Dusic

Suprised no Tadic as he is calm on the ball and personally would always play Davis in our midfield. But not sure Fonte can have too many complaints given his apparent desire to leave.

And are at home. Its really poor scheduling and will have a say in the result most likely.

Also weird to have such a long spell without a game and then play Wed, Sat, Mon. Will have to pick 10 different players for the Saturday game you would imagine as a one day gap between WBA and Everton is surely not doable.

Rashford being mentioned as a serious suggestion? FFS.

Its more than just another game, especially if you are a Dorset based Saints fan. If we don't match their intensity we will lose and they will be treating this as being a derby, so Puel should prepare our players for that regardless of what some fans think.

Its the Daily Star.

Exactly.

Cedric is a soft ****.

Romeu misses Bmth then.

You don't have to have posted anywhere for long to realise continually calling anyone a c_unt hardly makes something post of the year. Easy to do behind anonymity and as this poster seems to do it quite a lot.

Really? Seems a bit bedroom general to me. Its easy to go round calling everyone on the internet c_unts

AlWAYS_SFC is in his fifties FFS.

Have a friend who is a Blackburn STH. Said Gallagher has been excellent for them, much better than expected and is a key player. Also said he doesn't think he is near PL level at this stage and is quite raw. Makes no sense to recall him. He is developing all the time, he wouldn't be a regular starter for us.

Puel: "Mercato is mercato". He is clearly being cagey rather than letting everyone know our plans. Of course we will bring in a striker. Also why does anyone seriously mention Sturridge as a viable option? He isn't, for a series of reasons.

For me this area is key to our attacking issue this season, largely because there is often no balance. Biggest problem is that many of the players are very similar attribute wise. We lack anyone who is either a powerful runner, can beat a man or who naturally makes runs into the box and can occassionally finish. IMO our best performances have been with Romeu behind Davis and Hojbjerg (like WH away) as I think this covers the most attrubutes and gives a little more creative passing and movement in this area. Davis is the most creative of our CMs and links the midfield to the attack neatly even if he is not often a direct goal threat. Clasie and JWP are both decent players but when paired together with Romeu it is a very slow and static midfield when we have the ball as shown yesterday. The one time JWP turned on the ball when receiving a pass he slipped it to Boufal and we scored. His biggest errors yesterday was when lazily playing back when he could have turned. Its about picking the right option. We don't have a naturally attacking player in there like a Fer, Dembele, Cazorla, Lallana who all play in the central midfield three, but we definitely have some combinations that work better than others. Hopefully a reduced need for rotation as the season goes on will help to find the best combination.

All of our central midfielders are far too similar. The one time JWP actually turned when receiving a pass he then passed to Boufal for the goal. Every other time it was safety first without checking if there was a forward option.

Someone the Manager rates and trusts (he is obviously not sure on Long). A player with better movement than Austin, better technique/composure than Long and more confidence than Jay Rod. Probably no such player exists on loan. Hopefully we get someone for the long term though rather than a stop gap. Austin isnt what we need as a first choice striker anyway. Good season for someone to settle in as pressure will be off most likely from Feb onwards.

Lets just hope for a goal. Although we really need Long to start scoring otherwise he is a big problem on big money for another 3 and a half seasons.

Even ALWAYS_SFC hasn't said he likes it so that is telling. It was ok and a lot more genuine when Long was singing it but its woeful now.

That loan will need to be effective because without Austin's goals we would be bottom 3. Can look as tidy on the ball or have 60% possession every game but without goals we won't get many points and nobody else has scores more than 2 after nearly half the season. Quite worrying. Rotation tomorrow was expected. Martina, McQueen, Fonte, Clasie, JWP, Boufal, Tadic will likely all start.

I doubt we will sign a key player in January. Only business IMO would be a CB if Fonte goes.

Have we even scored a good goal in the league this season? i.e a non opposition gift, tap in etc. Maybe Austin at West Ham is the best unless I have forgotten one?

You only do that for one reason, like Koeman and Fonte.

Same as virtually ever other game: a good defence and midfield but dire final third. We didn't score in 3/6 group games and probably havent scored in half our games over the season. That is what cost us in this group and has been the biggest **** of the season: we have no threat going forward whatsoever.

IMO the answer will never be Long and Austin playing together because for one we don't play with two central strikers and neither can do a job out wide and secondly because neither have very good technique to keep the ball and assist others, which goes against the whole way Puel wants to play. To me the answer is that Austin whilst being an effective goalscorer does hamper out attacking play to an extent with his lack of movement or creativity (he is effectively a box player). Long term solution is the signing of a striker with a more allround game, all of the ones we currently have each possess some big upsides but also equally big weaknesses - the type that will always be in their game rather than things you can improve.