mcbendy

Yes, this

Yoshida is a better right back than Danso, defensively. He did actually put a few good crosses in, but defensively he was all over the place.

One way of looking at this is that at least Ralf had the chance to see how dreadful Danso is at right back, we didn't get knocked out and we didn't lose any league points. Hopefully he won't play him there against Liverpool...

Maybe. In which case that goal will put a few million on his value, hopefully...

Doh... Match thread has been renamed... Delete this one!

Phew. Looked much better once Danso was off. No thanks to the ref or Daniel Levy in the VAR booth...

If he goes, I suspect the club think that Smallbone is very close to his level, and with big potential

Re Danso - the OS says 'loan', and the BBC say 'loan with an option to buy' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49290375 Given his physical attributes, and his age (only 21) I wouldn't be surprised if we made his signing permanent. Jack Stephens (25) is still fairly young for a centre back and seems to be blossoming of late. Up until only a few weeks ago I thought he was hopeless. Now, him and Bednarek are looking fairly solid. The first few times I saw Jan play I thought he was gash, too. If we're not going to buy a young top-notch first-team-ready centre back (spoiler alert, we're not - they cost £50m+) then we need to accept that the only sensible strategy is to try and spot someone who has that potential, and then develop them. After a year here on loan, Ralph should be able to judge whether Kevin fits the bill, or whether we have to look elsewhere. I'd be happier with him staying at the club than Vestergaard...

See here: https://ustreamix.su/stream.php?id=lfc-tv&token=baf-6c2-6ff-cc3-9ea-9f5-075-725-921-e70-ca

How about 4-3-3 with: Gunn Yoshida Danso Vestergaard Vokins Smallbone Romeu Slattery Obafemi Long Adams

We need somewhere to discuss the possible departures of Lemina, Carrillo, Hoedt etc and the summer transfer window thread has been locked. Plus... I was never a fan of cold Turkey. Personally I think Lemina will get a move to a major European club. I suspect we'll end up cutting our losses on Carrillo and loan him to Leganes again for peanuts. Hoedt might go on loan to a Spanish club perhaps? Moi to Turkey?

Adam Leitch, in a now-deleted tweet, says it's done

I just watched the full 90 of the Koln game (which is available to watch on YouTube - you just need to install the free Windscribe Chrome add on and set the VPN to Germany - completely trivial) Anyway - Boufal was really really good. Lots of clever touches which came off and put defences on the back foot, or was fouled and won us a free kick. He hardly ever gave the ball away and he *did* track back and press etc. If that had been a new signing playing their first 45 minutes for us (e.g. say Adams or Djenepo's first game) we'd have been absolutely creaming ourselves. If Ralph decides to keep him around I'll be really interested to see how he performs.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the starting eleven and shape is the same as we saw against Feyenoord. For me, Romeo is a big miss. Even with five at the back we look vulnerable.