tajjuk

You couldn't call bingo numbers. Please don't pretend like you have some sort ability to read stuff or actual knowledge of what you are talking about. Stick to being the troll you are, you are actually good at that. No sorry it's an over reaction, it's a new manager, we have some new players, he needs time. Yesterday was not great but the panic and doom n gloom here is completely over the top, we were good first game of the season but missed a load of chances. Good against West Ham in patches, average but solid against Huddersfield and poor here. Exactly what I'd expect from a team under a new manager, inconsistency. We also have 1 point more than Everton, 1 less than Arsenal, 2 less than Spurs and Liverpool. It's the start of the season, too early to tell anything yet. People were predicting we would go down when we had that terrible run under Koeman, things can change very quickly.

These comments. Fans are frankly hilarious, pundits, 3 different managers, international manager all clearly rate him and play him, but fans who've never played at any decent level know better.

I don't particularly want Austin running all over the place, I want him in the box where his movement in the box is good and then he can be the focal point. Gabi can then work of him, those two are our best finishers and have the best movement but look isolated when they play alone. As for technically I think Austin looks like Bergkamp compared to Long. When did Austin last play any decent amount of time? IIRC he also scored a few in pre-season and has the better pedigree than anyone in the squad. Plus he always seems confident, he has that arrogance about him which you need in a goalscorer. Tadic slow play down too much for me and is zero goal threat, he wastes chances, I think he was statistically the worse player in the league last year for missing clear cut chances. Too early to write Boufal off IMO, there is talent there, whereas Tadic has been in below average form for a good 18 months. Like I said I'd drop all 3 and go for a wingback system, play to our strengths which is our defenders and two of the better full backs in the league, but I can't see it happening. IMO yes, set pieces alone he provides a threat that most don't. Plus who else are we going to play? Davis is far worse IMO and offers even less, Hojberg has dissappeared out of the picture and JWP seems a better bet than Redmond, Tadic and Boufal. I also don't think it helps him being out wide, he has no pace and has no dribbling ability, he's a playmaker, he should be in the middle linking play, Lemina should add physical presence next to him.

The fascination of people choosing pace over actual ability is frightening. Harry Kane, Dele Ali and Erikson are not quick, they do alright as a forward line. The likes of Redmond and Sterling for example have bundles of pace...... Doesn't really matter if he 'can stretch defences' (which is doubtful anyway) if he can't do anything with it what is actually the point, he's not even decent in the air either. Austin is vastly superior and I'd fancy Gabbiadini to win more headers. It's quite amazing how a poor player like Long suddenly jumps into everyone's team's without any good reason. This is a guy who has a premiership scoring record of 235 games, 46 goals. I doubt you even have a day job.

More than Austin? He runs fast in a straight line, but then he can't control a ball, or pass that well, or hold it up, or finish even easy chances let alone half chances, or cross that well, or do very much needed of an actual good striker. We need to score the chances we have and create more chances, Long is not going to help with either of that. If we are going to play 10 men behind the ball and hoof into the channels then yeh he's is your man, but the actually win games of football, especially in a team like ours nope he is not good enough. He's a Championship striker at best. As for Boufal, well personally Redmond, Tadic and Boufal have all been rubbish and I'm not sure I'd have any of them in the team but I can't see all 3 not playing so I went on the fact that Redmond and Tadic have been rubbish for a long long time, whereas Boufal has had a handful of games, so I'm more inclined to give him more benefit of the doubt. He's also the only midfielder we have bar maybe now Lemina that actually might score a shot from outside the box. I am not even sure Tadic can kick that far any more.

Long should not be anywhere near our team.

We don't need more mobility, Gabbi is making plenty of runs but no one is finding him and there are usually 2+ defenders marking him. Redmond has bags of pace and that is not doing much. What we need is more incisiveness in our play around the box and more support to our main striker. Literally all Long offers is an option for a punt over the top when we are on the back foot and he'll chase stuff down. Most teams we face these days, especially at home are not giving us those options, they are defending solidly and leaving little space in behind. Essentially we have become victims of our own success, many teams don't play us at St Mary's to out play us these days, they play to stop us playing because they know we are a side that keeps the ball well and likes to play on the front foot so they play compact and fairly deep against us. Austin is not some immovable brick, he's a very clever striker who works angles and quick movements in the box, he's also able to hold up the ball well, offers more aerial presence and is not bad in tight spaces. He's also the kind of striker that is able to do a quick turn or get a snap shot off that gets you a goal. I think Gabbi, working off of him would be a good option and it gives the defenders two players to think about and allows the likes of JWP etc. to play balls forward into feet we can work off. Long is none of those things. He doesn't score the chances he gets, let alone score a half chance, he's not particularly great in the air or holding up the ball and his general technique, first touch etc. is just not good enough. It's why he was an odd signing for us, he's a player who clearly suits a counter attacking team that sit back then break quickly, we are not that team. I agree that Gabbi is not a lone striker, but Long is not the option, I have no idea why we ever bought him as he's not the sort of player you need for a possession based team. Personally I'd try Gabbi up with Austin, instruct our full backs to be getting forward more and get more crosses in. Then play with a base in midfield of Romeu, Lemina and JWP in the middle. Then have Boufal or Tadic floating around somewhere in the no.10 spot, when the full backs push on, Romeu can drop into essentially a back 3. Alternatively we have 6 first choice centre-backs and our full backs are arguably two of our best players so we could play win backs with a back 3. Especially as it looks like most of our defenders are very comfortable with the ball, VVD and Stephens in particular stride out of defence with the ball all the time so - Though that basically means no Tadic, Redmond or Boufal and I can't see that happening.

Long Yeh let's put the guy in who fluffs loads of chances, hell people even have him playing on the wings. If we are going to play two up top then it's got to be Austin and Gabbi. What we probably need to do is not play JWP or Davis as right mids, and get the attacking players out of the way to let Cedric and Bertrand operate wide.

Silva is very average and no you do not have a good eye. Threads like this are fcking retarded and I'd be embarrassed to put my name to such a thing, 5 games and we've lost one game and people start threads like this. There are not enough facepalms in the world.

Seems to be a good idea to stay away from here for a few weeks, the over reactions going on are retarded. If we are still putting out these sort of performances in November then I'll worry but reactions and writing of our players after 4 games, especially after an international break is just silly.

In both shots there are bodies in front of him blocking his sight.

Thing is Spurs basically had a world class striker come through the youth ranks and bought one of the best young players to come out of the lower leagues in a generation. They have then bought around that well, but you can't really argue that we haven't bought well also (In fact two of their better players + their manager are basically down to us). I'd reckon we match them in defence and most of midfield for quality. Where they beat us and have those extra points is Kane, Ali and Erikson, those 3 are pretty much all their assists and goals in the last two-three years (Son is also a good buy). So you have an outstanding youth prospect in Kane (we haven't produced a player of his level really since the Ox or Bale) who is also in probably the most expensive area to buy players in - goalscorers, I mean they have basically had a 20 goal a season striker come through the youth ranks, you can't plan for that. Then they took a punt on two unproven talents, one from the lower leagues and one from Holland who have come off spectacularly (and fair play to them for that) but again probably no one predicted when they bought Ali and Erikson they would be as good as they have been. The three of them also pretty much started performing at the same time, within 2-3 years of each other so their success became the teams success meaning it was easier to keep hold of them because they became a champions league club challenging for trophies. They then added some steel and solidity through the rest of the team in the likes of Alderveld, Wanyama, Vertonghen etc. most of whom they managed to get at lower prices due to good timing of the deals (contracts running out etc.). They've also had their fair share of duffers in the likes of Lamela, Janssen, Sissoko etc. who they have wasted big money on. Basically my point is, if our club had been doing what it's been doing, building solidly, buying sensibly and scouting well, progressing all areas of the club, then at the same time we'd had players come through or acquired 3 players of the level of Kane, Ali and Erikson then I could quite as easily seen us being the ones who were in the top 4 over the last few years. The club can only do what it can do and hope that we get some good youth products or unearth a couple of gems at the same time that pushed the club onto the next level.

Double post

No he hasn't at all, already has 2 assists in 3 games and has a 7.45 rating on whoscored. Which is considerably higher than any of our players.

Fixed it.

Reserve matches and training is irrelevant and Tadic is a mainstay of side that is scoring relegation levels of goals. Tadic is nowhere near what he was 18 months ago and he's had FAR too many chances which is the bloody problem, there is literally not a more wasteful attacker in the league than Tadic.

Understatement of the year, he is truly woeful in front of goal and has directly cost us points because if that. Not to mention IMO he slows down play too much. Nor am I particularly bothered about Boufal's defensive work, forcing a player to defend too much is how Mourinho ruined Joe Cole. We have a strong defence and play two DMs so I think we can carry an attacker if he brings something different. He's got to be understandably unhappy sitting on the bench watching our attack huff and puff. Also not sure how he can prove he's better than Tadic or Redmond if he gets no chances in games. No manager picks players on training.

Not sure he could do much worse, I mean hardly like Redmond Tadic et al are banging the goals in or creating lots of chances.

I am pleased we held firm, I think this summer had been very interesting in the transfer market, not only have many clubs held firm (us, Leicester, pool, red bull, gunners) over their wantaway stars, we've also seen absurd transfer fees and the implications for FFP will be interesting (would love to see UEFA find their balls and punish PSG) and we've also seen quite an array of player behaviour with sadly VVD being the worst of the bunch, Mahrez has shown the way as how to be a player who wants to move but still respects his employers and remain professional. Plus we've even seen the likes of Cedric come out and say he's happy to stay which is rarity these days. I'd also be interested to see what the reason Barkley turned Chelsea was and I really hope it's because he wants to play football.

Also not sure why anyone is expecting a 23 year old centre back to be the finished article, he was always going to be rough around the edges and won't be at his peak for another 4-5 years. Plus it's France, they have probably half a billions worth of attacking talent at the moment.

Gabby, I'm pretty sure we tracked him for a while but he wasn't fully interested in the summer but come January he hadn't got games and was more interested in a move move and Napoli were more keen to sell. Look at many of our recent signings, all young ish players at bigger clubs looking for more game time, Gabbi, Lemina, Hoedt, even the kid from Atletico we were linked with was the same. Just sometimes these players and their clubs are less keen in the summer because it's a new season and they don't know how much game time they'll get, but come January the picture is clearer. I reckoned we tried for an attacker at a big European club that wasn't a first teamed that we've been tracking for a while but he didn't want to come because he reckons he'll break into the team, but we'll get him in January if he doesn't.

The descriptions of Boufal being frustrating could equally to Tadic and Redmond, both of them are really hot and cold and have long spells where they do little so it sure Boufal could do much worse. Needs to start imo Also Tadic is a serial chance misser for us, Redmond at least scores the odd goal out of nothing.

Hoedt was not 4th choice at Lazio, he started like 24 league games iirc. He's a young player who was looking for more game time but lazio couldn't guarantee it so good deal all round. Overall for the window 7/10 if we get VVD back then I think we have the best back 4 plus 2 in front in the league. Goals for me is less of a worry, chances are being created and we have to give Pelligrino time to get his ideas and style implemented. I would have liked another attacker in but I reckon the club has some targets lined up but are seeing how much game time they get at a big club, I reckon come January we'll be picking up a young player from a European powerhouse.

We'd just put an option in to recall in that case.

Looks like Austin and Stephens could still lose a few pounds.