saintwbu

Had no idea he was Giles Barnes’ brother

Stephens has been playing RB, he’s good enough at CB. I’d be worried about sticking with only those three due to our tendency to go with 3 CB’s against the big sides. One of those gets injured and we’re in the same predicament as last year as Bednarek and Gardos aren’t up to it. We definitely need a defender of some sort I think, all of our positions in the back line look a bit weak after an injury.

We need a player to replace Redmond, a player to replace Tadic and a player to replace Forster. It really shouldn’t be that hard to do. I personally think Gabbi is good enough to be our man up top, it’s the players behind him that waste his ability. However I would love a Lambert/Pelle type back because we’ve never been the same without it.

Forgot about Giroud! Big Sam said this week that he didn’t go to Everton because his wife didn’t want him moving up north. With the money we’ve just got we should easily be able to get him here and have plenty left over for two good wingers and a keeper. Edit: But we won’t, obviously

Is there anyone who thinks that he is? Always assumed everyone was in agreement he’s a massive, massive **** and Dani Osvaldo should’ve done him in properly.

Wish we’d have gone for Traore from Chelsea before Lyon got him, exactly what we’ve been missing since Mane left. Presume he wouldn’t leave Lyon this early.

Could tell at the time from where i was say that he’d purposely left one on him. It was a toe, not particularly forceful, should’ve been a red card and should be a 3 game ban. People getting well carried away as per, heard it called a ‘stamp’ multiple times yesterday, not even close and no worse than an elbow to the head that would only get 3 games.

He knew what he was signing up to, no sympathy whatsoever. He's even supposedly great mates with a former manager! He had a better insight than most! And yes, I realise there was slightly different dynamics when Poch was here but it's essentially the same setup, although we now have big bad Eric Black and his mysterious curse where nobody knows what he does but for some reason still blames every goal we concede on him. Weird.

Surprised he isn't being blamed for last night's absolute shower of ****. Play him instead of Tadic on the right, let him whip the ball in to Austin all day long.

Austin to be dropped for not scoring for a whole 90 minutes, Tadic to start despite not doing anything of note for what feels like a whole 90 games. Respectable defeat, just like vs. United and City. Draws praise but inevitably worthless. 2-1, late winner.

There's no doubt we have some severe weaknesses in our squad, it's glaringly obvious to most, so yes the players are primarily the issue. But it is a manager's job to get the best out of the players he has available to him. Puel got way more out of a more limited squad with long injuries to key players and way more games, hence why I was completely against his sacking. The squad absolutely is a huge problem, but Pellegrino isn't getting anywhere near as much out of it as he should be able to, he has to go.

He picks his lineups out of a hat, the bloke hasn’t got a ****ing clue

Someone please come on here and tell us this is better than under Puel, please please please. I need some laughs.

You know creativity isn’t just measured in shots on target, right? Austin’s header and Boufal’s wild shot were two of the games best chances and neither were on target.

Whilst I have been crying out for Tadic to be dropped all season, he tends to always play very well against Arsenal if I remember rightly, so would probably play him. Absolutely have to play Boufal too, a nice team who like to overplay is the sort of side he could thrive against, tore them apart at the Emirates in the cup last season.

Pep needs to learn a lesson. If you’re going to lie about what you said, at least make it believable. ‘Nathan Redmond is a fantastic young talent, he’s great one on one’, no wonder the FA are following this up.

I had the misfortune of being at Swansea v Brighton the other week, and heard a Brighton fan shout ‘sheep ****gers’ at the Swansea fan, which I found quite ironic given their sensitivity when it comes to chanting about sexual preferences. I’m sorry but ‘does your boyfriend know you’re here’ towards the city with the biggest gay population in the UK is no more insulting than ‘you’re so northern you eat off the floor’ or ‘sheep ****gers’. Anything more vulgar, or directed at an individual, then yes fair enough. But not one person in that Brighton can have found a generic chant like that actually offensive.

Got to play JWP, if ever there's a weakness for a team like this it'll be defending set pieces, Kompany nearly put a Huddersfield corner into his own net just before Otamendi actually did. This is a game where we aren't going to want to attack very much, and will be wanting to keep the ball whenever possible. Pellegrino has been preparing for this game all season!!!!

You really couldn't write it. It's such a shame we aren't at our 15/16 level because it would be absolutely superb to be flying whilst they fight relegation after all the embarrassing talk of top 4 and 'ambition'.

We had this when people realised Mane and Wanyama weren't going to stick around. People said Mane was lazy and half hearted, and look at the difference between his final season and what we are like now and tell me he wasn't contributing! Van Dijk is playing fine, defence hasn't been our problem. If I was a top defender and was watching the players in front of me not pulling their weight I probably wouldn't be at my happiest either.

I've always liked us more as a side when he's in it. I get why people don't necessarily rate him, he isn't a player that stands out all the time, but he rarely gives the ball away and he is great at moving it around even if it isn't always incisive, creative passing. On the right he provides a great outlet and also the intelligence to slot in and allow Cedric to bomb on without fear. I think it's no coincidence Cedric had his best game of the season with JWP in front of him. He gets in ahead of Redmond every day of the week for me.

Hojbjerg had the only decent game i’ve ever seen him have at home to this lot last year. I personally like JWP on the right, he’s smart enough to fill in for Cedric when he bombs on, and he can deliver a great ball. I get why people aren’t convinced by his contribution but some of our best performances have had him on the right (EFL Cup final in particular).

Anyone who watches Gabbiadini in the flesh would know that he makes great runs all game, only for whoever has the ball to take another touch and mean he's offside, or not give it to him at all. Austin has the same problem. Strikers of this ilk need quick thinking midfielders who can spot the pass straight away, not once it's too late. I also don't think Pelle, on top of Lambert's shoulder's, would get to most of Cedric's dreadful crosses. I've said to a fair few people that I think Gabbiadini would get 20+ goals with Kevin De Bruyne behind him. Unfortunately at the moment I think current Kevin Keegan would provide more pace and creativity than we have had this season.

Still makes me laugh when I think of all the people who said after the Swansea game that ‘well it was definitely better than under Puel’ despite drawing 0-0 at home to certain relegation fodder Course it was lads. At least Puel knew what he was doing, you may not have liked it (I was fine with it) but he had a plan and knew how to execute it. You don’t play one of the most dangerous attacks in the league 4 times and not concede a goal without a bit of tactical nous. I don’t know what Pellegrino does, and I don’t think he knows either.

So it sounds like not even Sam Gallagher at 6’4 is going to be able to make Cedric’s crossing look good