Lighthouse

That's nasty. I don't like tall buildings and bridges at the best of times. Imagine driving over the Itchen, minding your own business, then that happens.

I’m not sure about that big circle and one up front formation, either.

It can work with a striker who isn’t as immobile as Austin. That was the problem first half, Redmond and Armstrong had pretty much nothing to work with.

Looked like a mix up between Hoedt and Vest to me, if it's the one I'm thinking of where they both went for it and Lennon nipped in.

I know it’s Liverpool but West Ham don’t half look crap on MOTD. That defending for the second goal.

Not necessarily. Someone with good feet and movement can hold the ball up as well as any big lump; City have just won at the Emirates with 4 attacking players no higher than 5'10. We didn't struggle to keep it in Burnley's half when Ings and Gabbi were on.

I didn’t think Hoedt did much wrong today, personally. Considering the mess of a formation we started with and the number of balls the defence had to deal with.

Everton away is a different prospect to a tired Burnley at home. We can always start with the more conservative option and bring on an extra striker if looks like it will improve our fortunes.

Certainly looked decent but the question marks have always been over his long term fitness, rather than his talent.

Nice to get our annual ‘not winning at Goodison’ out of the way nice and early. I’d go with the same team which finished today’s game, depending on Armstrong’s injury. Another idea would be a 4-2-3-1 with Elyo - Armstrong - Redmond behind Gabbi, with Ings off the bench.

Dreadful for an hour, considering we had 3 CBs they had so much space in the box and had the chances to put the game beyond us. Nobody really looked like they knew what they were doing. If we start with the 11 that finished, in the same formation, we will do alright this season but that starting 11 was garbage. McC - 8 some very smart saves kept us in it. A couple of dodgy balls out Cedric - 5 don’t think he touched the ball for the first 30 mins. Stephens - 6 Shaky at CB, looked better at RB Vestegaard - 7 strong and dominant, looked much better after the subs Hoedt- 6 Again, looked better after the subs Bertrand - 7 Seemed to work well with Elyo second half Romeu - 5 Never imposed himself on the game Lemina - 7 industrious, one of his better games. Redmond - 6 on 33 minutes he ran at the defence and scared the crap out of them. Why he doesn’t do it more I have no idea. Armstrong - 6 looked decent until his injury Austin - 4 I know he’s a good finisher but his all round game is just poor IMO. Ings - 7 looked bright and lively Gabbi - 6 didn’t have a lot of time but looked okay. Should have started Elyo - 6 Looked a threat at times. Would like to see him start on the left.

It was deadline day, if they'd had better offers before he'd have gone already. It's not an unreasonable request, given his injury record and if they had said no I'd have walked away. Sadly this is the board that gave Forster an extended contract, sold Fonte and Van Dijk mid-season without replacements and signed Carrillo to keep a manager happy who should have been sacked months ago. As such this deal doesn't surprise me, especially given that they caved in and paid the full £20m asking price that nobody else was interested in, for a player who didn't even make the squad for their last game.

That's definitely a red for Jagileka IMO; lunged in with his whole weight, studs up into the standing leg. Lucky not to break it.

Why indeed. Why we wouldn't at least have an 'option to buy' instead of an obligation, I have no idea.

Yes. We have agreed to sign him. Even if he does his ACL again a week before the loan ends and we get relegated, we have to give give Liverpool £18m and keep him.

First injury time kick in the nads already. 4 points dropped for a clean sheet from DDG.

Lukaku and Vardy on the bench. That'll p*ss off a bunch of fantasy managers already.

I don’t follow. My point is that the ‘I told you so’s’ won’t come after he makes a mistake or even a poor game, they will come after he has another serious injury to one of his glass knees.

Not so much his first mistake as his first crippling 9 month injury.

How about a game of super 6 but with all the fixtures. I'll go with Man Utd 2-1 Leicester Newcastle 1-1 Spurs Bournemouth 2-0 Cardiff Fulham 2-1 Palace Huddersfield 1-1 Chelsea Watford 1-0 Brighton Wolves 2-0 Everton Liverpool 4-1 West Ham Saints 1-1 Burnley Arsenal 1-3 Man City 2 points correct result, 5 for correct score.

We were seconds away from getting 6 points against Everton last season, it was only the universal constant of Saints not being able to win at Goodison which stopped us. Why you think Leicester are anything special I've no idea, they've still got Puel and lost their most creative player. Then there's Wolves; they may have 'won' the transfer window but pretty much anything could happen. Norwich won the transfer window about 4 years ago, then got relegated.

Which will just be amazing if we get relegated. Imagine, we're in the Championship with players like Forster, Carrillo and Boufal stuck on the wage bill for 3 years and to top it off we are then OBLIGATED to spend £20m on a player who could well be out for another 9 months with dodgy knees. Why agree to an obligation to buy instead of an option? What possible leverage did Liverpool have to say no? Like f**k they were going to call the deal off if we asked for an option to buy instead. If they had I'd have run a mile.

Excellent thread Michael! I am going to say Cardiff, Huddersfield and Watford.

So Liverpool have been asking for £20m all summer and nobody has bitten. Then on deadline day when it's basically their last chance to offload him, WE cave in and pay their full asking price. I think this is bat sh*t mental personally, on par with the whole Carrillo fiasco. Our record signing is now a man who has played 14 league games in 3 years. Give it 3 months, Long will be starting games whilst every talks about how much better we will be when Austin and Ings are fit.

Sorry, finger trouble. 3 years.