matrim

Fantastic

That was a good run from cleverly

Benteke had been shit so far

Unlucky wiemann

Is Burke a striker or winger?

Not a bad lineup. Reasonably positive and except for Cleverly starting I'm happy enough with it Given Hutton Okore Clark [c] Richardson, Bacuna Sanchez Cleverley Gil Weimann Benteke Or maybe Gil on the left wing in a 442

I'd be fine with selling him during the summer but selling him now would be suicide. To replace him now we'd have to pay over the odds and just waste the money we get for him. Instead of doing it during the summer where we could have time to look properly and get in 2 or 3 players for the money

He's bought some decent players, but I don't think he's used his money well at all. He bought Bennett, Luna, Bacuna and Lowton as full backs, none of whom were any good there, so he's had to go back to using a player that was frozen out for two years. Then there are the nothing players like KEA, Tonev, Bowery, Sylla and so on who individually didn't cost much, but when you add it all up we'd have been much better with fewer, more expensive players, As everybody rightly points out though, it's his complete lack of coaching ability that is the main reason he should be sacked. But all of those players probably cost around 10m alltogether. I think the most expensive of the bunch was probably Lowton for about 2m. They were mostly cheap buys in the hopes that they could improve into a decent PL player. You will always get misses when you do that, and even from your list Bacuna, Lowton and KEA were / are ok. They aren't the best but can fill a position in the squad and deputise in the case of injury. If you wanted to be sure that you would fill those positions with proven quality you'd probably be talking about at least 5m per player.

I can understand that with Gabby and we could play Grealish or N'Zogbia there I guess - but it looks like Grealish will be going out on loan and I don't think N'Zogbia is going to give us any more that Gabby so I'd leave him in there and see if Gil can get anything out of him. I'd be happy with Grealish there if available. I'd prefer Weimann up top with Benteke and Bacuna on the right. Guzan Hutton Okore Clark Cissokho Sanchez Bacuna Delph Gil Weimann Benteke I'd go with something similar but wouldn't mind Lowton instead of Hutton and / or Baker for one of Okore / Clark If Robinson and Grealish are still here at the weekend I'd like to see them get some time too

It's also hard because he is often up to on his own being double marked. Of we had any other threatening players teams wouldn't be able to do that

Commentators today saying how he might snub us for Everton during the Summer. I'd be surprised if Everton were in for him again seeing how poor he has been for us.

Himself and Baker had a few shakey moments today but overall were ok. For the first goal, Okore stepped up to play offside and Baker didn't so Borini got in. But it's hard to say who was at fault for that. Okore being the one marking the man probably shouldn't have stepped up until Baker did but baker should have been quicker to move out

Agree. I thought he did well today and his movement was a good part of why we had that strong 20 minutes. Would like to see him start up front with Benteke and Gil behind

There have been a few good interchanges between Wiemann and Gil

How are we supposed to score when our attackers include Gabby "aimlessly run into players" Agbonlahor and Tom "do nothing" Cleverly

Gabby is so shit

As others have mentioned the problem is movement. We are happy enough to pass it around the back 4 but when we move forward there is no movement. There was a time against Leicester where Cole had the ball about 30 yards out and was moving towards the wing. Cleverly just stood there about 5 yards from him not trying to create space. You could see the frustration on Coles face when he had to just knock it back to Westwood It should be pass and move, to try to get the ball forward in a positive manner. Instead it's pass and stay because you can't be caught out of position if the next pass is bad. Part of this may also be because of how narrow we are. There is often little space because everyone is bunched towards the center and no one is trying to create space on the wings or behind the full backs The other problems are that we sometimes stick to it too rigidly. It's nice to try do it, but if the opposition are pushed up against our defenders it can be fine to just play a long ball to Benteke. Or if someone makes an early run, play it to them. We used to do the quick counter attack, where Gabby, Wiemann etc broke quickly from a corner, but now you see Guzan catch it while everyone just jogs forward waiting for the short pass.

It looks like Scott Marshall is acting as the AM job at the moment and he certainty seemed fired up against Leicester, having a go at Pearson and the forth officials

Clark has been at his best with Okore beside him and from the 2 Clark is the more senior and seems to be the one leading the defence and setting the line most of the time. I think Okore has helped him because he probably feels comfortable that Okore will do his job and can concentrate on his own, while with Baker he suffered because of watching out for a mistake. But to say he needs someone to marshall him is wrong

Guzan Hutton Okore Clark Cissoko Sanchez Westwood Grealish Cole Gabby Benteke

Benteke

Think bentene should start along with grealish. Would be good for both if they could get some goals or assists. Hopefully bacuna will start and cole can get some time to get some fitness up

If you look at the stats he's our top goal scorer and has our most assists. His passing success rate and key pass stats are better than both Benteke and Gabby. Now we've scored **** all but that says more about the other forwards that it does about Wiemann. His touch and composure can be poor but if you look at most of our good chances / goals he's usually involved in the play. I'd like to see him rotated more with the likes of Grealish so that we have different options but he's hardly the worst player we have and at the moment I'd rather see Gabby dropped than Wiemann

Benteke should have been braver there and we would have scored

He could have done better but Benteke should have played that ball earlier and he would have had a one on one