VillaFaninLondon

All in all great start to the season. Better today than last week by far but ultimately still some issues around ball retention which I've mentioned before. Having said that, Fulham had a large amount of the ball and looked awful so I'd be worried if I was a Fulham fan. McGinn, Cash and Grealish were the standout performers to me. I wasn't bowled over by the Cash signing but my word he's impressed me, looked fantastic in the first two games albeit against two weak teams. Great in the tackle, reads the game really well, and gets forward. Wanted Traore to start over Hourihane today but a goal and an assist, fair play. Good game from him. On the other hand, Targett played poorly again and is a concern. Martinez had another good game but made a howler with that shot, luckily the goal was ruled out (rightly so). Watkins did well on the whole but needs a goal to boost his confidence. I'm sure it will come though. Rest of the team did well on the whole and Ramsey and Traore both did well off the bench. Still think we need to dip into the market a bit more, if we can get RLC or Barkley that would improve us a fair bit. Another defender and forward would be useful too but wouldn't be too bothered if we get RLC/Barkley.

RLC.

Stop letting them get back into it!

Bad GK but Mitrovic definitely fouled Konsa.

Sitter by Watkins. He’s done some good things but needs a goal.

Grealish has been magnificent.

Super John with 2 assists!

Need to get hold of the ball and stop kicking it out of play. Letting Fulham back into this.

Get in! Great ball by John

I reckonFulham will almost certainly have more of the ball so our counter attacking needs to have improved from last season. That’s why Traoré would have made sense with Trez our wide. Grealish and McGinn need to be much better than last week.

Not really surprised he’s picked the same team, though I hope we’re not as painfully slow at moving the ball as we were against Sheff U. Hourihane has his uses from set pieces but thought Traoré should have come in for him and Jack moved to no 10. We’ll see how it pans out. UTV

My team: Martinez Cash Konsa Mings Targett Luiz McGinn Grealish Traore Watkins Trezeguet

It's a short term solution to bring in a top quality player so that we have a better chance of finishing higher up the table and next summer getting in higher profile players. Agree a loan to buy would be best though.

Barkley or RLC would be very welcome additions. Agree RLC probably slightly better fit as he's younger and more of a box to box midfielder which suits us. Barkley has played in the number 8 role a fair bit but best position is probably a number 10 and defensively he's not as strong. Either one would improve us though. Loftus Cheek not in the squad tonight against Barnsley so would seem he's more likely to be allowed out (either on loan or permanently) by Lampard. Hopefully we press ahead with this quickly, would give a huge boost to our CM area.

Well we still need a winger/forward. I guess after being messed around on Rashica we'd see Sarr as playing on the left.

Evra and Vidic too. I think great deals can be done in January, but if we're holding money back for then when the current squad (and first team) has weaknesses then it's a flawed strategy. I wouldn't necessarily say no to holding money back for January if we can get quality players in on loan but that's another story.

If Rashica is not happening (which is disappointing), I hope the Sarr links are true. Mentioned him at the start of the summer and with Liverpool seemingly no longer interested after signing Jota he'd be a fantastic addition. Would cost a lot but maybe we can go for a loan to buy as I've heard that Watford are open to that. Or possibly offer what we can up front (eg £25m) with the remaining £10-15m paid in instalments over the next 12-24 months.

For me, it's been a reasonable window so far but not great. The fact we still played Hourihane and Trez on Monday is evidence of that. McGinn also looks off the pace and it's affecting us in CM. As people say, we're still weak at LB and up front we're going to be reliant on Watkins who may or may not score goals. We still have Jota, Lansbury, Hause and Taylor on our books, and Davis looks like being around for the season even though for his development he would be best off going out on loan to see if he can score regularly when played regularly. If spending/FFP is an issue, JT is great friends with Lampard and obviously very highly thought of at Chelsea. There are plenty of players there not going to get much game time who we could bring in on loan that would not only improve the squad but the first team - Barkley, Loftus Cheek, Tammy, Christensen, Tomori, Hudson Odoi. I know we said last summer we're not looking at loans but I hope they've changed their mind on that because there are potentially some quality players we could bring in short term who could help establish us in this league until we're able to bring in that higher calibre of player. Priorities for me are LW, CM, ST, LB. Keep Engels and Guilbert around unless we're bringing in better there. Samatta can go but we can't go through the season with Watkins and Davis so would need another player to come in.

I agree with what people say, he's great at holding the ball up and bringing others into the game, no question about it. If he adds goals to his game, we all know he is a real asset. The problem is, and I can't stress this enough, one key reason we struggled last season was lack of goals. In particular we had no out and out goalscorer. We may or may not get that with Watkins, time will tell, though even if he does well it's probably still 10-15 goals so we still need more from elsewhere. We're taking a huge risk expecting Davis to suddenly start hitting double figures this season when he hasn't done it before. As I say, best solution in my view is to bring in another attacker and let Davis develop his game in the Championship. Have thought this since we stayed up and still think the same.

I like Davis's hold up play and congrats to him on the new contract, but he really needs to go out on loan. 0 Prem goals and only 2 league goals in his whole career, it ain't good enough for a striker who is supposed to be giving Watkins competition. If Samatta's off we need to be sending Davis out on loan to the Champ and bringing in another forward (someone who can play wide as well as up front - e.g. Rashica or King). Traore can apparently play up front too so we'd be ok. I'd be disappointed if Davis is here this season again as he clearly needs to improve his finishing and needs to move down a level to do that.

9th.

Cash also had a great debut, still need to see him more but he's started well and hope it continues. Watkins I thought was iffy, lost the ball a lot, but looked a threat at times. We'll see how it goes for him over the next few weeks. As stated, we still need more. Played against 10 for 80 odd minutes and created barely anything with another set piece goal. We need more creativity and threat, otherwise we will struggle again.

Agree with all the comments about Martinez. Looks an absolutely top drawer GK and so happy we got him. Can see why Arsenal fans rated him so highly.

Well we won, so that's pleasing. However, it was such a drab performance. We move the ball so slowly, and in all honestly don't look an awful lot better than last season. Hopefully it's the wake up call we need to go out and get Rashica and a top quality CM.

What has happened to McGinn