St1pe

It was the same with the takeover stuff. He was always commenting after the fact.

Early days on this but I can’t see how we can stay up with Bruce as manager. I don’t think the squad is amazing but we should manage survival with anyone even remotely organised.

That’s arguably our strongest 11 available but still expecting nothing.

Will Hughes would have been a cheap, very clear upgrade for us as well.

Properly sick of being shit now mind.

Nomination for worst post of the season in the first game. Impressive.

Don’t think I’ve seen a better defence lineup for us than those plus Lejeune. Such a shame.

Literally the first game of the season and I’m already irritated at the starting lineup. No Lascelles or Schar in favour of Krafth and Clark. There’s absolutely no logic at all in that.

I only saw bits of the highlights but you can already see why he’s signed Townsend and Gray to compliment DCL. I really miss having a manager with an actual plan. It’s a shame he isn’t respected where he’s at, for now at least.

Yea, for whatever reason I thought they were going to close it before the season kicked off to avoid the usual run of players being unsettled while they’re trying to be signed by other clubs.

I honestly thought this would be like previous seasons where we let another player slip away. I’m pleasantly surprised we’re actually trying to buy him rather than a last minute loan. I know there’s time for it to fall through but this would be a big boost going into the season.

Awful player. Bet it happens.

I’ve barely followed any information about us since the Euros and was pinning everything on the arbitration hearing that was built up like closure rather than what we got. After the hearing I think it’s the most apathy I’ve had for the club yet that carrot is still dangling somewhere in the distance. I’ll probably follow us this season despite what I’d claim. One thing that’s really pissed me off is how Ashley gets away with another season of criminally under investing and barely any media outlet seems prepared to take him to task for. We can’t realistically expect to stay a Premier League club under these circumstances.

I can’t quite get my head around how this obvious mistake has happened. So much for him going out on loan to gain match fitness then. Not that we expected anything else.

Good signing. Pretty staggered reading the outpouring of hate from Everton fans in the comments at their signings. Given they’ve spent Champions League money for the past couple of seasons to scrape mid-table it must have gone to their heads.

Lemina is properly awful. He’s been a liability most games I’ve seen him play in and he’s had some really poor games v us. The one up here when he was at Southampton under Hughes (I think) sticks out. We’re really poor in midfield and we’re trying to sign someone who won’t improve that. This season is going to be horrendous.

This whole process past the first few weeks last April has been nothing but repeated kicks in the balls.

It seems odd saying this but despite not conceding I don’t think we look that good defensively. We certainly don’t use the ball well in those circumstances and the longer the game goes on it just reverted to booting it upfield. None of the three sides we’ve played have really attacked us that much which is odd given we don’t seem to have an organised plan to counter quickly. I’m not the biggest fan of Maguire but I thought having him over Mings was an obvious boost. The benefit of having centre backs with at least an intention to drive forward and pass the ball forward was way better. You can draw parallels with Bruce’s reluctance to play Schar and Lejeune and how flat we look without a proper ball carrying centre back in the side. I expect we’ll perform much better against the better sides but I can’t say I’m confident we’ll beat any of the three we’re likely to face.

I don’t think there was a player worth a mention that didn’t try and play it safe at every opportunity. Rice can’t continue for much longer surely? Colback levels of backwards passing. He didn’t even get close to make a tackle either.

Well that’s a pen

Kane playing so deep really doesn’t work well without any real attempt to run in behind him.

Decent win but thought we were pretty flat and didn’t use the ball well at all. I don’t think we looked comfortable when we had it going forward. Rice looks terrified with the ball at times. Phillips was brilliant though, breath of fresh air seeing that tenacity in the middle combined with the first time passes.

Rafa was right about Mbabu

Is there a forum fantasy football league for the Euros?

Mings being picked over Godfrey or White seems madness to me. He’s been properly awful on a few occasions this season.