benjii

This has been obvious for ages and it's why our performance this season has been so bad. We should be 9th or 10th at worst.

Targett is better at defending than McQueen.

I'd bring Targett in instead of McQueen. Better defender. Got a feeling we might not see Bertrand again.

Not really, he's speaking sense. If the deal is done we will announce it on Jan 1 not at the end of the week.

I'd play him against Palace. Need some pace against Zaha.

Did anyone else notice that Hojbjerg was talking and gesticulating to the team at the start of the match yesterday just before kick off? We then went into a closer huddle and Yohsida spoke. I think he and Hoedt could be very big players for us over the next few years if we can stay up.

I'd still rather see him in Tadic's position but on the left is better than on the bench.

Decent effort and some really good play at times but we could have lost that in the first half an hour, where they kissed a couple of sitters. Also, we really should have scored. Still, got to be happy with a point there. Palace game is key to building a bit of momentum and we don't have many winnable home games left so the pressure is still on.

So we sack Les. Who appoints his replacement? Gao - leveraging his extensive footballing contacts and expertise? Krueger - I'm sure there's a decent hockey coach or motivational speaker he could line up. Ross Wilson - Scotland's answer to Pepe Guardiola. What we actually need to do, is have a chat with Les about the future and work on a proper succession plan because if he suddenly drops out of the picture I think things could get a lot worse before they get better.

Won't happen because he's way too good to sign for a mid table team!

This is true. He has missed some sitters.

A fit and motivated Daniel Sturridge would be the best striker we have had since Shearer. However, he's a massive bellend and is unavailable most of the time. Walcott would obviously improve the team but I'd be slightly worried he'd suffer the same fate as Gabbiadini Ie. good runs ignored the majority of the time by timid teammates. In theory though, a front four like this: Gabbi---------Boufal---------Walcott -----------------Sturridge------------------ ought to be mint. Or if we want to play three at the back, or a diamond, Boufal behind Sturridge/Gabbi and Walcott ought to be decent. Unfortunately, I don't have much faith in the current manager getting the best out of any group of players.

Clockwork.

Did you never see Bale?

Got to laugh at his desperation to join an also-ran. Bizarre. Might win a league cup or something if he's lucky.

The worry is that we are conceding simple headed goals. Burnley at home, Arsenal at home, HTFC at home, Spurs away.... It's not hard for other team to score. Lukaku and Ibrahimovic will be looking forward to playing us. If you're letting in goals like that then keeping the space tight in front and defending the ball on the deck well is irrelevant. That's the blueprint for playing away to the top sides but if they can just float the ball into the box and nod an easy header in then it's academic. So I wouldn't bother trying to play like that against Man U. We need to play further up the pitch and try to get at them. Might get stuffed but then we might have anyway.

They didn't get on with Puel either. Maybe we have a bunch of dicks for a squad.

Sounds like a cool item in any case!

Alli elbowed Targett on purpose yesterday.

He's out for months

In an ideal world we would be bringing in the following: New manager New GK New right back New striker (Austin is out for months) New wide forward We'll probably get one or two of those if we're lucky

Look how professional Coutinho has been then look at this sad c-unt.

It's a different situation. Poortvliet was given a terrible squad. Even then, you could see what he was trying to do though and there was evidence of some positive coaching. This squad is not one of the worst in the division but there is no evidence the manager has any clue how to do anything.