tajjuk

From what I have seen of Salah this year, he might have a slightly better chance than people probably thought pre-season, Salah missed a sitter on Saturday then got take off for Shaqiri. Not sure Salah is up there at his top form yet.

Nice to see Hodgson say we deserved to win, it's rare managers ever do that, they seem to always make excuses. With regards to the pen, Hodgson said it was a good save and both Shearer and Keown on MOTD said it was a good save, not sure what they were all watching but Austin basically passed it to the keepers legs from what I saw, he would have had a hard time not saving that. Awful pen, especially from a player who usually smashes them most of the time.

Probably not the best time for an international break for us, would like to see us win two games in a row because IIRC we have not done that in a long time.

Leicester looked good though today, far more positive and higher tempo than Puel played with us, Liverpool more than a tad lucky with the first goal as Maguire's clearance goes straight to Mane and falls kindly to him. 2nd goal though I have no idea why you would have your no10 marking their main striker, aside from that Maddison looked very good and shame we missed out on him. Also a bit envious that they have like 4 very promising young English players in Maguire, Maddison, Gray and Chillwell. Key to getting something against Liverpool looks very clearly similar to what it was last year, keep it tight the first 20-30 minutes and second half you'll start to get some joy as they run out of steam, especially if you put them under pressure. Interestingly it seems like the same might be true of Everton who have faded 2nd half in every game by the sounds of it. VVD showed he still has that lazy nature he had when he played under us like the game is too easy for him and he just switches off, couple of poor moments and bailed out by Gomez. West Ham look very much like a team that haven't found any balance or got any real cohesion, I presume they should get better but you wonder in this trigger happy PL world whether the manager is going to be given that time. Looking at the results it looks like an anyone can beat anyone type season again.

Possibly, but has a 'horse for courses' approach to tactics ever really worked? IMO consistency of selection helps build a team unit and allows players to find form and sharpness.

An Italian eating pizza is not wholly unexpected. I think he just needs a run of games, Hughes seems to be alluding to that with his comments. My issue is though that we have now 5 first team strikers in Long, Austin, Ings, Gabbiadini and Gallagher and the manager seems to have no clue who he wants to play. Plus it's very likely they are fighting for 1/2 spots at best and none of them are really suited to playing out wide either. So none of them are likely to get a run of games to get sharp and confident unless they hit the ground running early. It also seems to me that in Gallagher we potentially have a player that they are consistently talking about his pace, power and physicality, which none of the others really have, and we should be using that, with one of the others to partner him. You don't get many big guys that are quick, we seemingly have one, he will unsettle defenders and even if his decision making etc. is not quite up to scratch (which he will learn) he could potentially open one of the others to perform even better. (he also seems a decent finisher and good technically) An Ings/Gallagher partnership could allow the former to make his runs from deep, take people on etc. and play off the bigger man. A Gabbiadini/Gallagher partnership could be just what Gabbi needs, some to hold up the ball for him, make runs off etc. as Gallagher occupies the defenders. An Austin/Gallagher partnership could allow Austin to stay more in the box where he is best and less worry about the build up play that he is not so good at. Even a Long/Gallagher partnership would cause problems against some teams if we went a little more direct.

Point is the DM ratings are going to be objective and free from bias whereas most fans make ratings on their favourites and are not objective. Hardly like this is the only example, I've seen players on here get slated whilst media outlets give them MOM, consistently some fans on here and elsewhere basically confirm they are complete kn*bheads IMO and will just slate a player however he players because they don't like him.

To be honest I'd be quite confident playing for Ajax. They have only lost 40 league games in the last 10 years, only 15 in the last 5 seasons.

They did that with Mahrez and Vardy whom they will not have, plus the year before they got comfortably beaten 3-0 at St Mary's. Plus they have pretty terrible away form all round as well. So not sure why they are that confident, they were pretty lucky against Wolves as well and have been in fairly poor form for the last 6 months hence why Puel is under pressure for his job.

Vydra isn't half decent, his a decent Championship striker at best, last 4 seasons he has 29 goals in 104 Championship games, doesn't scream upgrade to me.

They are both midfielders who often play in wide positions, whos jobs are to create chances for our forwards and contribute with some goals of their own. Just because they have different styles is not relevant when the job they need to do is the same. Redmond's style may well see him lose the ball more, but it also isseeing him not contribute much in terms of chances. assists or goals either. If JWP is offering more in terms of chances created and goals AND is better at keeping the ball then that is just a further positive in his direction. And again as I said further up, I think JWP should be contributing more and he needs to nail down a spot in the side, but he's IMO he deserves to be ahead of Redmond at this moment.

Just to add to this, whoscored rated JWP against Everton at 7.4, Redmond got a 5.62 and a 6.66 against Burnley. JWP consistently gets slated for not contributing much, despite him last season doing more than any of our other midfielders in terms of goals/assists/chances created, even better than Tadic if you look at that contribution against minutes played. Redmond for me just doesn't contribute very much. JWP managed 5 key passes, 1 dribble, 1 shot and lost the ball twice in 84 minutes, whilst Redmond has managed just 1 key pass, 2 shots, 2 dribbles, lost the ball 3 times and also had 2 bad controls in 180 minutes. And don't get me wrong I think JWP needs to do more to get into that team, but Redmond is way behind him IMO. Whoscored pretty much sums him up for me - That is what he does most of the time, cuts inside and lays the ball off. He is consistent in his failure to offer very much in an attacking sense.

Brighton that failed to get a shot on target last week against Watford? Yeh that sounds entertaining. Also Watford who also started brilliantly last year and then fell away massively? Bournemouth also have massive to go though horrible spells where they look terrible. It's very early days and people are getting ahead of themselves, everyone was fawning over West Ham's signings a few weeks ago and that has all gone very quiet because they have lost two games, even though on of those was to Liverpool at Anfield. We'll start to see the real levels of all these teams 10-15 games in. Palace didn't score goal or win a point for the first 7 games last year and still stayed up comfortably.

Don't think they are, without Mahrez the offensive ability of that team is diminished a lot, very hard to replace someone that contributed 12 goals and 10 assists last year. Without Vardy as well they'll be facing us without a pairing that scored 32 of their league goals last year, almost 60% of the team's goals.

Tosun and Walcott were signed in Jan, between those two and Richarlison you have about £80 million plus in the last 6 months alone on attackers, overall Everton have spent like over £250 million in the last 3 windows. Not only can we not compete with that, 3 of our main signings were not on the pitch today and yet away from home we were probably a tad unlucky not to nick a point against one of the biggest spenders in the league. Hence why I don't get the negativity, Everton have spent like 3 times what we have and they don't look much better IMO.

Brighton were hard working and neat but Utd gifted them that game, this is a Brighton team that didn't manage a shot on target last week I wouldn't get carried away. First goal no one gets out to the cross, it then goes through the legs of Bailly, everyone else is asleep at the near post, great finish though. 2nd goal terrible clearance back across the goal and they then fail to clear properly which allows it to come back in. 3rd goal terrible chipped ball by De Gea into midfield, Fred completely isolated struggles to take down the difficult ball and then the two centre backs are miles apart so it's easy to slip the ball into Gross who is free in the middle, who's first touch is awful and is going away from goal but Bailly still slides in rashly and gives the pen away. Brighton after that didn't have to do much but keep working hard and sit in, especially with all the speculative balls that Fred and Pogba played in the 2nd half, lost count the amount of times those two passed the ball off the pitch. Credit to Brighton for their work ethic and good shape, but they won that game because Utd gifted them 3 silly goals and it showed in the 2 goals they conceded that with any sort of pressure on them they will concede goals, Utd just never managed to put that sustained pressure in, mainly because their midfield played so badly. As Danny Murphy said, you can't see Liverpool and Man City going away to a relegation threatened team and playing 3 defensive minded mids and then sitting back for the first 20-30 mins letting that team gain confidence and get in the game.

Just to note Everton have spent about £140 million over the last 6 months, and 3/4 of our major signings were basically out today, so they narrowly beat last years 17th placed team (+Ings) at home, think we;ll be fine. if you look at probably West Ham and Everton being rated 'best of the rest' and neither looks much cop, plus big spending Wolves and Fulham have not started excellently either.

Think there is far too much negativity, poor first half much better 2nd but Everton away is not easy for anyone and they have spent massively, yet didn't look much than us without our 3 main signings. People need to chill its early days, with those 3 in next week I think we'll be fine.

Not sure why they bother with these things as most football fans are complete idiots and the rest are perennially unhappy whatever so you are going to get ignorant questions and angry questions. Like asking why they didn't resign as if they are going to suddenly turn round and go 'oh yeah, we should have done that', idiotic question.

top level consultant surgeons like plastic surgeons will earn masses anyway if they go private. Anyone at the top of their game will earn a lot, if the demand is there.

Be interesting to track the MOM awards from media or other sites compared to the Saintsweb opinions as well. The BBC gave MOM to McCarthy on Sunday, whoscored had him as their highest rated player as well, with Vestergaard 2nd.

Personally I think we'll do a lot better than expected, early days but Vestergaard, Moe and Ings I think potentially solve many of our issues from last season. Those three IMO offer the height and physicality clearly lacking from a generally ok defence last year, people still question Hoedt but IMO he was much improved under Hughes at the end of the season and with a leader next to him will be a lot better this year. Plus the bonus of Bedenerak's emergence and the experience of Yoshida we should be solid at the back. The latter two add some more pace and guile in forward areas. Add in a settled GK with a quality back up (which clearly let us down for half of last season) and hopefully a more fit Austin, I think we could surprise a few people and finish 8th/9th. A lot for me depends on whether Hughes persists with the 3-5-2 formation if it is not working, as has been warned about his time at Stoke and whether Ings/Austin can stay fit. Last year we were 10th for shots taken, 8th for most 'big chances missed' and 5th for hitting the woodwork. So that clearly shows our finishing was crap and our general play was not so much.

You are not even vaguely 'on', '14 goals in two and half years' is a complete disingenuous statement for a start because he has had injuries, which no one disputes and was always woefully under used by Pellegrino last year. When he started and got a run of games, he consistently scored goals. 5 goals in 10 starts last year. He'll score goals, that is proven by his record, whatever muppets like you try to claim. Trying to slate him after he ran his arse off against one of the best defensive sides in the league, with virtually no support in a crap formation, just shows how biased and unobjective you are. He got a standing ovation because our fans recognised he put in a shift with little help.

He looks genuinely chuffed to be here in that video, the more I have read and seen the more positive about this I am. In that video he looks to be moving very well and still have plenty of pace, he doesn't look as stiff or bulky as Jay Rod looked after coming back from his injury to me.

Well he looks sprightly in that little clip.