tajjuk

Hoedt looks a good enough replacement to me and I don't think Stephens has done anything wrong to drop so far out of contention. But not sure in January, not sure we can re-invest as well and we might be struggling and need of everyone we have. I'd like to see us make signings in Jan, but either with money we already have or loans with a view to buy (someone like Walcott on that sort of deal might be worth it)

Not only were his goals good, but he showed the value of having a proper link up man up front that can hold the ball up, first goal is a good example of that, we look to break, he has man to his back, holds him off and plays good ball back to PEH which allows him to play in Bertrand. In terms of aerial threat and hold up play he offers a lot more than Long or Gabbiadini.

Also looks like he's got a bit stronger physically than when we first saw him, was doing well against some strong challenges and I think his work rate is really good. He's always going to do those tricks and flicks, that is the player he is, those will create openings for us, just need to make sure he does them in the opposition third not our third.

Would certainly be an option against better teams, that is a powerful midfield and both Hoj and Lemina are decently mobile so we'd at least be tough to break down and carry some threat on the counter attack. I think at home though or against teams we should beat we might need some more attacking players and I think Hoj and Lemina would be a good partnership. PEH actually looked like the player we saw in clips playing first team for Bayern.

That last goals showed the value of confidence, Cedric, JWP and Davis, all tidy and technical, if not that exceptional footballers. 2 weeks ago the would have played those passes sideways, taken extra touches, this time quick 1-2s, good movement, a good touch from JWP and quickly into Davis who got it out of his feet and scored a good goal. PEH was excellent, deserves a longer run. Bertrand woke up and seems to be building a partnership with Boufal who was excellent I thought, consistently looked a threat. Tadic scored and set one up, best I've seen him And of course been saying it for a while but Austin needed to play, most natural goalscorer we have and makes space for himself in the box with clever movements. Hoedt is also very classy, just strides around the pitch looking completely unflusterred and just pings passes all over the pitch. Whatever happens against City, we just need to give a good account of ourselves and take the confidence from this game into the Bournemouth game. Everton were very very crap but if we play with that work rate, that passing, that tempo in other games we will go up the table. Add Lemina in there (Romeu might be struggling for his place if Hojberg keeps that up) and we might have stumbled on a side.

No and it is a retarded suggestion.

Battle of the two 'most f*cked up from a good position' clubs in the league. No idea, could go either way. If we lose does he get sacked? On a side note the Fulham U23 performance, weren't like 3 of their goals from corners? U23s were just crap defensively but I thought they looked alright going forward.

Undecided personally, I am not sure Pellegrino or Puel are/were bad managers and I am not sure Koeman was a particularly good one. I think we just don't have very good players, only good to decent ones and they are underperforming as well which makes it worse. I also think several don't want to be here and their effort has been lacking. I do not think the change in manager will be magic wand of change that many seem to think it will be (who the hell will we be able to get that is decent anyway). What we need IMO is a big clearout and some investment in new players in key positions. Build a team round the likes of Hoedt, Yoshida, Cedric, Lemina, Boufal, Romeu etc. who at least have shown some quality and look like they can be arsed. Ship out the likes of VVD & Bertrand who don't look like they can be bothered, most of our strikers who have shown they aren't good enough and the likes of Redmond and Tadic who have just underperformed for too long. We need an injection of some pace, power and hunger in our forward lines. I'd be looking at players from bigger clubs that want to show their worth and get back on track with their careers, like our former players Shaw and Walcott would be good examples. Rescue the Ox from Liverpool where is just wasting his talents like he was at Arsenal (we can probably get many of these players on loan to buy deals). Get the black box working again to find the new Mane and new Pelle etc.

No. If there is an injury prone striker who has had his best years at Liverpool we should be getting and that is Sturridge. He is worth more of the risk IMO.

Austin needs a run of games, he is a proven goalscorer in this league.

Yeh i don't really see what Torres offers. He's lost his legendary pace that made him so successful for Liverpool, so whilst he might still be a good finisher we will need to create very good chances for him and we aren't doing that. Both Austin and Gabbiadini are solid finishers, but neither is particularly fast or strong to add that dimension to our play. Long is rapid and works hard, but can't reliably finish, dribble, pass or cross that well or control the ball well enough in tight areas so is generally useless against teams that sit deep and narrow which is where we have struggled. We either need a target man who will allows us to put crosses in and win second balls off his knock downs or we need a good finisher, with good pace/acceleration and close control who can burst onto short passes in and around the box.

Tadic and Redmond have been crap to average at best for around a year now. Tadic is nothing near the player he was 2-3 years ago. Both need long spells away from the team IMO, in fact as I can't see them recovering any form they probably just need replacing. Even if JWP 'only offers set pieces', which I dispute anyway, this is still worth it more than the dross Redmond and Tadic have been serving up on a regular basis.

Number 3 for me as well, pace, directness and power, all now missing from our forward line. Not adequately replaced, meaning we have a very technical, accomplished side of very similar players, all of similar size ( at least going forward) that makes us very predictable and thus very easy to plan to stop. Plus we have no real counter attack ability. We've made some good signings since that summer, but those signings were defensive/defensive mid, our back 6 excluding Forster is up there with anything the top 6 has. Our forward 4 are not.

Mane wasn't replaced. Pelle wasn't replaced. That is a huge amount of our pace, power and directness gone. It also meant our variety has gone with it. To beat teams that are intent on stopping us playing and set up to mainly defend you either need to be so good at what you do they just can't live with it (i.e. Man City) or you need to have different types of threat that means they can't cover all the bases. We are not good enough for the former and we lack the latter. Our whole team is set up to be a neat, 1-2 passes, play around the box possession team. We do this, but if it doesn't work and teams defend against it we have no variety. We are slow on the counter. We lack fast direct ball runners. We lack aerial presence in the forward areas. We lack a good long shooter. We are not great at scoring from set pieces. When we used to play averagely and teams held us up at home, often we could work balls off Pelle, go more direct, fight for some second balls, this often unsettled these sort of teams as their plans were designed to stop a passing and possession team. Mane could burst past a few players and create space. We can't do that and we are now very predictable, the Boufal goal showed this as an example, the whole game WBA very comfortably set up to let us pass the ball around in front of them and they could easily deal with stuff in front of them and clear up passes into the box. When someone suddenly didn't pass the ball and started running at them with pace, at a moment where their shape wasn't spot on they were all over the place and had no idea what to do, they panicked. But it simply does not happen often enough. Then you add the other problem on top, the fact that the majority of our forward players are woefully out of form and have been for a while. which means even when our passing/possession football works we are often not scoring because players take that extra touch, don't shoot first time when they should do, pass sideways when a riskier/higher reward pass is available and just generally don't put their shots on target/into the corners. And you finally add that our goalkeeper is giving away easy goals to the opposition. IMO, Forster, Tadic, Redmond, Long, Davis, maybe even JWP need to go because they are either not good enough full stop or have been out of form too long to the point where you don't expect them to ever get it back. Plus Betrand and VVD need to go because despite their clear very high ability they are going through the motions on the pitch and are doing just enough, so it would be better to cash in on them and re-invest. When we buy we need to get the black box working and buy some variety in our attacking players. If we can get a good goalkeeper and decent left back in like Tierney or Shaw back say then our defence + DMs even without VVD is more than good enough for challenging top 6. We build on that and get some attacking mids/forwards with some pace, power and directness, plus a striker who has the ability to challenge in the air.

The manager is not the problem, it is the players. Both our last two managers came off seasons where they got their clubs punching well above their weight and both were highly rated by the club and in the know pundits. Both have failed to get this squad working. We need a serious clear out of playing staff and probably coaching staff.

Shaw is much better than those two, he hasn't instantly turned into a bad player, he is still immensely talented. He was in great form for Utd before he broke his leg, and whilst I reckon that he is partly to blame for his non-return to the side, there are question marks over his attitude/professionalism, there are still questions have to be asked of Mourinho as well. He has a terrible record developing young players and giving them game time, and seems like one of those managers that if he takes a disliking to a player then that is it game over.

I'd be happy for this. Shaw strikes me as one of those players who needs a bit love and a run of games, Mourinho has historically poor with young players. Plus Bertrand has been dialing it in for ages, he just doesn't look interested at all. Although this comment somewhat lets down that article -

Very few players have made the jump from Scottish football straight to a top 4 team, I doubt Tierney will buck that trend. If Utd buy a new left back then it'll be someone from Europe who is ready made or Danny Rose. If it's Danny Rose then highly likely Shaw will got the other way. None of the other top clubs need a left back unless Spurs sell Rose to someone else or City decide to get an interim before Mendy is back. Arsenal just bought one, Liverpool just bought one, Spurs have two solid ones and Chelsea have Alonso. And if we are selling Bertrand, it's likely to be to one of those clubs. Tierney looks exactly like our sort of signing. Personally I'd like to see us go after our ex-youth players and rehabilitate/re-ignite their careers - Shaw, Ox and Walcott. No idea why Chamberlain went from Arsenal bench to go sit on the Liverpool bench when he was never going to jump ahead of Mane, Coutinho, Lallana, Firminho and Salah especially for two/three attacking mid spots. Come January I don't expect him to have played much barring a major injury. They also have Nabby Keita to come as well, restricted those midfield spots even more. He looks to me like he was signed in anticipation of Coutinho being sold. Also for all these players, Shaw, Walcott, Ox, if they want to play for England they need to play. Southgate has come out and said if you aren't playing regularly you aren't getting in squads. However the club seems reluctant to go back so to speak, we've been linked with our former players multiple times but nothing ever came of it. But I'd plug for those players - Shaw or Tierney to replace Bertrand. The Ox and Walcott returning home to add pace to our attack, offering them regular spots to get back into the England squad. Plus a new keeper. Maybe sell VVD to fund it all because I just don't see him trying his best for us again. But honestly I have no expectation that we will sign anyone.

Yoshida is very very far from a wing back. JWP might be able to play there to be fair if you want a more creative/attacking option, though he is not the fastest he still has the stamina and work rate to do it. But not sure exactly what Cedric has done wrong, he's one of our more consistent players and has been putting in way more of a shift than Bertrand has, not to mention Tadic has been pretty much a dead weight in front of him. The look on Cedric's face when he ran about 70 yards to overlap Tadic and then Tadic overhit the pass into touch.

I get the impression Boufal will be dropped, very telling that he was yanked before Tadic, despite the latter IMO being way worse and having not done anything for ages. Think he will claim that was Boufal's chance and he didn't do much and we'll be back to same old same old. I suspect we'll see a very similar team. I'd like to see Austin give a chance in the team, with Gabbi behind him/alongside. I cannot see Forster being dropped, McCarthy must be truly ****e. Something like - Forster Cedric/VVD/Hoedt/Bertrand Romeu Hojberg/Davus Boufal Austin/Gabbi. I'd also have McQueen ready to go if Bertrand dials in again. Anyone know when Sims is back fit? I'd like to see his pace and energy in the team, at the moment half our players play like they can't be bothered.

What is he getting it for exactly?

They were talking about a swap basically Rose for Shaw as they reckon it would basically suit all parties.

Our defence even with Forster is top 4 level, they showed the stats today, we don't concede many and if we had a better keeper or even Forster of 2 years ago we'd have conceded even less. That is with Bertrand and VVD at about 70% as well. But our attacking midfield options are now tired, Redmond is just an average player, Tadic is not the player of 18 months ago, we seems to have 3 strikers that can't play alone and we have no goalscoring midfielder. And our most talented attacking talent is inconsistent and doesn't get game time because of it. We need 3 new attacking players, a number 10 who can score and link our decent defensive mid with the forwards, another wide player with pace and power, and a striker with some physical presence. We then need to cut our losses on Tadic, Redmond, Long, Davis probably Austin cos he seems to be always injured, and maybe JWP as well. Get Sims back in the team, get Gallacher back from loan and give one of the youngsters more chances. Plus we need a new keeper to at least challenge Forster if not replace him. Basically everything in front of Romeu and Lemina needs upgrading.

He got them playing on the counter, nothing they haven't done for years they have a counter attacking team and that is how they won. Also they won the two games before he got appointed, but I don't see you praising Appleton.... Plus they beat a very bad Everton team playing 4-4-2. But you know you could get carried away on one result. Our crapness has nothing really to do with out manager and everything to do with our better players basically coasting and the squad in need of an overhaul.

You can't fault Cedric for that goal, VVD should have not let Murray drift on to him, he was drawn to the middle by their left winger when they should have swapped over. Pretty much every full back in the league will get out down by a bigger striker like that and he did as much as he could to put Murray off, which should have been enough seeing as the header was soft and loopy, but Forster..... Cedric was a solid 7, he worked tirelessly up and down that flank, overlapped at every point, tried to get crosses in (often there was just one person in the box) and made some crucial defensive blocks. Plus Tadic was nothing but useless in front of him. Best player for us on the pitch and is our most consistent IMO.