Abra Dubravka

How the hell do you reach this conclusion if you have eyes He's not as bad as people are making out, at least he shows for the ball. We've had worse, he's no better than someone like Haidara for example. But 'showing for the ball' should be a default requirement, not something that's call out as a positive. Every challenge, 50/50 or tussle he's lost so far. Redmond, Adams, Ings all rag dolled him off the ball.

Manquillo not tried brushing the dust off that knock?

I don't watch us very closely these days, but Lewis being bad really stands out to me. Girls U10's standard on throw ins as well

Schar's long pass out to ASM was quality, opened up Southampton to get ASM in behind Million miles away from Lacscelles hoying balls at Joe from every which angle

Lewis is such a coward man. He’s quick, but a total pussy and no aggression in anything he does. Wet blanket. Needs to take a look at someone like Danny Rose a few years back

Don Hutchinson on commentary on my stream, saying Shelvey and Hendrick good midfielders, Shelvey should be looking for 10 goals

Schar playing with strapping/support against Palace

No Clark today, or any other fit CB f***s us over there by losing Hayden in midfield. Bruce loves Hendrick, and Shelvey though. We can all see their both miles of it, but he obviously feels he can trust them and rely on them. Moving Hayden out of that midfield is going to be a huge loss, he's the only one who's ever switched on in a defensive transition. Hendrick and Shelvey are going to get their heads spun, and Willock is his first game. Would have preffered Krath, or a youth team CB in and keep Hayden in midfield.

Oh aye, not blind to Pardew's part in this fine mess. But Pardew was Ashley's prime choice and by extension Llambias' man. Like Bruce, he was forced to sign a deal with the devil. Bruce thrown a bone from bombing out at Villa, never to get a sniff at PL again; Pardew from League 1. Pardew was all Llmbias' doing. Bonus sheet fiasco resulted in Hughton's premature sacking. Carroll was seen as a marked man for his part in it, so there was a refusal to give Carroll a better deal, rather send him packing to Liverpool on Mike's chopper at first sniff of the money. Nolan and Barton paid to leave on free despite being important first teamers, Barton coming off the back of his best season. Everything we're seeing now can likely be traced back to a blueprint and president set by Llambias. We only ever were in the need for Pardew due to Llambias' running of the club and decisions that impacted management/players and Hughton's sacking, and thus with no Pardew we'd never have had Bruce.

We get them on wages which are relatively low for a Premier League club but way more than they’d get in Holland, France, Italy, etc. If they turn out bad signings, you’re stuck with them because they’re not going to leave the wage that will set them up for life to take a pay cut. Can’t say I blame them to an extent. Aye don't blame them staying to collect what's theirs, but that's not really the problem. For whatever reason the club seem to have a 'not to negotiate with terrorists' stance with just cutting their loses and paying off whatever percentage is needed to get players to new clubs. Just ties in with whatever sporting decisions being made above Bruce not understanding, or giving a toss about how their decisions impact team performance. No manager would want players around the training ground that aren't involved in squads, or surplus to requirements - not even in a bomb squad training with U23's Bound to have been clubs in Europe in 2018 that would have taken Saivet for a percentage of his remaining contract/bonus; we sent him to Turkey on loan so no way there wasn't a club that his agent could have found him. Likewise with Atsu.

Think Llambias is more to blame for that time than Pardew, he was responsible for only bringing in Anita that summer thus not capitalising on Pardew lucking out to 5th place. Invest from that position of strength, and we'd have generated revenue and elevated the club stature to back where it was at least post Robson. Pardew would have surely wanted reinforcements, but whatever objections he would have raised fell to death ears; although he wasn't in a position to be demanding anyway. Llambias had his whole 'purple' debacle, which inevitably saw Demba Ba leave on a pittance instead of getting his deal sorted before it came to a head. He had brought Cisse in, so saw Ba as expendable. He also ripped apart that dressing room that got us promoted, of which we've never really recovered; he was quick to shift Carroll out instead of giving him a deal he would have signed. Not to mention failing to sign any of the numerous talents Carr spotted and put on a plate for him - Remy, PEA, Varane off top of my head. Can blame Pards for many and much, but Llambias in my eyes is the real devil that's paved our current misery. He's the c*** that's responsible for the model of sporting direction we've had for the past 10 years, which defacto sees the dross we watch on match day.

Think Pards had a different sort of tactical uselessness. Don't think Bruce would have ever got such a tune out of successes we saw in those years. Whilst Cabaye was the brilliant in spite of Pardew managing and coaching him, seem to think him playing in the Bruceball we've seen last 18months he'd have been dragged down to Bruce's level. Pardew at times actually had a 'lets play' approach, often to the detriment - whilst Bruce says that through genuinely being incompetent and out of touch with coaching.

We had a few highs under Pardew. Obviously there's the 4-4, the 5th place finish, the Europa League run, quite a few surprising one off wins, beating Man Utd at Old Trafford for the first time in 41 years, but with Bruce there's nowt. It's just been an absolute shitfest, and amazingly it's getting worse. I liked a lot more of the players back then in Pardew's teams. Had likes of Cabaye, Hatem and Ba not toss pots like Shelvey, Joe and Carroll. Helps to overshadow a lot of Pardew's indiscretions. Even had a soft spot for Santon even though he was forever wasted on that left side, now watching Lewis fail at life for 90mins just frustrates me. Also, time is a healer - and we're a few years on and Twitter world, 24 hour coverage is even greater not sure how we'd really deal with ourselves having Pardew get us dicked ten games on the spin and concede 4+ everywhere we went.

Hendrick is the only footballer I've ever seen be consistently 2 seconds behind where he needs to be. Spends all game chasing where he should have just been. Genuinely has a talent for it judging by his interception stats dragged up the other week. Would hate to be on his side doing the passing boxes in training

Not saying much, but I'd say that Bruce would have done a better job with that squad than McLaren. Wouldn't have had us going down. Total crime that we went down with that squad.

Maybe he’ll push for Bruce to replace him with his front foot football.

'the first time I've had a manager had a whole plan for me....' Needed someone to grate his cheese for his chips?

Never developed that side of his game. Strong case to say he's a worse player than what he was when he was at Liverpool but now he's a notably slower; even in recent seasons I can remember him having a little turn of pace to shimmy away from a player. Never had a great physical side to his game, and never become defensively aware. That's why he never cut it at Liverpool, Monk who'd watched him from sidelines long enough at Swansea quickly called him out as lazy once he was stuck in charge. He's always had technique and good ball striking, that's all that's sustained him as a PL player. In another world he'd have never joined us, got relegated with Swansea and spent the rest of his career at Championship level. Happens to countless players you always take for granted are PL standard but never find their way back. In all seriousness, someone who's been retired seasons like Frank Lampard got to match fit they'd be better in our midfield.

Just more big media banging on about Spurs, the attention they draw is totally disproportionate. It's really pretty boring. That being said, they were dire to watch last night; no pun intended but Dire was particularly useless. Sissoko looked past it. Hjolberg only one looked half interested, even Son was totally anonymous. Was thinking when I was watching Mourinho used to be able to get much more out of less-than players, and build hard ass sides in Porto and Inter - have to wonder what Mourinho is playing at.

Torn between this, and some dim hope that we pick up, so I can enjoy watching us play football again. ASM coming back is a tiny ray of hope. A large part of me wants us to totally tank, and just about stay up before the last few games. Somehow after that Villa game he's ridden out a big storm of pressure and national media finally clocking how s**** he is. 30mins of Leeds being mental, and an actual decent display against Everton and pressure on him seems to have dissipated. Pardew used to get us battered by less than giant sides quite reguarly. That's what we need for Bruce to squirm again, get battered, 3,4,5-0 by someone like Southampton, Wolves or even Leicester or Spurs.

Just another example of the uselessness of whatever sporting directorship is at board level or above management/coaching level. Served a job in the Championship, arguably the season we were back up, but should have been moved on end of 17/18, not least should never have signed such a long term deal we shouldn't be in a situation where he's still at the club, and even worse outside the PL registration in 2020/21. Just an example of lack of ambition at this club. Any other club should envisage themselves outgrowing the need for a player such as Atsu and never sign him to a contract that long. Charnley though, sees him as someone who should be going on making 200+ apperances for us, 80% of which are shite 5/10 at best performances. State of our squad is just baffling. We've been over stocked on PL registered players since the summer, and still Saivet is unregistered. So we've got 25 over 21 players, doing what exactly then up until a month or so ago Atsu, Saivet, Aarons and Lazaar just picking up a paycheck and around the training ground. Most other sides will have 25-30 senior squad, but will have a fair share of U21's and/or academy players that are getting game time, serving purpose to the first team who don't need registering. We've literally only Anderson and Matty around first team squads who don't need registering. Then we loan in another clubs youth team player when were f***ing paying Henri Saivet to do nothing.

I'd want to see; Dubravka Manquillo Clark/Hayden Schar Ricthie Hendrick Hayden/Matty Matty/Fraser ASM Almiron Wilson What I expect from Snorlax; Darlow - Kraft, Hayden, Schar, Manquillo - Shelvey, Sean, Hendrick - Wilson, ASM, Almiron With no Lewis, reckon he'll shove Manquillo over on the left side. That'll totally kill his form playing on wrong side, he's never been any good ever at LB, it'll kill any natural width with right footer out there, and it'll have Kraft at RB who's a total timebomb. Ritchie at least has a decent left foot still, and isn't so much of a pussy as Lewis, although he can't defend and Walcott/Walker-Peters will have him on toast. Shelvey needs dropping! Southampton proved their too quick for him in midfield, and he's a liability in defensive transition. Never been dropped though and never going to be. Always plays him when he isn't anywhere near 100%. He's stand in skipper, and Bruce sees him as the only option to be able to control midfield/keep the ball because he'll occasionally look good on the eye. Plus he scored last time out... In an ideal world wouldn't have Hendrick anywhere near match day squad, but no f***er else to play. Hayden playing in defence will be huge loss, stand out midfielder last couple of games - he's the glue that holds the basketcase midfield of Jeff and Jonjo together. Would want to see Fraser, Almiron and ASM in the same side - he's played Fraser in CM against Wolves, and wouldn't mind seeing him a little deeper to allow ASM coming in. Would alleviate the need to have Sean play, or a midfield including Shelvey, Hendrick and Sean which is bound to happen. Him and Matty in midfield with Hayden wouldn't be too bad I don't think, would at least go some way to match Southampton's energy.

Would have be canny if he hadn't loaned out our best CB (butter fingers would have probably had dim injured anyhow)

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