Stottie

None of their 5 strikers have scored a goal. Front. Foot. Football. His fantastic tactics have just given Leicester their first clean sheet of the season in a game decided by an error by a big man at the back. It's starting to look oh so familiar.

Ha ha! Hangeland channeling his inner Willo. Vardy scores again!

They'll give us Niall Quinn commentating, with Kevin Phillips and Souness (supposedly on our side) in the studio. Waddle on Five Live as the "alternative" commentary.

Dummett over Haidara for me for aerial ability. It's Sunderland's best hope. That and turning into a kicking fest. I think our attacking players have enough to score against them without help from LB. Janmaat can do his usual thing from RB because his end product is far better than what we'll get from LB.

It was Papiss off the bench last year! I can see Cattermole, Larsson, Fletcher, etc. being majorly on the wind up, so our players need to be thoroughly warned and keep their heads. I definitely wouldn't play Tiote because he's an easy target for any "stamp my authority on this" refereeing. Some calculated pre-match comments about how difficult it is for the officials in derbies and how we want to go out and play open football mightn't go a miss. A comment about their goalscorers always running into the crowd and never getting punished as about ten of them run on the pitch wouldn't be a bad idea either.

After the 6-2, not much point in talking about teams and formations. The only difference could be Tiote or at LB. Instead its about approach and tactics. Top priority is not conceding one from a header at a corner. Maybe do some homework on set pieces Fatty used at West Ham. He'll know its a big weakness for us and a fancy one was the chance they showed on MOTD for the mackems against WBA. For that reason, I hope Dummett can play and McClaren can use Mitrovic defensively. They'll probably try and wind Mitro up, so tell him to remember he's needed at both ends of the pitch. Aside from the should-be-obvious poor so far in attack and defence like us, some basic stats for them are 3 out of 8 scored from set pieces, fourth top in aerial duels won per game (we're bottom), second most yellows, bottom in crosses per game (Norwich were fourth top), and fifth top in long balls (Watford top). The style of play may well change from now with FSA though. From the numbers, they don't sound like the type of team who can get joy down the sides like Norwich did, but its all to easy to see Fletcher bullying Colo if they do.

I asked it earlier in the thread, and apologies if someone answered without me seeing, but it appears that the last time we scored two goals timed as two minutes apart was in the Championship. We never managed it once under Pardew. The second of the two was the Gini hat-trick goal where we had three players waiting to get on the cross. Keep doing that and you'll keep scoring.

Just about the defence, but the Bassong chance and the Janmaat penalty shout would be my biggest concern. We are clearly vulnerable to set pieces, and probably give away more free kicks in promising areas that we should.

I thought it was Colonel Sanders with his magic recipe.

Yeah, and apologies if someone has made the point, but when was the last time we scored two in two minutes? I can't remember it happening for a long time.

Gini hattrick! Amazing!

Fantastic goal. Get in Mitro!

Get Tiote off. And give the fullbacks some protection and a kick up the arse for slacking. Its so nervy out there you wouldn't know we are actually winning.

Great game! Looks like more goals in it too.

Great manager. The Everton team of the 1980s was fantastic. A real shame they didn't get to play in Europe. Part of Liverpool's strength today is from establishing a global brand, and that's something Everton were denied the chance to do. Everton were the big losers from that ban. Like Cloughie, I think it's best to remember Kendall before the drink got to him.

Is Pardew suggesting that the Spanish and German teams of recent years weren't built to be the way they were. It all just magically happened?

We'd better stop turning our back on shots if there's only fatty to stop them. Starting with our captain.

Two spells in the CL under different managers in the past twenty years and he's comparing us to Boro ffs. Not only them, but the 10-11 teams in the league who just want forty points. So that'll be Bournemouth with their 11,000 seats ....

Given the philosophy with which the club is run, someone should tell them that this would open the door to selling Krul next summer, so that Valdez could effectively pay for himself.

As if being bottom of the league isn't embarrassing enough without having to listen to this drivel.

If there is a contrast with us, it's that this summer, Bolasie would have been sold, Zaha wouldn't have been bought, and they'd have been left with whichever cheap player Pardew chose, maybe after failing to loan Januzaj.

Thanks! I love analysis like this. There are lots of weird stats about Crystal Palace this year. They lead the league in fouls committed and concede loads of shots as shown in the above chart. Going forward, they are team that attacks least down the middle, only 21%. There are fourth in % on each wing (strong and v. balanced) and lead the league in crosses. We're not actually that dissimilar, but the numbers don't show the quality of balls sent in. You check all these numbers in the team statistics on Whoscored. Given Pardew's handling of HBA, his choice of Obertan, and the poor quality set pieces we persisted with for year after year, it's hard to fathom why his new team can have successful wing play and score from so many set pieces. His record at Newcastle almost rules him out as the cause.

I think they'd have had us anyway, but who played Aguero onside for their first goal? The header back across went forward from outside to well inside the six yard box and Aguero is much closer to the goal than Mitrovic, who's the furthest back of our players in shot, when it was made. It looks a good yard offside.

3 points of 8 means 35 off thirty to stay up. Not a huge ask in the history of football, but well beyond anything we've served up so far this season. 7.5, but maybe 8 in two games' time.

Pulled off his marker well for the goal and not far off getting a second although probably offside. He looks like he cares, so it must have been frustrating seeing that shower of shit behind him in the second half.