The College Dropout

I think it's often better for teams not to have one outstanding individual like that at international level. Over-dependance, others pass on responsibility.

The only defence of the lad is that I think it's difficult being a winger under Rafa. In his time at Liverpool, the best wingers he had were Kuyt, Ryan Babbel and Luis Garcia.

Wolves seem to be run tremendously top to bottom. Wolves have also mostly acquired players and training staff from Spain and Portugal which I think helped them settle down quicker.

Mbabu looks a player. Disappointing we had 3 managers that didn’t see his potential. He always looked good when he played as well. Looks a league above Yedlin imo.

Has he captained them a few times - Davies and Everton? Seen them a few times and he hasn't really impressed me but i think that's down to his style more than anything.

Dummett is an ugly footballer. Looks to have a relatively poor touch and passing range, uncomfortable dribbler. So obviously he has detractors. Despite all of these flaws, I think he's been our best fullback since Debuchy. Manquillo's a pretty good footballer and much better technically than Dummett but he just can't defend well. Santon was a classy footballer, you would think he would do an ok job at central midfield technically. But the lad was just culpable for so many goals conceded, likewise Janmaat. You can't have a possession, highly technical based game with a Paul Dummett but we haven't been that for a very long time. And we have bigger problems with the squad.

Ranieri knows how to organise a defence like. He’ll be given money too.

Well no, the reason its not remarkable is because we’ve won two games out of twelve and we’re in 14th. Wage bill is the best indicator of success in football Probably trophies and points tbh, but churlishness aside, if you're comfortable with including a football business outlier like NUFC in what stat indicates what, which I wouldn't be, our wage bill's neither significantly higher than our relegation rivals, nor does it make up for the massive deficit in transfer spending between other clubs and us. I shouldn't have bothered mentioning wage bill, although it is the biggest financial indicator of where you will finish. My main point is that its not remarkable if we stay up considering we are currently in 14th when we've got 9 points from 12 games Like spurs? That's an anomaly. They're the best run club in the division. He's right, wages are the best indication of where a club will finish more or less. But wages + transfer we'll be bottom 5. And more importantly, we haven't improved. Some of our wages will be going on the likes of Jack Colback.

West Ham don't need him though but I guess Yarmalenko has a big injury. But they really need dynamism.

Fucking hell. They just can't seem to help themselves. £80k a week FFS. Out of contract 31 year old currently serving a ban for doping. So West Ham I'd have him here in a heartbeat. Perez 9 or the bench. £80k isn't a mad amount of money either in the PL. Shelvey will be on similar.

Agree to a point. I actually think it's very difficult to find defenders that are good at the basics 98% of the time. Marking, heading, pushing up etc. think the key to the bold bit is that you have to be coaching them well to achieve this, pardew coached a defensively minded setup and we were a fucking shambles also at this sort of level rafa is making it very clear that one of them being able to play with the ball at his feet as well is paramount And my point is a lot of basic defending is difficult to coach. There were times Colo would only win 40% of his aerial duals. It's hard to defend with performances like that. We've had defenders terrible at some basic aspects of defending for a long time at this club from Janmaat, Santon, Willo, Colo at times etc. Although I agree, Rafa is tremendous at organising a defence. The rest of the teams down at the bottom - are just defensive. Even Burnley and Brighton depend a lot on "will and desire" rather than genuine good defending a lot of the time. Apparently Huddersfield don't concede as many genuine GS'ing opportunities or shots in the box as one might expect too.

In practical terms, the bottom 6 or so are absolutely woeful. I think 32 points might keep you up this year. Maybe slightly less. Because so many teams are so far behind the rest, staying up losses some of its magic. As Rafa even said, it's a case of teams being worse than you than the team being any good.

Salah needs semi-regular double-digit points to justify his inclusion. At the moment he's not worth the price difference to Sterling, Hazard and a number of others.

Out the NO top 20

Agree to a point. I actually think it's very difficult to find defenders that are good at the basics 98% of the time. Marking, heading, pushing up etc.

Only reason I want us to stay up is that I don't want this relegation on Rafa's record. He doesn't deserve it. The first it was too late to make a difference.

You've just listed 7 of the bottom 8 there, not sure it's much insight to say they could all go down Point is... Cardiff will get relegated regardless.

There it is.

Hope Cardiff win. Because they've got no chance of getting 35 points. No guile. No skill. No magic. Us Huddersfield Cardiff Have the least quality in the division and will struggle to score goals no matter who the manager. But Fulham, Southampton, Burnley and Palace will be down there too, maybe Brighton as well.

Its still crap though. People have being saying that for years yet we get absolute stonewallers just waved away. Aye, I can think of a few stonewall penalties we should've got. But we don't have any players that look to commit defenders 2 or 1v1 in the box.

I say that to say - it has little to do with how we play. The penalty thing aye, that's partly our own doing.

Most red cards these days are from tackles in the middle of the pitch being "out of control and dangerous". Often coming from attempting to make a tackle after a bad first touch.

Don't have him but I think Arnautovic is a great shout.

Must have one of the worst win percentages of any NUFC manager bar Carver. Utter fraud. Had the best squad that we’ve had since the Remy/Cabaye year.

That Bentancur is a beautiful baller.