Wes

Well good luck to Palace with that. Oulare to Watford for £5m would be a deal I'd like to hijack.

Played half as long as Bacuna, had 29 passes to Leandros 33. He makes things tick along. The right wing position today had a freer role than most because Hutton was having the run of the right flank. With such freedom Gil is almost always going to be more effective due to their comparative skills. If he was fit enough for 90 minutes I imagine he would've been given the start. We'll see what happens after the international break.

There's enough people here being overly negative so I'll just lay out the positives: Second team goal was a proper team goal and a thing of beauty. Sinclair in form. Gana is an absolute engine. Amavi is class. When Gil is capable of playing 90 minutes we'll be in much better shape as a squad. We're getting away more shots.

The right substitution.

Gil for Bacuna would be timely now. Game is stretched so his dribbling would be an asset.

Deflection.

Sanchez Showboat!

Five things about this goal (from this half of the clip): Gana's perfectly Weighted passin front of Amavi. Amavi's first touch and then inch perfect low cross. Sinclair hussling to get in to the box. Gestede taking a position at the far post meaning Sinclair just has to beat one Central Defender. You can see Kaboul point at Sinclair but then back off because he knows he has to cover Gestede. Sinclair times his run perfectly to meet the cross.

Just to highlight a positive for Gestede because he was getting bashed a lot this half: If he doesn't take up his positioning at the far post for the second goal Sinclair has a much harder time trying to get that in. Eradicated the problem we had when Gabby and Ayew both went for the near post recently.

This is what we said before he signed. He is prone to taking risks defensively, the first evidence of that whilst playing for us was at the end of the Palace game, but that's a risk I'll happily take for all the other facets he brings to the game. He'll only improve upon his decision making in the future.

That is a flipping fantastic team goal.

Amazing by Richards. Couldn't get that wrong.

In other news, Stoke down to 9 men.

That said, Gestede winning the ball led to that corner. Too early to write him off. He's made one or two nice flicks too that Bacuna hasn't caught on to. He's just not at the paces yet.

Early prediction. Ayew will score two in the second half.

Liking that the likes of Gana and Westwood are taking shots.

If the Malaga trip by Sherwood was for a player perhaps it was for Florin Andone of Córdoba. Could only see that is Kozak was heading out.

Think Richardson will be kept purely because of his experience and versatility. He's not a bad squad player to have at all. Similar to Cole. Good to have a few old heads around the place.

Yes yes yes! Can't wait for his first cameo as a sub running straight at the opposing left back.

Don't forget Sherwood will likely want to bring some through the academy too. If things got so bad that we couldn't field a central 3 then we now have enough attacking options that we could revert a to just a central pairing and then 3 more attacking midfielders. I think generally Tim would much prefer not having to play purely with a 2. He likes a 3 where one of side of the trio bombs foreword from deep, leaving the other two as a double pivot of sorts whilst in an attacking position.

Thought I'd have a stab at the final 25 + (Under 21s). Please try to get past where I've put people and the formation please! Just it's easier to see our relative positional depth in a chart like this rather than a straight table. -------------------------------- Guzan/Steer/Bunn -------------------------------- Hutton/Crespo ---- Richards/Okore -- Clark/Baker ------ Amavi(21)/Bennett -------- Gana/Bacuna ---- Westwood/Sanchez --- Vertout/Gardner ------- + Richardson Gil/Adama(21)/Agbonlahor --------------------------- Grealish(21)/Sinclair/Cole ------------------------------- Gestede/Ayew/Kozak ------------------------------ 24 + 3 Classifying as Under 21 (Amavi was born after 1 January 1994) That means from the "First Team Squad" shipping out N'Zogbia, Senderos and Tonev. Think these three most have agreed upon are unlikely to be among Tim's plans. So Having 3 First Team players classifying as Under 21 we would have space for one more player. I think that's either N'Zogbia, if he stays, some new player, or it'll remain open for use in January. We could still sign an Under 21 (Still think we'll try to sign a developmental right back).

Interesting dilemma tomorrow for Tim. Does he play Gestede from the start or use him as a sub around 60 minutes? (He said in his press conference he likely wouldn't play a full game yet).

Thought he didn't play too bad at all for a debut. I think if it wasn't for such a really good showing from other debutants (Amavi, Gana and Gestede) his performance wouldn't have been highlighted as much as it has been.

Rewatched the full game this evening. Sherwood changed the game with his second substitution that had an immediate impact. Gestede was on and we had just had our best chance from Westwood's attempted cross being put in towards him from an inside left position (the one that fell to Gabby, rebounded to Rudy, who couldn't connect as well as he would've like). Eddie Howe played a card of his own. He put Gradel on the left which immediately caused Bacuna all sorts of problems. Caused two chances in a couple of minutes. Veretout had mostly been on the right hand side of the three in the midfield in the second half but was tiring. He wouldn't be able to provide much cover for Bacuna. Taking Veretout of for Sanchez provided the following: Move Westwood out wide to provide crosses to Gestede and has the discipline to know when to track back to cover Bacuna. Sanchez in again to cover if Gradel cut inside in to a central position. Sanchez's first touch? A ball out wide to Westwood who wins the corner with a dangerous cross. Puts in the corner that Rudy scores from. Sherwood's first tactical reaction to the goal? Pointing to Guzan. Knew we had to concentrate at the back (conceded too many late goals in the last year).

Might be wrong but the 6m fee may have meant the auto inclusion of a buy back clause. Perhaps the 10m fee gets rid of that?