Lighthouse

When we were basically winning the league 3 years in a row, of course they were. 05/06 was crap and 07-09 were awful years too.

I make that 3 out of the last 6 games we've thrown away in injury time. Useless bottle jobs.

We can't sell them. If we'd gone down we'd be in an even deeper hole with a massive wage bill we couldn't afford. Nobody wanted to buy Boufal, Carrillo, Forster, Long and probably a couple of others because of their massive wages. Relegation doesn't mean we can just wave goodbye to anyone we don't want.

Long starts and Gabbi not in the squad. WTF are we doing...

Leicester at home and you're going with the 'chase them hard and give them a bit of a runaround' tactic? No thanks, Gabbi and Ings for me.

I’m assuming he’s trying to get a bite out of someone, possibly a woman with connections to Italy, going by the OP. No idea who it could be though.

Combined with some sarcasm, straw men and pedantry from the usual suspects. I’m not sure this thread is going anywhere.

I never said he was culpable but he didn't improve our fortunes either and against Stoke he offered very little. After that decent Everton performance he got 35 mins in a 3-0 defeat at Palace, then got an hour in the draw with Be'er Sheva and 20 minutes against West Brom. He never pushed on from their and replicated the performance against Everton, the rest of the team not withstanding. It's not often I agree with Lord Duck but he's right on this one. If successive coaching teams and managers have decided he's not as good as the mediocre Redmond and the substandard Long, there's probably something in that. They aren't great players but they've at least done something of note at this level, with Norwich and West Brom respectively. I asked my Reading mate at work how he got on last night and he said he didn't really notice him. Early days but he will have to start making some headlines in the Championship to force his way into our long term plans.

He had one excellent dribble against a tired, substandard team, which had thrown most of their players forward for a corner, when he was fresh having just come on. He had a decent game and assist against a lacklustre Everton team 2 years ago. Let's not pretend these things are anything special just because he's one of our kids. Mayuka once won us a penalty with pace and direct running.

I don't see how Puel, Maguire, Maddison and Schmeichel are significantly better than Hughes, Vest, Armstrong and McC in their respective positions. They've got a decent chance of a win but so have we. If we stick with 2 at the back, there's no guarantee Hoedt will start and if he does I think he will do better in a pair with Vest, as he did in the second half against Burnley.

Sims or Redmond? Redmond is an okay squad player for a bottom half club.

I think Redmond is a mediocre player at best in the Premier League and the fact that Sims can't get a game ahead of him doesn't reflect too well on Sims either.

He played most of the Stoke game, in which he made little impact and the team was awful. Came on at HT at Newcastle too and we never looked like getting back into the game. He's had numerous other sub appearances over the last couple of seasons and only did anything of note against a tired and underperforming Liverpool team.

Vest Yoshi Hoedt Bednarek Stephens

Clearly you don't have a teenage daughter but Jacob Rees-Mogg posters are flying off the shelves.

Basically this, it's not like he hasn't had chances. There have been plenty of games where he has had little impact.

He's a bit 'meh' for me. If you just want some bland, lowest common denominator comedy and don't want to do any thinking, he's alright in a Michael McIntyre kind of way. What I'm trying to say is, I don't find him actively irritating like I do Miranda or truly insufferable like Nish Kumar.

That's too simplistic a view on it. There are many formations which could work with the players we have, it's about how we play them. Poor finishing and defensive mistakes cost us against Everton, no formation in the world will get Austin's header on target, allow Cedric to win a header or make Hoedt and Stephens good players. Ings and Gabbi would give Leicester a lot of problems, if we play them correctly. I'd go with: - - - - - - - - McC - - - - - - - - Cedric - Yoshi - Vest - Bertrand - - - Lemina - - - Romeu - - - - - - - - - - Armstrong - - - - - Redmond - - - - - - - - - Gabbi - - - - - - - - - Ings - - - - - - -

Nope.

We've had the chances to win both games. I'm not saying we deserved to but we were in them and had Austins header gone in etc. we could have 6 points despite playing poorly. Our 2 games have been nowhere near as bad as a few other teams. If we'd gone to somewhere like Everton and lost 3-0 without a shot on target, as we have in the past, then I'd be more worried.

On the basis of what we’ve seen so far, there are definitely worse teams than Saints. West Ham continue to be a mess, Burnley have been crap, Huddersfield have lost 2 tough fixtures but 8 goals conceded will be a worry. Nothing from the promoted sides looks particularly special either.

Reasons to be positive.... None of Gabbi, Vest, Yoshi, Elmo or Armstrong stared and all 5 would have improved that team. Why Hughes sent Long on for Austin I don't know. If anything it's quite worrying, as if Hughes has completely run out of ideas and just sent someone on to run around. Oh well, we're always sh*te at Goodison.

Here please

Meanwhile West Ham...

Irrelevant. If players can't do the basics, no formation in the world is going to help. Nothing suits our silly fouls, unmarked hearders and missing sitters philosophy.