OutByEaster?

Is Grealish that slight?

There's a bit of paper talk about him potentially going in January today.

For me: ------------------Gollini--------------------- Hutton-----Baker-------Chester----Amavi -----------------Jedinak-------------------- ------Bacuna------------Westwood------- Adomah---------------------------Grealish -----------------Kodjia--------------------- Subs: Bunn, Elphick, Gardner, Ayew, Cissokho, Agbonlahor, Tshibola I'd like to have been able to put Gestede on that bench in fairness. I worry for McCormack - I think he'll struggle to make the bench in our current system.

That seems quite a sensible quote.

That's interesting and I think in principal I agree with you - for me our best eleven is the 4-3-3 not the 4-2-3-1 - the "away" formation if you like. I'm not sure whether I'd pick Grealish or Ayew in that one.

There goes the free home cup game with this season's season ticket.

I think at the moment, if Kodjia and Adomah are definites (and I hope they are) then you're looking at one of Grealish or Ayew in away games with three proper midfielders behind them and in home games a choice of two of Ayew, Grealish and McCormack with two proper midfielders behind them. At the moment I think Bruce has it right, Grealish starting all the home ones and coming on in the away ones.

It'll be interesting - I have a feeling that when McCormack is fit, McCormack may struggle to make the bench. I'm happy with Ayew and his season, despite his being flat for the last couple of games.

I apologise a little to Iceland on the name rights thing. I'm a pissy sod today. However, I'm happy we've got a thread started for when I'm next annoyed.

Well, that's difficult to argue against and perhaps the initial statement was a bit harsh. Personally I don't think they're good enough and I think if they played elsewhere they'd be the type of players we barely knew existed, but you're right, they'd get into Championship teams. I think we need more for two reasons - because of quality, but also and perhaps more importantly, because in a three man midfield all of the midfielders we have (with the exception of Bacuna) want to play at the base of the three - the position with least running - we have four holding midfielders and Bacuna - and I think we could do with four midfielders in the squad that aren't holding midfielders. At the moment, we're trying to get Westwood to do more than he's comfortable with, we've tried to get Gardner doing more, but it's not working - there's no support for the front players and no creativity and there's not enough energy when we haven't got the ball.

My favourite current Nestle fact is that they bottle 68,000 gallons of Californian water a day - that's 68,000 gallons of water in an area with incredible problems with drought. When asked they say this: http://www.nestle.com/ask-nestle/environment/answers/our-operations-in-california That opening sentence should really say "Because people need to pay to drink water" in line with how I believe they think. Essentially their answer is - 'we're not wasting water, we're helping make it available' - they skip the bit with massive profits and the destruction of the state. Oh and incidentally, how much do Nestle pay California for the rights to all that water? A pretty penny you'd think - something to adequately compensate the millions of people that live there for the loss of one of their most fundamental needs - well.... $524 a year. I haven't missed an "m" or a "k" off that - they pay five hundred and twenty four dollars a year for the rights to the 36 million gallons they took out last year.

So he did. What I will say is that as impressive as he may have been in those four minutes, when I've seen him for the reserves, he's nowhere near the level of the likes of Luke Moore, Darius Vassell, or Nathan Delfouneso at the same age. I'd like to see him a couple more times, but at the moment on what I've seen he's miles away from the first team.

It's sometimes not possible to blame the political interface for the actions of corporations - sometimes you have to open a thread so that you can directly call them out on being the evil nasty bloodsuckers they are. As a starter, here's a supermarket threatening a nation because the supermarket is claiming it legally owns the nations name. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38201571 From the sectionptio The arrogance of the supermarket chain here really boils my piss.

It just don't go well for Man U this year does it?

Ibra getting a bit lucky there - dumb by the keeper, but the defender should have been chasing it up, he'd have got there.

Ref saw it and booked him so there will be no retrospective ban - but it's a far worse tackle than the one yesterday by Aguero.

Barry should probably have been booked a second time for handball. The problem with this sort of refereeing approach is that players will think it's licence to go in high and late - this one won't end well.

Michael Oliver feeling very generous in the Everton - Man Utd game. Barry should have been booked and Rojo should have had a red for a two footed jump into Idrissa Gueye which for me is a worse tackle than the one by Aguero yesterday.

If you compare our midfield to our forward line, then our shortcomings become even clearer. Kodjia, Grealish, Ayew, Gestede, Adomah, Agbonlahor, McCormack, Hepburn-Murphy, Kozak and Green all have squad numbers and are all players that can feature in our front line. Bacuna, Westwood, Tshibola, Gardner, Jedinak, Lyden are the midfield equivalents. Now there's a case to be made to say that Grealish could belong in either group, and I can understand that but even if you remove him, there are nine options in the front line and six in the midfield. Bruce is right when he says we have too many strikers and I think we'll see Kozak leave in January - he's playing in all of our reserve games and is very much being put in the shop window. Without him, it's still eight up front and six in the middle. Amongst the two groups there are players that aren't currently legitimate first team options - Hepburn-Murphy and Green from the front line and Lyden from the middle - so in terms of actual first team option that you could pick, we have six forwards and five midfielders. That's a little more balanced isn't it? Kodjia, Ayew, Adomah, Gestede, Agbonlahor, McCormack are the six forwards we're talking about. Bacuna, Westwood, Tshibola, Gardner and Jedinak are the midfielders. Quality-wise, those two groups are a mile apart. Our front line features some of the most dangerous strikers in this division - our midfield doesn't have a single player that promotion rivals would be desperate to get their hands on. Our front line would be the stars of just about any team in the championship - our midfield would be the bench of most of the clubs in this division. Individually, (and here's where I suspect there'll be some disagreement) I think Westwood is the best of them (and that ought to be enough to tell you something) he can pass a ball, he's got some energy and he's got a good amount of experience. He's also got a big mistake in him, he struggles with confidence and he's not a player that can dominate physically or be a creative force. Jedinak is 32, he's big, experienced, very good in the air and a reassuring presence - but he's really poor on the ball, he's not got great mobility and with age he struggles to influence games in any role other than as a back four protector. He's essentially becoming a centre back in midfield. Useful enough for now, especially given our limitations, but he's a very limited footballer. Gardner is in the biggest season of his career - can he influence games and can he have an impact - he's not got great energy, he's not going to get from box to box and he's not a player that is going to use his running to change games. He's reasonable on the ball and at his best sitting in front of the back four with the game in front of him - it's notable that since Jedinak arrived, Gardner has struggled - Jedinak performs the role of limited midfielder better than he does - and when asked to perform a more expansive role, Gardner's limitations are exposed. What for me is a real problem with this three is that ideally, they'd all want to do the same job - they'd all want to be the mop-up man, with two hard running midfielders in front of them - when only one can do that job, the others struggle to impact games. Bacuna is a reasonable footballer, capable of being a decent right back and a passable central midfield player - the kind of player every team needs in their squad to rotate and keep players fit - a good bench option. Tshibola remains the wild card - he's another who isn't a midfielder that dominates through energy, although he has a bit more mobility than most of our group - he's strong and he's got some enthusiasm along with some ability on the ball, but he's raw and he looks to me like he occasionally needs a kick up the arse to keep him moving. I have a feeling that until he can show he wants to play for the reserves he's not going to get many opportunities to play for the first team. I"m also not sure that he's ultimately what the first team really needs at the moment in terms of style. Five midfield options - not one of them is a running midfielder; a Cleverley or a Gaye or a Boateng even - and none of them are particularly creative either - in fact, between them, their lack of mobility means that they're not good at keeping possession even - either because they're poor at passing the ball or because they aren't mobile enough to get into positions to receive it. Our goals tally is severely hampered by our inability to play through the middle, to have midfielders support the forwards, to have the ball played through the middle and create chances from around the box - our goals are long balls and individual moments of genius - which is nice - but a bit more cake to go with that icing will be required. In terms of our front line, in order to have a squad that is capable and likely to be promoted, I don't think we'd need to do a thing. In terms of our midfield, in order to have a squad that is capable and likely to be promoted, I think we need three players. I think we need legs, I think we need running, I think we need zest and zip and all those other nice words that express energy and creativity and control. I think we have to buy that in. It simply isn't there in the current group. There are areas elsewhere that can be strengthened, but nothing close to the need we have in the middle of the park in my opinion.

I know there's been a lot more support for him of late, but I've not seen anything that's really convinced me. All three of our central midfielders seem much of a muchness.

Not good enough, needs to be replaced. I'm all for signing leaders, but we might as well have Barack Obama in front of our back four.

It might be for the best in the long run - we've come through seven games unbeaten despite only dominating for 30 minutes against Brighton. We don't control games, but we have individuals who can get us goals and organisation that can keep us solid - that's different to being good - ultimately this is still a team with a poor midfield and we showed it today. We can still do stuff in this league despite that, but for success we need to change that. Westwood is the best of them, but isn't really good enough, Gardner isn't great and Jedinak is rubbish but big - if he was 5'10" he'd be nowhere near the first team - Tshibola isn't ready - and we need to buy at least two central midfielders in January if we want to get up. It's a defeat against a decent side, we'll have those, we're not bad, but our weakness is obvious - we'll do alright as we are - the question in January will be about whether alright is enough for our ambitions.

Meh

Midfield isn't good enough - ultimately none of these three are really the kind of quality we'll need if we're going up. Back four have been decent again and the forwards have worked hard - but against any team that can compete with us physically and are organised, we'll struggle.

We're looking a bit brighter on the break.