VillaFaninLondon

Agree with all that except the relegation bit. Even though we are awful defensively we have so much quality going forward that our aim has to be finishing top 9 or 10 and we won't be anywhere near the bottom 3. Having said that, the manner in which we give away such easy goals frustrates me and makes me think we'll finish 11th or 12th.

Traore out, Buendia a huge doubt (basically means he's out), Bailey and Nakamba still out, it seems we always have a God damn long injury list.

We finished 11th last season and were in contention for Europe up until the final few weeks of the season. I think you're mistaking us with the previous season but he's on about summer 2021. We weren't linked to Alvarez before that.

Catching Wolves is looking more and more unlikely but I'm right to panic about top 10 seeing as this is the start of a good run and we've already slipped up against Leeds. Looking at our next four games, all winnable but with our state of throwing things away and not defending properly I'm not convinced we'll win any except maybe Watford. Especially as Southampton just went to Spurs and won. Also Leicester and Brighton have the advantage of playing us at home, we've already played them at VP. IF Gerrard can fix our defence, and it's a big if, we can get top 10 but we just look far too open every game which is why I can't understand for the life of me that we haven't signed a DM in the last 2 transfer windows. Add to that misfiring strikers and we're just going to be reliant on Coutinho and Ramsey every game unless the others pull their socks up and start justifying their place in the team.

Fair point about Osimhen, in hindsight a bit of an unrealistic shout (as are Schick and David probably but more realistic if we were willing to spend big). Take out Osimhen for Isak then who Sociedad seem to be willing to accept 60m for, though I think he's a bit overrated. We definitely missed a trick not getting Alvarez who I think is going straight to the top and was available at decent price, though whether we tried hard and failed I don't know. Personally feel someone like Gabriel Barbosa is worth a punt as he could be incredible and is probably within a reasonable price range (30m).

Wonder if he'll be called up for England for the friendlies against Switzerland & Ivory Coast next month. Certainly has put himself in the frame over the last few weeks with his performances.

Suarez would be incredibly short term thinking and our strategy shouldn't be to buy ageing superstars. I get it with Coutinho as he has that bit of class that we need, but Coutinho is also 29 and still many years in him. Suarez is 35 now. For me: Watkins - keep for squad but probably only as impact sub unless he finds form and learns to finish Ings - sell if we can get around 20m for him (maybe even sell for 15m), will be 30 in summer and only really works with 2 up front Davis - sell for 5-10m, done really well at Forest and has qualities but reminds me too much like Heskey and will never be prolific at this level Archer - loan out again for one more season Wesley - if we can get some money back for him, sell him where he'll play football and hopefully have a decent career somewhere If we have a budget to buy a big name striker, anyone of Schick, Jonathan David or Osimhen would be my choice. These would cost 40-60m at least though and given we need to buy a starting CB and a CDM in the summer it may not be possible to fund this.

Last season he was our best defender and should have had an England call up over Godfrey and White. This season he has regressed (maybe the England snub affected him psychologically) and he's been nowhere near it. Both our CBs are weak in different ways - Mings makes too mistakes and errors leading to goals, and Konsa hides when we're under pressure. It's dramatic to say we need to replace both but I think one starting CB needs to come in next season.

Given how we threw away the game last night and dropped 2 points, this now becomes a game we really have to win if we are to finish in the top 10 which looks more and more unlikely after every passing game we mess up. To be honest, these are a threat long term to us so beating them is very important for me. Need to try to send them down if we can. I hope Buendia is fit but if not then Sanson seems the most likely to come in with Ramsey further forward. Hopefully Bailey and Traore make the bench at least. Chambers in for Konsa and Ings for Watkins seems most likely too and might actually be to our benefit as both Konsa and Watkins have been useless all season. We don't have a great record up there having not won at St James' since the 04/05 season and they've picked up some form having won their last 2 games. Therefore, I'm not particularly confident of anything other than a draw at best, but I was expecting us to beat Leeds and got that wrong so hopefully I'm wrong again.

Had a very poor season and once again was anonymous tonight. Got 14 goals and 9 assists last season, and was pretty much actively involved in our good play in every game last season. Grealish is gone but to see the complete reversal in his form is quite staggering, especially now we have Coutinho and Buendia behind him and that doesn't seem to have helped. I think it's now time to maybe try Ings but I'm not at all confident that will work either. We've got some serious issues defensively but also serious issues with our striker situation and I don't really know what the answer is. Maybe trying Bailey up front is our last hope.

It's also churlish to say it's about race and because Mings is opinionated, when it quite obviously is nothing to do with that (at least from my perspective). I personally loved his rebuff to Priti Patel in the summer after the Gesture Politics row. And I think he's an exceptional role model and probably our most articulate player. I just don't rate his concentration as a defender and feel he massively holds us back by his tendency to gift the opposition cheap goals.

Mings was at fault for all three goals, there's no dressing that up, it's fact. He's still widely loved because he helped us get us back to this league and played a big part keeping us here, but he's not good enough for where we want to go. Compare him to some of our best defenders from the 90s and 00s when we were regularly qualifying for Europe - is he a patch on Laursen? No. Mellberg? No. Southgate? No. Ehiogu? No. Even in recent years I'd say Ron Vlaar was better defensively than he was, he just played in a much shitter team. It's time now to find someone better than Mings, even though he has been a great servant to the club.

We should maybe think about replacing at least two of our starting back 4 in summer, as well as adding a holding midfielder. Three goals should be enough to win a home game against a team near the relegation zone, the fact we haven't won it is all on our defence and non-existent CM. Lots and lots of work to do if we are going to push for top 6. After today's result we will be very lucky to finish in the top 10 this season.

Awful result, threw it all away. We always bottle it against these mugs, and next up against an in form Newcastle side. If Buendia is out then we really are in a mess. NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

8 minutes is a ridiculous time to add on.

Konsa is an idiot. Given how he's played tonight maybe Chambers coming in for the next game won't necessarily be a bad thing. Can't be any worse.

Young for Coutinho. May as well end the game now, ridiculous sub.

To be 3-1 and cruising, to be at 3-3 and all of a sudden on the backfoot is inexcusable. Pathetic performance from everyone except from Ramsey, Coutinho and Buendia. Carney has been the wrong sub too, he's been awful.

McGinn has been absolute shite. When he's having a bad day he's a liability.

Our defenders should be shot. Sunday league defending. F*** off.

Mings at fault for both goals I'm afraid. I love him for the journey he's been on with us but maybe next season we have to be looking at an upgrade. Makes too many mistakes.

We could have made it so much easier for ourselves if we'd gone in at HT 3-1 instead of 3-2 after giving away that sloppy goal at the end there.

Ramsey goal, Coutinho assist again. That link up amazing.

YESSSS!!!! Beautiful pass by Coutinho.

Wow, what a goal. Finally some quality from us.