaku and £90m on Pogba, in addition to the huge outlay on Sanchez and the £35m each on Bailly and Lindelof. The bloke has become a parody of himself. Needs to go back to Portgual.

Bit of an odd thread again, Charlie.

The Europa League continuing its horrible habit of killing off any momentum from a medium/small sized English club who qualify for it.

He's actually known as Moi.

The players were a huge issue last season, let's not devoid them of any blame and say it was all because the poor little flowers didn't like MP. MP didn't help though as he was pretty meek. Hoedt, Stephens, Romeu, Austin, JWP, Cedric, Bertrand, Lemina, Gabbiadini, Long - all struggled last year because they're all limited footballers if we're honest. We play again with the same crap as last year and we have a similar result, so for me the main blame lies with our recruitment from the last few years, some of the fee's we've splashed out on absolute garbage has been horrific.

6/10

I see all the anti Hughes folk are coming out of the woodwork now. Bit odd. He's not the problem, it's players like Hoedt who are the problem.

We will always give ourselves a mountain to climb with our back 4, so we've kind of lost to sides like this before we even start. Good rally in the 2nd half to get back into it, but as was the case for a lot of last season, we gave ourselves too much to do. Ings will get goals and adds some serious energy into our side, which has been lacking. Romeu still looks a shaddow of the player he was, Lemina still flatters to decieve and Stephens and Hoedt are still dreadful individually, let alone as a partnership. So, as with last week, a better 2nd half after a poor first half. Always on the edge with the back 4. Need to actually try to play 90 mins next week, and hopefully no more Hoedt.

Ings deffo our best player out there. Makes the movements, pickups good positions, stretches the opposition. Just a shame about the defence, which never gives us a chance to build a foothold.

So you're suggestion is to flip flop again, with no plan, to another different manager? What did people expect today? We have Hoedt in the side alongside Stephens and Cedric at right back, we're not going to keep a clean sheet.

That's really harsh on Lundekvam who at least looked capable. Hoedt is a poorer and much more expensive version of Jackobson for me. and Jackobson was poor.

Wouldn't even put him as 5th choice. Should be in Scotland and Jones can take his place.

Whenever I watch Hoedt I just feel sad.

He looks and plays like a young Paul Pogba.

This is the state of play from one of the live camera shots this morning - That doesn't look anywhere near ready....

I think we'll see the same setup if I'm honest, but Yoshida for Stephens. Probably Ings for Austin as well. Hoedt left, Vestergaard central and Yoshida right side. That at least gives us a bit more pace at the back, but we need to be much more sure of our jobs compared to Sunday.

I thought Redmond was one of the better players in the first half as well (not saying much). But it's amazing what can happen when you have pace and actually commit/run at defenders.....for the last two years he's just stopped and gone backwards due to Puel and MP's coaching, now....hopefully....he has someone who actually coaches his ability correctly.

Yeah, I watched that back on the highlights last night. Insane bit of defending. Been a while since we've had defenders doing amazing bits of work!

Yeah, that was a decent tackle. My problem with him is that he always looks so uncomfortable, like he's going to trip over his feet. Lacks awareness and doesn't seem to anticipate stuff very well. He's been here a year now and already Vestergaard after 1 game has shown everything Hoedt hasn’t. Just my two pence, but I think Hoedt is always going to be a bit of an uncomfortable watch.