S-Clarke

The squad we have is so lopsided, we have some good players - undoubtably - but some huge holes right down the spine of the team which haven't been addressed. CB, CM, AMC/ST. All area's which are currently short on quality, pace and power. As people have said, in this league you need pace/strength and power. We don't have any of that in midfield apart from Romeu, and even he looks off it. In attack we simply have nothing, absolutley nothing. We can't mix it as we have no focal point, we can't get in behind as we have no pace, we can't build through the middle as we have no number 10. There are good elements to this squad but some glaring holes that a competent manager should be able to resolve/see. It could be that Les is going to allow MP to re-invest in January to plug those holes, but particulary over the last month or so all I've seen is our current players regress and no genuine attempt to impose any sort of playing style. We really are a bit of a non-team and I'm not sure I'd be happy to have his input in a £60m reinvestment spree.

''Thanks for the oppertunity to Southampton, but I'll have to admit that I'm a little bit out of my depth here. So it's best I leave and allow someone to come in with a bit more clout who can get the best out of what is a very unballanced/confused but ultimatley talented squad.''

Doubt it would make the blind bit of difference to be honest if the 9 in front of him are running around aimlessly.

Pointless keeping him if he's just a toxic waste of space, best to get the $$ in and add some players who want to be here. I don't think we'll replace VVD though, we probably see we've already done that with Hoedt and Bedranek.

We don't give mid-table teams a game anymore, let alone the 'top' sides.

The end is nigh.

Not condoning this at all, fair to get a ban, but where was Vardy's ban after he did worse to VVD?

Your criticism is incredibly OTT.

Gray is everything I/we hoped Redmond would be.

Yoshida isn't one of the world’s best players, but he's certainly not our biggest problem. You're getting carried away and a little hysterical with the 'diabolical' 'not good enough' 'not a component defender' 'he's a disgrace' nonsense. And for what it's worth, De Ridder was ****.

He did inherit an unballacned and broken squad, I'll give you that. It has quality though and should be beating sides like Watford, Huddersfield, Burnley, Leicster at home. It was a horrific performance today, there was nothing good about it. We could have snuck ourselves a win, but we didn't as we were ****. Lack of mobility, lack of pace, lack of a game plan in attacking area's, no one really sure of what they're doing. A disorganised and shambolic mess, which is just a continuation of the last 6 months.

The problem for me is that we used to give these sides a game, fair enough we'd still more often than not come on the wrong side, but we used to be competitive and these 'top 6' sides knew they were in a game with us. These wins are just a doddle to them these days, Chelsea didn't even have to break sweat. Neither will Spurs or Utd. The days of a top side playing poorly and capitilising are seemingly gone, as we simply do not have the quality to do anything in an attacking sense at these places anymore. Incredibly one paced, predicable and dull. We have a confused squad full of the same sort of players, probably too big a squad in all honesty.

I would agree with this.

Yeah, there will always be PR guff. Every business does it, when things turn sour it does look a bit cringe. I think we take it to another level though, we seem incredibly full of ourselves. We strike me as a very arrogant club who have taken their eye off the ball as they believed their own hype after getting 1 transfer window right. Let's be honest, Koemans first window was the birth of all these PR messages.

Looked like a lower league player whose legs had gone.

We've had a couple of games at home this season on-par with this, which is worrying. Go back to pre-season, 0-4 Ausburg, 0-2 Wolves. Games which we simply don't turn up in. It's rare for us not to turn up at all, but we simply weren't there yesterday. Cedric looked as if he has been rushed back, well off the pace. Lemina looked like someone who has been in and out of the side all season. And as much as it pains me to say, it looks like Davis' legs are gone. He was horrifically bad. Looked like a lower league player. The problem we have is we have too many similar players in our squad, which tempts the manager to rotate too much. We look like a completley unballanced squad, bloated in certain area's and not enough depth in others. I'm not entirley sure what our recuirtment team have been doing over the last 18 months, but the main summer for me was the one Morgan was sold. We focused too much that year on bulking the squad up with players like McCarthy, Martina, Clasie - and not enough first team replacements. This summer we went out and bought Hoedt and Lemina - both look good for starting births, but as with PEH...they need games, they need to build up a level. They're not getting the chance. Given that we have bulked the squad up with average players, it's unballanced and tempts the manager into changing things around too often to keep everyone happy. There's no denying that we have a big squad, probably our biggest since we've been in the PL, but if that depth is full of average players then what's the point? Gardos, Bedranek, McCarthy, Peid, Clasie, Long. We need two things. 1) A manager to understand and pick a best 11, stop all this rotation crap to try and keep everyone happy. Play the best 11. 2) If there are any gaps which mean the best 11 is unballacned, such as pace on the break or another CM...then use January to buy them, and proven players at that. This squad has smatterings of real quality, it shouldn't be struggling as it is. It just needs a manager to understand how to get the best out of it and a recruitment team who stop focusing on squad filling bargains and believing in their own hype.

Imagine that. The title is ours....

Yeah, PEH was awsome yesterday by the way. Best game he's had for us, he was the complete midfielder in there and set the tempo for the rest of the side. Very tidy player, have always liked him.

I'm finding it hard to read too much into the game given how utterly abject Everton were, but there were some notable differences in our approach for sure. We moved the ball quicker, quick one time passes to get players in behind quicker. Everton afforded us the opportunity and space to do that, but we did try and play at a very high tempo I felt. Very few lumped up balls, we had the ball on the deck and passed it around well for the majority of the game - however, this was also aided by Everton not getting close to us. One of the key things I noticed was our full backs and how they pushed on much higher than I have seen for a while, tactically they seemed to have the assurance of either PEH or JWP dropping back in at full back to cover them. It was quite a well coached setup in that aspect. We played well, quickly and at a high tempo - Everton being as crap as they were helped, but at the end of the day you can only beat what's in front of you.

That's sad. Way too young. RIP.

Wasn't this from last week? They lost 0-1 i think.

Or it just shows West Hams owners are a bit silly. Tons of options available who are better than Moyes.

I dob't think anyone really desires Moyes apart from WHU. I really don't know what they're trying to achieve.

Hoedt would play for me, but it's a tough call as Yoshida is one of the few in our team who actually give a **** these days.

When we sold Mane and Pelle in the same window. Club felt Austin was the replacement for Pelle, but he's never looked a good fit for us - so we've been a striker down since then and without a focal point, so it's no surprise really. I don't like Gabbi as a lone striker, that is not his game at all. He should be playing 2nd striker or support striker to a proper focal point - someone like Deeney, Dost etc - that sort of player (that's not advocating player hoofball, but having the ability to get the ball to stick will enable the rest of the team to move forward a lot quicker)