benjii

Decent for 15 minutes and there are definitely chances here but we've been quite fortunate not to concede. Since Stephens went off we've been playing a weird 5221 with Romeu at sweeper and Elyounoussi in central midfield. I sincerely hope we do not continue with this in the second half. Elyounoussi really shouldn't be playing. Simply not at this level. Redmond gets one on one and plays a shit cross. Surprise! Armstrong is a good runner but looks like he lacks a bit of touch. Go back to the 4222 and bring Tella on for Elyounoussi.

Mental team selection as usual.

Thought Perraud grew into it well. Looks decent. Salisu and Stephens were excellent. Tino was ok but KWP is better. Romeu looks past it. Been poor in every match this season. Time for Diallo to start. He was very good when he came on. Elyounoussi simply isn't athletic enough to play in the PL. Waste of a shirt when we've got the likes of Tella and Broja on the bench (and Adams, but I guess he wasn't considered available today). Redmond gave a typical performance. Which was a shame. Djenepo was good defensively and always looks likely to do something positive, but the stats tell you he very rarely does. 1 goal in 45 matches. With Armstrong and Broja we've got good pace up top and Broja also looks strong in the air. It's not a bad point but in the context of failing to beat Newcastle and throwing away a lead at Everton it doesn't feel particularly great. I don't know how we played 90 minutes with Redmond and Elyounoussi on the pitch whilst the likes of KWP and Tella were on the bench.

70 minutes on the clock, several players playing badly, heading into a run of games which is tough and still KWP, Tella, Adams, Broja sat on the bench. Honestly, it's baffling.

Most of our players wouldn't get in any other PL team so I suppose 0-0 is a decent enough scoreline. Pretty depressing, along with the loads of empty seats. Half time ratings: McCarthy 6 - hasn't had a save to make. WHU have been shit as well. Tino 5 - I'm sorry, but KWP is way better. Smacks of "Martin's" vanity project. Too slow to release the ball and looks tired. Do the fair thing and pick KWP. Stephens 6 - has done pretty well. Salisu 6 - as above. Perraud 5 - looks decent going forwards but a bit sleepy at the back. Romeu 5 - past it. Diallo should be starting. JWP 6 - meh. Redmond 4 - shite. Elyounoussi 3 - shite. Couple of goals against poor teams doesn't change the fact it looks like a 50 year old is playing. Djenepo 5 - one of our best defenders. Still a mess in terms of output though. 1 goal in 45 matches. Armstrong 5 - found some good pockets of space but with no one competent around him it's tough. Should have been played clean through by Tino who didn't look up, as usual. Ralph 4 - the fact that KWP and Tella are sat on the bench whilst some of these chumps are out there is criminal.

Could be the match where Vegard Forren steps up.

Per chance, you think it is a load of old pony?

This is a problem of Ralph's / club's own making. There was no need to drop KWP and literally no one would be clamouring for him to do so in order to give Tino a game, other than in the cup matches. It makes no sense and smacks of pure moneyball and interference from above IMO.

9 nil! Mickey Mouse league! Can't take it seriously with scores like that.

Sub GK at a big club has to be the best job in the world. 80k a week to joke about with the lads and the occasional cup match. Absolute class life.

Just play our best right back at right back. Our best right back is KWP. Pissing off our best players by benching them to make way for an 18 year old who is: a) not as good; and b) knackered after 60 minutes, is stupid.

"I've opened your eyes, you're now colour blind".

There’s nae porn on it.

Just saw Haaland at Rownhams services. Make of that what you will.

I think the rules in that situation should provide for the award of a penalty goal, and no red card (unless it’s violent conduct denying a goal). Goal plus red card completely changes the match in a way that the goal itself would not, so seems disproportionate. Penalty and no red card is unfair on the attacking team as they go from certain goal to 75% chance of a goal. So, penalty goal it should be. Plus, imagine the laughs when a penalty goal gets wrongly awarded.

Don't forget the half a million, plus, spunked on refunds for the United match.

I've done my ratings. Furthermore, I have written them below. McCarthy - 6 - didn't do anything wrong. Didn't have to do anything particularly good. Tino - 6 - Good first half but shows immaturity in holding the ball too long at times. Faded secomd half. Ralph is asking a lot of a guy who never played PL before and is 18. He deserves to be managed better. Stephens - 6 - generally good, but did he lose his man for the first goal? I wasn't paying much attention to the replay, so maybe not. Salisu - 7 - if Redmond hadn't been so good, he'd be our MoM. Handled most things very well. Looks good. KWP - 7 - still one of our best players. Can't be left out of the XI. Romeu - 5 - did some great battling work but got turned over several times. Looking like this will be a tough season for him as he's been fairly poor so far. JWP - 7 - gets an extra point just for showing bottle for the pen. Djenepo - 4 - missed a sitter, missed a very good chance, dived several times. Should not be starting matches. Elyounoussi - 6 - fair play for getting in the mixer and scoring but doesn't have the weapons for this level. Technically good but you need a bit more than that in our system. Hat-trick against Newport doesn't change that. Adams - 5 - bit of an off day. It happens. Armstrong - 6 - not his day but kept showing for the ball and worked hard. Nice run for the pen. Redmond - 9 - best player on the pitch. Poise, effort, dynamism, two great passes, two goals. Felt a bit sorry for Ralph as he got let down by individuals but he's still getting his '10' picks wrong and he should let KWP and Perraud start a few matches. We are still weak at CB and CM so let's hope Lyanco can add something.

Djenepo wasn't offside so it's a terrible miss. Also missed another good chance. Livramento needs to release the ball better. Too greedy in the dribble. Adams a bit slow today. Romeu big weak link. Messed up a number of good positions being caught on the ball. Having said that, we're by far the better team. I'd like to see Dialo for Romeu and Broja for Adams later. Also Tella for Djenepo at some point. Not being in the lead is criminal really after that 45.

Strange team selection, as usual, but let's hope it works.

The reason Biden got elected is because he isn't Trump, so he really shouldn't have just fallen in line with Trump's idiotic strategy here. And if he felt he had to, he could have at least made damn sure he implemented it as best as possible. The whole thing looks so incompetent you almost wonder if it's deliberate and there's something else going on - but I don't think that's the case at all. It's just baffling incompetence. I genuinely worry for the future of the UK and the US if the best our democracies can offer are nasty morons like Trump and weaklings like Johnson and Biden. And we've shown the world that we cannot be depended upon or trusted to do the right thing. This situation is unbelievably sad. Imagine being a teenage girl - or even a boy - over the last few weeks. Your life hopes trampled on by a bunch of filthy degenerates. People handing their children over to strangers FFS; that tells you all you need to know. Shameful.

This is quite an important game, I think. A chance to build some real momentum ahead of two tough matches. On the other hand, lose and then lose to City and WHU and we're looking at one point from the first 5 league games with Chelsea to play in the 7th. If we can get a few points on the board now then after the Chelsea match we go into a nicer run, having played 3 of the likely top 4 in our first 7 matches. Let's hope we can build on last night and get off to a good start on Saturday. No reason why we can't win, although I do still fear we will leak soft goals.

No one is going to give a shit if a player is cup-tied for the League Cup or not. I expect the first team squad players who haven't been playing will get a start but I doubt we'll be bringing Watts/Chauke/Simeu etc into the XI. I'm guessing something like: Forster KWP Bednarek Stephens Perraud Romeu Diallo Redmond Elyounoussi Adams Tella

This is great. We needed another left back and couldn't go and spend a fortune so we could either go for a Cuco Martina / Jeremy Pied sort of signing or get in someone exciting with a higher potential. So I'm very pleased.

It would make KWP’s dropping make more sense! Hopefully he gets back into the team once this nipper signs.

He looks good and obviously has great potential but people are going overboard. Personally, I think KWP offers more of an all round game.