Kanji

I'd sign him as an option off the bench.

Happy we won, didn't expect anything less

And waste away into obscurity.

Where exactly does Loftus-Cheek play? I always see him referenced as an attacking CM, he's more of a #10? Or just an attack minded box to box type guy?

Would love to see a midfield partnership of Shelvey and Delph.

hopefully a comfortable 3 points tomorrow and Monday and get a few good signings in before the following weekend.

Must have missed the part where I said I get it. But whatever, Guidolin should still indeed be manager, but he's not.

Or we could just go on a win streak into next season

He didn't inherit a good situation at all but he also didn't have them showing any kind of improvement. It's a shame because he is a highly-respectable manager and he'll never be given another chance in the country, while complete and utter s*** like Pardew continue getting looks. Media also treated him like absolute s*** when he started and they seemed to be rooting for his failure. American, no PL experience, says the word "soccer", makes fun of his attire. All pretty pathetic tbh. Regarding his performance, he stepped into a terrible situation, surely worked his bollocks off and didn't get it done, so the sacking while harsh, totally get it.

Because Dave was clearly talking about spending like Leeds here.

He should be pushing like hell to make the 3-5 signings in January to solidify promotion, and further add to his competition for places mentality. He's incredibly ruthless and I can only assume based on his successful career thus-far, that he's been working feverishly on diagnosing and implementing solutions to fix the home form and response when conceding and coming back from behind. Thankfully it's not some tosser like we've had in the past taking this task on with getting us back in the PL, it's Rafa Benitez. I'm expecting an angry response this Friday and 3 points from our team - hopefully a performance to get everyone fired up again.

I'd have no issue with Snodgrass only for that he's best suited to play RM, so would force Ritchie out wide left and we'd have 2 non-pacy wingers (although both with good technique and delivery) and Atsu.

Its the hysterical emotive shit that is absolutley appalling. It's childish as fuck.

Agree, and think the same with Lazaar if Ritchie played left side.

Was always going to be difficult to build a defence (and team) that would be willing to play in the Championship that could straight away be slotted into the PL if we go up.

Clark is far from average, but OK.

Thanks, corrected. My points still remain the same.

the frustration itself stems from the 6 losses, 4 of them at home which should have really been wins or draws - we just haven't played with the same intensity or plan as we do away from home. Our away form / points return is f***ing brilliant like - 2 loss and 1 draw and the rest wins. Rafa has absolutely turned that around, we play with far more purpose and better management of the match in those matches. Home form is correctable, we're about around the New Year and we've got to fix it via signings, quality ones who are going to start. We should be mitigating the losses via the world class management of Rafa, is what I'm assuming most of the gripes are with people on here, and I 100% agree with that. Matches we've lost, I've felt he's not set us up right to win, and instead played it safe or relied / trusted players who have let him down (see: Sels, Colback, Mbemba, Perez, etc.) and a simple mistake has been costly. Rafa's world class management should have us comfortably (even if not exciting) beating these teams we've lost to BUT that's where I say the quality of the players we have in our squad is still lacking and unable to execute his plans. It's on him to fix that via signings, tactics at home, and steadying the very unbalanced and emotive fan base we have

Aye there isn't that much pace in the typical first XI and very few people who can beat a man. Shelvey can bob around players - Hayden and Diame too, albeit only very occasionally in their case. Gayle has pace but he's average when it comes to dribbling, and whatever speed he has is mostly wasted in games like last night. Would like to see Yedlin get a couple of starts, certainly at home. If we're definitely going to finish top of the league, we need: / A winger who is faster than Ritchie/Gouffran and as much of a goal threat. / A centre-mid who's better than Hayden, but not necessarily better than Shelvey. / A striker who has more talent than Murphy and whose face fits better than Mitrovic. Big ask for January, like. I doubt we'll get all of the above. Considering the amount of changes necessary in the summer, our recruitment was pretty remarkable, so I think anyone would be mad to beat Rafa with a signings-shaped stick. It obviously wasn't going to be perfect because we needed to build an entirely new squad. We are still comfortably above the play-offs like. Think there's a few people here who still think we should be pissing it purely based on evidence of our last sojourn down here. Pretty much agree with you on everything you've written. I think we can definitely sign the players we need if Rafa presses for them and we pay the price (it could be a premium given January). Our team was ruthless last time and some of our opposition last time were absolutely horrendous. No surprise Brighton is doing so well given they were so strong last season and fell off at the end, and their manager truly does have first hand experience in winning this league. But ah well.

He's an excellent shot stopper, massively improved - he has some excellent reflex saves as well. Happy to see good coaching helping him.

Genuinely think if we sign a proper LW, A CM and better #10 we're fixing the issues we currently have in the inconsistent wing play (this assumes Atsu and Ritchie get their act together), better experienced partner for shelvey (and hopefully ends the over-reliance on him), and our often weak link #10. Rafa needs to play Yedlin more RB and get Lazaar on the pitch to play LB.

Was 10 but prob a hard 3 now.

Glad you're still in the brilliant mood from yesterday young man

Of course you do Nees.

Love that Dokko's avatar is Rafa too