DuncanRG

It's a ludicrous idea, not sure why we're even talking about it. Playing Jason Puncheon and Jay Rodriguez at wingback would not make us play like Barcelona.

Clarified - Barcelona don't play 3-5-2. They've experimented with 3 at the back but they can only afford to do that because they have a monopoly on passing, possession, pressing and organisation which we couldn't even dream of. And when they did it they played the likes of Alves out wide, who for all their attacking instinct are still defenders.

Unless you're Barcelona 3 at the back means wingbacks in the wide positions. But anyway, we're not gonna be doing that. Personally I expect the same starting XI as Sociedad, with full backs depending on Shaw/Clyne availability.

It's Chinatown, Tribeca and the financial quarter - Wall Street and all. They must know about our stadium expansion plans.

They're not providing cover if there are no full backs, they're it. You wouldn't dream of playing them at full back in a back four, would you? Six places in the league table and two utter trouncings last season should attest to the fact that West Brom are better than us as it stands.

Surely you can see how silly that formation is though! Ball goes out to a WBA winger and our only protection is Rodriguez, unless Cork or Fonte come out and free up space in the centre.

Definitely - I'm half Scottish and half English but will break my neutrality if Lambert scores.

A perfect formation to counter West Bromwich Albion, who famously play all their players down the middle.

I'm not sure you could be more wrong if you tried. His age is starting to catch up with him in terms of movement but he's an absolutely world class player. He's phenomenal and not showy in any way. Even when he was scoring 30 yard screamers his biggest contribution was passing. No coincidence that most of the world's greatest clubs have made moves for him over the past 15 years - including Bayern Munich last summer.

I very much doubt it

Expect Long will still start.

Wanyama could end up being a waste of money for Fantasy. I see they've changed the bonus point system to reward players who don't score/assist etc, so that might change things but ordinarily a player like that won't do too well for you. He might score a goal or two but not regularly. My team's called Noel Edmonds, by the way.

That's a good signing, but again, if he ends up a superstar it's just another loan. For what it's worth Schneiderlin and Wanyama seem to have gelled very quickly. Looked on the ball against Sociedad

It's no surprise that those clubs are better, they've been serving an enormous global base for many years. They're just bigger - if were to reach that level we'd have more customers to serve and more resources to dedicate to getting it right. I popped into the West Quay shop before Sociedad - no keeper or training kits that I could see there.

Interesting they've picked out Lallana's injury problems as limiting his performances. For some reason it's something I'd not considered all that much, obvious as it seems.

I hope some of the people in this thread live long enough to see homophobia viewed with the utter and rightful disgust that racism or anti-Semitism are now. It shouldn't be long.

I like him.

Perhaps their childhood lacked a strong teacher figure.

Fingers crossed he'll be okay. If he's out for more than a month or two we'll need to loan someone in I think.

Spot on.

Agreed. The whole team was very good in the first half but Wanyama and Rodriguez stood out. Only below-average performances were Cork and Ramirez.

Good game, enjoyed that. Rodriguez, Lallana and Lambert looked very strong as a front three. Lambert's movement made a huge difference to our ability going forward - his runs gave Lallana and Rodriguez a platform to show their best. He didn't get on the ball much but remains a crucial player cause we couldn't get our passing around the box to quite the same level without him. Sociedad didn't look quite right to me, gifted a couple of their goals.

That or he actually is better. I think he is, by a long way.

This, meanwhile, is absolutely fantastic.

I can hardly bear to read this thread. The only comfort is knowing that bigots like Essruu are firmly on the wrong side of history and their repulsive views will become more and more marginal as time goes on.