Baird of the land

Back from the game. Thought we were the better team and deservedly won. Still feel we are lacking attackingly. Too reliant on shoveling i5 out wide for a cross I’d like to see us trying to take on opposition players a bit more. McCarthy: 8. Made a couple of important saves. Cedric: 7, a very frustrating player, gets in all the right positions but his end product fails too often Bertrand: 6, solid Stephens: 7.5thought he played very well. Could have perhaps been tighter to Rondon but it was an excellent finish. Hoedt: 6.5 does so much so well but there were a couple of horrible moments Lemina: 9 best player on park Hojberg 6.5, solid if less impressive than he has been most of the season Jwp: 7, really tenacious at the moment Tadic: 6, quiet game but one sublime moment Redmond: 6.5, much better as the game went on. Needs to take players on more though. Carrillo. 4, well he got an assist I suppose. Still Think we were robbed. Sims: 7, just for being willing to try and go past someone. Romeu: 6, did what was needed physically late in game Gabbi: 6.5 had a couple of nice moments, though surprised he didn’t try and get a shot off when he had a bit of time on the 3dge of the box

I'd prefer he stick with a settled back 5. The more time they have playing together the better imo.

Second half was depressing. First half there were some brighter moments in possession either side of 2 hoedt mistakes for the goals. Still have no idea what we saw in Carrillo to spend the sort of money we did on him. Seems completely mediocre.

Brighton, Stoke & Huddersfield. For some reason i think WBA will have enough to get out of the whole they are in.

Should only happen if they also ban teams playing friendlies during the winter break.

Nice to see U23 getting back to back victories. Seem to have a reasonably kind run in, so if they an keep the key players fit, they could go on a run. Also would really like to see Hesketh given another chance in the first team.

The Everton fan Lallana.

There is going to be a run of 4 games from stoke through to west ham game that will likely decide our fate.

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.