Nexumaster

Not sure why I've factored my evening around watching this...

Love it. All this talk of "have a go", you have to know your limits and while I'm sure Rafa go into it wanting to lose, I'd rather us lose by 1 than 5 or 6 since it can be costly and also mentally will take it's toll on defensive players who constantly get blitzed.

I think Ki gave up a much higher tempo and it took Watford by surprise - be interesting to see if those subs have earned starts in Rafa's eyes.

One thing to be thankful for is the transfer window finally closing before the season has begun. We've had a shit window in terms of bringing people in but at least there won't be rumours about the likes of Lascelles leaving while we get the season going.

Lose games by one goal - feel like that was our luck last season too.

How does everyone spamming the replies make them stop tweeting anyway? Surely 99% of their followers aren't clicking on the comments to their tweets regardless It's more that there will probably only be one person managing their account (or one small team in rotation). They'll be using some sort of social management deck which will get loads and loads of notifications and messages - thus making it hard for them to manage the account. Either that, or the number of replies is so out of the ordinary that they'd rather not post anything and have all those negative comments on their main timeline. If you tweet them regularly yourself it will go to "Tweets & Replies" rather than the main showing.

That's made my morning.

We need to sack off all our strikers and start again. Sweet Jesus, man.

Two hot garbage performances. All they need to do is pressure Shelvey early and we go nowhere. I don't blame Rafa though, since our strikers are trash and Perez isn't the mercurial talent we'd need in that position.

I actually quite like the gold. Wearing my black and gold shirt at work today for the footie-shirts-at-work malarky.

Yeah. Either way you look at it, he's a shocking inclusion. I'm not even saying it because I think Newcastle players should be in there, and I can't say who else I'd put in as I don't know other team's squads well enough - but I find it hard to believe he's a hot pick from any angle.

Which ones in particular? I have to ask who you'd rather play? We're just not great in general. Livermore, Welbeck and Lallana are the ones I scoffed at most. I'm pretty sure there are other lesser-known players who'd fit the bill who've played more and played better. If you're taking a midfielder from the team rock bottom of the league, bang on to go down, we must really be in trouble.

Southgate is off his face looking at those names.

I've gone for five. We need to beat Huddersfield and are capable of doing so, but even if we do I worry about us getting anything from Leicester, Arsenal and Everton.

Agreed. I would imagine Rafa has been having a word regarding decision making for when to hit it long, when to drop back, when to bomb on etc. Made a subtle, but definite difference.

To be on 34 points after Southampton would be dreamy, as you'd hope the teams below us wouldn't pick up as many in their 3 games. Agree that I'm not banking on us beating either of them though.

They've only played us once this season. No shit. I mean the 15/16 season too, beating us 1-3 at SJP and us only narrowly beating them away.

These always look ropey when I see them play other teams, but then when they play us they look decent. Pretty sure that says more about us than them though.

GET THE FUCK IN MY FACE

Merino and Diame are most important in that formation for me. We have a serious problem keeping the ball long enough further up the field. I like this formation but it means they have to be on top form both defensively and in keeping the ball to pick out the right pass.

Would it look so obvious if Clark isn't actually pushed first? That's what makes it so annoying, he's got a hold of him because he's going to be shoved away - the offence was against us first. Otherwise, as someone else said, blow for a pen every time the ball is kicked for that type of set piece.

I was a six, if the poll resets I will be a 7. Have to see how the new signings turn out over the next 3 to 4 games.

I think Rafa might be semi-pleased with this. He doesn't seem to trust Darlow or Elliott greatly. If this lad doesn't go straight into the team then we'll know it's a token-gesture type of signing which Rafa hasn't had any say in.

I'd like to see: Darlow Yedlin Lascelles Clark Dummett Diame Shelvey Murphy Perez Atsu Mitro But it'll certainly not be that and we'll get beat 0-2. A sucker punch after about half and hour, then at about 80-odd minutes when we finally decide to commit people forward.

Did he go nuts for religion, or am I thinking of someone else?