Dandy Man

Alex Murphy's last match for Galway United next week and a replacement left back been signed today. As per my previous post, still lots of areas he needs to improve on and hard to gauge his current level but fairly certain there's the makings of a very good player there, be very interested to see how he develops with a more professional setup.

Just glad that my compulsion to check this thread on an hourly basis will soon be over

Shame that Simon Church has retired anyway..

Didnt think that GK was a priority as Dubs is more than capable albeit injury prone but I think he will do very well here, comes out surprisingly well on a lot of statistics

Yes to McNeil as a backup with potential to really improve as a player. Pope similar level to Dubs and prefer to have someone clearly better if we must get a new keeper. Fuck knows with Cornet, has ability but very inconsistent. As others have said none of them are significant improvements and squad doesn't need that much padding out.

Craig Fagan, broke his leg too

Yeah they're not great but not sure they've ever been that strong under Gareca, all their better players now getting over the hill and for all Lapadula has been something of a revelation he's no Paolo Guerrero, but they have been greater than sum of their parts for a while and definitely a better side than they showed tonight. Massive credit to Gareca's managerial ability either way for what he's achieved there, be a fairly big rebuild on the cards now.

Brutal. Imagine going through all the hard graft to get 5th in SAM qualies and then bottle it and lose on pens to Australia.

Absolute shite match and Peru look a bit shellshocked, may as well throw Nobby on at this stage

Peru don't really do the attacking possession stuff for sure and they tend to rely on being organised but they are better than this, very sloppy in possession and Lapadula totally isolated up front

Peru been looking very nervy - especially their best attacking threats like Cueva and Carrillo but they'll more than likely get the job done eventually

Van Basten

Part time Galway United fan here, been an open secret that he was heading to Newcastle for a while. Is a big move for the kid and for Galway Utd, he's been scouted by a few relatively big clubs including Brighton and Celtic in last few months. He is good getting forward from left back, solid defensively and strong enough in the air but very one footed. Has progressed rapidly in space of a year and has been one of best players in a team that has done well this season with a call up to Ireland U19s recently but is still very raw and second tier of League of Ireland is probably comparable to bottom end of the National League in England. Hopefully it all works out well for all concerned anyway.

2:03 in that video is great, "eerh just defend... defend"

Marco Di Vaio

Backs to wall in second half but never felt in too much bother despite barely getting a foot on the ball. Incredible turnaround in space of a few months, lots of good work completed but lots more to be done, onwards and upwards.

BT going on like Atleti have murdered a child here

Does best when you don't notice he's on the pitch for most of match. Feel like has been gradually improving (from a low base) under Howe's coaching

Played very well imo, we all know about his limitations but linked up nicely several times and was generally a big step back in the right direction compared to most of last year or two

We have been awful, Spurs have been good, the end. Least don't have to read a few pages worth of posts blaming Krafth for a shit result for once, minor bonus.

This is definitely true but not sure how much it holds when vast majority of squad now play in Europe, MLS or Mexico. Bolivia get the most benefit out of playing at altitude in SAM in my opinion and they would be bottom of the pile without that factor on their side. Colombia struggling to score goals definitely made qualification bit easier for Ecuador but they are a very solid team in their own right from what I have seen - have watched a bit of SAM qualies on account of casually following Peru

Going to say that Gayle might struggle with 90 mins for 16 consecutive games, given he's only managed around 30 mins in the PL all season

The recency bias with opinions on ASM on here is something else tbh. Not to say there aren't valid criticisms but we're a team full of plodders and he's the only one capable of anything electric, not hard to see why he got thrown on to get at them in last 20 minutes even if he's not really fit.

Ineffective but thought he just wasn't at 100% fitness, similar against Chelsea. Whether he should get on the pitch at all in those circumstances is questionable but we don't exactly have a bench full of match winners.

Don't think he got anything wrong really, another day we win that and everyone applauds him for winning ugly again, its just variance - some days you get it and some days you don't. I was certain we were on the right track before tonight and just as certain now