tajjuk

I think the Paton Daka ship has sailed, someone we might have been able to pick up maybe last season or so, but I think he'll basically skip our step now and jump straight to a champions league chasing team, as said above maybe Dortmund if they lose Haaland or to the main Leipzig club or like the Spurs sort of level club. We need to find the Patson Daka type before he goes to a club like Salzburg.

Still don't think Bednerak has mentally recovered from the Man Utd game, just seems to want to wrestle his marker these days rather go for the ball, he was the same against England. Why is he not trying to head that, why is he trying to go in with his foot there when clearly Wood is going to look for the flick on. (you also have to wonder why Vestergaard shouldn't have been the one sticking to Wood all afternoon) KWP just made a rash and clumsy challenge, he's a good enough defender that a lumbering beast like Peters shouldn't get past him anyway, that guy is basically a bad centre-back playing left back. He's been good this year so let him off and put it down to a bit of match sharpness having not really had a run of games. Biggest thing was the fight and spirit to come back, the last thing you want to do is give Burnley a headstart in a game and have to break them down, and we gave them two, but in the end we should have scored 5 or 6. Ralph said they had been working on their final third play and it showed, some better finishing and a less accomplished keeper (Pope is probably the best shot stopped in the league IMO) and it would have been 5 or 6, but it made for a nervy end. I think Ralph is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't there, had we just kept going and then conceded a counter attack people would have been criticising him for not bringing on some more defenders, and we had a lot of people out there either having had a busy international break or coming back from injury, so tiredness was always going to be a factor. I think is shows though full team that is fit and match sharp then we are a lot better than probably our position, it's just we've had key players out for long spells and then have struggled to get up to speed. It's good to see Ings looking sharp so soon after another injury as he's had a fairly stop start season. Hopefully we can put back to back wins together against WBA and go into the semi-final fully fit and full of confidence.

1. Most teams in the world struggle with this, England showed it against Poland for example with far more attacking resources than we have, it's the nature of football that if you restrict space in behind and put lots of bodies in the box it is hard to score. City only managed 2 against Burnley, Utd only beat them with a Pogba long range strike. 2. This squad has been struggling with this for about 4-5 years, if not longer. We have struggled against Burnley in the past. It's why JWP is probably important to play as set pieces are a good route to break teams down that sit deep and defend.

Guardiola has come out and said they don't think they have the money to buy a striker at those sorts of prices, i.e. Haaland so could make Ings a cheaper option. I mean City are doing ok pretty much only having Jesus available all season.

Honestly trying to compare the two is just completely stupid and says a lot about the people doing it.

Also saying Liverpool have a 20% sell on clause...... So if that is true, we could end up struggling to even get £15 million and would need double that to replace him at least.

They will be clear favourites and I doubt they will have trouble with motivation, plus no European football for them. Probably based on that the 2nd hardest of the all the options. Let's hope they have some crunch games to stay in the top 4 beforehand or drop off form like they did last year.

Yes couldn't have said it better, but about what you said. How many teams in the PL below like the top 4 have double figure wingers? Rashford, Mahrez, Sterling, Harvey Barnes all have 9 goals this year. They are all playing for top 4 teams and two of them cost £50 million plus, and I doubt you'd get the other two for any less than it either. Vardy only has 12 ffs. (and only 6 from non-pens) Zaha has 9 with just two assists and Palace want like £70 million for him. And for most teams there are only 8-9 games left. Mane only has 7 goals and 4 assists FFS, the same as Che IN TWO more games. Salah is currently the only 'winger' in double figures and he plays for pool and 6 of his goals have been penalties. Grealish is probably the stand out wide player in the PL, especially outside the top 4 teams, and he has 10 assists and 6 goals this year, so 16 goal contributions, only 5 more than Adams. (and he takes corners and free kicks for Villa so gets assists from that). I mean you are basically expecting Redmond and Adams to be doing more than like Vardy, Zaha, Mahrez, Rashford, Sterling etc. Any mid table PL striker or wide attacker getting like 11-16 goal contributions in a season, has had a good season IMO. Adams already has 11, with more of the season to play and as people have pointed out he's had some absurd decision go against him so easily could be on double figures for goals this year.

You don't know what a second striker is? Barely anyone plays with two strikers these days and when they do you usually have a main no.9 type player and secondary support striker, who plays more like a no.10 and drops deeper. Also pretty sure Che has something like some of the best chance creating stats in the league, up there with the likes of Lookman, Mane, Salah, James Rodriguez etc., I've seen him likened in style to how Kane is playing for Spurs, dropping deep and playing people in, though obviously not to the same level. Considering how crap we have been for the last 10+ games (which i don't think can be particularly blamed on him) 6 goals and 4 assists, plus creating more chances for a second striker, in 24 starts is not too bad IMO. Probably if Ings had been fit for more games, he'd probably have another 2-3 assists I reckon at least. If he can finish the season with about 9-11 goals and 5-7 assists I think he'll have a good season.

What I don't get is that he is good at taking people and driving positively at the opposition, he showed all the skills in this game, the pace, the dribbling, even composure, yet many a game he barely tries to do this. Is it confidence? Is it instructions? (can believe that). Armstrong, who is probably less known for his pace and dribbling ability, consistently does it against all opposition.

We know on our day though we can beat anyone, City look the most ominous, the other 3 are a huge level below and have plenty of their own off days. Hopefully unless we further suck in the league and are pulled properly into a relegation dog fight, they are all going to be fighting for champs league spots and Chelsea/City/Utd will have European games as well, so we might be the fresher. We are the huge underdogs here, especially with our terrible form, but you never know, maybe this result boosts confidence and we go on a bit of a run, the likes of Chelsea/Utd stutter, get tired, have their concentration elsewhere.

Yeh I'd say if anything he's slightly under rated by our supporters (as we can see by some very questionable opinions in this thread) most fans of other clubs and pundits seem to rate him and recognise his performances (statistically as well he hits a lot of highs). IMO he's probably been our most consistent performer for the last two seasons. But he's on a long contract and in a position most clubs have very quality players, so spend £50 million plus to prise him away from us (and I find it unlikely he would force a move through and drive down the price) to get a very good, but maybe not top top level player when they have similarly good players in those positions but are lacking in other spots. But Garth Crooks is probably right, he's a pretty good candidate to replace Wijnaldum for Liverpool, similar role, good age, used to playing a pressing system, hopefully they won't notice that.

Let's hope so.

300 appearances up for JWP, academy player, now club captain, England international and free kick master. Turning into a bit a of a legend IMO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6UbdNWScc0

This is a very good point and I think it showed a little in the losing run, we lack experienced leaders, JWP is one of those 'lead by example' type players rather than a shouter I think and he's tactically very sound so can convey the managers messages onto the pitch, but he's not the most vocal or organising from what I can see. Vestergaard I think is another that is a bit of a natural leader and organiser at the back, he was missing for most of that poor form. And we've also seen that Forster, with his confidence up, is seemingly more of a leading/organising presence than McCarthy. I think that bad run showed that we lacked some leaders and on pitch 'nous' to maybe get out of that bad run earlier and pick up some more points. But it should also be highlighted that the bad run coincided with a terrible run with injuries and same bad decisions going against us. Had we had more luck with injuries then I feel we would still be challenging for European slots not mid table, not many clubs could deal with what periods with 4-5-6+ key first teamers being out injured and then successive poor refereeing performances adding on top of that. Just look at Liverpool, injuries to key players, some tiredness, a few results don't go their way and form and confidences tumbles. Ralph can't do much about squad depth or the financial mess we are in. Could he do some things better? Totally yes and I am sure he is learning himself, but has he done a good job? IMO unquestionably. With our full first 11 we have massively overachieved, had we more squad depth or better luck with injuries we'd IMO be 6/7/8 th right now. And that is the key for the board for next season, give Ralph the tools to deliver his football, without needing to rely on the barebones and kids, find a couple of players to add quality and improve the first 11, and add some decent depth in a couple of other positions, added with the continued improvement of some players that Ralph seems to manage and we could have a really great season next year IMO. I think the board know how good a manager he is and how much of an asset he is, two 9-0 defeats, some terrible form, but not really a whiff of sacking. Because they know the circumstances around the club. We are honestly a bit like Burnley really (who have also had some terrible runs under Dyche) a PL club working with not much money, who have a manager they know generally makes the team over perform above it's resources and thus will show patience and loyalty to that person.

Yeh seen Ajer a few times and he does look like Vestergaard Mk 2, he's classy on the ball and very dominant in the air, obviously difficult to tell how much he is challenged at Celtic so it would be a bit a of a gamble, but I supposed the gamble our sort of club has to take. Plus he's still very young I think like 22, so plenty of room to improve, I wouldn't be surprised if he was on our radar.

Ok West Ham win their game in hand and they are 2 points off 2nd. What.

Yeh I can't see us buying a centre-mid, probably our strongest position to be honest, we have 3 good ones and a couple of highly rated youngsters in Smallbone and Jankevitz. The spine of the team is pretty good with three good centre-backs for two spots, three good centre mids for two spots, and two decent strikers (but with Ings contract situation to resolve). It's the wide areas, Armstrong aside none of the wide players have cemented a place and we have two decent full backs with no back up and Bertrands contract running out, plus three GKs, none of whom are really good enough. So priority I think has to be a no.10 who upgrades on what we have and probably a full back who can cover both sides, I can see us maybe getting Williams on loan maybe even with a view to buy, he's got be pretty annoyed he was denied a loan and is then sitting on bench the whole time

He looked quite meh against Dundee yesterday. But then so did Edouard, and he is highly rated. Really difficult to tell with Scottish football, it's a bit like the Eredivisie, potential to find gems but also potential to pay decent money for flat track bullies who have a really good season.

Seeing him in that game, he looked happier and interacted better with his teammates then I ever saw him here so was thinking maybe he just didn't fit with our squad and didn't get on with some important members? We have some very entrenched players here, like Bertrand and JWP and a fairly heavy domestic bias (Bertrand, KWP, Forster, McCarthy, JWP, Ings, Redmond, Stephens, Romeu who's been here like 10 years), whereas Fulham with all their transfers and loans probably have a more cosmopolitan feel, with lots of different nationalities and less long terms established players, so maybe he has just settled better in that environment. (plus obviously London is probably better for that as well) We sometimes forget footballers are just people and will struggle to do their job if things are impacting them off the pitch, new country, new language, not a well known (to Europeans) part of the country and a team with a lot of well set personalities and not a lot of fellow french(?) speakers as well.

Liverpool's massive drop in form kind of puts ours in perspective, shows how much impact form, confidence and some key injuries can have on teams.

They said in the game today that no other side aside from City, has scored the first goal in games than Saints. Which just shows how bad we are at holding leads.

Let's hope he kicks on and keeps performing, we have been here before with Sims, had some very good games and caused problems, then just faded away. Plus with the finances it would be great to fill a hole in the team without spending any money.

LOL, look who is playing now and keeping clean sheets.

Should have been 3 or 4 with some better decision making in the final third, but a win and a clean sheet I think will be massive for the players, we aren't on that sort of run anymore and we look more solid at the back. Ings injury is another worry, doesn't seem we can get a break with injuries. Aside the result, Tella the real big positive, showed real pace that could trouble teams and played more directly trying to get in behind and at the opposition, which many others haven't been doing. Though you could see confidence returning later on in the game, with Armstrong trying to take on people. Yes the opposition were bad, but on the run we have been on that means very little. Need to do our best against Man City and then kick on from there.