saintwbu

I thought he played really well, really strong in the challenge and read danger well. Played a big part in the equaliser too. Pleased for him.

Was he out wide or up top tonight? Ralph seems to normally see him as a forward which is why he’s not seen much game time yet this season, as Adams/Armstrong/Broja are the competition.

The last player we had written off after a difficult first game away at Sheffield United in the league cup didn’t turn out too bad…

People writing off Armstrong and saying he’s not as good as Ings, clearly have erased how bad Ings was when he first arrived. I remember both Brighton away at the start of 2018/19 and home to Bournemouth at the end of the season saying to mates I was with that he was finished, ran like an old man etc. Ings after those two games would’ve made Armstrong look like Mbappe. Give him a chance, aye.

Whole back 5 were brilliant today, but first time i’ve seen Perraud play and thought he was brilliant. Got up and back really well but was also good on his one on one defending, recovered brilliantly a couple of times too when West Ham broke. Tino broke out well so many times but no one came up with him and he’d be forced inside or would end up giving the ball away, what a talent though. Broja’s first touch to push it past Ogbonna just breathed life into the stadium, he looks really exciting. A good result, could’ve probably been 3 points but we showed a different side to us today. Stephens was top drawer, Antonio has tormented him in previous games and Stephens completely shackled him from the start and ultimately got him sent off by making him lose his head for the first yellow card. Salisu also great, passing out let him down a few times but defensively he got everything spot on.

Argentina have always struggled with goalkeepers, and mostly they’re not playing regular club football. Sergio Romero has more caps for Argentina than he has club appearances for any club in his career. He really isn’t the world beater that people on here think he is.

Sander Berge would really top this window off. Watched him again the other night and he was absolutely head and shoulders above everyone on the pitch. Would really add legs to our centre midfield, drives forward really well and a big lad too.

It’ll be a set fee that Chelsea can pay us to buy him back, and there’ll be nothing we can do to stop it. He can turn down Chelsea if he wanted. Normally there’s a time period attached - i.e. not before 1 year has passed, or it expires after a couple of years. We can sell him to other clubs at any price we want, but presumably Chelsea will have to be notified before we do it, so they can choose whether to buy him first or not.

People citing Neves going down and using it to justify it not being a foul is why players dive around so much. Neves knew he wasn’t getting a free kick without going down, but he left it too late. It was a foul, a bad tackle, and had he gone down immediately he’d have got it. Poor refereeing but not a surprise. I look forward to every manager in the league being asked about it this week, and Sky replaying it five times per hour every day.

He wasn’t even bad yesterday, he also made a great tackle on Saint-Maximin seconds before the goal that stopped him getting through. Whether it was his job to have picked him up later on in the play i’m not sure. He’s a decent CB, we play a very kamikaze game that is going to inevitably leave our CB’s exposed - he’s probably not built for it, but he does well enough for me.

Wasn’t at his best today but that’s a goal in his first game, an assist last week (i’ll give it to him despite the dubious goals panel decision) and winning a penalty today. Also played a great through ball for Djenepo’s second great chance. He’s making a good start!

It’s all fine margins really, he created/found himself with the two best opportunities of the game. I can’t remember the last time Redmond or Theo even got in a position to miss a sitter. That cruyff turn he did was a great piece of play that sat the defender down, but unfortunately it hit the back of his own foot and the opportunity was lost. I still think he’s had a decent start to the season, despite the fact people will focus on the two chances he missed today (and should’ve done better with, no doubt).

Exactly - the team who had 6 shots on target from 40 yards each because they were out of ideas, probably didn’t deserve to win the game over the team that has 0 shots on target because their striker missed an open goal from a yard out. But shots on target stats would say it was 6-0 to the team taking potshots. xG gives more context rather than just raw numbers.

Djenepo should keep his place, the other side is the only position up for grabs imo.

Amazing what one half decent season at a top club can do. Thought his Chelsea career was dead after a fairly poor loan spell at Stoke, now he’s worth £30mil!

8 goals, 5 goal goal scorers, none of whom have started a game yet this season. Nice to have some depth finally.

Actually gonna be disappointed if we don’t get 9…

😳😳😳😳

A lot of revisionism on here suggesting that Forster is much better than McCarthy. McCarthy has fallen into some truly terrible form as of Christmas last year, prior to that I think we’d have all been pretty concerned about Fraser becoming number 1. Neither are great at the moment, I just hope McCarthy can overcome what looks like a complete lack of confidence/form.

I think Ings has made the world think every team needs a 20 a season striker. The reality is outside the top 6 teams (even they often don’t), almost no one gets 20 goals. 12/13 is perfectly respectable for a mid table striker.

Ralph clearly sees Tella as a striker, not a winger. We also have a number of players that Ralph regards as being able to play there if needed (Walcott, Redmond), regardless of our opinion of them. We essentially have 8 potential strikers, we are not getting another. There is only one area of the team where I think we could still do with someone, albeit probably not urgent, and that’s CM. Yes I would like a better GK, and probably a better option in the wide area, but they’re not pressing in terms of actual personnel.

Sorloth is off to Sociedad, he’s not coming here

I’ve always liked him, and I think some of the criticism is unwarranted as I often think he is being shackled by Ralph. Last season he always seemed to be used to double up on dangerous wingers to help Bertrand, Ralph does seem to trust his defensive capabilities. I hope we get to keep seeing him with the freedom to get forward, as I think there’s a really good winger in there.

Didn’t you drop more points from winning positions than any other team last season? Would suggest if you sort that out, you don’t need a new goalscorer.

If Sam Johnstone was to leave West Brom, there aren’t many clubs so clearly in need of a number one in the PL. We couldn’t, could we…?