saintwbu

The first half should give us all hope that our team is good enough to survive, easily. The second half should confirm to us that it won’t if this manager remains in charge. not a chance.

Burnley aren’t a side i’d have down as creating a great deal of chances, they don’t try to, and it works. Everton have just gone two or three games without a shot on target haven’t they? So a bit of a skewed stat. The Watford one is a surprise, mind. But we definitely don’t create anywhere near enough, last season I felt like we could blame a goalless game on a player missing a sitter most weeks. This season we don’t even miss.

Barkley's price will also probably double as soon as he signs that contract too, so good business really.

Exactly. We don't necessarily need a prolific goalscorer, as long as he can bring goals out of everybody else, like Pelle and Lambert always used to. On Tuesday against Palace we got desperate and started lumping it long, but had absolutely no aerial presence so it was a waste of time. Our goal struggles the last two seasons have been our only two seasons in this era without a big front man, it's not a coincidence.

Both

Both absolutely **** sides, will be a crime if we come below either of them

Thought JWP was very good yesterday, always looking for the ball and keeping us moving. His pass for Long’s shot was something we’ve lacked all season, a midfielder spotting a run early and picking out the right pass rather than dithering.

Targett, having actually played well the last two games, is dropped for McQueen, a make shift left back who hasn’t started a game all season. It’s all good fun.

I get the impression he is a nice lad, I just think he's a bottler, and that then transfers into blaming others when things don't go right. Maybe psychologically he's just not cut out for top level football and will never fulfil the potential that he must have.

Against Huddersfield we managed to break from their corner's 3 or 4 times in the second half, but our lack of pace just meant we slowed everything down and allowed them to get back into position and then we're left passing it round in their half looking for a gap that we never find. Teams don't fear us on the counter attack. Walcott would bring exactly what we need, pure pace and directness. He is of course not all we need, I too would love Giroud like most on here, he's fantastic and again would be a great alternative for us, but Walcott would be a great signing in my opinion. I also think it'd bring a big lift to everyone, not just because it's Theo, but because it'd signal a different approach from the club by signing a player for now rather than for what he'll be worth in two years. Get him in!!

Had no idea he was Giles Barnes’ brother

Stephens has been playing RB, he’s good enough at CB. I’d be worried about sticking with only those three due to our tendency to go with 3 CB’s against the big sides. One of those gets injured and we’re in the same predicament as last year as Bednarek and Gardos aren’t up to it. We definitely need a defender of some sort I think, all of our positions in the back line look a bit weak after an injury.

We need a player to replace Redmond, a player to replace Tadic and a player to replace Forster. It really shouldn’t be that hard to do. I personally think Gabbi is good enough to be our man up top, it’s the players behind him that waste his ability. However I would love a Lambert/Pelle type back because we’ve never been the same without it.

Forgot about Giroud! Big Sam said this week that he didn’t go to Everton because his wife didn’t want him moving up north. With the money we’ve just got we should easily be able to get him here and have plenty left over for two good wingers and a keeper. Edit: But we won’t, obviously

Is there anyone who thinks that he is? Always assumed everyone was in agreement he’s a massive, massive **** and Dani Osvaldo should’ve done him in properly.

Wish we’d have gone for Traore from Chelsea before Lyon got him, exactly what we’ve been missing since Mane left. Presume he wouldn’t leave Lyon this early.

Could tell at the time from where i was say that he’d purposely left one on him. It was a toe, not particularly forceful, should’ve been a red card and should be a 3 game ban. People getting well carried away as per, heard it called a ‘stamp’ multiple times yesterday, not even close and no worse than an elbow to the head that would only get 3 games.

He knew what he was signing up to, no sympathy whatsoever. He's even supposedly great mates with a former manager! He had a better insight than most! And yes, I realise there was slightly different dynamics when Poch was here but it's essentially the same setup, although we now have big bad Eric Black and his mysterious curse where nobody knows what he does but for some reason still blames every goal we concede on him. Weird.

Surprised he isn't being blamed for last night's absolute shower of ****. Play him instead of Tadic on the right, let him whip the ball in to Austin all day long.

Austin to be dropped for not scoring for a whole 90 minutes, Tadic to start despite not doing anything of note for what feels like a whole 90 games. Respectable defeat, just like vs. United and City. Draws praise but inevitably worthless. 2-1, late winner.

There's no doubt we have some severe weaknesses in our squad, it's glaringly obvious to most, so yes the players are primarily the issue. But it is a manager's job to get the best out of the players he has available to him. Puel got way more out of a more limited squad with long injuries to key players and way more games, hence why I was completely against his sacking. The squad absolutely is a huge problem, but Pellegrino isn't getting anywhere near as much out of it as he should be able to, he has to go.

He picks his lineups out of a hat, the bloke hasn’t got a ****ing clue

Someone please come on here and tell us this is better than under Puel, please please please. I need some laughs.

You know creativity isn’t just measured in shots on target, right? Austin’s header and Boufal’s wild shot were two of the games best chances and neither were on target.

Whilst I have been crying out for Tadic to be dropped all season, he tends to always play very well against Arsenal if I remember rightly, so would probably play him. Absolutely have to play Boufal too, a nice team who like to overplay is the sort of side he could thrive against, tore them apart at the Emirates in the cup last season.