Risso

Wordle 822 3/6*

Are the minutes from the advisory board meeting not available yet? Surely one of the conditions fromthe point of view of fans attending (who I'm grateful to by the way for sparing their time) should be that what's spoken about can be reported freely? Or otherwise, what's the point?

Wordle 821 4/6*

Only a minor point, but why has he got Pau on his shirt, rather than Torres? For me, if you're going to dick around with having anything other than your surname on your back then you need to make sure you're absolutely beyond reproach playing wise!

I think we'll be in the Europa League next season one way or the other, so don't think people trying to snaffle him will a big problem. If he didn't leave when we were dire under Gerrard, I don't think he will now.

The other thing is that until they bring in some sorts of sensor in the ball and players' boots, it's impossible to tell the precise moment when the ball left a player's boot anyway, so decisions down to millimetres are nonsense by definition.

Whoscored had him as our second best player yesterday and I'd agree with that.

I haven't been impressed by his brief cameos so far, and yesterday when he came on he seemed to be a bit slap dash. But then wallop, two absolutely top class long passes and we've won the game. Hope that gives him the confidence to really step it up with us, I'd be starting him ahead of Kamara the next few games.

Football operations are ludicously simple and predictable though, and they should be able to deal with more than one item at a time. They've got a season that runs between August and May, and they can predict pretty much to the penny what the turnover is.

Agreed Nays. He's defending fairly poorly with a major mistake leading to a goal or a goal scoring opportunity every game so far. And they're not silly errors of the sort that Mings used to make when we first came up, they're basic lack of strength and pace which are going to be targeted by every team we play. He was easily outmuscled off the ball in the lead up to the Palace goal yesterday, and then when he was trying to retrieve the situation it looked like he was running through treacle. His passing is an asset against lesser teams where we have the majority of possession, but anybody with strength and pace up front he's going to struggle against. Early days and I've been wrong often enough to hope he'll come right, but you can't really learn physicality and speed. I'm not a fan, thus far.

1 goal in 12 games in the league now isn't it?

He's not though really is he?

Yes, easy to forget he's only 23, so probably just a drop in form that a lot of young players experience from time to time. But he hasn't been very good this season so far, mostly.

You can see the difference in quality between Watkins and Diaby in today's game. Watkins is full of running and effort, but his first touch is usually terrible and his decision making quite suspect. He goes on far too many runs of games when he doesn't look like scoring.

Did very well coming on, hopefully now he's got a bit of competition he can maintain that standard.

I thought he was decent today, and starting him and then bringing Bailey on looked like the right call to me. Zaniolo looks to have much better physicality than Bailey so will be used more away I think, but then Bailey came on and made a difference with his pace and directness, so all good.

Sorry, he still worries me immensely. He should perhaps be playing in midfield as his passing is top notch, but his defending really looks very ropey indeed. He's had numerous dodgy bits of play in every game this season so far, and it's all due to his lack of strength and pace.

This lad is absolute quality. That first touch for the non-goal was stupidly brilliant, the ball was really travelling and he controlled it with sumptuous ease.

Fantastic goal, absolutely top drawer technique. Got a decent effort off a few minutes before as well.

Apparently next season it's going to be another terrace View type thing.

Wordle 819 2/6*

Wordle 817 4/6* Meh.

Wordle 816 4/6*

Wordle 815 3/6*

Wordle 814 4/6*