Adkins' Bus

McCarthy Cedric Yoshida Hoedt Bertrand Sims Hojbjerg Lemina Tadic Long Gabbi

I agree that 1 of the strikers needs to drop in which pretty much makes it a 4-2-3-1 anyway! It shows how stupid it is to get too hung up on formations. It all depends on the types of players you have and what freedom they are given to get forward. If we are going to play with 2 players that are naturally strikers then I think one of them needs to be long and we need to instruct him to play in a role similar to how okazaki does at Leicester. He drops in when defending and makes good use of his high work rate.

WTF?! It wasn't even a challenge worth getting upset about, barely even a foul. Bizzare.

The clown set the tone from the outset with his team selection. It killed my optimism for the game as I'm sure it did others. This didn't help the atmosphere at all. I feel the crowd would have got behind a more attacking line up and made a good atmosphere but it was flat from the get go. I don't know how he can justify lemina being on the bench at the expense of davis. Baffling. I am not sure why tadic going off was cheered. I felt him and ward prowse were our best chance of creating something. We brought Carrillo on and essentially cut his supply at the same time. I was very disappointed with boufal last night, so little urgency from him and again ineffective from wide. I think we have to stick with tadic and jwp wide. If we use boufal then let's try him through the middle. Quickly losing hope now.

Awful line-up. Davis and jwp in same team and 2 most talented players on bench. The only positive I can take from it is surely it means tadic on the left

I also can't justify it now. Monthly price has doubled without the 6 month and yearly options and I don't want to get involved with Bitcoin. Anyone got any decent alternatives that work on kodi/spmc and browser? Don't mind paying £5/£6 a month and for a VPN.

It might just be my foggy memory but I seem to remember his initial run coinciding with Tadic playing directly behind him and Ward-Prowse playing right hand side. We seemed to be looking for him early with both crosses and through balls. Tadic then reverted to right wing, slowing things down out wide and JWP to the middle, therefore no early through balls.

You might be on to something with this! Seriously though, trying him out further forward could be interesting as per the thought process around this guy... http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41644367

What I think it will be: Forster Cedric Yoshida VVD Bertrand Romeu Lemina Tadic Davis Boufal Gabbiadini What I would like it to be: McCarthy Stephens Yoshida Hoedt Cedric Romeu Lemina McQueen Boufal Long Gabbiadini

Probably because we were forced in to selling Mane, Wanyama earlier than we might have wanted to in order to maximise the sale price. In reality the ideal is probably somewhere in between. We perhaps need to be a little more careful about who we give the long contracts to. For example, were Forster, Long, JWP, Davis really deserving of long contract extensions? The long contracts only work in our favour when it comes to players that are in high demand, ie. VVD, Bertrand, Cedric.

We have got to change things up for this one. The current system is not working. Forster Cedric Yoshida VVD Hoedt Bertrand Romeu Lemina Redmond Gabbi Long

Was concerned when I saw the line up with JWP and Davis in the side, it never ends well. And with Romeu also out of sorts it resulted in complete disaster. I cant remember seeing such an inept central midfield display. Watford just waltzed through the middle of the pitch time and time again. We were out muscled, out paced and out fought all over the park. I expected at a minimum Lamina to come on at half time but tadic for jwp didn't address the issue at all, suggesting that the manager couldn't see what was happening. That is most concerning. Have to hope he watches it back and has a plan to address the issues.

That is a pretty laughable analysis. Gives a few teams a poor grade because he has never heard of the players they have signed He praises West Broms signings individually apart from Krychowiak (probably their best one), again probably because he has never heard of him! Absolutely stealing a living as a pundit!

Very happy with the window. Addressing CB and DM were almost unanimously the key areas identified by fans and it's comforting that the club had the same ideas. We also kept our best players so its got to be an 8/10! A good attacking midfielder would have been the icing on the cake but it is easier said than done. We already probably have 6 players competing for 3 spots behind Gabbiadini, 2 of which were only signed last season so we need to persevere with them and show some loyalty - it should work both ways. I believe we have enough talent here, it is just a case of finding the right balance and players finding some form. We need to mix it up a bit to show Tadic and Redmond that their spots aren't guaranteed and also to show Boufal/Long/JWP that they will get sufficient opportunity to make an impact.

Forster Cedric Yoshida Hoedt Bertrand Romeu Lemina JWP/Davis Boufal Redmond Gabbiadini Tadic has been poor for quite some time yet seems to be immune from being dropped or subbed. It is time to give Boufal a run of games and in a position where he can be more involved and will have to play on instinct a bit more. We can't write him off before he has had a decent run in the side.

This is the case for most clubs and is just a result of both the buying and selling clubs trying to drive a hard bargain. The same thing will still happen, the last week or two of the window will be the busiest whenever the deadline is. All the same deals will still get done. You could probably just have the window open for a month and the same deals would all still get done.

Yep, reassuring. If nothing else he should add some mobility and power to our midfield which is exactly what we need.

We have such a lack of mobility and strength in central midfield, everyone has been able to see it for ages, it is amazing that the club don't seem to. We just chase shadows in this area of the pitch and are so easy to bypass. It is also why we can't execute an effective press and probably why Puel didn't bother trying.

Excellent summary of our main issues. I particularly noticed the stopping to moan last night rather than trying to win the ball back straight away. J Rod, Tadic, Redmond and Boufal were all guilty of this. J Rod in particular turned his back on the play and when Utd passed it out from the back the ball must have almost clipped his heel. Poor attitude seemed to be confined to one or two players in recent seasons which is manageable but it now seems to be growing amongst the squad which is a big worry. This is certainly something that is the managers job to keep a cap on.

Lots of people suggesting Pickford. I am still not totally convinced by him. He makes some good looking saves but does tend to parry quite a few back in to the danger area. And many a keeper has looked good when playing for the worst team in the league - lots of shots against them. Sigurdsson would obviously be great, but out of our reach I'd have thought. I like the look of Maguire.

Thought we looked more solid defensively with 2 more defensive midfielders screening today. I like Davis but don't think he suits that role. If we are going to carry on with this formation it should be Romeu plus either hojbjerg or clasie.

Absolutely spot on....as usual.

...and davis can????!

I have been ridiculed by friends for years for daring to criticise Steven Davis. I do like him as a player, he is skillful, clever, neat and tidy....BUT....he has been shown to not have enough defensive nous to play in a holding role and often holds us back if playing as the most advanced of the midfielders, due to his appalling shooting ability and play safe mentality. For years I have said play him as the third CM against the tougher teams but when trying to break down WBA/Stoke/Sunderland etc, he just doesn't give us enough in an attacking sense. However, at the moment he is still probably our second best midfielder. Although personally I would play Hojbjerg ahead of him to give us a bit more of a physical presence.

This is a very fair assessment of the game