ExiledGeordie

Huddersfield have Brighton away after us and have Arsenal and City as their final two matches. After yesterday’s loss the pressure will really be on them and that should play into our hands in a couple of weeks.

Albeit with a three week game between the next two home games we can go a long way to securing survival. Southampton is critical, win that and I think the momentum will carry us through. I think we have the work ethic and resilience to stay up now like. Actually getting Slimani on then pitch for a few games would do us all a favour too.

Agreed, awful

Be great if he could make the bench for Southampton match

It is when you're in a relegation dogfight 2-0 up away from home with ten minutes to go looking comfortable - then the substitutions. Madness. It's about control. Most of these players don't have the intelligence to play for fouls and waste time when it counts. As a result Rafa over compensates by bringing on defensive players. I personally would have left Gayle on for his pace, and used Merino rather than Hayden if we were going to bulk the midfield out. But I can see why he's done it, the team are naive and lack confidence to see a game out. Excellent point this. We lack the intelligence and nerve to finish off games like this and this is compounded when our more "experienced" players like Shelvey are letting players run into the box in the final 10 minutes. These lads are good lads and work really hard but they have a terrible habit of not killin games off and switching off defensively. We've shipped far too many points in the final minutes

He doesn't score nearly enough goals either

Standing with his hands in his knees in the closing stage rather than making any attempt to pick up runners into the box on both occasions for the goals. That's not good enough and no amount of crisp long passes make up for that. At least he's finding some form in the run though

Plus a fit Slimani with a bit of luck. This is the key point, will be a massive lift for the players if he plays

I'm hoping Kennedy and Slimani provide more of an edge at home in this final run in. Having a proper forward up front and a proper left winger should make all the difference.

Could go 12th or something like that with a win

He shouldn’t have been bought in the first place if you buy s*** you get s*** and the fact he has played so much is f***ing criminal. Mitrovic is not brilliant by any means but he is and always will be f***ing a better option than this f***ing clown Blame Ashley for that

This window is shaping up to the mother of all fuck ups considering our situation. There's been some colossal cock ups and shafting of managers under Ashley but my god this window............

I’m at an 8. There just isn’t enough quality in this squad and we are so obviously lacking quality to stick chances away. We have the look of a side who could likely get relegated. The lack of a takeover and Ashley being Ashley is almost the nail in the coffin for me.

I almost get the feeling Ashley is actively trying to screw Benitez now. He doesn't like anyone going up against him and you wouldn't put it last Ashley to have someone lined up in the hope he can make life so difficult that Benitez resigns and has to pay up his contract. He's that much of a cunt. You just have to hope there's enough of a chance of the takeover happening that's still keeping him here.

I think we’ll have a pretty decent indication by end of Jan. We’ll have had the two home games against Swansea and Burnley and we’ll know where we stand with the squad.

Could (should) apply to any number of our players! Fair point

If Benitez is still here next season (with a takeover having happened) I don’t think Shelvey will be here.

This place if/when it's confirmed

Swansea is massive, win that then we have a free hit v Man City away. Then it's Burnley at home hopefully with some reinforcements. Beat Swansea and things will feel very positive.

Has to stay injury free for us

There will always be knackers in this world, in fact there's a knacker born every 6 minutes True

To think there were knackers writing this lad off completely too.

Brighton and Stoke are huge matches to set us up for the new year one way or another

That's what I'm thinking, keep it low key, get some names in on loan or whatever then when they are sown up or close to announce the takeover.

I've also heard it's done from my usual reliable source but also no details