Tiotes Witch Doctor

Who's defending his actions ? Pretty much all are saying he was kicked first and the same punishment should have went to both. Perhaps I worded it wrong, more aimed at those who said it wasn't a red card. He has nobody but himself to blame, retaliation or not. Wasn't a red captain spunk trumpet.

Was dreadful against Blackburn but was superb against Hull and from what I saw of the game tonight he looked great too, also been good all season really. We still need cover in CM but hoping Colback and Hayden can work until Jan at least. Whether he can make the step up to the premier league is hard to tell at this stage, but he has age on his side.

The stupid decision to leave him out of the Hull game looking even more stupid after tonight.

Think we'll end up second to Brighton in the end but we'll definitely go up in second place. It's an 8 from me.

It's not only that hes looked poor but I've noticed a distinct lack of effort, backing out of challenges, not chasing the ball down etc... He's had a couple of decent spells in the prem but I never thought he was anything amazing, didn't expect him to to turn out how he has though.

We need to work our selling magic on this waster in Jan or summer and see if we can bring in 10 mil.

This is good news if he is indeed guilty, if he is going to be banned I'd rather it be closer to January as I think we may invest in a new central player anyway who might be able to fill in. A Colback Hayden partnership would probably get by but it wouldn't fill me with confidence.

Aye let's play our best goalscorer out of position. Rafa must play strongest side, against these lot. We can't afford a slip up. Mitro has shown barring Blackburn he is more than capable, and the two of them together I think would work. Plus everyone else we have to play behind the striker are turbo shit.

Its not that what hes saying is particularly funny I just find it amusing that hes obsessed with Atsu

Has he actually had a bad game for us?

BRING HIM HOME

Can't play against yourself. saved me a job.

Darlow Anita Lascelles Clark Dummett Ritchie Shelvey Colback Gouffran Gayle Mitrovic

Not just saying it to go against the general grain but I thought he was really poor last night, improved a bit second half but I thought he was non existent defensively and seemed terrified to pass or dribble forward with the ball. Started to look OK in advanced positions second half but overall looked poor, early days though and still probably getting used to english football, but certainly hope he improves upon the small amount we've seen so far.

This is a guy who thinks Cheick Tiote should be starting for us. Yawn.

I was surprised at his fitness level tbh, didn't look tired at all right till the end.

We will be absolutely shite without him, everything decent goes through him even when hes not playing particularly well.

Yeah he was great apart from constantly losing the ball within seconds of receiving it, goal aside he was poor as ever.

Outfoxed by Owen Coyle and Mike Phelan in the space of 4 days. jkz

Apart from when sections of the stadium booed us at 1-2 and 1-3.

It's been "a bit flat" for years now and yesterday was no exception, the odd chant from the strawberry corner and level 7 but silence apart from that.

Colback definitely hasn't been better than Hayden mind, I've not really seen Hayden play badly apart from yesterday, Colback has just been his usual nothing self, whilst not doing too much wrong. And in regards to Ritchie hes had a fair few games where hes not done much but still been one of our better players overall, hasn't reached the heights expected of him yet though.

Little cracks starting to appear in the media who seem to be ready to give him, albeit mild criticism, let the poor form continue please!

Was he up against a monster cb? I remember watching Carroll get snuffed out by Hangeland in a game against Fulham when Hughton was in charge, maybe similar here? I think this might be one of the reasons why Rafa prefers a quick striker to one who's main attribute is power in the air. Hasn't he said that in England the defences are usually pretty good at dealing with big strikers? The entire team were monsters from where I was sitting, probably the most physical team we've played this season and we weren't ready to deal with that, not only that though he definitely wasn't the usual Mitrovic chasing lost causes and getting stuck in, and a few of the other players weren't themselves either, very strange day all round.

We were poor from the very beginning today, Coyle came with a clear game plan of pressing us high up the pitch which forced us to go long and play right into their hands with their mammoth players who seemed like they had the perfect combo of strength, height and pace today, Rafa nor the players had any response or plan B for how Coyle had them set up. My only real criticism of Rafa this season has been his in game management, instead of booting off at the linesman about 50/50 calls he should have looked to the bench and changed it up far earlier to give us a chance of getting something, waiting until the 84th minute when everyone in the stadium could see it was wrong from the offset was mental to me. Today was a combination of players having an awful day and whatever our game plan was supposed to be didn't work. Special mentions to Hayden, Ritchie and Perez who were nothing short of abysmal.