stozo

What on earth was Taylor doing for the goal? Absolutely shocking defending. Also Danny Simpson just offers us nothing. He's a average/solid defender but he's atrocious going forward. Finding a new RB has to be a priority.

Tonight is the first time I've been concerned about us. Up until now it's been frustrating but tonight was genuinely worrying. If we don't win at the weekend Pardew is going to really start to feel some pressure from fans.

First half was frustrating but that second half was just awful. Really not many positives to take out of that apart from the Marveaux goal.

When we have the ball Anita and Bigi have been neat enough but apart from our goal there has been virtually nothing from the front 4 going forward. Very frustrating. On the positive side we needed a win tonight and at least we are getting that so far.

Reflecting on the game I'm not sure I'm as negative about it as others on here. It was another fairly uninspiring performance but there are a few points I'd make: 1. Our confidence looks totally shot. Apart from a ten minute spell at the start of the second half we really didn't look confident at all when we had the ball. Defensively we also look massively fragile this season where as last season we looked really solid. 2. I don't really see an enormous difference (apart from confidence) in performance between this season and the majority of last season. There was a spell towards the end of last season where we brilliant but I'd argue for the majority we were successful by being defensively solid and grinding results out. The difference yesterday was that Krul made a silly mistake (the type of which was rarely seen last season) and that left us chasing the game which saw us caught on the break for the second. Had we not conceded the first goal from an individual error I honestly think we might have ground out a rather unattractive 1-0 win. Frustrating that we got beat but I think with a few players back we'll start to pick up results and hopefully performances will follow on from that.

A little light relief from the doom and gloom. Name your Premier League XI + subs. Only rule is no more than 1 player from each team. I'd go for: Schwarzer Sagna Agger Huth Baines Yacob Toure Ben Arfa Hazard Bale RVP Ruddy Nolan Michu Kone O’Shea Clyne Taarabt

Big day tomorrow. Time for this team to put in a quality 90 minutes and demonstrate the talent we all know it has.

I find this a bit odd - surely the problem with those players were the fact that they were recruited by Wise who bought badly and overpaid for youngsters. To be fair I don't think it's that bad of a move for a club with a constrained budget like ours. Chelsea have spent millions (£5m for Michael Woods and Tom Taiwo in particular sticks out) in recent years and got virtually no return from their investment. Plenty of other examples at Man. City, Man U, Arsenal and Liverpool as well. I think with players that young to be successful you really have to adopting a bit of a scattergun approach which will involve investing several million per season and accepting that some of them will fall by the wayside. I think at our club where we're going to be spending a net of about £10m per season on our entire squad it's a tad unrealistic to spend several million of that on players who the majority of will come to nothing.

By the looks of the squad list posted on Twitter by Caulkin Cisse was in the squad but pulled out (Bird says he's ill).

Full squad: Abeid, Amalfitano, Sa. Amoebi, Sh. Amoebi, Anita, Bigirimana, Cisse, Elliot, Ferguson, Gosling, Harper, Marveaux, Obertan, Perch, Santon, Taylor, Tavernier, Vuckic and Williamson.

Love Harper for the way he's stayed loyal to the club but surely Tim Krul with a dodgy elbow could have done better for second goal.

Really don't know what to think about that game. On one hand we were very lucky with the disallowed/not seen goals but on the other we missed two really good chances (Cisse first half + Ben Arfa second half) that could have swung the game in our direction. Either way I'm ecstatic with a point after that horrific first half.

Where'd you read/see/hear that? Looked to me like he was going to come on for Cabaye when he was injured but then Cabaye stayed on. Obertan was certainly changed and ready to go anyway.

Really like the look of our side. It's also a nice change to have two striking options on the bench.

Please stop bumping this thread.

Have to hope the group stages improve the quality. Both of the games against Atromitos have been mind numbingly boring.

Which is why I'd not play Tav, as they seemed to spot him as our weak point. Would probably play Raylor and Santon as full backs but I thought after the goal Tav got to grips with Epstein.

Very frustrating if nobody else comes in but there is part of me that's happy that we clearly know who we want and aren't going to panic buy people who we haven't scouted. That said I'd kill for us to sign Debuchy.

Not sure whether to play my wildcard this week or next. I've go three players with no game in week 3 (2 Reading + 1 Chelsea) so will have to change before that. Would rather hang on another week and see how season develops but I've got Aguero (injured), Sinclair (probably won't play) and Lucas (picks up bookings + is up against Man City) all in my team who I'd like to get rid of.

Has Pardiola cloned him?

Guessing Ba and Cisse are fit as Campbell is in the squad for the U21s tomorrow.

Crazy that he turned down Spurs because they weren't offering him enough money to go to Southampton.

I'd prefer 4-3-3 but I reckon we'll see: Krul Simpson Taylor Colo Santon Jonas Cabaye Anita Marveaux Ba Cisse

Molde or Lokeren would be ideal really. Not far to travel and very winnable.