rubberman

Against Leicester we needed a midfielder on, not Ayew (who was in no sort of form).  Against Liverpool we were behind and having shown some form midweek he must have been worth a shout as we were already losing.

I'd go with AntrimBlack's team.  Gil to come on if Jack's getting no joy or Ayew's not on it.

Really good opportunity to get a result here.  Need everyone on their A game, sensible line up and game management from Tim.  

If we click and can finally keep it together for a whole game 1-2 win for us.

What's his current contract - anyone know?

Grealish, Traore, Ayew, and to an extent Veretout and Gil are all young and (injuries notwithstanding) will need to have breaks so I would expect them to be rotated in and out through the season.  I don't think we'll see them all together often if at all this season.  Especially if we stay in the Cups.

This thread....

A tight win - 2-1.  Bound to be nerve shredding. 

1-0 Scrappy win by a Lescott header.  The former player things gonna happen when Liverpool play us so we need to dole it out now as we aren't playing many ligue 1 sides for a while.

Is that the Sunderland we couldn't beat at home?

God, is this last season stuff still going on?  It's done.  We stayed up.  Move on.

Now Gil is featuring in a much more exciting, attacking line up and looking like the player we all hoped he would be.  Let's see him continue to progress, score some more and help us get the results we deserve.  Starting that on Saturday would be good.

That's my position at the moment too.  I'd prefer to have points but I don't think we're far away from putting together some good (full 90 min) performances.  A couple of players back and Tim learning how to use subs properly and react to opposition changes and we'll see the results improve.  I think Tim will learn from the last few games, but he needs to learn fast.

Can hardly believe I'm saying it, but would be happy with a draw.  We should be due a bit of luck soon though.

Ha!  Can we just leave him in position for a bit longer - it's taken enough time to find someone who can play there.

He could well be waiting to see if Ireland qualify this time round.  Tough choice, but I don't think it's going to affect his future with Villa that much, but it is a bit of a lose-lose situation for him.

Merson looks like he's aiming to get in a fat-ex-footballers team with Neville Southall, Maradona and Ronaldo.

If I compare Swansea and us, with respect to our first XI strengths, I can only see one player we have who is superior to their option (Amavi > Taylor). Even Grealish, who I rate hugely, wouldn't be in a team ahead of Montero, Sigurdsson or Ayew. 

I think they'd bite your hand off for Grealish.  Also Amavi and Traore.

But your point still stands that they are ahead of us for now, not by much I don't think though.

I'm surprisingly not too worried about goals.  We only scored 31 last season but shipped 57.  We've managed 4 in 4, which while not record-breakingly good, is not record-breakingly bad against a fairly representative set of clubs so far.  

We've barely played our most creative players, haven't played our strongest line-up and are in the earliest stages of playing together as a squad.  Add in a vastly improved defence and we'll be picking up more wins along the way.  10th-12th should be achievable, but not dropping below 14th would be great thanks.

(I would like the sky 4 to stop losing to teams that we're likely be in competition with though).

My other thought is that it seems to be very much a moneyball window. I'm guessing there is an algorithm that says how many goals Ayew should be contributing and so on for the rest of the signings and that's been compared to want we scored last year and what we need to score.

None of the signings seem to have been driven by emotion - everything seems to have been well considered.

I've been thinking about it all. I really wanted us to sign another proven goalscorer today but it's not that bad a miss.

We'll probably only play one striker once everyone's fit and we have enough to choose from depending on the opposition and who's in form. Sinclair is looking like a complete bargain already.

Defence already looked better before today and now should be really solid. Guzan will be fine with Micah and Joleon in front of him.

Midfield looks strong at the back and exciting at the front & out wide.

It'll be full of ups and downs but I think we'll be fine if not spectacular this season. What excites me is the potential over the next few years - this could be the beginning of something special.

Overall a very good window, but can't help feeling that no proven striker is going to bite us on the arse.

Come on Scotty!

Austin must be gutted.  Apart from De Gea he's been the most 'nailed on' to move somewhere all summer.

You can see it now, we're bursting forward on the break like against Sunderland and he's still standing hands on hips (ala Ginola) in the centre circle when the balls put in the box

^This.  It's a no from me.

I'd say Gayle is not a bad call (for a reasonable price).  We've got a big target fella, we need a poacher to get on the end of knockdowns and low crosses.

There really doesn't seem to be much quality out there overall though - everyone seems to be in need of a decent striker.

I can't believe we're going to end up with Berbatov.  Say it ain't so, Tim.