villanmac

This 50/60 talk is the same madness as the people saying we should get 15 mill for El Ghazi cos he scored a load of pens. We're lucky an anti football side exists with enough money to be interested in him.

Great result for football. Keeps the pantheon of European Cup winning clubs untouched, untarnished. **** city, theyll never join the club.

City were 2 up and coasting before he came on...just saying. Should have stopped that cross too

In a similar vein, his chip to Ings was brilliant as well and goes against the argument I make about out his link up play so it's worth pointing out too in fairness.

I don't like that Buendia is not playing, but the jury is still out on Coutinho for me so i want to see him until the end of the season. If Coutinho would of stepped up with top class performances in the next few games (I doubt it based on what I've seen) and we don't know because he's on the bench that could be a massive miss to Aston Villa. So it's a case of bigger picture for me, because I know Buendia is class and we have him next season. Not saying that's right, I'm similar with Ings and Bailey, I want them to have opportunities to show us they can do it. Whether a manager is able to articulate that in some way to Emi with it being palatable to him I don't know.

Watkins is not at the level of those players when it comes to his all-round game though. Not even close. Chasing balls into the wing, pressing defenders no problems, he's great. I know some people see it as a service issue but I dont I think more technical play, passes into feet exposes his limitations more. I just don't agree that you could play off him in any of those top sides (bar Wolves) at the level they play and against the defensive setups they come up against which is totally different to us. I'm excluding West Ham / Antonio imo as they are such an exception in style.

After that brilliant chip to Ings earlier on I thought finally Watkins had got the memo about passing the ball to a team mate. But no.

Hopefully we can get our first choices. Obviously no one knows who we are after but the player we were linked to loudest last year who we didn't get have all kicked on massively this season. The likes of Alvarez, Hickey, Ward Prowse, Abraham, (I'd even tentatively throw Betancour in there based on how he has started). Some transformation players there based on their performances. Rob MacKenzie talks about anticipating spikes in a players potential based on data and analytics and they would of all fitted that. My guess is that last year Ings was Purslow, Buendia (Smith), Bailey (Lange/recruitment). Since then Digne & Coutinho (Gerrard). If thats the case, that's 4 out of the last 5 that werent Lange/MacKenzie. Tbf Sanson's performances probably dented the amount of credit they have in the bank and Bailey so far hasn't helped that either.

See what happens in the summer when the centre midfield is sorted out and get a proper holding midfielder in who can retain possession and put a foot in. Without that it's futile imo. Even the top teams have a couple of proper holding mids in the lineup every game regardless of how weak the oppo is: Rodri Fernandinho Henderson, Fabinho Jorginho, Kante Bentancur, Hoijberg Leicester yesterday have Tielemans and Ndidi usually. We are **** about with Luiz, Mcginn and Ramsey, Nakamba who can MAYBE do one thing ok but not the other but essentially can't control the middle of the park. Give him a chance to sort that out, if he does and we are still shite then you can write off Gerrard, Coutinho, Bailey etc imo.

We're only one game away from everything going through him at Spurs in a brilliant 1st half performance. The away from home thing sorts itself out when we sort the midfield out next season (hopefully).

Shite. Tbf they needed a clean sheet and to stop the rot. But Shite.

That summed Watkins up as a footballer. And yes, Bailey is slow [cry]

The football was just as dismal from non Grealish containing Deano teams tbf

I feel like Ive seen him try and turn the afterburners on twice, the Everton goal and a sprint back v Man City after he gave the ball away and both times it broke him. Hope he hasn't lost the pace a la Michael Owen

Sod the performance, today I'll just settle for evidence Bailey can still run at full pelt. Not convinced.

I swear Bailey looked like he was half pulling up pressing the ball there

The McGinn Luiz Ramsey midfield combination will be firmly imprinted in my head for years to come. When I'm 80 with alzeihmers it will probably be the only thing in history I'll be able to recite

It went flat 10 games into DS's reign!

Couldnt disagree more. It works for Conte. Pundits were calling out Tuchel in early days for subbing players off after 30 mins and calling out their effort and application out in interviews. In fact, i clearly remember MOTD pundits saying he wouldnt last long doing that. Guardiola has criticied players tonnes of times, had full on rants at individuals on the pitch in full view of everyone. In my opinion, standards need to be raised across the board, this is a comfy club to be at and it isnt full of the right type of players to make it as a top 6 club currently. Calling players out at this stage isn't an issue imo, if he's constantly doing it 12 months down the line i'd be concerned but alongside not having the quality we dont have the mentality needed at the moment. If players react badly to general criticism (he doesnt single out players from i can see), f**k em. At the end of the day, these things become 'a thing' when we arent playing well. Full pre-season, sign Coutinho get a DM, CB and a proper striker on board and then we'll see how he goes.

We'll never be the side we aspire to be with Watkins up top.

I **** hate when players return from injury on international break and pray for their country (who don't give a shit about rushing them.back) Digne should of been at bodymoor last week.

Between the ears he's brilliant, that's why he's got as far as he has with limited technical ability.

Tbf I think that's classing some of his attempts at trapping a football as attempted passes

To be fair to McGinn and Luiz when Ramsey has one of his games where it looks like he his shoelaces are tied together it's not easy in that midfield. Thought he started the game well putting tackles in but faded as we got overran.