tajjuk

Hughes would be underwhelming, seems to me as quite old school manager, does just about enough with his teams without ever really over performing and eventually just trails off without much progress.

Hope you are right, we should have nabbed him in January, I'd be dissapointed with Hughes, his performance with most clubs has been sub par and we need an immediate boost. Silva has got that with both his last two clubs, sure Hull still got relegated but he almost did it with a weaker squad and Watford started strongly. His loyalty might be in question but who cares it's 8 games, get him in, re-asses in the summer.

Anyone know Austin's progress? He was supposedly back in training in March.

The home/away situation has less to do with the fans and more about how teams approach games. We struggle to break down defensive teams, need more chances to score goals and the manager seems to focus on not getting beaten more than actually winning. These attributes would suggest playing away is better for us, teams at home will try to beat us more, we'll get more chances, in theory score more and we are the ones frustrating them not the other way round. So I am not really worried about games away from home, I think we are just as likely to win away as we are at home, it's just we are not winning very much full stop and we are not taking chances to win games. We desperately need Austin back IMO, if he comes back for the last 5-6 games then I think we will stay up because he will score goals.

Needed to win, didn't win, and we didn't really try for 60 minutes. If you don't win games and don't score goals you get relegated, that is us.

It's purely style of play nothing more, our players are fit, we just don't do a very high press and Liverpool will play a higher line than us because of that, meaning VVD has to cover more ground as central defender. It is also important to note that most Liverpool players are dead on their feet by about the 60th minute, they run out of ideas and legs if their initial rush doesn't work, which is exactly what happened to them against Spurs. Plus VVD was on his holidays since he came back so surprise he is putting in more effort at his new club. Our failure at the end of games is not fitness, it's inviting pressure by sitting deeper and having not put away chances to win a game. As the BBC article said today we have created more chances than anyone outside the top 6, we just don't score goals enough, that means we are trying to hold onto to narrow leads, meaning we get nervy and sit deeper. If we were 2-3 up like we should have been in many games and killed them off, I doubt the team would have defended so deep.

Good to know our humiliation will be broadcast the maximum number of people.

Leicester could and should have scored 3-4 in the last 20 minutes, Stoke were not really solid it was more Leicester played with very little tempo and didn't move the ball around quick enough. They seemed to suddenly wake up, especially after the fairly lucky goal and Stoke then looked like they couldn't handle them at all. They also looked very vulnerable to crosses and corners as well. Butland is a top shot stopper, but looks weak on crosses and command of his area. I think Bertrand could be key. But of course we are likely to play at a very low tempo and pass the ball around sideways which will suit them.

Replacement options have been slim all year to be fair. Look at those who have been brought in - Allardyce, Pardew, Moyes, Hodgson, and Lambert, five bang average British managers who come with a lot of baggage and none of whom have been that successful and this place would have gone into meltdown if appointed. Javi Garcia, who was managing Ruben Kazan pretty averagely last year, Puel, who we'd already sacked, Carvahal, who IMO is one of the better appointments because he'd done a decent job with Sheff Wed and had terrible luck with injuries when he got sacked. The other options really being Silva, who has had his reputation burned a little with his falling out with Watford over wanting to leave and then the rpaid decline in Watford's form, or taking a risk on someone from the Championship, trying to prise someone like Howe or Dyche away from their clubs or some other left field European appointment. Slim pickings. Even if we stay up and then sack him, I have no idea who we are going to get in the summer because no hot prospect European coach is going to come to us.

If we win the Stoke game this will look like decent point, if we don't then it will look like a missed opportunity. Burnley are hard to beat at home, there is no shame in a point there, even in their recent run they are still hard to beat, but you feel that had we been more adventurous we could have won it. Hopefully Everton will beat Watford and Spurs will beat Palace, which would then still 6 clubs within one win of the relegation places. We have to beat Stoke at home and my worry is we won't because we will be too negative and they will nick a goal.

Certainly a possibility, I'd reckon Davis might accept moving to play more, Gabbi might be happy to take a pay cut to return home. Forster is certainly problematic, can't see anyone taking him for a decent amount or taking on his wages. I suspect we'll end up doing what many clubs have to do with their flops, which is pay part of their wages until the end of their current contracts. This will also impact wages available for new players, but I think the squad is probably a little bloated in certain areas anyway (like centre-mid we have Lemina, Romeu, JWP, Davis, Hojberg, plus Clasie and Reed on loan) and we should probably be in the position where our 3rd/4th choices in most positions should be from the academy, players like Gallagher, Sims, Reed, McQueen, Alfie jones etc. are they really any worse to having the likes of Redmond, Bedernak, Clasie, Long etc. sitting on the bench on much higher wages. We still have a bloated first team squad for a Europa league campaign we got knocked out of last year.

IF we stay up then I think we need an overhaul in the summer. (obviously new manager as well) Outs should be - Tadic - I think time we cashed in on him, hasn't been near his best for a few years now and at 29 his value is going to decline, plus he just doesn't score enough goals to justify a starting place as an attacking player IMO, 19 goals in nearly 150 games for us. Davis - Past his best IMO Forster - doubt we'll find any takers. Redmond - just not good enough. Bertrand - I think he is expecting to be allowed to go and probably we'll get peak value from him Gabbi - Like him but it has not worked out for him. Long - Just not good enough, hopefully we can get a cash rich championship club to take him Gardos - no idea why he is still here. Clasie - if someone will take him. We'd then need - - New GK, - New CB to partner Hoedt, a physical presence who is good in the air. Yoshida and Stephens would be back up. - New left back (I'd rescue Shaw if he'd come) - 2 new wide players, with pace and power, Promes is we can get him and another. Sims then is able to be the other option and basically replaces Redmond. - New attacking mid/no10. to challenge Boufal, someone who is able to score from outside the box. - New striker to challenge Austin, you'd then have Austin, Carrillo, new guy and then Gallagher back. Of course we'll do none of that, we'll probably sign one player and then give a load of the underperforming players new 5 year contracts.

We lack pace and power in forward positions. Our 'best' GK has declined rapidly and that has caused some issues, but defensively, even without VVD I think we are fine, we have good full backs and decent centre-backs (I think given time Hoedt will be quality). We have very good defensive/all round mids in the likes of Romeu and Lemina (though Romeu has been below his best this season). I think arguably looking at the back four of the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and even Man Utd, defensively if Cedric and Romeu were closer to their best you could say there is not a huge amount of difference there. Going forward is the problem, we have neat and tidy players like JWP and Davis who are fine, but aren't going to do much on their own, we have a talented but frustrating player in Tadic who doesn't consistently score and lacks pace, we have a good striker in Austin who is injury prone, and then we have another creative but inconsistent player in Boufal. Going forward the jigsaw is just not there, we lack that quick powerful player in the Mane mould, we lack the goalscoring creative no 10, and our only consistent goal scorer is in reality consistent in his injuries. We could be better defensively, but the problem in reality is goals and that creates extra pressure on your defence because when we are in control or games we don't score more than 1 usually, then the opposition put pressure on us and we are desperately holding onto a 1 goal lead when in reality we should be 2-3 up.

The only circumstance I can see him keeping his job is a cup win plus us finishing in the top half. Anything else, even if we stay up, he has failed this year and not done a good enough job. ------------------------------ Cup win for me, EURO Cup in the Championship would be some funny memes and I'd be confident of us bouncing back up in the next year/two, financially we would be fine, we'd probably actually invest in some young English talent as well if that happened both from the lower leagues and are own academy.

4 goals and 2 assists in the last 7, pretty sure not having his threat from set pieces when others are struggling to score is a bad idea, we have looked threatening to pretty much every team from our set pieces and I think that is in large part down to his delivery. We need 4 points from this and Stoke, though I fancy us to win this one, they are not in good form and at home will not just sit back and defend.

All great managers are terrible losers, it is basically in their DNA. Plus IMO that challenge was debatable, it didn't look that bad to me and the Ref started with a yellow out and looked like he got swayed.

Oh dear we are going to get knocked out by Wigan. We should win but then so should have Man City.

I've voted back him, purely because I don't think we are going to get anyone else in that is going to make a difference and there doesn't seem much point. He should have been sacked in early January, and we should have backed the new manager in the window, we basically did neither, sticking with the current failing manager but not backing him in the window either which is the worst of both worlds.

Depends which Liverpool team turns up, the one that beat Man City or the one that played West Brom and Swansea. If we can contain Salah (tough I know) and survive their early onslaught then that sluggish midfield and creaky defence can be got at. Plus I have a feeling we can wind up VVD, he'll get booed and whistled, if the player's get at him as well I think there is a chance of making him lose his concentration and do something silly. I also reckon this is more Pellegrinos gig, stopping other better teams playing, countering them, I mean he got Alaves to win at the Nou Camp and we were a ref who could tell the time away from holding City away.

I think it's kind of pointless to sack him now, not enough time for a new manager to turn it around. It should have been done at the beginning of January, and we got some targets in. We have found a little bit of form and performances have been better, the players look like they are still playing for him IMO, it's basically he takes us down or he keeps us up then review it at the end of the season.

I think we had the intention definitely but I reckon because we wanted to pay the fee in installments, they put conditions on it and thus it didn't go through and we didn't want to pay all up front. We'll see in the summer if the 'agreement in place' stuff was complete BS, if we stay up of course. If we do stay up then I'd expect him to join early, or a suitable alternative to join early. He is exactly the sort of player we need to freshen up our forward line.

FA Cup replays are a lifeline for lower league and non-league clubs, battling some PL team on their dodgy home pitch and getting a replay at Old Trafford can basically fund a club for years, it's a massive incentive for these clubs and part of the charm of the cup IMO. PL clubs have more than enough money and players to cover FA Cup replays, once you are out of the FA Cup you get weekends off anyway. 4th Champions League spot going to the FA Cup winner is a good idea though. I've nothing particularly against a break though, just make the summer shorter, play more into May.

We don't need to beat anyone in the top 6 to survive, any points against Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City would be bonus points. We have to beat the likes of Stoke, Bournemouth, West Ham, Newcastle, Swansea etc. And to be fair we have drawn with Spurs, Arsenal, and Utd away, we haven't played Chelsea or Liverpool at home, who other clubs seem to be picking up points from. I'm also not worried about playing these teams away because I think it will suit us, we have dropped points at home to poor teams because they sit in for most of the game and defend.

Like I said, I think anyone but Arsenal away and City at home is easily winnable. Majority of those teams are currently poor and many of them are in worst form than us, with worst injuries and (on paper at least) worst squads. If our team gets back to anywhere near the level they should be at we should win plenty of those games, also I think the away games may actually help us because those teams will not just sit back and defend which has been one of our issues this year and going back the last few seasons at home against beatable opposition. Flip side we could lose most of them, but we shouldn't.

His comment about Lemina is silly, if you can only produce every so often you are not a top class player and should not be at a top club. If he produces it consistently then fair enough but at the moment he is a gamble for the big clubs and we'd be expecting upwards of £35 million for him.