tajjuk

Of course there is some logic, we have played crap teams at home, we should be sitting on 12 points at least. Should have beaten Burnley, Leicester and Brighton at home as all 3 of those teams are not very good nor are playing that well. Plus we should have picked up a point at Everton. We had an easy start and have stumbled along. We now go to Liverpool, Wolves, have Chelsea at home and then Bournemouth away, so very easily could still be on 5 points 9 games in.

The issue is the the very poor teams we have played that we have not picked up enough points from. Our next games are Liverpool away, Wolves away, and Chelsea at home, so considering how those teams have started we are unlikely to get any points. And we then play Bournemouth away, who again have started very well. Suddenly we could have played 9 games and still have only 5 points, with the home game against Newcastle at the end of October looking like a must win for a team that may have just lost 4 on the bounce. (5 if Everton beat us in the league cup which they probably will)

JWP has done very little aside that stupid push, but then he hasn't been on the pitch much. To say Redmond has been our best player is frankly retarded, the guy does not contribute, that is a simple fact. He is an attacking player that does not score goals or get assists. Nor does he even particularly create space for others, offer above average work rate, make very good runs or link the play that well. Something that for example Sterling did in his England role, despite the lack of goals and assists. So what is he exactly offering the team right now? JWP, for all his failings to establish himself in the team and find a proper position, does at least contribute some goals and assists, he actually did that on a more consistent basis last year than Tadic. To be honest JWP probably does need to move on, he needs to go somewhere where he nails down a place in the team and finds some consistency. Not really sure how you can claim he has gone backwards, based on a few sub appearances of limited game time.

Do not disagree with either of you but I would still prefer to take that gamble. There are also plenty of up and coming British managers that I'd prefer to gamble on. I just do not feel Hughes will take us anywhere, as a temporary measure he is fine but long term he does not have a good track record and some of his best performances as a manager were basically 10 years ago and football has moved on. It's also worrying how defensively open we are, how little leadership seems to come from the sidelines and how poor he seems to be at closing out games, say what you will of the likes of Pulis and Allardyce but their teams generally have been hard to beat, very well organised and hard working.

Loads of up and coming managers from around Europe would take lower level PL jobs, just look at Silva, he had been winning the league Greece and getting unfancied teams into the top 4 of Portugal but still took the Hull job.

There is an easier way to put this, move it back a year to when Puel was sacked and Hughes was Stoke manager, how many people would have been happy for us chasing him then and thought he was a good candidate? When we were about to go down he was available and we were desperate for a change. But as a man to return some progress? Club needs re-booting from top to bottom IMO, lots of consistently average players need going, the board needs re-jigging, people in charge of recruitment needs to go and IMO we need a manager who is likely to take us forward and improve the players/team, I am not seeing that in Hughes.

Because he plays for Ajax and the standard of most of the Dutch league is probably worse than League 1. It's probably why he went, it's like going to Celtic, it's an easy few years of success before he retires.

A poor squad that got 5 more players into it that presumably he had involvement in and so far at least 3 of those look promising and an improvement on last year, with the jury being out on the other two. It's also not like he was particularly good at Stoke for the last two years either and we are exhibiting similar problems to them, i.e defensive issues, set piece issues and 'favourites' like Long being played almost inexplicably. I'd still rather take the risk. Puel wasn't even that bad IMO. I'd be more confident with Puel as manager that we'd have seen out that game yesterday, he strikes he as more tactically aware manager who drills his players better. Still would have taken Silva as well. Gerrard has only been a manager for months and he IMO is showing more tactical nous and ability to get his teams playing a good shape than Hughes. We spent all summer playing a 3-5-2 that never worked and we now seem to have moved to a wishy washy 4-4-2 and can't seem to string even two decent 45 minutes together. Personally if we are not near or in the top half by Xmas he should go and the board should be looking at potential replacements now, who can then come in January and they can be backed to get some players in.

Are we playing better football? IIRC under both Puel and Pellegrino we were amongst the best outside the top 6 for chances created and shots, we just didn't score regularly and didn't hold on to leads. Only difference I can see is that at the moment we have a striker in Ings who takes chances, the inability to hold onto to leads is still there, the terrible poor home form is still there and the same old underperforming faces seem to be getting game time.

I don't understand why Long is anywhere near the team, he might be a 'good guy' in the dressing room but he is reaching the effectiveness of a mascot on the pitch. Why keep Gallagher at the club if he is not going to play, his pace and presence up front in the 2nd half could have caused problems as they pushed for the equaliser and he can actually do stuff like control a ball and kick a football.

We'll get hammered but this game is basically a free hit, this Liverpool side will probably not lose at home this year and barely draw a game so basically we need to go in with nothing to lose and see if the team can rouse a performance, show a bit of spirit and maybe catch them on an off day. Thing is I have no hope that Hughes can set up a team for this sort of game, with both Puel and Pellegrino you felt that at least in these sort of games that we would keep it tight and compact, make them work for it.

Agree it was more hope than expectation. No idea where the club think we are going or what the plans are, the club feels it needs a complete re-boot from top to bottom. The promise from a few years ago has just been squandered and wasted with bad decision after bad decision. Getting the odd transfer wrong is expected, I have no complaints on that part aside Carrillo who was encompassed in the whole backing a failing manager for too long mistake. We are not going to find a Mane every time, and actually I think the summer signings are all looking promising, plus Hoj is starting to come good as well showing the talent that made Bayern buy him as a teenager. But why do we have such a bloated and average squad? Why the persistence in keeping people like Long around who have consistently shown they are not good enough. And JWP, I regularly defend the guy, but that was just idiotic and he is experienced to know better and he is just not kicking on or nailing a place in the team. But why the hell is he marking a guy way taller than him anyway when we are trying to hold on to a lead? Where is the leadership on the pitch and direction from manager? As for Rowett, wouldn't write him off, I think that says more about Stoke as a club and the sort of players the have, a bigger mess than us.

Didn't really ever rate him, but thought considering he kept us up that he deserved a chance to take us forward. So far I think he is blowing that chance, results are really no better than last year, 3 home games against 3 poor teams and we aren't wining them. Let's hope the leadership learnt their lesson from last year and don't wait ages before they pull the trigger and they can unearth a gem this time. Would prefer we gambled on an up and coming manager, don't care if where he comes from.

Not doing much is not a downgrade on Tadic, seeing as Tadic did not do much in the last two years. It's amazing how players not playing suddenly become way better than they were, aside a 4-5 game burst at the end of last season Tadic had done the square root of f-all for over 2 years.

They like their tapping up in Liverpool don't they, both clubs at it.

In the PL, according to the BBC yeh - "In addition, Monday nights have not been a good omen in the past - Southampton have never won a Premier League game at St Mary's on such an occasion."

To be fair their strikers missed about 4 sitters (Tosun about 3 on his own) and they had their best centre backs out. Their delivery from out wide was top quality, especially from both fullbacks, liking the look of Digne. Austin would have had a hat trick in that team. It's pretty much the case for any team below the top 6 that anyone can beat anybody, and it's going to come down to who takes their chances which is why we need to keep Ings fit and get Austin fitter. Similar for Leicester, they missed their chances whilst Bournemouth finished theirs, they had 5 shots on target and scored 4.

BBC seems to be saying Ings has recovered with Austin and Long as doubts. Stats are not looking good, we don't win back to back games, we barely win at home, we have never won on Mondays, they are terrible away from home and Murray likes to score against us.

Current bottom 5 are looking poor, but you'd think one of Burnley or Hammers would pull out of it and someone else will get sucked in. Spurs were crap today, anyone playing Liverpool can't bomb their fullback forward like that, as that front 3 will kill you. You need to be compact at the back with at least 1 DM, maybe 2, that then puts the pressure on their midfield to create something to break you down, then put them under pressure 2nd half as they tend to run out of steam. Leicester almost managed it.

Better to pick regular scoring starters than bit part players. Rashford should be getting more game time at Utd so I more understand picking him, plus he's young and could be very important to England's future, but he shouldn't be picking someone like Wellbeck who consistently fails to get game time and is approaching 28 and is very unlikely to be getting better.

It couldn't be written about Wolves, or Everton or Fulham as current examples, it wouldn't have been written about Spurs 10 years ago when they were basically a top 10 team who have now turned themselves into a regular top 4 club. Those clubs have a clear direction and a clear ambition. You seem to be confusing having a plan and not quite reaching it, with not having a plan or direction at all, which is us currently compared to us 3-4 years ago. LOL. None of the football authorities have the balls to enforce those laws to any effective value. QPR breached the FFP rules in their promotion to PL in 2014, they broke them massively and they were supposed to be fined something near £70 million IIRC and banned from transfers for around 2 years. 4 years later, with QPR basically stalling and objecting at every turn, that fine has been turned into around £17 million, which they are laughably going to pay over 10 years and a one window transfer ban, which is not even really a ban, instead they have to do a 1 in, 1 out policy. QPR pretty much outspent every other championship club that year to achieve promotion, they had a PL wage bill which was double or even three times most other clubs they were competing with and got into heavy debt because of that. Whilst other clubs spent less to stay more financially prudent, and those clubs, like Derby who QPR beat in the play offs that year, lost out because of that.

Hard to argue with much of that. 3 uninspiring manager appointments, the last one going for a 'safe' choice more than one you'd expect to take us anywhere, struggling to recruit properly with a series of poor signings, lack of any academy productivity for quite a few years and an owner who no one has a clue what he intends to do with the club or wants. Added to that a leadership team (and I include Hughes in this) that seems to go to excuses first, rather than just owning the mistakes, which just screams complacency. To be honest there is an amazing football club here, with amazing potential to build on, a lot of that is down to the people we still currently have but over the last 2-3 years they seem to have spent most of the time patting themselves on the back for past glories whilst using it as shield to protect themselves from criticism of their ongoing failures. And we do have a whiff of Villa, Sunderland, Stoke about us, with the only direction currently looking like down or just about bobbing our heads above water. I feel like we need fresh energy and ambition in the leadership, and I don't see this coming from the current owner, which means we have to get lucky and another investor comes along who sees the clubs potential and all the infrastructure in place.

Seems to make sense, Alan Shearer to Newcastle at £15 million would be over £125 million, and if you looked at say Kane, probably similar age and amount of goals you'd expect him to go for at least that or more.

The fine isn't for speeding it's for not telling the police and responding to the letters. The Police have no idea who was driving the car at the time and it looks likely he is covering for family members. A lot of these players seem to have a lot of 'hanger ons' which can;t be good for them especially if they are taking his car and speeding.

To be fair Watford started well last year and Palace started terribly, but the former finished higher than the latter. Too early to tell anything IMO, a clearer picture emerges once teams have played about 10-12. Early signs suggest that Cardiff and Huddersfield just won't score enough goals to stay up IMO. Newcastle also look worrying as well. But to be honest anyone from Us, Newcastle, Palace, Brighton, West Ham, Fulham, Bournemouth, Burnley could be around there, it only takes a bad run and you'll be near the bottom. You'd think West Ham have enough quality not to go down but their lack of fight and work rate at the moment has to be a worry for them, Wolves not only outplayed them but also out worked and out fought them. I'm going to go Newcastle, Huddersfield and Cardiff I think, I reckon Rafa might end up jumping ship in Jan when he gets no more money.