Keener window-cleaner

Wow, this felt like one of those equations at the maths lessons at school!

I'm still not ready to jump on the sack RDM bandwagon. Mainly because I want stability. If we sacked him now we would be looking for our 7th manager in 1,5 years (Lambert, Sherwood, MacDonald, Garde, Black, RDM) and that in itself is just detrimental, regardless of the other circumstances. I don't think 1 win, 7 draws and 2 losses in 10 games is bad enough to warrant being sacked, as long as he is fully committed and hasn't lost the support from the players.

Someone please get hold of that video! What could it be? A pep talk? Just a good luck message? Some chineese sayings? Mao quotes? And what would he wear on the video?

So Bacuna is suspended for Saturday, and I'd rather not have either Richards or Hutton as right back, so why not try Westwood? At least it would decrease his possibility of sideways passing by 50%.

Very much this, all of it!

I remember we he won the Champions League with Chelsea, he did it by playing a defensive parking the bus style of play. I was a bit worried that we would get this defensive, over tactical Italian style of play here as well. But so far he has confused me. At times, like against Newcastle and Ipswich, the set up was clearly defensive. But in other matches it has more seemed like he has set up with an unbalanced over attacing style of play, some kind o 4-2-4 (where the two in the middle rather could be described as one or one and a half). I've defended RDM before and I still think it would be detrimental to sack him now, but I must say that I am less optimistic than I was a couple of games ago. I thought he got the formation right yesterday, except that I would have wanted McScoremack/Gestede instead of Grealish, but still it seemed as if we didn't play any good, at least not in the first half.

One loss in the last nine games, sounds better than it is...

Wow that link was magic!!!

Congregating is actually a very nice word!

Thanks for the clip! That was the nutmeg I meant in an earlier post. It's just pure class, more of this! More more more!!

Fully agree, it's so exciting to see him take on players and dribbling that much. That little nutmeg just at the end of the game when he flicked it through the leg's of some sorry Newcastle defender and went past was my favourite. There should be a daily nutmeg battle between Ayew and Kodjia after every game.

I retirate, I usually slag him off all the time so I just wanted to be a little bit positive, but you are right :-D

Wonderful to see a new player scoring so early! More of the same please! Would like to see him be given more responsibility in a two man midfield, seems to be good with the ball and tries to pick out good passes. Remains to be seen if he is solid and reliable enough defensively, but hopefully he can be given a more attacking role with Jedinak cleaning up behind him.

I think that was the main reason, three at the back that hadn't played together in that formation before. Chester suddenly on the right hand side and Elpfick given some old sweeper position. It looked so much better in the second when we reverted to a back four, and then we even still had Bacuna in that back four...

Feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle here, but I think he contributes a lot, also today. He is strong and wins a lot of the one on one battles and he is very good in the air, both defensively and in attack. He tries to spread the passes and drives us forward as well. He had some awkward moments today, especially in the first half, but I would say that was partly because of the formation that confused some of the players. For me he has delivered as expected so far. An inch or two on our side and his goal wouldn't have been offside, and I think the reactions would have been different.

I disagree. He contributes very much defensively, is strong and very good in the air. He is a great precence in the middle of the pitch. As seen today he is a threat on corners as well. His passing isn't always great, but at least he tries to drive the team forward.

He is a constant liability, occasionally good intentions or good moves, only to in the next moment give the ball away or do something headless. Hands up, he was ok today, but still don't want him in the team.

Not sure what his position was supposed to be in this game, neither first or second half. Hopefully we will go with Jedinak and Tshibola in the middle.

Hopefully the change in performance in the second half ends this three at the back crap once and for all. 4-4-2 with RB, Elphick, Chester, Amavi; Adomah, Jedinak, Tshibola, Ayew; Kodjia, McScoremack (with Gestede coming on) will spank any team in the league. Very nice to see that Amavi is back to his old best, he was a constant threat going forward. Kodjia very good again.

I am a bit worried about this one, compared to Newcastle I think it is clear that we haven't yet found our feet with the formation or line-up. We don't seem fully settled yet. Hopefully the crowd helps us and lifts the team!

So basically we remove one striker and put in one more center back? Might be wise considering we concede fairly much and create many chances. Anything that works! Btw I thought 4-3-2-1 was the classic christmas tree formation, but I guess any formation that looks like a tree can fall in to that :-)

Or could it be a 4-4-2 with Chester or Baker as full back, Amavi and Adomah on the wings and Ayew and Kodjia as strikers?

I don't quite understand the line up, if we have Bacuna and Amavi as wing backs, where does then Adomah play? I thought he was an out and out winger.

Googled: guy from Uzbekistan Haven't done any background checks, but for the time being I vote for sticking with Dr Tony.

You said what?