Andy

I'd just rather we kept our best players, tbh. If Mike Ashley pocketing £30m gets you hard, fair play. His overall performance and contribution last season was shite, he vehemently doesn't want to be here, and he's taken a massive strop over not being able to leave which would instantly transfer to the dressing room and onto the pitch. I can't see why anyone would be unhappy about this transfer other than to be pointlessly contrary.

And he's good enough for the championship as a squad player at the very least, which is all that matters until next Summer. The coaching argument definitely holds a lot of weight though. If you go back to the early pages of this thread, people liked him as a player; during his first few months he was decent and provided good movement and a bit of a goal threat. That was all coached out of him gradually in the proceeding years (he's not the only one either) but there's nothing to say Benitez and his team can't get something out of him again. He's been okay so far this season and I'd rather have him in the squad than not right now.

Heard rumours of him being a bit of a dick around the dressing room in the past, could just be that Benitez doesn't like him as a character rather than as a player.

We're a championship club now, the players we sign as backup are going to be decent-to-good championship players. His goal scoring record looks okay and he's an experienced head in the dressing room, as a third or fourth choice striker that's perfectly fine.

We're very pedestrian so I can certainly see why Rafa might want to add pace. Never been too convinced by Yedlin but I think he'll be good enough at this level, it may even be the making of him.

And I disagree with you - Anita got skinned a few times last night - he doesn't have the physical presence and offers very little in attack. In 3 games in midfield, right wing and right back he has not been very good as he is not a very good player Janmaat is never in position to get skinned. Benitez found him out at the end of last season and preferred Anita there and has gone back to that again after giving him another shot at it against Fulham and Huddersfield.

I completely disagree like, end of last season we looked far more solid with anita there than we ever did with Janmaat, the amount of times he gets caught on the wrong side of his winger is beyond belief.

He's not like He is like. Defensively anyway. Not a big statement though, Janmaat is dire positionally.

I feel like he's overthinking this league so far. We don't need to produce a rigid tactical masterpiece to beat teams like Huddersfield, we need our players playing with freedom and confidence. We shouldn't be setting up to not lose.

Rather get a sloppy, uninspired performance like that out the way in our first match of the season to give them a kick up the arse. We're habitually poor at breaking teams down that defend deep against us and that's going to happen a lot this season, hopefully this game will reinforce that to rafa and he'll drop the idea of playing so many defensive minded players quickly.

Ehhh, as fourth choice centre half (possibly fifth if you include the likes of Dummett/Gamez) this signing is perfectly fine for Championship level.

he runs and chases but with very little purpose, and yes he can finish but needs a clear opening to do it Granted I haven't seen as much of him as you, but the goals of his I saw last season contradict that

Clear pen IMO

Italy are gon' win this

I'm glad we're not getting carried away about him

Lots of smiles between him and Townsend in particular at the end. I have a real feeling he'll stay as long as Charnley doesn't fuck it up massively

Couldn't see Rafa going for international management yet like. He seems very hands-on and like he enjoys being involved in running a football club day to day, I'm not sure international management would scratch that itch for him.

Next season will make him or break him if he's still here. There's a player in there, and he gets in the positions to get the chances, but he just looks desperately short on confidence in front of goal to me rather than necessarily lacking instinct. If he can have a season of consistently banging them in it'll do him the world of good

Nahh, he's more than good enough at that level. I think people on here somewhat overrate how high the quality in the championship is tbh

Aye but Cisse could probably play another 2000 minutes this season and not even get a goal. Cisse is a better finisher than Mitrovic. He would have scored that huge chance when Mitro found himself alone in the box. Dunno like, Cisse's finishing has been fucking garbage lately, he looks like he doesn't even know how to kick a ball anymore

Lots of bile being aimed at this lad, but Cisse was far worse tbh. Disgraceful performance in the first half. At least Mitrovic offers something on the pitch and we look a bit more cohesive when he's on. He's just not a goal scorer and needs a natural finisher alongside him in a front two IMO. Having said that, he would score goals in the championship like. Even Shola managed that.

In a short time he's made us hard to beat. If he'd had a month more we would've picked up draws and been absolutely fine. Reality is our attacking players just have absolutely nothing to offer, there's no right team selection or formation that would solve the issue, the players we've signed over the last few seasons in that area of the pitch just aren't fit for purpose.

Riquelme was more than a very good player like argentina would've won the world cup in 2006 if he hadn't been subbed against germany despite carrying them the entire competition. He was better in that world cup than Messi ever has been for Argentina tbh

It's helped that we've had two defensively-competent fullbacks playing as well tbh. The centre backs were getting pulled all over the backline covering for Janmaat in particular

Even discounting the penalty he was outstanding. Absolutely bossed every high ball that came near him