Shayno

3 votes - Yedlin 2 Votes - Shelvey 1 vote - Ritchie I know Perez does all the running you need and more, but i would have liked to have seen Murphy get some minutes in his place today. Really restricted them in the second half, very well organised. Good point and I really felt like we could nick it towards the end. We had the chances!

Gosh Atsu, Perez and Joselu all like to take one too many touches in the box. Pull the trigger for Pete's sake!

A much better player than he was able to show to us in his time here, much like his brother but was far less fortunate in terms of fitness issues. Whilst we undoubtedly needed better i think SDJ would provide more than both Perez and Diame in the number 10 role. Good luck to him. A second striker is a must do before the window closes.

Mbemba at left back was a weird one. We definitely need a left back asap. Ritchie and Perez just don't have the pace necessary to play in this formation at this level. Joselu looked good and hungry when he came on. Merino grew into the game and I am willing to let Manquillo have some time to prove himself instead of writing him off after game 2. He does have some pace, which we are sorely lacking everywhere on the pitch.

Nice. One of my better contributions to this forum. From a very low base i should add...

Wouldn't have been opposed to Townsend pre-permanently signing Atsu. We have enough left footed wingers (Ritchie, Atsu, Aarons) and we need some right footed wingers to play on the left of midfield to balance out the squad.

Ignacio Camacho from Malaga would be ideal as the screening midfielder. Suprised he is still there. Marcos llorente from Real Madrid on loan (doubt they would sell) would be brilliant but probably too big a fish for us to catch.

I would prefer to keep it as is, but I suppose it wouldn't be totally horrible if the cross continent final playoffs like 1st Oceania v 5th Asian team etc and maybe the second place playoffs for Europe as well were held in the hosting country immediately prior the world cup finals.

Suspect we will see GK: Darlow RB: Anita CB: Lascelles CB: Clark LB: Dummett DCM: Shelvey DCM: Colback ACM: Perez RM: Ritchie LM Gouffran ST: Gayle 3-1 win

Totally agree. Wouldn't swap him for Guardiola, Mourinho, Ancelotti, anybody. Perfect fit for us. Just gets everything about the club, thoroughly nice bloke and one of the world's greatest managers as well to boot. Can't believe he's ours! Can't believe some of the negativity he was getting after the second game.

Hopefully Lazaar in for Dummett and Hayden in for Colback. Wouldn't be surprised to see Mitrovic start with Gayle playing the second striker role instead of Diame who hasn't quite looked match fit. Reckon we will nab this 2-0

Would go to town on Darlow. Honourable mention to Isaac Hayden, who looks like he would cuddle after, I like that in a man.

Looks like a young Chris Hughton. Very impressive so far.

At least Mustafi should at least improve on their "First 11".

Tubby Janmaat Saylor Colo Colback Shelvey Saivet Sissoko Gini Townsend Mitro Bench Perez Aarons

Probably a 6.5/10 Positives Signed one player that is guaranteed to improve our best 11 (Shelvey) (Few players who could potentially fit into our best 11 but at the very least add depth/options (Townsend, Doumbia, Saivet) Extensions of loans for Armstrong and Bigi, plus Satka is out on loan. Williamson and Fergie gone. No significant losses. Some English players signed Negatives Didn't shift much junk (though I am always confused with windows, can we still loan out players like Gouffran and Riviere to other clubs?) No improvements to a pretty suspect defence (no convincing left backs plus none are fit at the moment, plus if Janmaat gets injured we are screwed) Still unsure what type of football we want to play, Doumbia doesn't seem suited to what we are doing at the moment.

The 3-5-2 formation is fine, and we probably have the players to pull it off, but you cant just choose it here and there and expect it to work.

At least his headed miss wasnt caused by ducking out of it like Perez and Gouff.

Definitely been worth changing our style to accommodate him in his preferred role.

Should really be 4. Outgrown Sissoko already

It really just hammers home the point that the manager, scouting system and the entire football department has to be on the same page. Something we haven't had a long while and has resulted in us continually signing players who aren't suited to the way the manager wants plays football. So amateurish and bloody annoying. Thauvin is only 22, Cabella had only just established himself as a first choice player for Montpellier at that age (and very quickly became one of its better players). We aren't sure what Thauvin is capable of, but I fear a pretty mediocre spell at Marseille is a far better indicator of his quality than the scraps of playing time he has had to feed on here.

Our obvious lack of a left wing back aside I am pretty stocked to see us having a go at this

Can't believe after season upon season of evidence, and the benefit of hindsight, people still think Santon's best position was LB. Seems to be doing ok for the top team in Italy at the moment...at right back surprise surprise. Would still pick Debuchy over him at RB for the purposes of this thread, even if it was just the full season in which he played to his ability.

Blob Janmaat Mbemba Colo Dummo Anita Colback Sissoko Wini Perez Mitrovic

Out of interest, has he played up top with Perez this season?