FriendlySaint

That's down to the manager's instructions. The players are following orders

No bad at all. Pilchards needs to be quiet and stop making out that he's played 90 minutes 17 times. His comment is deliberately misleading

Idiots blaming the strikers need to realise whoever plays up front gets no service. We have no goals from midfield and no creativity either . We need a creative central midfielder or one that scores a lot of goals. Ideally we need one that's creative and one that's a goalscorer

Guly He did alright for us in the championship obviously. Crap is harsh Jermaine Wright

It's surprising people exist that are stupid enough to up sticks and switch clubs like this without doing any research about the club they are joining and the manager. He's shown himself to be stupid with that comment

it has to be said 4231 with 2 anchor midfielders (not permently sat back, license to press and get forwards when they have the opportunity), full backs bombing forward and a high pressing game through out the team is my method of choice. With Chile style 3 at the back high press being my second choice. Dare I say it Pochettino would be ideal with the two system's he plays at Spurs, but that's obvious and he's obviously not an option. I do feel though any half decent manager would be playing 4231 with our players and reverting to a back three when they saw fit . Puel's style isn't getting the most out the players and I think some of them don't believe in the system and simply don't believe they can get a result with it. They way I see it is the players are all handicapped by the awful system. The style we played undee Pochettino I never went home questioning the commitment of the players, for me it's a matter of the system not allowing the players to fully express themselves with and without the ball. They are effectively playing with a crutch and it's a terrible situation for a pro to find themselves in in a public environment where they are open to great scrutiny. They are effectively being shown up due to the managers tactics, thought it has to be Said many of them aren't playing and performing up to scratch regardless. That being said Puel's poor man management and tactics has clearly got in the head of the players in a bad way, it's effecting them negatively A big issue I have with Puel is picking the system and tactics and then trying to jam the players into it. You should be looking at the players available , playing all the players in their preferred roles and the system that suits them best on a given day. Puel is inflexible, arrogant and stupid sticking to a system the players don't like

Another one that lets past performance cloud judgement.Long worked his socks off. He was shoved wide left second half and out of position there. He was the only player that looked like scoring all game and a good goal. Utterly woeful? **** off He got no service either and Rodriguez got none either other than the difficult left foot chance near the end

We need to drop Forster. He can't make a save. You can't keep picking a keeper that saves nothing and sits at the bottom of the saving percentage charts

Thoughts: Long looked sharp all game. It was a big mistake to move him to the left wing in the second half, he offers nothing from there against a team parking the bus. We moved the ball far too slowly and too tentatively Thought Forster should have kept the second goal out , but need to see it again. Looked like he got a big hand on it. He needs to save some shots.. He's literally saving nothing at the moment. If he gets a big hand to something it ought to be getting kept out considering the distance of the shot. I need to see a replay Stupid for us to fall asleep after Long's goal. They were so difficult to break down first half and immediately threw away the advantage. Very dumb Thought Phillips was brilliant going forward and in defence for them. Robson-Kanu had a very good game too. They did well as a unit Only Long had a good game for us, he worked very hard and it's a shame he got shoved on the left when Rodriguez came on. The rest of them weren't good enough . Rodriguez got basically no service and had a difficult chance he probably should have done better with..but wasn't given enough service. Boufal was ok I thought Van Dijk looked complacent and dozy today. For me his second yellow wasn't a foul.

Brunt is a good option for them at left back . It was a good tactical change as it gave them more pace on the break with McCLean. No doubt Nyom was on thin ice and that influenced his decision possibly, but you need to grow up and look at things objectively.

Never a yellow. Long accelerated very quickly and came from behind him. That would have been ridiculous to send him off for it. In the last game Redmond made a blatant last man foul outside the box and it should have been free kick and red card. Some of you need to either stop lying to yourselves or learn how to referee. You also need to put yourselves in the shoes of the individual players and what they are thinking. Long nipped in to get the ball just in front of Nyom and Nyom couldn't see him coming. Long accelerated very quickly. A second yellow card wouldn't have been harsh, it would have been wrong and ridiculous.

Linked with a few sides and six months on his contract. http://www.90min.com/posts/4308815-barnsley-captain-conor-hourihane-being-closely-monitored-by-celtic-rangers-and-aston-villa

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/134172/Show/Conor-Hourihane Looks a good option to me. Central midfielder that's good with and without the ball. Good end product. Very good set piece taker. Set pieces are an area we are struggling. We only have three set piece goals in the league. He's the highest rated Championship player on whoscored

I agree that Romeu is better in this system.

Alderweireld is no where near as good. Most ****ing neutrals don't watch anyone but their own team. They form their opinion on the press and the media only. Van Dijk will rocket in popularity of neutrals after carragher and Neville put them in their team of the season so far. The exact same thing happened with Alderweireld... And Fonte...

Boateng is very weak in the air and in general compared to VVD, despite Boateng's size he doesn't make much use of it. He's massively over-rated. Ramos is comparable, but he's a different type of CB. I put VVD above him because of his strength and aerial ability. I should be noted though that Ramos has more strength and aerial presence than Boateng. Ramos is better than Boateng, cannot believe Boateng is being held in the same regard as Ramos.. But he seems to be. Pique is very good, but lacks pace and physicality compared to VVD for me. Bonucci is the best CB is the world for me in a back three, but VVD for me in a back four

It depends if he left on good terms or not If he did then hopefully we go in for him and try to sign him. Happy to pay anything up to about 14 million. Depends on his wages also The reason I only say 14 is the system And the fact we already have Romeu and back up for dm's

Would have a dig at Koeman, but understandable expression and body language considering the timing of the goal and the fact that his team showed great commitment in the first half. Mane smiles quite a lot. Take it you haven't seen many interviews and off the pitch stuff with him in

I've always tended to pick my team under other manager's. And at the start of Puel's reign. But his rotation policy is working so well now (7pts in 3 league games) that I'll leave the team up to him. The only thing I will say is that Rodriguez must start for us.

Don't think we will either unless someone bids over 60 million considering the length of his contract. I wouldn't sell him for under 70. His contract was a huge six year deal until May 2022. Mane would have cost 60 million on a similar contract

They won't be getting a centre back as good as van Dijk then, because centre backs better than van Dijk don't exist. Start naming them

Who is a better all-round centre back than Van Dijk in a back four? Can you name one? I watch a hell of a lot of champions league and European games, big clubs in other leagues and have done for years. There isn't a better centre back that Van Dijk, he won't go for under 50million A good example is how VVD's making Alderweireld not look close to as good as he once did in the PL. VVD is now considered the best CB in the league, loads of games this season he's stood out massively for us from CB. He's a monster. And VVD's physicality in terms of height, strength and aerial ability/presence is huge compared to Alderweireld. He's faster too and a winner and a leader. He has everything, the complete CB

Who? We have Yoshida and Gardos who are good enough for this level. I believe Gardos is back from injury now and obviously fourth choice. He's shown he's good enough for us before. In the mean time we have Van Dijk plus one of Fonte and Yoshida as centre backs. Realistically we are going to have to wait until we've off-loaded a centre back before signing one. There isn't really a viable option out there we can realistically sign that would get game time before the summer. The club seem to have decided Harrison Reed will be defensive midfield back up long term. We have a good squad to be honest, I like the depth of it. We've got decent back up everywhere and it explains our cup run and league position. I'm looking at us and in every defensive position we've got good back up and rotation options. Same for defensive and central midfield, same for both wings and striker. Very good position to be in. I think it will be very very interesting how the second half of the season goes. Last few seasons we've tended to drop off and struggle towards the back end of the season. Due to lack of rotation and constantly picking the same eleven. This season we have rotated massively. As a result despite Europe and a great league cup run the players are looking very sharp. Puel has handled the squad very very well. I'm really struggling to find a position we can realistically strengthen without spending silly money on an attacker. Which would be a gamble. Firstly the player might struggle and not be a success. And with us being loaded with attackers , it might create unrest in the squad as a result of frustration for one or two big name attackers in our squad. The one that is at the front for me is a goalscoring central midfielder, or someone that can make the team tick like Davis did against Bournemotuh..but do it better than Davis. These players are like gold dust though. We need to appreciate we have plenty of internationals. Steven Davis for example is proven on the international stage. I feel like what we don't need to do is replace Davis by any means, we need another Davis type player to rotate with him. If Davis was at his best, or just completely fresh, every game for us we would be a nightmare to play. We need 2 of him to rotate..it begs the question which players are similar to Davis that play in the same mould? And who is better than plays in the same mould? Who is out there that scores often from central midfield...that can defend? They are so rare I can't think of a goalscoring central midfielder (that has defensive IQ) for us to sign, signing a Davis type player is going to be a much easier and safer job probably People think we are weak at right back, or it's been claimed in the past. But who is actually without a question better than Cedric/Martina in rotation? There aren't many right backs better at all, loads are on their level... But the ones better (very very few out there are better. Cedric is a euros winner, yet Martina seems to be on his level. Yoshida has kept Fonte out the side. It's a reflection of how solid Yoshida and Martina are now.) aren't realistic options for us..we've realistically hit the ceiling with our entire side and squad we scout a hidden gem. We are so stacked though in every position I don't know which position we are going to attempt to sign a player in. I think if we don't sell anyone we won't sign anyone in January, our squad is too strong

I wonder how much Van Dijk is on per week? A six-year contract was signed in May. Technically he's under contract until May 2022. It's very rare you see a contract of that length. I can't see us selling for a penny under 50 million. I actually think we ought to be holding out for 60 million+ considering the contract situation and that there isn't a better central defender out there. Genuinely think no central defender in the world is better than him.

No. just came from a stupid post of yours and now a stupid thread. We need Long to rotate with rodriguez and to be back up for Rodriguez. Football is a squad game I've got you comparing Mane and Rodriguez on another thread saying Rodriguez has 9 apps.... yeah 9 apps consisting of 320 total mins... the equivalent of 3 full games and 50 mins....using appearances to compare Mane and Rodriguez is ridiculously vague, this here is even stupider