igsey

We should play Stephens at the back with the sole goal of winding Shelvey up. Did a great job of it against Arnautovic.

Lighthouse would you rather we persist with Redmond, Davis and Tadic? That's not working, may as well try mixing it up and Boufal is the biggest unknown quantity we have. As much as I like JWP, McQueen, PEH, we know what they're like and none of them are likely to get us firing again. Why not use this opportunity to see what he can do with a short run of games before we hit our heavy patch of games in November? I think we all pretty much universally agree that Redmond should be dropped. I'm not saying that Boufal is going to be the answer to all our prayers, that he's our most creative player or even that he'll do anything useful - but surely it's worth a shot over persisting with the formula that hasn't been working all season?

Wouldn't be surprised to see JWP and/or Redmond start as they've not been involved in internationals. I'd like to see JWP on the right, Tadic and Boufal left/central. Gabbiadini has to start.

We have five 'decent' goalkeepers, one is injured and Southgate wants to take four. He gets in by virtue of being an English goalie.

We lost 1-0 in a tight game where we were on top for much of it against the most expensive Man United team ever. Portsmouth lost 2-0 to Sc*nthorpe.

Leeham, you should be England manager.

Phil McNulty @philmcnulty In the end that wasn't close to embarrassing for Everton - it was embarrassing. Schneiderlin having a shocking run under the radar. Awful.

Redknapp in "bought 13 players in one window, they're all terrible, gets sacked and burdens the club with sub-par expensive players on long contracts like QPR and Portsmouth" shocker. Hope we can get Sam back in January.

Losing 2-0 to the mighty Northampton Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

Straight red for Mané for this.

Perhaps McQueen is being considered more as a left winger/wing back than a left back by MP?

Did anybody catch the presser? All that was reported on the BBC ticker was that VvD is back in training and MP saying that Watford are a good team.

Henderson has been the worst player on the pitch, clearly thinks he's Gerrard but he hasn't got any of the ability. Gives the ball away at every opportunity and his positioning has been terrible. Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

This thread is premature, he's deffo off to Barcelona tomorrow who have an agreement with the dippers to give them to him in January coz Suarez asked nicely for them.

Mirror reporting that Sanchez to City is done.

Watching Sky Sports News Transfer Center, VvD to Liverpool status: "Deal Off", reporting that Virgil is reporting for training daily at Staplewood, though still training alone. If even Sky have dropped this then I'm convinced he's staying one more season.

Doesn't get on the bench when he's fit so a loan makes sense. Best of luck to him.

Mustafi on his way out of Arsenal apparently, leaving them with two actual CBs (and Calum Chambers).

It's good to see the manager taking risks and trying new things, I'm not expecting us to see 3 at the back any time soon in the league but it's refreshing to see us experimenting with different formations in a low pressure game. Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

I'd imagine Wolves will field a weakened team, this competition is not their priority this season if they're aiming for promotion. I expect McCarthy to start in goal and Long up top to protect our two injury-prone strikers. Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

I still think Long has something to offer. He pulls defences around and creates space for players that actually know where the net is, and we don't have any other players that can do that job (Redmond is the next best thing). We all know that he'll run all day. The question for Shane's future is whether or not MP thinks that's a valuable asset that he can utilise; if he's not planning on playing to Long's strengths and playing him along with Gabbi/Austin then he could find himself on the bench, out of the squad, or off to someone like Bournemouth/Watford. Personally I'd keep him but it depends on if we get a new forward player in.

I agree, but I guarantee he'll be in the next England squad. And probably made captain and play every minute. Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

Morgan off

Watching City feels a lot like watching Southampton last year - lots of possession, passing around the box but nobody wants to shoot, and of course conceding against the run of play when the opponent first attacks.

Score a goal, don't lose and I'll be happy as Larry.