Baird of the land

Hopefully Ralph sticks with his pick Mccarthy for a period rather than flip flopping like the end of last season.

Find the notion of appointing Terry completely comical. Why not appoint John Barnes he was once a good footballer too.

No its 100% on Salisu. Neither keeper is going to get near that before richarlison even i believed yout odd Fraser would have tried to come hypothesis

Yeah what stats because it's clearly not overall Win %

Personally don't see it. At the point Mccarthy stops coming and decides to set himself instead, Richalison clearly would have got there first and the same people criticising him for staying would be criticising him for coming for a ball he was never going to get.

I don't see how you really place goal blame on jack for the skewed clearance. You might as well blame livramento then for his failed clearance that led to jack having to try to deal with it. You'd hope coaches would be drilling it into him though about the way that he too often ball watches and let's his man drift off him. Happened in the first half and fortuntely calvert lewin put it over the bar but there was no let off for that third goal.

McCarthy, kwp, bednarek, salisu, perraud, Romeu, jwp, Livramento, Armstrong, Armstrong, Adams.

Bizarre he didn’t trust one of his best players from last season who also had a full pre-season to come on and try and help at 1-1.

Don’t agree we were very much in today’s game in the second half. the difference Rafa brought on fresh legs in 70th, whilst we didn’t.

Curious did any journo ask about KWP? Was he just dropped or not fit enough to start but for some reason included on the bench. Still found it bizarre he didn't come on at 1-1 if he was in any shape to play.

No i don't think so. We've played very well at times in his formation. We were excellent in the first half today playing it. He's somehow got to get the team to switch on after half time and then he's got to learn how to use subs to effectively freshen things up as the second half progresses.

While i’d Prefer we had Johnstone I just don’t see how using our remaining budget on that position, when today showed we desperately need a cb would be crazy.

Eddie Howe, no thanks.

The tone of His post match interview seemed rather worryingly defeated.

Was so hoping to make all those pundits putting us down for relegation eat their words with a positive result.

I don’t see that he could have come for it. Agree he should have been yelling at salisu who’d got himself in a horrible position to do anything but duck out of the way.

Exactly. It’s hardly as if Benitez gambled by going extra attacking. He just did the basic and freshened a winger and that sub set up the winner.

Really bizarre. What’s the point of deepening the squad if he doesn’t trust any of his subs to have a positive impact or his own ability to make a change.

Also frustrating how deep we sit. We win the first header but we leave their guy freedom to head the ball straight back in.

"Then you can see the atmosphere coming and you feel the pressure on you. We calmed it down a little bit but then we conceded a beautiful second goal." So you can see the atmosphere coming and you do nothing.....

I'm not quite in the calling for his head category. There's so much positive as the first half showed. However it does my head in his stubborn refusal to make a sub until we are behind. AT 1-1 it was so obvious next goal was huge. Benitez makes a change. Ralph has a lie down and waits for Everton to score.

I don't. We would have conceded at least one if not more from Forster being stuck on his line.

Very positive first half. Mccarthy (Thought he was ok, came and claimed very well). Beaten by a top corner shot and sitters.) Livramento clearly has something about him. Split between Ralph being blind or KWP being dead as to why we didn't make a change on that side when Gray started to get the better of him. Stephens/Salisu. Some good moments(especially salisu covering) but managed to let both their strikers have sitters to score. We are so lacking any threat from set pieces too. Perraud (some bright moments going forward, less certain defensively) Romeu (quiet today) JWP (Saved our bacon quite a few times) Walcott (had a brief spell of about 5 minutes in 2nd half where he looked threatening Djenepo (very threatening, just frustrating he wants too many touches) Armstrong (lovely signing) Adams (very good again) Subs (unrated because for some reason some useless goon waited until we were behind to make them)

So we definitely need to sign a tall CB, not least because we look completely unthreatening from all the set pieces we are getting.

Don't see how today's goals were his fault. top corner effort and twive when the defence let their strikers have a free effort in the 6 yard box.