Shak

No it wouldn't, he'd be a passenger. Need someone with legs.

Really annoying that we've just given up trying to score.

Bit of Aarons for the rape breaks.

Sometimes think those Romans knew what they were doing with the Colloseum.

Would be interested to see this setup with Sissoko in Colback's spot.

It wasn't a serious question. Never can tell with you.

Why? Generally helps in games of football.

I've heard he missed the bus yesterday. Arrived on time, had a couple of glaring opportunities to get on the bus but walked into the frame of the door one time and slipped and fell at the crucial moment the other.

Must give a mega blowjob.

You joke, but that's exactly the logic that'll be used. Squeeze another year out of Williamson and find someone else next summer if Abdennour is no longer feasible.

Hopefully it'll be Thauvin competing with Aarons for the LW spot and Obertan will never be seen there again. Really excited about Aarons' prospects but I don't think we can go into the season with him penciled in as first choice left winger. Good thing is that Thauvin can play either side or through the middle so if Aarons is the real deal Thauvin doesn't become a permanent bench warmer. We've got some great options in the final third with the additions this summer, if we could pull off another big name capture in defense it'd be a very good summer's work. Two more would be fantastic. (assuming no more significant outgoings)

Really annoys me that we extended his deal and made him captain. Shite partner for Mbemba and with our lack of height in CM we really could do with real size in defence. Should have let him follow his buttbuddy to Palace and inflict his moribund career on them instead.

You can't foul somebody who is about to launch a counter attack so deliberately and think you won't get booked. As blatant a booking as you'll ever see.

Another issue is that neither are any sort of threat at all to carry the ball forward through the middle, think Wij playing in CM and breaking forward would also be tremendously helpful to whoever took his place in the #10 role.

Think we need to drop Wij deeper very soon and get someone else in his position. Would love to see Perez just off Mitrovic or Cisse as you say, we're basically playing a flat four in midfield anyway so the player in the AM position really needs to be a forward rather than an attack minded midfielder.

Looked like he just gave up and basically got sent off deliberately. Shockingly stupid.

he still had options on the bench to add something to the deteriorating situation it was going wrong before anita got injured but he could have done plenty of other things with his subs anita off wijnaldum deeper, perez on, obertan off, aarons on, cisse off mitro on there's plenty of other things he could have done tbh, if wijnaldum was in tatters then drop sissoko back with colback and shuffle the pack to get some pace, youth and technique in there de jong on was a horrible f***ing substitution to make tbh he needs minutes in this league though, how else is he going to get them? There'll be plenty more chances to give him games. We were dead on our feet and desperately needed an infusion of pace, not a player who immediately looked more wrecked than the guy he replaced. It was an awful sub, no two ways about it.

I basically agree with everything Kanji says.

He certainly ran a long way after that Southampton player before pulling him down for the booking. That was so cynical the kind of thing that would send me raging if it happened to one of our players. Wouldn't have been as bad if he had managed to take him down without needing ten attempts at it. Also the way he lost the ball to lead to the foul was pathetic. Weak as piss.

Isn't Aarons a left winger? If you're gonna play him then surely it'd be on the left. Aye. Sissoko and Wij in CM too... Scrolled down, saw that team and immediately decided I wasn't reading the rest of the post.

I'd agree with that. Think Vurn is pivotal to the way we played today though, dropping between the CB's to start the play. A role where if you lose the ball it's very, very noticeable as you're exposed. Can you imagine Tiote in that role? Would be absolute suicide.

Thought bringing De Jong on was very stupid. We were clearly gassed and needed some energy, SDJ was never gonna give us that. Aarons on with Sissoko moving central would have made sense. All in all he gets a plus grade from me today though, we played some good stuff.

Very encouraging stuff today I thought, we looked spent after 70 minutes though which cost us the win ultimately. Far better to watch than the overwhelming majority of games under Pardew, played good football which is all I really want at the moment.

Looks a broken man. Hopefully just not match sharp, but I fear we'll regret not bundling him off to Palace.

Brilliant goal. Shit as he is, that's why Obertan started.