saintwbu

'Lovren etc.' being just Lovren. None of our CB's before Lovren looked good in the Prem. The CB's after have been Toby and Virg, I don't think anyone ever said Fonte made either of those two look good because it's pretty clear that they are world class centre backs in their own right. Lovren has then gone on to look very suspect at Liverpool so I think it's a fair point to suggest that Fonte did make Lovren look better than he was, just as Toby and Virg probably have done for Fonte in recent seasons.

I side with the Poch being a top manager team on this, but agree with this comment, can't think of many United players i'd have in the Spurs team to be honest, so i'd have to say that Spurs probably do have the better squad. Sad reflection on United though to be honest, awful transfer policy!

That still is just slightly misleading though, isn't it? It gives the impression he was off the floor and square on to Herrera's leg, when really he kicked the ball and his foot lifted in that action on the way through, with very little force behind it, and he caught the inside of Herrera's leg rather than his shin.

Shane has to start for me. His weaknesses are there for all to see but his energy and movement causes havoc even if the end product is often missing, meaning he often creates gaps for other players. The game he didn't start this week we drew 0-0, the two that he did we won and scored 4 goals.

He's still a massive ****

We could potentially go into this game without Van Dijk, Gabbiadini, Austin, Bertrand, Romeu - That is literally all of our best/most effective players haha. We really haven't had much luck on the injury front this season, so to be looking at 8th and having been in a cup final i'd say we've had a good season in reflection!

I think it's always been pretty clear he isn't the brightest, but then plenty of footballers aren't. He seems very much like an 'arm round the shoulder' type of player and he certainly isn't playing for a manager who is likely to do that, so in my opinion it is definitely in his best interests to get out of there as soon as possible like De Bruyne and Lukaku both did at Chelsea. Get out to a 'smaller' club, get back to the top of his game and a big club will come calling further down the line when he has matured a bit. Funnily enough, that wing back role at Chelsea would be ideal but I can't see them buying him as Alonso has been brilliant all season.

Redmond absolutely superb I thought, and Tadic almost equally brilliant at times. Great performance and should've been out of sight way earlier if our players could finish.

If we draw this game it'll be another one used to batter Puel, but it's yet another game we should've scored about 5 in!

I will just be slightly pedantic and say that Gardos was probably a replacement for someone like Hooiveld if anyone, and therefore probably goes down as adequate. But yes I agree we have slipped up at times. Top centre halves are already hard to come by in the modern game so it will be interesting to see where we go for our next one(s).

Just came on to post that myself - clinging on to the fact that John Terry probably won't be at Chelsea next season anyway, so hopefully it's just a centre halves union!

And Bertrand has been leaving for the past 2 summers now..

Has anyone started going back to saying we've become boring yet? Without realising that we were boring because we didn't have Gabbiadini, and now we will be boring again without him. It's not Puel. It's not the style of football. It's that we don't put the ball in the net, that makes the game pretty boring, funnily enough.

It's always disappointing when a good player leaves, but I think it would hit new heights if we lose Virg having not seen him play since January when he was in the form of his life. I've always had a sneaky feeling we'd get another season out of him, and I reeeeeeally hope that's the case. Come on, one season of a fit Virg, Gabbiadini and Romeu all in the same side, and let's see what we can do.

Go to Chelsea, live in London, play in the Champions League in a team that prides itself on its defensive setup. Or go to Liverpool, possibly play in the Europa League or at best have to qualify for the Champions League, live in a ****hole, and play in a team that has no regard for its defence whatsoever. Tough one that.

Maybe the fourth official should work harder to always be 'ready', or the referee should wait for him to be so, in order to avoid leaving one of the teams at a disadvantage when they haven't done anything wrong?

I know it really shouldn't surprise me anymore but i've just watched the Sky half time 'analysis' for the first time and their discussion of the two penalty incidents in ****ing pathetic, I would say laughable but it's infuriating.

Not so much for the bloke who was let down by them in his 'both teams to score' accumulator - Only lost him a small sum of £27,000!!!! Could've bought the club with that!

Thought he was poor yesterday, most around me were willing him to be taken off for Boufal. Has had an indifferent season, so i'd say he's not really doing enough to be unhappy with being substituted. He has been better since Gabbiadini got here, but he's not made himself indispensable which I thought he would given the rumours that him and Koeman didn't get on.

Was at the game so don't know if it was shown on TV but JWP put in a tough challenge on Wanyama very early on in the game which Wanyama wasn't very happy about and kicked out slightly and they had brief words! I thought he was good yesterday, even goal aside, vast improvement this season I actually like seeing him on the team sheet now. Romeu was absolutely superb second half yesterday, some of his tackles were exceptional. But Dembele is ridiculous, so strong that it meant he'd attract two or three of our players at a time just to tackle him which left room for Wanyama, Eriksen and Alli, and that's where most of their play came from.

I really like him, looks very confident and is very comfortable on the ball. Sometimes too confident which leads to stray passes, but City are being praised for that all the time so must be good enough for us I suppose! It's been a tough situation for us in terms of having to have Stephens and Yoshida together, but individually I really like them both (i've always been a fan of Yoshida and never understood the extreme criticism of him). We are extremely lucky to have Van Dijk, he could make Les Reed look like a top centre back if you stuck him alongside him, so i'm confident that Stephens would be a more than capable option alongside Virg when he's back, so this run in the side will help him no end. Also, as a sidenote, I was at the game and was watching Dele Alli lead with his arm in every single header against Stephens yesterday, with no eyes on the ball whatsoever, just pushing Jack in the neck/face to stop him getting to the ball, which explains why Stephens didn't win many of those. Bit of naivety on Jack's part to a) let him do it and b) not react to it/go down - but not many players have the nastiness of that total **** Dele Alli, so he'll learn how to counter it over time i'm sure.

I feel like my hatred for Spurs has diverted from Poch related to just being down to their team being horrible, petulant bunch. Would love to see them lose their heads today as we tear them apart.

A Bournemouth supporting friend says he's too sentimental and gives players too many chances sometimes, hence the completely pointless re-signing of Lewis Grabban for more than they sold him for when he was surplus to requirements and on strike at Norwich. Now on loan at Reading. I suspect, you're wrong.

Hopefully they put someone else in charge of player recruitment though, a lot of their biggest money signings have flopped completely

Is it possible that there is some disagreement over loyalty bonuses and the like? I don't know how and when this sort of thing is settled. But I know that a transfer request results in any bonuses being waived.