saintwbu

Not gonna lie, I bloody love the bloke. He deserves a better song, he's been here long enough.

For me he'll go down as a very good signing - minimal fee, expectation was about as low as it can be - he has put in some perfectly respectable performances when needed, yes a few not so pretty, but has the ability to get up and back and occasionally pulled out a lovely clipped pass in behind that created several goals. Has scored one of the greatest goals I have ever seen live, and I had the perfect view of it, will never ever forget it. Seems like an extremely popular member of the group too. Good luck to him, he's alright.

Yeah sorry my post probably came over as being not happy with the current two. I've always been a massive supporter of Yoshida, from the first game I saw him (against Spurs when they beat us 2-0 at St. Mary's and Bale scored both I believe) when despite Bale scoring there was a couple of times Yoshida handled him superbly like many others defenders wouldn't have. So i'm extremely happy that he's finally getting recognition. I'm more than happy with Maya and Stephens being our pairing, but I think most would admit we need another CB in some form, even to give us Maya, Jack, Virgil and another. Hopefully, Caceres may be the other one.

I'd like to see him play incase he could be our replacement for Fonte long term. But on the other hand, I know that if he plays and demonstrates he's fit and anywhere near the level he once was then he will just trot off to some other club in the summer on a free. Or perhaps we are preventing him putting himself in the shop window so that other clubs would still see him as a risk and he might fancy staying put here if we believe he's physically up to it. Would be a shame to have a player of that supposed quality and never see him play!

If Fraser is going to be going, and even if he is not, surely Pickford is within our reach? Only Everton above us should be looking for a new keeper, all the other top clubs are sorted in that area unless Pickford is going to be happy as a definite backup. I also get the feeling Everton think they're better than signing the relegated young goalkeeper from Sunderland and will want a 'name' like Hart (who i'd love here, obviously). Also as mentioned above, if Swansea go down then all out to sign Sigurdsson pleeeeeeease. *Edit: I rate Fraser, so i'd be fine if he stayed, but IF he goes, then..

Just important to clarify things so that impressionable people don't see stuff like that and believe it!

None of Holgate, Calvert-Lewin or Lookman came through the Everton academy, and Pennington is 22. Pennington has only been playing because of Coleman's broken leg and now Williams' suspension. The only one of those he's really placed real faith in, in terms of a proper run in the side, is Davies.

'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!