Jayson

Joselu needs to chill out w going for the spectacular

The absolute slowness of our play. Slow to think, touch, control, literally everything.

This display has been atrocious. Merino has been our only bright spark and he is quite clearly learning the league still.

Well this is a pretty hilarious display

Look much better being able to lay it off to Joselu. The quality of touch needs to improve.

Better

Uh...

Cmon Joselu

He's been closed down on the ball a couple times in that half, did well other times too. Just needs to adjust to the pace a bit. Both sides look a bit nervy to me.

Gayle looks a bit off his normal self, dunno if it's the hamstring issue

Scrappy game, not too much quality so far. Need to keep the ball down a bit and play with patience.

Couldn't escape if they wanted to. Joselu, they were defeated we won the war Joselu, promise to love you forever more Joselu, couldn't escape if they wanted to Joselu, finally playing & scoring too Just sayin (Works less well if he doesn't score)

The main thing to take from the interview is that he cares what fans think of him enough that he's scheduling a half hour interview to be televised in the face of Rafa putting out a few soundbites about transfers. He does care about his reputation, which means he is reactive to criticism & the pressure of making the right choices or he wouldn't be trying to excuse himself & explain things away. (Through how many tv interviews now?) That means Rafa does have some sway, especially if he has fans onside.

With any player they need runs of games, Riviere had runs with us of atleast 5-6 games in a row (of decent mins not just 17) to do something. Joselu hasn't had consistent starts for whatever reason. When he scored a double against Madrid last season he got 10 minutes the next game. At Stoke he got 2 goals & an assist in 3 games apparently, then got two more starts (v Arsenal/title winning Leicester) didn't score so got benched the following etc It was similar for Gayle at Palace, do well in some games & then back on the bench. You can't build form or confidence like that (Though Gayle did well when he got chances).

From reading he played 892 mins for Deportivo, that's about 10 games worth & got 5 goals. At stoke it looks similar in terms of barely getting any games in a row. It's similar to what Gayle got at Palace, the odd game here and there. I think it looks a decent shout as a signing.

Just noticed he scored 3 goals v Real Madrid last season in 65 minutes on the pitch against them Also scored in Deportivo's 2-1 win v Barcelona. Suggests he may have potential to be decent atleast?

Why? Look at recent championship strikers when promoted to the prem: Troy Deeney 21 goals in champ, 13 in prem next season Ighalo 20 goals in champ, 15 in prem next season Vardy 16 in champ, 5 in prem (did alright the next season though imo) Charlie Austin 17 in Champ, 18 in prem next season Rickie Lambert 27 in Champ, 15 in prem Danny ings 21 in champ, 11 in prem Grant Holt 21 in Champ, 15 in prem Callum Wilson 20 in Champ, 5 in 13 in prem Andy Carroll did alright also.. For all those you get your Rudy Gestede's, Hernandez, Danny Graham's but the odds seem more the other way to me if anything. If they're younger & a finisher at Championship level, chances are give them chances & they will deliver at prem level. Certainly given time (which many promoted sides don't get tbf)

Just listening to his interview, odd response when asked about his biggest challenge in football: "On a Monday morning you're in a totally different business world where it has cheques and balance and football literally doesn't have any. It is nearly, right if this player came up and we wanted to spend 50 mill on a player it'll be ok because they'll come and embrace the club and leave everything out on the pitch. And that actually isn't the case, you can actually get a lot more out of a trainee or a young Andy Carroll because they've got so much passion to want to get that place in the team on the pitch & they do leave everything out there". Pretty clear his pov on spending money from that imo, hasn't seen much value in doing so. He's saying clearly his bias is towards younger players who may offer more than those who are proven.

He's looks really good this season, maybe having players competing for his position now has pushed him on a level. That's the whole idea, Benitez & Pochettino were talking about it recently. Players not getting too comfortable & needing that push to be at their best.

Happy we're getting one in. Noticed he'd done well in preseason for them, as someone said hopefully a similar story to Gayle. You have to be confident in both Rafa's judgement & in his ability to improve players. We've seen it happening.

Whats the deal with new signings getting scissor tackled instantly man. Thought we looked decent in defence for most of first half also, though mbemba did alright when he came on aswell. Hopefully be able to run it off.

In terms of the benefit of finishing higher Southampton got 24.7m last season for the position of 8th, Watford got 7.6m for 17th. Looks like its 1.9m extra per position solely. The higher up you finish, the better you're doing and the more the team tends to appear on tv also though which adds to it.

Can't see why we'd put Hanley on big money? Coming to a side fighting for promotion should've been a big enough draw.

Liverpool winning 2-0, look impressive

He scored quite a few in Europe tbf