tajjuk

Yes he has, he's been awful. You telling me that is not a pen, Rice wrestles him to the ground with BOTH hands round him, and Carroll tries kick to Romeu into next week. Far less dangerous tackles have got reds. Shocking refereeing.

West Ham have played better but they are still going to win because of **** refereeing, that is blatant pen and they get to go and score easily the other end. Not only that but Carroll should have been off by now, that is red on Romeu and he doesn't get booked, he leads with his arm first minute he is on the pitch, no card for that and he pulls one of our players back in counter attack. But Targett gets booked for getting the ball. Absolutely atrocious refereeing, without that West Ham for all their possession have one long shot goal and about one other shot on target all game.

That is not a strong West Ham team, disappointing if we don't get 3 points here. No Reid, Zabaleta, Arnautovic, Lanzini, Hernandez, Yarmalenko.

If Liverpool win the league, they'll have bought it just as much as City did, there spending for the last 4 years is north of £500 million. They broke the transfer records for Defender and GK this year.

Its good to see him finally contributing something, but he has to keep doing it, we have seen fits of good play for him before only for him to then become ineffectual again.

Personally I think Vestergaard has shown signs of adapting to the league, horrible mistake against Cardiff must have dented his confidence but was more assured in the last two games. Also saw him bringing the ball out from the back towards the end of the Hudders game jinking past a couple of players before playing a good through ball the Obafemi, shows his confidence is growing. I think he'll turn out to be a decent signing, now we have got better team shape and a press the centre-backs are not going to be as exposed as they were under Hughes and left under pressure.

Would like to see Cedric start, Valery has done well but Felipe Anderson is their best attacker, especially if Arnautovic is out so I think Cedrics experience against him and pace will be important. Plus unless they start Carroll, there is no big attacker to pull onto him,.

I tend to watch MOTD but have tended to skip through our games this season until recently. Hopefully we can keep this going, there is so much of a muchness above us that a some smart business in Jan I think we could climb up the table.

They didn't play and will go 6th if they beat Spurs tomorrow.

Palace winning at City was disappointing, but need Utd to beat Cardiff now to keep that gap.

Back to back wins for the first time since April 2017, with home to West Ham to come next as well who have just lost 2-0 at home. Shame there was no clean shot but aside that sounded like a deserved win.

We have wasted a few good counter attack opportunities with poor balls, need to be more clinical.

We don't seem to be pressing as much as last week.

We probably have spent a lot of coaching staff/manager severance pay recently so its a little understandable. Maybe its only temporary till the end of the season, if Ralph keeps us up then come the summer other coaches might be out of contract etc. and easier to approach. Plus its very clear he is a hands on training ground manager, plus has the guy he brought in so really anyone else is just running drills he is setting up and instructing.

I'd surprised if we made a loss on Austin if we sold him unless he left on a free considering he only cost £4 million.

Be surprised if Lemina didn't start.

Personally I have always thought Austin puts in a shift, despite the criticism he gets you can't fault him for effort IMO. Early signs suggest that Austin seems more favoured and will be more involved by Ralph than Gabby. I'd also suggest that Gabbi has more re-sale value, I think plenty of clubs in Italy would probably take a risk on him considering his decent record there, where as Austin's injury record, age etc. make make it more difficult for us to sell him anyway. We have a very clear no. 1 striker at the moment, that is Ings and I doubt, unless the black box pulls a gem out of the bag, we are going to get better any time soon. We then have Austin, Gabbi, Long, Gallagher as other options, who all bring about something different but none, aside Long offer what we are missing, which is genuine pace. IF long terms Ralph is moving towards two strikers like his RBL team had, then we are basically looking for a Werner I think, probably to pair with Ings, who whilst he isn't the tallest has a decent all round game and is physical enough. Probably with Austin then as the back up 'target man' type player, with Gallagher also able to play that role if he ever gets fit. And Long is the pace, and has the work rate/energy for the pressing, he just is not a very reliable goalscorer/technician, so again would be impact. Which all considering to me says sell Gabbi, he doesn't seem to fit the picture and we should be able to recoup £10-15 million for him, which can then part go towards a new 'pacey' striker. EDIT: LOL., after I wrote this I found this article - https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/12/20/report-manolo-gabbiadini-wants-to-quit-southampton-for-fiorentin/

Let him stay IMO, get a full season under his belt and then involve him in the summer, presuming we stay up of course, and then Ralph can evaluate him to see if he has a future with us.

I think Gunn is pretty much McCarthy's level already anyway and potentially could end up being a lot better so not really a worry IMO. But seems a weird one, can't see where McCarthy would be going, he is a good solid prem keeper but hardly top 6 material IMO and he's jumped around a lot in his career you'd think now he is has settled and got a number one spot he wouldn't want to jeopardise that.

Ings to me looks like as good a striker than anyone else outside the top 6 has to be honest bar maybe Arnautovic. Probably only Wilson, Mitrovic, and Murray look his level and I'd wager by the end of the season he outscores the latter two as I think he will excel in Ralph's tactics, his pressing from the front yesterday was exemplary and he looked again as quick and sharp as he did when he arrived from pool. Obviously there are fitness issues, though hamstrings are pretty common injuries for anyone, but that is now 6 in 11 starts for a team that until yesterday was woeful. Wilson in comparison has 8 in 15, Murray 8 in 14 and Mitrovic 7 in 17. If he can double that total that already makes £20 million look decent, if he was on loan and we didn't have the transfer agreed, then if he ended up with like 12-14 goals from 25 - 28 games by the end of the season I reckon pool would be asking more than £20 million for him.

To be fair Ajax probably have one of the most exciting young teams in Europe and very promising young coach, plus they are Ajax, inventors of total football and one of the most prolific conveyor belts of talent in world football. IIRC our academy coaches and staff have been then to learn from them. People will always play better with better players around them and that league is pretty easy for Ajax bar like 3-4 other teams, the rest are would probably struggle in league one to be honest. He also produced two seasons of diddly squad all and was one of our least effective attackers considering the games he played.

Footballers play games with little training all the time, its hardly like Ings or Cedric have been out that long, a few weeks at most.

They rested pretty much all their first teamers last night so they'll be fresh.

I doubt he'd get sacked to be honest, so would only be if he resigns, I'd hope the board would convince him to stay, as I doubt we are going to get a better manager and he has experience of getting teams promoted. I mean if we did get relegated you can't really blame him unless we got substantially worse, it would be like blaming Silva for Hull's relegation, the damage has already been done in lost points against similar teams, loss of confidence and poor level of ability in the team.

The Selke link is likely to be because he used to play for him and also as his style of play at Leipzig was basically to have a bigger striker with a smaller faster one. Poulsen was that guy for him when the came 2nd in the league and he only scored 5 in 29 that year, so it sound more like a player to fit/get the system working not necessarily someone to bang in a load of goals. The issue is we don't have a Werner to go with him, who got 21 league goals that season.