Harry_SFC

Just got back after 3 different road closures! What a nightmare. Onto the game.. we were absolute garbage in the first half - moved the ball far too slowly and looked vulnerable at the back. We looked a lot better in the 2nd half when Boufal came on and we actually played a 4-2-3-1 for the last 15 minutes which made us look more threatening than we have all season. Player wise most of them were average. Forster and Romeu were better than most. Tadic and Clasie were woeful and would probably sell both in the summer. Boufal was man of the match for that second half performance - some of the touches he showed were world class and always looked like making something happen. Massive massive game on Saturday now.

Surely we aren't signing an average centre back who is injured until March? Surely..?

If we fail to bring in a CB then it'll be a massive **** up on our part. Imagine if Yoshida gets injured in the next couple of weeks..

Sounds like a good idea to me. We desperately need another decent centre back and he's clearly a good player. The loan gives us an opportunity to see if his attitude is as bad as people are making out.

The pressure will be on after all the rotation today. If we don't get a positive result then serious questions need to be asked. I think the team picks itself - it just depends on the fitness of JWP I guess.

Very very disappointed with the team selection. Throw a couple of youngsters in but 10 changes kinda takes the p*** out of the supporters. The game was lost before the match even started. Only positive was Josh Sims. God help us if Yoshida gets injured!

Hopefully we move on to a different target, if we have one that is..

This basically

Apparently Morocco aren't letting him play for us until they are knocked out..

Under the circumstances that is one of the best centre back displays I have ever seen. He literally won EVERYTHING. Cannot praise the bloke enough.

I think Yoshida is a decent premier league defender and can certainly do a job there until the end of the season. The problem is if Van Dijk gets injured or suspended then we are in serious trouble. Stephens is pretty much untested and Gardos is almost a write off. If we lose Fonte and do not replace him then Les Reed should have serious questions to answer.

Gabbiadini really isn't very good. Would have Sakho though - at the right price that is.

That's more like it. There seemed much more of an intensity with and without the ball tonight. Van Dijk, Romeu and Yoshida were top class. A shoutout to Jay Rod as well - he put in one hell of a shift up top and thought his link up play was pretty decent. Lets go and get something at Burnley now, with a similar looking line up.

We looked more of a team tonight than we have for weeks..

Whilst this is probably true - Romeu looked shattered over the Christmas period and we lack backup options in the DM position as I'm not really sure how good Reed is.

I've just seen that Michy Batshuayi is close to joining Swansea on loan. Could certainly have done a job for us.

I can't see us buying an attacking central midfield player because we don't play with one. Puel even admitted he doesn't like the central midfielders breaking into the box regularly as it might allow the opposition to launch a counter attack. Which is a massive shame but hey ho.

Well after listening to that interview from Reed I can't say I'm overly optimistic about the remainder of the season..

This pretty much sums it up for me

Ah the good old 'he has a different opinion to me so isn't a proper fan' line. Bravo for that.

I think Puel may well have lost, or is on the way to losing the dressing room. I'd give him the FA cup game and the League cup semi final. If we are out of both a change in manager is needed.

Do you feel Puel has the attributes and the support of the players to be able to turn it around in the 2nd half of the season like Koeman did? Personally I don't but we do need a few additions in the transfer market to help him out.

Our league position may be similar or slightly better but I think that's down to the league outside of the top 6 being poorer this season. We certainly haven't improved as a team.

I'm not exactly in the Puel out camp yet but a few more poor results/performances and that'll be it for me. I'm not enjoying our football under him one bit. We don't seem to get midfielders into the area, the build up play is slow and predictable, other than Boufal none of our players seem to be taking risks. The tactics are so negative it seems like he is holding the players back. Apart from Romeu I cannot think of another player who has improved under Puel. Switching 3 of the back 4 is a complete recipe for disaster - no other team would do that and I can't see any benefits from it. Martina wouldn't get into my Sunday league side yet Puel still regularly uses him. Why did he bring Jay Rod on yesterday and stick Long out on the wing where he is half as effective? Very odd decision indeed. Stick 2 up top ffs. His overall demeanour is dull and uninspiring and I think that is shown by our style of play and this is clearly translating to the players. A number of players just aren't performing at their levels - Forster doesn't look interested and Tadic has gone backwards extremely quickly. The only positives I can find is that we are still pretty solid defensively although we have made a few individual mistakes in the last two games which haven't helped. We are in a league cup semi-final (which I expect us to lose) and we aren't exactly in the worst position in the league currently. Let's see what January brings..

Drop Wanyama and play who instead? Romeu is a decent player but looks more likely to get sent off than Wanyama and that's saying something. JWP is out of his depth and Clasie still hasn't got used to the pace of the league. Odd thing to suggest.