Jayson

Mint goal

Burnley go above Spurs, pretty impressive.

Sterling is next level now, he's doing some ridiculous stuff this season. Turning into some player here.

What happened to this guy? We could do with a defender who can actually defend to a decent level atm

Its not ball watching, he actively sprints forward out of position. Like the trigger on his controller got jammed. Just seen this. He completely misjudges the flight of the ball, it's a pretty big error after the last game. He's costing us more big chances than he's creating atm. Especially when Clark/Lejeune seem to be positioning themselves entirely wrong in general. Clark needs to atleast challenge both Robson Kanu/Gray goals in last two games. He's marking empty space. Lejeune's also barely challenged Smallings goal and wasn't even in the box for Burnley's. Less said about the air kick v lukaku the better. Lascelles does the under rated basics of clearing the ball and being in the right places it seems.

Had the most touches of anyone on the pitch apparently.

Someone's actually compared the appointment to that of Ranieri to Leicester on there.

I think this has a touch of the Selz to it. Benitez giving him a lot of chances to step up and showing faith in him. Might be one of those superb in training situations and he's trying to give him confidence. Think Mitros earnt a start at this point, maybe he'll give it a go against someone like Chelsea. Less chance of a point anyway so less of a missed situation if Mitro decides to headbutt someone in the eye at the 20 minute mark.

They didn't, he asked to leave for Newcastle.

Not sure why he hasn't been playing considering Shane Long has been playing lots of games for them Injured? He was last season, shoulder injury. Was doing well before that with 6 in just over 9 games. Started for them in pre season but just been a 10 min sub since then every game. Gabbiadini/Shane long been preferred.

Charlie Austin hasn't been starting games for them atall, still a good striker. Would go for him if he drops out the side again.

More Mourinho wasn't it than anyone else, same as De Bruyne. Kinda suggests his ability to spot potential maybe isnt quite there

The composure especially in that situation

He must trust him a bit as he's brought him on before Perez in both of the last two, fairly sure it'll be Mitro given the next chance. Unless he goes back to one striker again. Can't see Joselu getting another go now, people are complaining about Joselu but then thought he linked well with Gayle during the last game. So its a bit hindsight hero. Rafa's clearly changing things about upfront to try to make us more potent. Merino's our best answer to most of it anyway.

Last time Joselu had a completely awful game Rafa changed it & Gayle has started every game since. I'd expect him to change it again after this. Giving Mitro even 20 minutes in the last two games shows he's seen as the other option. Not sure Joselu or Mitro have a real finishers mentality, Mitro seems to make more of a nuisance of himself though.

Watford are a good side atm, Silva looks a very good manager so its not that bad a result or that surprising. It's key for us that we have Merino, his through balls nearly put us through several times instantly & then Shelvey can come forwards more also & do the same. Not sure Lejeune is that ready for the prem yet & Manquillo still looks suspect. Apart from that I expect us to improve.

That last chance for Gray was due to him. Played a poor ball to a man surrounded who instantly lost it, then left Gray alone. To be fair to him he did notice and played the offside, Manquillo was in his own world and played him on.

Merino's the key for us really, him and Gayle. If they're playing & play well, we'll be a much better side.

They currently would have some say in where it ends up though, so it is cheeky to basically try to cover for that by paying less if it doesn't go well. Probably just a negotiating tactic anyway. Again with another house analogy, you cannot agree to pay £170k on the basis that the house only stays or goes up in value but pay £150k if it turns out the market crashes in your area or they build a bunch of flats next door in a years time. Especially if you're someone who makes decisions which determine whether they end up building flats next door in a years time. You go into it accepting risk & do your analysis of the situation upfront. Then you pay what you deem it to be worth. PCP are thinking, even if it's done before Jan, and they have that window to bring in players, one window isn't necessarily enough to halt a relegation slide. The lack of investment in the playing squad is an issue which goes back years, and is on Ashley's back in my opinion. It's reasonable for them to want to protect themselves from that at least in the short term, for the remainder of this season for example, anything after that would then be their own doing. Yeah i see that as fair to a point. If they would currently value the club at less than they're offering based on the risks involved, but are willing to pay more with security that it stays up I think that makes a level of sense. Otherwise they cant get close to his supposed valuation. He may see it as them trying to cover for getting it wrong though. Knowing Ashley he'll want to reverse it and have them paying him X if the club goes on to do well based on what he's put in place recently.

It quite easily is as a general point really. Your last point about income not being cut with a house can easily be brought into the same analogies.

They currently would have some say in where it ends up though, so it is cheeky to basically try to cover for that by paying less if it doesn't go well. Probably just a negotiating tactic anyway. Again with another house analogy, you cannot agree to pay £170k on the basis that the house only stays or goes up in value but pay £150k if it turns out the market crashes in your area or they build a bunch of flats next door in a years time. Especially if you're someone who makes decisions which determine whether they end up building flats next door in a years time. You go into it accepting risk & do your analysis of the situation upfront. Then you pay what you deem it to be worth.

I think normally you accept a certain level of risk when taking over the future of a football club as someone would with any company. It's up to them to do their analysis of the ability of our manager, the standard of players we have, where those players have come from and the general trajectory of our performances over the last year or so to decide what they're willing to offer. If we're bought before January they'll be partly responsible for how the season goes anyway. It's a bit cheeky to try to create terms whereby you'd pay less for something (that you're looking to make money/status out of), if it turns out your initial analysis wasn't correct. Especially if you've then had a say in improving on that initial impression yourself via potential transfers etc

We normally face sides who come at us this was the issue. Burnley were organised at the back and waited for us to make a move before countering us which is what we do. So we looked even more toothless than usual, as we couldn't break through them so relied upon Yedlin overlapping who crossed to no one. Ritchie and Atsu had no space to move into as it was all very confined. The goal came from us attacking, the game was heading for 0-0. Burnley have only scored one or none in their last 9 league games, so the way they play is clear to see. As Rafa said, we made the error and they didn't. Both teams set up similarly in games. We missed a key player, they missed their striker. That's about it, was an even game.

Joselu won't be in for the next game imo, that's was below what he's offered before.

He was better today at times, he still lost the ball in the build up to their goal. We were attacking and he got caught. That was Perez No the build up to them getting the ball in the first place before we cleared it to go on the counter when Perez was then caught was due to Diame also losing it. Both of them made errors that cost us. To be honest whoever passed it to Perez probably made a dodgy choice given he was under pressure and they know what he's like.