tajjuk

Whoever he is I keep thinking it's Sam McQueen. EDIT: it's Xavier Tamarit

Doubt Forster will be dropped after McCarthy just effed up in a reserve game. Redmond better not bloody start. Think Hoedt should be in instead of VVD, as he's not at the races.

He's just in bad form and lacking confidence. He is not a bad player at all and as usual some of the reactions on here are retarded. Also more and more I have decided twitter is just complete cancer.

Yeh to be fair none of those teams are setting the world alight aside the two Manchesters. We should also not overlook the fact that we are clearly struggling against teams that set out to contain us and hit on the break, many of those teams won't and a more open game might benefit us more. Plus goalkeeper aside if Romeu and VVD regain form, Bertrand cheers up a little, then that back 4 with Romeu and Lemina in front is very tough to beat.

For some perspective, Newcastle pretty much parked the bus and had 10 men behind the ball at almost every opportunity and no Rafa side is every easy to beat. The first goal was incredibly lucky, after VVDs feeble clearance (when a little more on it and it would have gone to Cedric) the cross then deflects straight to their player, who's shot FF was saving, that rebound then goes straight to their player again and somehow goes through two of our players and wrong foots FF (who was doing the right thing, getting back and into the middle of the goal). We also despite being slow and crap in our build up in the first half actually had two very good chances, one where Tadic had an easy free header and should have either scored or headed it back across to a free Long to tap in, he did neither. And another where Long was basically through and should have at the least worked the keeper but instead took so long to get it out of his feet the defender came back and blocked. The second goal was just terrible all round, terrible from the defence and awful from FF. He needs to be dropped for his sanity, take him out of the limelight for a bit, let him get confidence back away from the fans because our own fans cheering because he caught the ball is not going to help anyone. Essentially we have A LOT of players that are not in form and pretty much all our midfield and forward line are low on confidence and it shows, for all Long's endeavour and running, he hasn't scored in something like 30 games for club and country and chances are falling to him that he is wasting. It's the Heskey situation. For the team that we are, we need players playing with confidence because when they are confident you will see one touch passing, one two's and first time shots, early shots and they will be getting onto stuff in the box. We have midfielders and forwards that are not exceptionally quick, not big and tall, we score our goals through good quick play, but when they are low on confidence they take an extra touch, they delay that shot, they take the easier pass and we look ponderous and slow. This is the fundamental problem of not replacing Mane and Pelle, when we had bad days or it didn't quite click we could use Mane's raw pace and directness, we could play balls up to Pelle and look for knock downs, we could cross from deep and he'd still be a threat. We don't have this, all our players are very samey, when on song they are very good technical players who can do what you need, but when pretty much all of them are out of form and low on confidence we look like a team of James Milners. --------------------------------- Just on the VVD thing, I see people saying we should have sold him, you need to remember the club's stance was not really about VVD, it was about making a statement that we as a club couldn't be bullied and forced to sell. VVD just happened to be the player we took this stance on (wish it had been Mane). Probably yes we need to sell him and re-invest that money in forwards, we need to go out and splash £80 million on two of the best young attacking talents we can find and will play for us. Because he's not offering anything more than what Hoedt, Yoshida and Stephens can give us. Sure at his best he is better than those players but I seriously doubt he'll be at his best until he signs for another club.

First half was bad, too slow, too many touches, not crossing the ball. Tadic finally beat his man for once, but once again our two best chances in the first half fall to him and he wastes them. Redmond must have something on the manager or in his contract. Boufal instantly made a difference, sure he loses the ball at times but he's willing to take people on, try first time passes and his tracking back was excellent, he won us the ball high up the pitch several times through sheer determination. He needs to start. Good to see Gabbi get his goals, should give him confidence. Romeu is not at his best, not sure why against a team like that at home we need two sitting midfielders really, against City, Utd yeh, but not Newcastle. Either free up Lemina to get further forward (he is clearly good enough) or give Romeu a rest and get Davis/JWP as a more forward thinking option in there. Forsters confidence is shot, needs time away I think. Still think he's a quality keeper but he is not on form at all and looks shaky. Tempo in the second half was better but we just humped it at times, there is a balance between lumping it and passing sideways, we need to find it. Yedlin should have been sent off, Ref bottled it. Not sure why the manager is getting so much cop, not sure what more he can do, he looked just as frustrated as the fans at times today, they are clearly not doing what he is telling them, he looked very annoyed at all the aimless long balls we decided to play. Gonna say it as well, VVD looks lazy, the lazy stab for the first goal when he could have passed it to Cedric which gave them the ball back and allowed them to cross, and he was completely out of position for the second and made little effort to get back in. Based on today there are 4 players in that team that are playing well, and that is if Gabbi kicks on from here. Lemina, Cedric, Bertrand and Gabbi. Everyone else is below standard, certainly the starters.

If we are essentially playing two up top then get Redmond and Tadic on the wings that they are footed so they can cross it in. Otherwise you just have hem cutting in all the time and crowding the same space as the forwards/

Said it before but not sure he can be any worse than what has been playing recently. Tadic and Redmond have not done anything in about 9 months now. I mean if Boufal just runs 30 yards into someone, not sure how that is worse than Redmond cutting inside and then passing it sideways, or Tadic being very slow at everything he does and missing our best chances.

I'd have him back, at his best he's close to unplayable, he's just a bit inconsistent and Arsenal seem to put him in and out of the team. He'd add pace to our front line and pace with technique unlike Long.

Let's be honest if you don't solve your obvious weakpoints it is going to be a struggle to perform as expected. We didn't improve our glaring lack of quality in attack, Everton didn't improve the glaring hole that Lukaku left, Liverpool did improve their obvious lack of quality in defence and Wenger/Arsenal have not been buying players for positions they need for years. (though they finally might have done that). Seems to obvious to me, plus all those clubs will have excuses but let's be honest Everton spent nearly £50 million on Sigurdsson and a lot of time, when chasing a striker would have been a better use of the money and time (they already had Klaassen and Rooney for that spot), Liverpool didn't buy Van Dijk, but knew that was unlikely very early, plus their GKs are both dodgy as hell and they knew that from last season. We knew we weren't scoring goals as we didn't last season, seems like it was the opinion that it was the manager that caused it but it is more clearly the players just aren't good enough.

The Premier League is a cash cow currently, not sure anyone involved would want to f*ck with it and risk upsetting that. Not sure why Barcelona wouldn't just continue to play in La Liga, much like Swansea and Cardiff play in England or FC Andorra compete in the Spanish leagues. Plus this whole independence thing is fubar, turn out for their 'referendum' was only 42%, you can't create a new country when less than half the people have had a say. And Celtic and Rangers can join the English league, but they start at the bottom like everyone else.

What the big clubs aren't getting though is one of the main reasons the premiership is so popular is because it is much more competitive than most of the European leagues, it isn't Bayern, Bayern, Bayern, Dortmund, Bayern or Juve, Juve, Juve, or Real Madrid and Barca every year. The 'little teams', because they have money, beat the bigger teams and the league is not always that predictable. Burnley beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge for example just wouldn't happen if the TV money wasn't shared equally. Also all the other games would become meaningless, like in Spain where people just watch X team that gets stuffed by Barcelona this week, just had a quick check and Barca have lost 30 league games in the last 10 years (and a big proportion of those will be to the Madrid teams) and they have scored more than 100 goals in a league season for the last 6 seasons. Madrid have scored more than 100 league goals for the last 8 seasons and lost only 31 times in the league in the last 10 years. In comparison Man Utd have lost 35 league games over the last 4 seasons, Chelsea have lost 33 in the last 5 and Man City 35 defeats in the last 5, and only twice in the last 10 years plus have any of those 3 teams scored more than 100 league goals. Yeh sure them getting more money would make it easier for them, but the league would get weaker and people would stop watching, they'll end up getting less money.

Beckham was very very from from sh*t. No player was particularly good for England but to be honest he was one of the better England performers over those years. Would be interesting to see what JWP could do played that way, told to just work the right and get early crosses in, I'd reckon Gabbiadini would thrive of it, Austin too and it's hardly like Cedric is shy getting forward. When he does play wide right he seems restricted and rarely tries those sort of balls, like we favour possession over everything else. At the end of the day he clearly has many good qualities and is rated by several managers and pundits so it's up to him to make the most of it on the pitch and the manager to find the best position and role for him to use those qualities. But many many people on here are massively over the top critical of him, seems to be the go to player to blame when things go wrong, whilst other players trundle along in mediocrity for months but seem to get a pass from the 'experts' on here. He's a quality player and will improve, most of the comments I see from people about him are fairly clueless IMO.

Tough fixtures yes but the BBC pointed out that against the same opposition last year they had more shots, more shots on target, more goals, less goals conceded and more points. They did not buy correctly, they lost a huge amount of goals in Lukaku, but they also lost pace and power in Lukaku, they have no replaced the goals, nor have they replaced that pace and power. They bought 3 high profile signings (ok Rooney was free but high wages) in the same position, second striker/no.10. They sold a £70 million striker with premiership experience and bought a young La Liga striker with not much experience full stop for £5 million. Similar to us to be honest, if you sell a big part of your success you need to try and replace that player with a similar type of player, we sold Mane but have still not filled that role and it shows we lack his pace and directness, especially on the counter where we honestly seem terrible.

Man City did do that last year but then fell away horribly, plus the lino and the ref certainly gave them a helping hand, two goals were offside and Watford had a stonewall penalty not given as well. Man City are superb going forward but brittle, Otamendi, Stones are dodgy as hell and both their full backs are good but better going forward than defending. Also they don't have much protection in front of that shaky defence. If Salah had his shooting and crossing boots on Liverpool would have scored 2 before Mane got sent off. Not that I particulary think we are near the top 6, need at least one outstanding attacker, maybe two in January, like basically unearth another Mane but not of the top 6 are that convincing to me, maybe Man Utd but the rest seem to have massive frailties. But I'd reckon our back 6 is up there with anyone in the league.

I have a feeling this may happen once VVD is up and running. Basically all our best players are defenders or defensive mids really - Hoedt, VVD, Romeu, Lemina, Cedric, Bertrand, with Stephens and Yoshida also being very solid and consistent so when we have 6 centre-backs on the books a wing-back system with 3 centre-backs makes sense. As does two up top when we have 3 strikers that don't seem to do well playing on their own AND our attacking mids are completely misfiring. Considering the quality of our defender, full backs and defensive mids I think we can easily accommodate it. The likes of Hoedt, Stephens and VVD are all very comfortable on the ball, bring it out of defence and have a good range of passing so a back 3 of Hoedt, VVD, Stephens/Yoshida would give licence to one of them to push out of defence into midfield more, allowing Lemina and Romeu to push up further and give us enough in the middle to accommodate two strikers. I expect to see him try it again once VVD is up to full speed and Austin is fit.

Ha Everton, same problem as us, they didn't buy quality where they really needed it. They bought in 3 attacking mids but have no decent striker.

Those Liverpool fans do know we are on the same amount of points as them yeh? Plus I really can't see our board agreeing to deal with them again, there will always be plenty of takers for our players IF we want to sell one, so we can basically just ignore Liverpool. Cos they have a lot of good midfielders, he was like 3rd/4th choice and they don't get the Premiership millions so getting 20 million euros for a back up is solid business, especially one you only bought for about 9 million euros.

He had both of those shots covered if you notice, the better one, the low drive from Loftus-Cheek that fizzed wide he would have saved easily as he got right across to it. Also the Benteke one was making himself big yes, the save from Puncheon though was great anticipation, he was already moving and diving before he had shot. And by old self I meant looking a bit more mobile and being more commanding than he has been. At the end of the day it's Forster making saves and earning us points, I don't really care how he does it, hopefully that will give him more confidence and he'll start getting some more clean sheets.

Palace had two good chances yes, but should we not credit our goalkeeper for two excellent saves? Those were top drawer IMO and overall play aside those Forster looked more like his old self. Also one of those chances only came about because Redmond slipped over and gave the ball away in a dangerous area. Palace barely created anything and I think huge credit must be given to our manager for the way he had Bentek shackled and basically neutered Palace's only attack. Hoedt was the obvious one to mark Benteke but Yoshida stuck to him like glue and Romeu was obviously instructed to get close as well to hoover up any knock downs. What people above say about Redmond is spot on. Tadic too but he was better than he has been, but his lack of pace is glaring at times, there was a chance for a counter attack in the second half where he had the whole half to run into and basically was easily reeled in by the defenders and he had to cut back and the chance of a break was gone. We desperately need an upgrade on these two, it's a great shame Sims is injured because he energy and willingness to take people on would bring something to this team. I hope the black box is working hard to find another Mane out there because that is what we need, Mane mk. 2. Redmond has his pace and movement without the goal threat or technical ability, Tadic has the technical ability but not the pace and movement.

Not in form at the moment, I think lacking confidence (all our forward players seem to be) seems to want an extra touch and plays a bit too safe and slow at times. Would like to see Simms challenging for his spot, but really we need an upgrade or at least try to find an upgrade on Redmond and Tadic as they have been below par for a good 6 months now. We need someone who is pacey and decent technically, a true Mane replacement really. To be honest we need what Liverpool have, pace, technical front players like Mane and Salah, we found a player like Mane before and Chelsea found Salah before so the players are out there somewhere at lesser clubs. If you melded our back 6 with Liverpool's front 4 that team would win the league hands down IMO.

Agree, our spine is looking pretty good, especially if Forster can find some form. We just need to find a player that is basically a combination of Redmond and Tadic. (i.e. Mane) someone with the pace/movement of Redmond but the technical ability of Tadic.

Plus VVD, Stephens and Hoedt are all very comfortable at stepping out with the ball which would allow them to drop into the DM position when we have the ball.

Basically this. For me - Forster was solid, hopefully we'll see more of that, he seemed sharper and more confident coming for the ball. Bertrand was also solid, still don't think he's quite at his level yet but getting there. Yoshida and Hoedt did well, Hoedts passing and general composure was very impressive, a VVD and Hoedt back two will be very strong. Cedric I thought was very good again, he's the new Albert Ferrer for me, just gives you a 7 every game and is very consistent. Needs to be a bit more decisive in and around the box. Romeu, not his best game, seemed to slip, and get caught out a few times but he did his job well and there was obviously a plan for him to help out Yoshida with Benteke. Lemina was a class above anyone in the game, looked exactly like a player who has won two titles and played in a Champs league final. Davis, was basically his usual self but good to see him getting forward more, worked hard, harrased and linked well. Redmond was the most disappointing player on the pitch for me. Slows play down too much, seems to need too much time and goes inside too much. Maybe it's just confidence but either way needs to make way IMO. Tadic, better than he has been recently, we scored the goal because he beat his man on the outside and he doesn't try this enough. Long, worked his arse off, chased down everything but doesn't look like a goal threat to me, it's a quandry we have 3 striker who all bring different things. I wonder had Austin been fit if he'd started. Overall attacking wise we just need to be sharper and quicker in our play, we had a good two/three counter attacks today where we just allowed Palace to get back in. But defensively and work/rate attitude wise we looked much better. Good to see the team closing down higher up and winning the ball back higher up.

Not a great performance but much better.