Tsunami

He's not a lone striker, had we lost those missed chances early on would have been massive. looks to me like an instinctive striker as opposed to a clinical finisher. His second goal was pure instinct, his misses have been where he's had time to think, the chance he missed when he pulled his shot wide would have been scored by a finisher, same as the missed chance at Villa. He needs better support alongside him.

They've laid claim to Washington every since the Govt decided to redraw boundaries and place Washington within the City of Sunderland limits. Washington lies almost halfway between Sunderland and Newcastle centres, has NE post codes and in terms of travel public service to Newcastle is in a different league to that serving Sunderland. When I was a lad it was almost impossible to get a bus to Sunderland. Support has always roughly been 50/50 between the 2 sides but there has been a Mackem spread towards Washington which is a blight. It's like it has been annexed with the Townies who have moved there complaining that locals should only be allowed to support Sland. I've moved away from there now but it still bugs the shit out of me. Nissan wanting to say they were in Sunderland as opposed to Washington didn't help things either. It was built on the old Usworth Airfield, part of Washington New Town, which Sunderland had by then renamed Sunderland Airport. I feel better now that's off my chest.

Little wonder Sam wanted out over the summer. Their recruitment has been shameful, I really can't see them surviving this time.

See he's had to delete his Twitter Account again. I'm now great fan of his but no need for abuse

If we'd signed a proper centre forward we'd be an absolute shoe in for this league. Given that Rafa will have known he was going to only play one up front this season I'm struggling to see why we bought Gayle, we got Murphy presumably because Rafa has doubts about Mitro. Gayle will not work up front on his own. It's the one area of the pitch we're struggling with. Good centre forwards are hard to find and are expensive but expecting a 5 foot 9 unimposing Palace reserve to do the business on a regular basis is a bloody big ask.

If Daryl Murphy is given a chance he could end up our main striker which isn't really good enough. Ayew was so much better than anything we have up front. We have real problems up front.

We were far too sloppy there, some awful misses.

They've brought this on themselves

We should be out of sight.

We really could have been 2 or 3 up by half time in that Man U game. There were other turning points both for that season and others yet to come after that but, had we won that game we surely would gave won the league and who knows what a defeat in that match may have done to that Man U side. From that game on they were superb and only got better in the next few seasons. We could have battered them but lost, by the time we beat them 5-0 the following year the damage to us had been done and that defeat didn't affect them at all. Small margins and all that.

There's not a hope in hell of him coming back here. I doubt he'd want to return and I'd be amazed if Rafa would want him. Rafa is all about systems and discipline, almost military drills so that everyone knows what they should be doing at any given point. HBA simply does not have it in him to confirm to that type of management. He is without doubt the most exciting and talented player we've had for years but he's history for us now. What would happen if we got him back and Rafa got tired of his antics and banished him? That's what would happen, who would you support, you'd have to choose between them.

As things stand has to be Promotion. Last season with McClaren in charge I'd have taken a cup win with Rafa and relegation.

He probably thought he was a bit of a lad as opposed to being appropriately dressed, unlike this lean, well dressed, specimen: http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm253/nufcstu/00E5A45D-DCCE-44F8-AD26-5E8DBB583891_zpszptverbd.jpg and this old chap should know much better http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm253/nufcstu/E8A5DC8A-6E3C-4E49-9DC2-4D73663186FA_zpsv8f2hapw.jpg

The face is too thin, it does though look better than the photos. Don't like the left arm positioning at all

I have no idea what he was supposed to be doing yesterday. He was running around like some kind of casual observer on the game. At home we know teams will sit deep, most will have fairly imposing centre backs and we continue to play Gayle up top. We simply have to start with either Mitro or Murphy in home games. Anyway, Diame, yesterday, shocker.

Close call but I think the challenge was ok, I think Martial just got himself in a bad position

Missed by miles!!!

People mentioning their second goal, but their first came from a counter attack from an absolute shocker of a pass by Hayden (?), it was a simple 10'yard pass under no pressure given straight to an opposition player with 20 yards of open space to run into.

He should have scored today but he was far more effective than Gayle. it's the one area of the pitch were I have concerns.

I've said it before; Sels is terrible at collecting a ball into his body and at some point he will cost us an important goal. The corner he gave away today was laughable. We should storm that league and I'm confident we will and that Rafa will cut down on the rotation so much in key areas. If I were to make a single decision I'd have Mitro picked ahead of Gayle. There's been too many games where Gayle has been nullified through lack of support/ the size of the opposition. Rafa should have changed it at HT today. The crowd could see the problem today, it wasn't hard to work out. Unless we change to 442, which we won't, we can't have Perez and Gayle starting together. We carried absolutely no threat today.

We were poor today, lightweight up front and little tempo. I'm assuming Rafa will see the pretty glaring short falls. If not, someone please tell him that playing Gayle and a Perez starting together in this league is a complete no no. It was like playing with 9 men at times.

What a terrible post this is. I was there, you weren't, I tell it as it was knob head.

We were awful. Diame was awol and Mitro has to start ahead of Gayle. We were awful today

Liam Kennedy; what is the Wear Tyne Derby? I've no issue with him fighting to save his new job but who calls it the Wear Tyne Deby? I also have to say that I'd be bloody annoyed if the Ronnie had a Sland supporter covering our games, I struggle to cope with a Barnsley fan as a radio commentator.

Krul just flew in with his wife and family from Amsterdam - same flight as my step son