The9

I disagree, second half we didn't come out with the same effort and purpose, which is why Brighton (who never stopped running even when we were all over them) got on top.

Beats my image of last season which is whichever two of Lemina/Hojbjerg/Romeu who were playing being 10 yards the wrong side of every opposing midfielder they played against whenever we didn't have the ball, providing no cover for the defence at all.

He looks absolutely fine to me, even the best CBs can't get to every cross, and I don't think he's looked in trouble on the deck with or without the ball. I can't in all conscience proclaim any defensive partnership featuring Yoshida to be anything other than a lower midtable stopgap, no matter how he's improved, but I think he's less likely to cost us points than Hoedt. Shame Bednarek isn't left sided (though he does have a weakness or two he's had less chance to show himself up and is therefore better by default).

Strange choice when there were clappers for showing support...

Van Dijk underperformed because he wanted to be somewhere else. Mane's performance level was fine in his last season, even considering that. Lemina seems hugely overrated to me based on every performance since the LAST time we played Palace, and Ward-Prowse is at exactly the level he should be and wouldn't be any better anywhere else - though I do think putting him back in CM with a more defensive role would improve his impact on the team. The fact everyone worked out how to play against our system after 2 years doesn't help, and that was 2 years ago. If you'd put Forster, Bertrand and Romeu on the list I'd say it was more accurate of current levels as all of them have been better. The others (e.g. Lemina, Hojbjerg, Redmond, Cedric, Gabbiadini) have all been better on occasion but their form has always fluctuated. The policy of signing flawed players in the hope we can mask their deficiencies isn't working as well as it did when we also used to sign excellent players who just needed matches to increase their value.

I guess it is when you have 4 keepers over the age of 21. We could leave Rose out, but he's probably more likely to feature (even if it's on the bench) than Marcus Barnes is before January.

I think you underestimate the speed of delivery of set pieces in the Premier League. Even playing parks level a drilled corner gives the keeper practically no time to react, with Prem players capable of higher ball speed with dip and swerve the keeper's not coming (and leaving the goal open) unless he is absolutely certain he'll get the ball.

No. You're thinking of DOGSOs, yellow card instead of red if a penalty is conceded (and there is a genuine attempt to play the ball). As there was no "obvious goalscoring opportunity", or indeed much semblance of a foul at all, don't get me started, it wasn't a card of any kind.

Premier League Squad List 2018/19 is hyorrr: https://pulse-static-files.s3.amazonaws.com/premierleague/document/2018/09/03/517a6a46-4b7b-4c21-b172-fef438d72359/Premier-League-Squad-Lists-September-2018.pdf and shows our 25 man squad as: 1 Cedric 2 Stuart Armstrong 3 Charlie Austin 4 Jan Bednarek 5 Ryan Bertrand 6 Steven Davis 7 Mohamed El Younoussi 8 Fraser Forster 9 Manolo Gabbiadini 10 Sam Gallagher 11 Angus Gunn 12 Wesley Hoedt 13 Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg 14 Danny Ings 15 Mario Lemina 16 Shane Long 17 Alex McCarthy 18 Nathan Redmond 19 Jack Rose 20 Jack Stephens 21 Matt Targett 22 Jannik Vestergaard 23 Oriol Romeu 24 James Ward-Prowse 25 Maya Yoshida So no Marcus Barnes, who also isn't listed in the 51 U21s listed either.

It was more than a few, and I can't say I'm surprised given that the allegation was clearly pure fantasy to begin with, though not quite sure why our fans would be bothered. They'd have been miles better off singing about how much his breath stinks though. "We can smell your breath from here" would have been much more appropriate.

Bog standard "bottom 13" match tbh.

Blimey.

Nope. Neither of those sides were going for it like Brighton were trying to yesterday first half and we gave them nothing.

Apart from last season?

I think we'll finish somewhere between 10th and 13th. 5/10.

He's been bang average so far, even if he did apparently have the most completed crosses in the Premier League this season before this weekend. Probably our worst player in an excellent first half yesterday in that he didn't really do anything of note.

Yup. Brighton had one touch within our box in the entire half. We were completely dominant in a half when Brighton were flat out as well and they got nothing. By the time we scored the second, however, the game was a lot more even, arguably our penalty was against the run of play. All about players being able to maintain their levels of motivation and effort, and this lot keep showing they just can't do it over 90 minutes.

Crystal Palace were hardly "clever" in realising a manager that lost every match and without scoring a goal was probably not going to do well for them. Hughes' record is a bit more nuanced. I feel I should also point out that we're 13th, and would be 10th if not for a dodgy injury time penalty. Which is significantly better than when he took over last season.

We were better in the first half yesterday than we were at any point of last season, so that's a positive. I should point out that we've reverted back to basically the Les Formation (with a minor tweak in where Ings plays) from his preferred formation though, which pretty much answers all of my questions about who's running the set up and will the manager be allowed to do things his way.

£15 for the sharing nachos looked like a right laugh too. Their problem is that if they make it decent they'll have 25,000 trying to get in.

It's a blessing until about October, by which time your advantage of playing early competitive games is swallowed up by your team being knackered before everyone else's. Also Burnley played two more games than we did in qualifying.

Yeesh our xG against is high compared to the glory days of 6th and 7th. We're allowing far too many shots nowadays, really miss Wanyama and Schneiderlin's presence, the number of times I see Lemina and Hojbjerg wrong side chasing back compared to those two...

Mane was involved in everything from the start and only helmets decided he was no good based on missing a sitter at Spurs (when he couldn't even see the ball). I seem to recall "worst player ever" getting an outing. If only, we'd have about 40 league titles. As for Tadic, didn't he set up Clyne's goal in his first match up at Liverpool under Koeman? Not to mention that our stats for his first 14 matches with the club were Won 11 Drawn 1 Lost 2... Mane was involved in quite a few of those too.

Not me guv, their recruitment policy always seems to be based on the players they can get that their fans might be impressed by, rather than any kind of squad-building.

This is the first time I've even seen it, which tells you how often I come on here nowadays.