shurlock

Sides he was poor against? Hopefully Mané works out and Long becomes a decent option off the bench.

A distinctly average player; then again some of us like steak and others like big macs and offal.

Don't think the hoof caused us any real problems -the 3-1 at Wham, for instance, was a fluke and on most occasions we would have won that game. Where did struggle was against teams with pace and ones that could switch the ball quickly from one flank to the other.

We played the second most long balls in the league (see whoscored.com stats) - of course, as a % of our total passes, it's lower given our dominant possession, though it does puncture the myth that we were just a tippy-tappy team.

And Fulham.

Agree- nothing more risky than playing a high line and pressing intensely which is to say that I can also separate my views of Poch as a manager from the way he played us for fools.

Consider Koeman's recent interview in which he said that we couldn't play a counterattacking game because we lacked the necessary players. Now with Mane and Long's pace, we have that luxury, though it has required us to fork out over £20m+. In other words, if you genuinely want to adapt to an opposition, you need the resources; MP wasn't so obstinate that he refused to mix things up -for instance, Gallagher was played largely because it was felt he could stretch defences -an alternative to our patient build-up, though he wasn't up to the task. As Gallagher showed, if you don't have the players, perhaps its better sticking to your strengths -unless by 'pragmatism', you mean parking the bus. You only need to recall the West Brom game to appreciate that no manager, however flexible, can change things without the personnel.

??? Arguably it requires better players and a deeper squad to be chop and change and adapt to the opposition. Arguably a fixed style is more suitable for limited players. We had or bought players who could press intensely and so played to those strengths. If anything, its argued that getting better players to buy into a pressing game is much harder -one reason why some think MP will fail at Spurs but succeeded with us.

Really? Nonsense. We created plenty of chances in games; the problem is we didn't put enough away. And we did take risks -a common ploy, for instance, was the ball over the top with Jrod or Lallana running from deeper positions. Admittedly it worked better away than at home. And when Jrod got injured, it went out of the window. Poch was an excellent for us -with a natural finisher, many of the criticisms lobbed around would have been shown to be pretty superficial.

We already had significant leeway under FFP The figures bandied about on here refer to the total club wage bill -everything from Gareth Rodgers to the chief steward. Only the player wage bill counts towards FPP and that is well within the cap.

Like most teams find it difficult. Can only think of the QPR and to a lesser extent the Sunderland where we struggled to get behind teams. Which is par for the course.

Good article, though I did see more evidence of Pellè targeting the fullbacks at Wham - a trend that hopefully continues. As much as the transfers, keeping the midfield together was critical. It was our main strength last season and remains so this one. Still feel we are unbalanced on the right - neither Long nor Davis have impressed there. Quite a bit riding on the Mané signing. If it works out, Long will be a decent, if expensive bench player.

You still think one of Long's strengths is his creativity/passing? Playing in the hole? On the wing? Dear oh dear. Ultimately, he's a hard running centre forward who doesn't have electric pace but enough to stretch defences. His sheer work rate guarantees a certain level of performance -important for big games in the way Ji Sung Park was good for United- but he isn't blessed with much natural ability; nor does he have an instinct for the back of the net.

We don't know who Blackmore has spoken to - all we know that is he is very well-connected. Either way, you don't give Blackmore much credit if you think he's been unable to use his discretion to contextualise his sources and sniff out bias (quite apart that it's consistent with what supposed ITKers like Guan have said). Can tell you that's journalism 101.

Again a black and white post -yes talk of asset-stripping and firesales was unhelpful and ignorant, though this was never a majority view (at least on here); at the same time, your suggestion that silence throughout was deliberate and well executed is spurious. It doesn't accord with the picture presented by dispassionate observers like Blackmore or the unease expressed by senior players like Fonte.

Nice try. Your endlessly repetitive assertion that we were powerless to resist the encroachments of the bigger clubs; in reality, the club decided as a matter of choice, not necessity to let certain players go -and when that was disproved -most notably by our stance over Morgan, you conjured up red herrings like release clauses to explain the other sales. It appears that the club had a change of heart regards the timing and magnitude of player departures. Undoubtedly it remains when, not if, remaining players leave; but dare I say it, the public and media backlash -which you dismissed- helped in a small way to induce that change.

Follow you around? That's called projection, pal. Paranoid as well as weird it seems. While you're rolling around like a self-satisfied pig in s**t, perhaps you'll concede your many mistakes and misjudgments over the past few months.

You are one proper weirdo.

Sure they'll go through. No way would we let Gaston go if Mane wasn't coming.

For someone who knows f**k all about the player, you certainly make plenty of assertions.

They're talking about Abel -not Javier- Hernandez.

She was bang on when describing Hooiveld and his potential move to Burnley - key member of the 2012/13 team that secured survival. Dyche thinks Jos could do something similar for Burnley's fortunes.

We can't take him on loan with Bertrand already here.

Know much about the Salzburg winger we're linked with?