Baird of the land

Yeah that would be my lineup of preference.

I thought it was deliberate from JWP, hitting a low ball in rather than playing to Brighton's strengths by lofting one into the box.

Mccarthy Cedric Stephens Hoedt Bertrand Lemina Romeu Hojberg Boufal Carrillo Tadic

Brighton are one of the worst teams i've seen but unfortunately despite us having much better calibre of player i'm relieved we got out with a point. Against a team that wants to defend crosses we decided to knuckle down and shovel the ball out wide at all cost in the hope that their centre backs wouldn't just gobble up the crosses. I spent most of game annoyed at why we were so reticent to try passing the ball through the middle or running at opposition. Also our safe pass back first mentality is annoying. Their keeper twice showed himself very weak, yet both times Saints players were completely switched off and unable to capitalise. Hojberg was good as always this season(& he wasn't subbed for once). Stephens was good too. JWP seemed up for it too. Boufal at least tried to take on a man & won the freekick that led to our goal. Can't fathom why we didn't start Lemina who was excellent against Spurs. Carrillo at least showed some gumption, getting stuck in. Still unsure about him & at 20m think we've massively overpaid.

I’d say it’s the opposite of a game suited to Carrillo. Brighton center backs are very strong aerially and last thing we should be doing is playing to their strengths. Leaving out boufal though is bizarre.

I would say Hoedt is very different in mould and i'm much happier with Stephens/Hoedt pairing than Stephens/Yoshida one.

Personally i rate Stephens, always thought Hoedt was the Van Dijk replacement, so i'm pretty ok with no centre back additions. up front. Hard to rate until we see Carrillo in action. I've got a bad feeling he's going to be a highly expensive flop. So if he is & we don't address the pace issue at the top of the pitch a 0.

If we can avoid Chelsea, Spurs, City or United i'd be happy.

Mccarthy Cedric Stephens Hoedt Mcqueen Hojberg Romeu Lemina Boufal Long Tadic Subs: Forster, Pied, Yoshida, JWP, Davis, Carrillo, Gabbi, Hesketh Not sure going aerially against a team strong in that department is the way to go, so i wouldn't start Carrillo.

Well we’ll see how he does. It is a lot of money. Needs to be an instant success given the situation too, so he’s got no time to adapt to premier league.

Mccarthy Cedric Stephens Hoedt Mcqueen Lemina Hojberg Davis Sims Gabbi Boufal subs forster, bednarek, Bertrand, JWP, Hesketh, Long, Tadic,

Having the ambition to go after Tuchel(if true) isn't something i would have a go at the board for.

You mean hoedt.

Good performance and reasonable point at home. As others have said not beating Brighton will wipe all that work away. Stephens was at fault for their goal but I very much like the hoedt/Stephens pairing. Happy to see hojberg, lemina, Romeu all playing together. Can’t understand sending of Gallagher out on loan. We so lack options up top. Hopefully long back from flu but we need a loan striker.

Key thing for me is a tactically astute manager. I still think on the whole we've got a better squad than any of the clubs around us. If someone were actually to get the best out of them i think we'd pull out of this mess.

Hoedt was clearly the Van Dijk replacement. Stephens has stepped into the position that an aging fonte departed and compete with yoshida Bednarek was recruited to be 4th choice and provide aerial balance. Unless we decide to play 5 at the back I can’t see us wanting to parachute in a new high price center back this window.

Really hope this falls through. Has fail to adapt flop written all over it and a seemingly expensive one at that.

Horrible way to draw. Hope Docourre gets banned. Worst of all results, prolonging Pellegrino's stay while being of little value in terms of points towards survival.

I could have understood not bringing in a striker if we'd actually given Gallagher an opportunity rather than loaning him out and leaving us short.

Shame if it's true about Walcott. Can understand why Everton are a more inviting destination given our respective league positions. Wonder if Palace result has affected negotiations as if we'd won that we'd at least to surface appearances look far healthier league wise. Paying for a couple of expensive loans may be what we are going to have to do given better players may not want to commit.

Given we signed Bednarek as backup & signed Hoedt for 15m as effectively Van Dijk's replacement i can't really see us splashing the cash again in that position there unless there's a decision that the club will play 5 at the back long term. Given the lack of faith in Pied & playing 2 centre backs out of position i can see why a backup RB might be a priority, especially if it's one with potential to develop as who knows how long Cedric will stay even if we stay up. AM, i would see a pacy player as the necessity rather than a Davis equivalent, whether that's Walcott or someone else. So once again i wouldn't necessarily agree with you. Striker is clearly a huge area of concern.

Not confident. The one thing i don't particularly want to see is a draw, which would neither particularly help our position & likely drag out the managerial situation. Mccarthy Cedric Stephens Hoedt Bertrand Lemina Romeu Hojberg Tadic Long Boufal Subs Forster, Yoshida, Davis, Hesketh, JWP, Mcqueen, Gabbi If Cedric isn't ready, Yoshida in with Stephens moving across. Redmond needs some time out. He's doing nothing on the pitch and he's just a lightning rod for vocal fan unhappiness. Give Sims/Hesketh/Mcqueen a chance on the bench instead

Pretty much doing the job you would expect of a club captain, trying to get people to pull together.

Thought he was solid especially out of position. Sessegnon seemed overhyped on that evidence though. Let’s hope he can develop into a reliable cover option.

Happy we are still in the cup & maybe it'll help players confidence. At least we aren't stoke. Don't think performance was much good, barring short spells. Luckily Fulham were pretty awful & when we sat back and let them for once put a good cross in their striker missed the ball. Hopefully we'll still move manager on this week. Strange substitutions again. When your first 2 substitutions are booed that's not good. Gabbi looks a shadow of the player he was last season.