saintwbu

A bit of both. Players certainly aren’t as good as under Koeman, but it’s a manager’s job to get the best out of those players. Puel has even said today in the press that we created a lot of chances under him, just weren’t clinical, which in the main I think was true, perhaps not right at the end of the season. Plenty of games were goalless due to missed penalties and poor finishing. Pellegrino isn’t even delivering that much.

I should’ve clarified, you wouldn’t play a CB at full back and expect him to perform well. Yoshida’s bad reputation among some (definitely not me, I think he’s brilliant) stems from his games at full back which completely stitched him up. Like playing Boufal on the wing. Is this MP’s way of saying ‘don’t ever celebrate at me like that again’ after last week? I’ll stick you out on the wing so you play **** and the fans stop clamouring for your inclusion. Wouldnt surprise me, seems like he left his balls in Spain.

Superb against West Brom when playing down the middle. So only natural that you’d then start him stuck out on the wing... You wouldn’t play a CB at full back, why do it with an attacking midfielder. Then he got his token 65 minute ‘chance’ and to rub salt in the wound he gets hooked and Tadic gets put central, exactly where Boufal should’ve been! He also won the free kick for the goal by actually running at his marker. Tadic is ****.

I remember someone on here arguing with me that Demarai Gray was not better than Nathan Redmond during the summer :lol:

Allardyce has always mentioned having a better club than the ones he’s managed and he’s only going to consider a return to football if it’s of real interest to him. Surely with some of the players we have, particularly defensively, we could get him on board.

Knew from the first game of the season at home to Swansea that he was not the right man. I had to laugh at people that day blindly convincing themselves that whilst we were held to a 0-0 draw at home against an almost certain relegation candidate, it was ‘definitely better than under Puel though’. Well that’s worked out well... We’ve used 19 players this season, the second least behind Burnley. Considering how **** poor we have been all season, I think that’s astonishing. What exactly is he expecting to happen if we don’t ever change anything? Also, Boufal was quiet today, he got 65 minutes and then he got hooked. He won’t start the next game. Tadic played 82 minutes and did absolutely **** all other than dive, on one occasion costing us a chance to break because he’d rather roll around and get the ball kicked out of play. Tadic will start the next game. It’s just astonishing, are we being trolled by this absolute clown?

I have been far more bored and frustrated under Pellegrino than I ever was under Puel. I don’t expect i’m going to be rewarded with a cup final and 8th place finish either. Good luck Claude, hope you do well.

Very pleased for Boufal, must be infuriating knowing what you can do and not getting a chance to show it. Thought Van Dijk was very up for it this week, not that I thought he was as 'half arsed' as a lot of people suggested. Lemina superb as always. I cannot surely be the only person who is absolutely astonished at how bad Cedric's crossing is!? Every time he pops up close to the touchline I am 99% certain that he's going to put it straight out of play. I don't understand how it is possible for a modern day fullback to be so poor at hitting a ball in a straight line into the penalty area. Whilst Cedric is a decent defender, is Pied not decent enough to have a go and perhaps add a more accurate delivery?

For me, his celebration was completely warranted. People say he doesn't deserve to be given a run if he doesn't show he's worth it, but Redmond and Tadic haven't shown anything for the best part of a year and yet still play week in, week out. In the past three games, we've scored 3 goals when he's been on the pitch which amounts to about 60 minutes in total, if that. He played the cross which eventually lead to Maya's goal against Stoke, I think he played the pass to Long which resulted in a penalty against Newcastle and now he's scored with a piece of individual brilliance that Redmond and Tadic could absolutely never do. To say he doesn't deserve a chance in this pathetically toothless side is baffling. The centre of our team is as good as anyone in the league in my opinion. With Van Dijk, Yoshida (or Hoedt), Lemina and Romeu in the middle we absolutely can afford a player who may give the ball away occasionally to sit at the top of that spine. A manager with a set of ******** would've made it happen a long time ago.

It’s on ITV’s page on Sky on demand as ‘Tipping Point: Lucky Stars’ - Series 4, episode 4

Within seconds of entering the field he was stood with his arms out directing and instructing, don't imagine that's the sign of a player who can't be arsed. The guy's a natural leader, did miss a couple of headers that i'd have expected him to win but i'd imagine that can be credited to a lack of sharpness.

My problem is that JWP by all accounts did nothing today, so got hooked at half time and probably won't play next week. Tadic by all accounts also did nothing today, but he'll start for the foreseeable future. Why does he keep getting chances to shine and others don't? He's been dreadful since the day Koeman left.

Where's all the people saying we're playing much better than we were under Puel though? LOL. Absolutely delusional, nothing has changed from last season whatsoever.

Lampard wasn't anything like Gaston though, a better comparison would be someone like Payet, Mahrez, Coutinho, Silva. Lampard was a CM really that was just very good at going forwards, he'd be equally effective when it came to defending a game.

'How do you solve a problem like Van Dijk?' - I dunno, but I reckon we've just done it

I get what some people say about how we don't have time to just let a player play himself into good form. But on the other hand, Tadic has been given that time for about 2 years now, and Redmond about a year, so it's a bit of a contradiction.

People seem to think long contracts are only in the best interests of the club. There are many cases where players reject a transfer because the contract on offer isn't long enough, plenty of players like the comfort of knowing that they're secure for 4-5 years earning the money they are offered, rather than at risk of injury or poor form leaving them club-less. The Van Dijk scenario will not make players wary of signing for us.

Sky Sports News outside the ground just said Virg has reported for training and the club have said even if there is a late bid it will be rejected

I only believe it if it's from Jeremy Wilson

Dominic King of the Daily Mail has tweeted that reports of Van Dijk leaving his agent are untrue and he is still represented by Wasserman. I've got a feeling he's one of the guys that denied Coutinho's transfer request when Sky broke it, only to have to confirm it about half an hour later, but I might be wrong on that.

I'd rather he start every week and play himself into good form, and just drop Tadic. Tadic has played more bad games in the last year than Boufal has made appearances.

Whilst the previous bid from Barca was labelled as about £112mil in the press, the rumoured structuring was embarrassing. Supposedly £80mil spread over 5 years, and then the rest made up in add-ons including 'winning the Champions League twice' and 'Winning the Ballon D'or and multiple trophies in the same season'. If I was a Liverpool fan and Barca offered £100mil for Coutinho i'd pack his bags and drop him off at the airport myself, but not in a deal structured as pathetically as that.

I'm guessing the 'three other clubs' won't get close to valuation, but the club that have got close to it are either not EPL, or are Liverpool?

I seem to remember Virg getting involved against Prague when Tadic wouldn't give it up to Austin. Tadic seems to be getting more and more petulant as time goes on. He absolutely should not ever take a penalty for us, but scoring on Saturday will have made him even more determined to take them. Austin, JWP, Gabbi should be the only contenders if they're on the pitch.

For me this is so commonplace in our society. People championing one cause because of freedom of choice & freedom of speech etc., but belittling others whilst doing it. Like how people will slaughter Trump for being negative towards a section of society, but say they want him to be assassinated. Tyson Fury, declared he didn't believe in homosexuality because he follows the teachings of the bible, received comments like "its disgusting that you think homosexuality is a sin, you're so ignorant, you dirty gypsy ****". We're all a bunch of hypocrites really. * Disclaimer: Just because I oppose some of the treatment of Donald Trump and Tyson Fury does not mean I am a fan of either, just not a fan of selective treatment.