way down south

I know this is an important game and losing or even drawing this game will look really really bad but, if reed, Stephens and some other youngsters don't get a run out, I struggle to see the difference b/n koeman and puel. there is never a perfect time to blood a youngster IMO and if this was the aim in hiring puel, then you just have to give 'em a chance and see if they take it. hesketh, olumola are also probs ready to step up. the latter might even help us sort out our goals problem in the prem.

Long's Misses will make any sfc fan cry, imagine Austin with those two sitters. problem is Austin wouldn't of been anywhere near those chances had he been on the pitch anyway, and signing a forward to create AND finish those chances would require more ££s than we're willing to shell out, so the answer may lie closer to home. olumola looks to be ready physically, he's huge and quick and maybe a better finisher than shlong, also about the same age as rashford so no reason to think he may too young. I say start him against Sparta and see how he does.

I know! I know! I remember koeman and his massive issues dropping pelle until he had no other choice. all I'm saying is based on what we learned about koeman, I can see him absolutely murdering shlong for losing us a game we could of won, a game against arsenal no less, at their own ground and he goes and misses a one on one and other pretty good chances that most other strikers would of buried.

ffs IMO long's finishing was just as sh*t the chubby ref's decisions. i mean he wasn't exactly clinical before but I think he's actually gotten way worse this season. koeman might've sent a rocket up in there and dropped him from the squad till he sorts his sh*t if he practically lost us a game like that, cause he did lose us the 3 points just as much as the c*nt ref did.

seeing as how arsenal won't sit back and defend like both our home games and even to a degree man u, I think there will be chances aplenty for both sides. just a case of making 'em count, and with the exception of his pace, having to rely on long to finish his chances seems a fools errand. so I hope j rod's up to it and that fonte's head is in the right place for the first time this season. I think these two were the ones LeG alluded to earlier.

I mean You just know what he said when he told him to sign for us. " Liverpool's waiting lad, just show 'em what you could do fer a season or two at soton and then I'll drive ye down there myself. Meantime soton will be grateful for your season or two with them, 'tis all they want."

it can't be racist or stereotypical to suggest facts tho, although not all, most black pro footballers tend to be athletic and powerful, most asians are the opposite. the intelligence part isn't a given for anyone IMO, white, black or Asian. lots of non football intelligent footballers out there who compensate with athleticism, work rate, and pace no matter their race.

Absolutely, this! If we insist that he's good enough for us then we need to be willing to try and get the best out of his limited abilities. I remember watching our game vs man u last season and being astounded by how effective he was playing on the right side and eventually one of his low, whipped in crosses led to pelle scoring. Also speaking of the diamond, I looked at Nice's midfield trio from last season and THEY WERE ALL under 5' 7"!!? I mean WTF Does puel have something against decent sized footballers?! I mean I know you need mobile and technical players for a diamond trio, but do they have to be that small?

I expect us to get two things from this game, one is we'll most likely get beat but we keep it tight and maybe get our first away goal in a 2-1 loss, two, we show moments of brilliance that'll give us a boost to go and thrash the team in our Europa game on Thursday. but being selfish, I'll be hoping that Forster and the whole defence have a stormer of a game, and one of our forwards produce a masterclass to give us the three points. Dreamland!

what's baffling about jwp isn't the fact that he isn't an all rounded footballer like the younger hoj already looks to be, maybe he's a jamie vardyesque late bloomer. will he do the blooming with us? is a question that'll be answered in due time. But what's most frustrating to me is if he can so accurately and perfectly place a ball on a teammate's head from set pieces, why can't he do the same and place it in the top corner on a regular basis? I mean that would've at least given him more value and time on the pitch while he works on anything more that he can offer the team.

I don't think boufal is a puel signing as has been said above, if we have hundreds of players on our watch list and the new manager knows a few players on the list I suppose the get moved up the list so we're likely to sign them. but who the F really knows it might all be bull*cks, and we just sign whoever the manager says we should a la mourinho Woodward.

I think this season will be decent in the eyes of outsiders, but underwhelming in ours. even finishing 10-12th would be a success given the points we'll drop while adjusting to the diamond. but IMO its acceptable if we could surprise ourselves and get Wembley in the cups/ semis or maybe even final of Europa. my hopes are peuls formation works out and suddenly our players enjoy being on the pitch and we start demolishing lesser teams and we get that fear factor back even amongst the big teams, we finish 8-10th and get Wembley in the cups and quarter finals in the Europa. my fears are players turn on puel upon realizing his tactics aren't gonna work and can't get behind him due to him being uninspiring and his non-existant charisma, so we're forced to sack him to save our season and we descend into turmoil and we're forced to hire some fat Sam like dinosaur who's a relegation scrap expert and we finish 2 points above Sunderland who finish 18th.

definitely gonna be a completely different top ten this season, I think if we come good playing the diamond, then 9th-11th owing to the points we'll drop trying to wrap it around our heads. if we ditch the diamond, then top 8 definitely possible depending on injuries and the strain of europa. I don't think either wetspam or Everton have enough juice to finish above us, westbrom, Sunderland (finally) and hull for the drop.

sh\t! there are some uncomfortable similarities b/n puel and van gaal from last few seasons. Both play boring football with no more than a goal in each game coming no sooner than the 80th minute, both are absolutely proud of their "65% possession 20 shots but 1 on target" stats, both shove players in some strange positions (ashley young as a striker), both are utterly oblivious as to what the fans OR the players want, both have no plan b, only thing remaining is will puel leave us in a considerably worse position than we should be?!

feck me that's some good news, highly unlikely they'll be squad players. maybe one squad filler in a cb who can also cover for DM (semedo comes to mind) who is young and wouldn't require to be started every game, and IMO more importantly a hoj style midfielder who actually carries some threat from midfield unlike all our MIDs who are anonymous at best offensively. AND hopefully our "marquee" signing will be a game changing attacker. AM preferably. good times!

guan, k billy, AR-10 and le Goddard, just PLEASE PLEASE answer us this simple question. Is this it for us in the transfer window? I'd imagine its not too risky to give us some hope of incomings or put us out of our misery. a simple yes or no will do it.

saw the game on TV, really hard to judge ourselves with this game. IMO we held our own until a Davis howler, I mean wtf CLOSE THE FOOKIn player down. jeez Rooney had ages to cross I thought puel encouraged pressing, does that not apply around our own effing box. exactly what happened at anfield last season with mane the culprit then. momentary lapses in concentration WILL be punished by the big teams and half decent teams in the pl. anyway classie vs pogba was painful to watch, good to see j rod show some eagerness and bit of pace, maybe start him next time instead of long who BTW doesn't have an ounce of composure in front of goal its ridiculous.

Fingers crossed, if we sign someone IMO it's gonna be someone as good/ better than tadic eg. boufal in which case tadic won't be getting as much game time as he'd want cause we obvs can't play him as a striker or a box to box mid, only spot for him is the tip of the diamond. So having just signed a new deal, we wouldn't want him on the bench so IMHO we have to practically sign another mane. I.e. someone who can play as a right forward, left forward, CF and AM so that he can compete with not only tadic but all the forwards so we don't have to sacrifice tadic to accommodate the new guy. Now that will have to surpass the Osvaldo fee which BTW is some measly coin in today's market.

...maybe the club is holding out the announcement for tonight or tomorrow incase we underwhelm/(god forbid)lose against watford. would serve to numb the pain...

its probably someone that still hasnt been mentioned, the only one we were linked with that we actually signed so far is pied and probs b/c he played for puel at nice and not because of any other solid hint. defo better to be surprised IMO.

Also he was here for Bilbao's friendly, might've stuck around to sign up

I think it maybe muniain, as he's also known for playing as a '10 '

Well, the game was boring, and it looked like our first pre season game and not our 4th, but IMO I don't think the players have a clear idea of what puel wants them to do. I think they'll get it as they play more games together but I'm just scared that it'll cost us points while theyre trying to adjust to the new system, might also result in sh*tty nights away in Europa. Also i think for this system to actually work, puel literally needs a ben arfa, he was THE reason nice were so fantastic last season. Tadic is not it as he cant manouver in thight spaces and turn defenders inside out and create space, redmond possibly but hes better outwide rather than central IMO, so that leaves a new signing who would be our ben arfa. Boufal would be perfect (from his youtube clips) he is extremely similar in style to ben arfa with the close control and eye for goal/pass and taking oppo defenders out of the equation. So I hope to god we get someone in that mould, otherwise this system won't work as well as it did at nice and we're in for disappointment this season.

By the Norwich fans' own admission Redmond was their best player by a mile but I suppose he was too much of a luxury to play him week in week out as Norwich were getting trounced in every game. So the way I see it, he's a good competition/cover for the long awaited shiny new am/striker we're gonna sign any day now. The other signing is probs a backup goalie and I'm fine with it. Although in a perfect world, we also send the clearly not attacking enough Matty to championship and get ourselves a schlupp type LB.

You're right. Then I guess the am is actually a deeper forward also functioning as am