david-avfc

Controversial opinion but Luiz is nowhere near as bad as a lot of fans make out, and the calamitous defence and midfield performance in that first half in his absence proves the point. We looked a different side when he was subbed on. He has to start every game as none of the others offer what provides, he’s one of those players who you don’t realise the job they do until they aren’t there. If it was a fatigue issue following the international break then I’ll give Gerrard the benefit of the doubt but if it was a tactical decision to not play with a holding midfielder then Jesus wept that is poor management

Penalty + 2 one on one’s fluffed by Watkins (although the second did subsequently lead to the penalty) If Watkins had missed that penalty my laptop would have been flying out the window in rage. I really hope Ings is given a run in the team starting from next week as Watkins all round play has been poor for a while and missing gilt edged chances cannot continue when we have a proven goal scorer on the bench

Great to see him finding his feet in league 2 after that waste of time earlier in the season. I thought in the summer a loan straight to league 1 was a gamble, as he looked like he needed to bulk up physically first and didn’t seem as close to the first team as a few others who ended up in lower divisions. As someone else pointed out still only 18 feels like he’s been around for years already, plenty of time to develop from here

He’d probably fit this team better than Luiz, who I do not believe will be here next season, but would that solve our problems? Probably not. His record is overdone, he’s actually barely played in comparison to our other midfielders since he signed and even under Gerrard it was only 3 or 4 games before his injury so nowhere near enough for him to prove he was “instrumental”, especially as the whole team improved with the initial new manager bounce. And in the games Nakamba has played in, even the ones he’s done well in, we’ve missed Luiz’ composure on the ball in the middle of the pitch and his natural ability to provide the link between the defence and the midfield, and Luiz + Nakamba together as a duo has never really worked.

Not trying to be awkward or picky at all. To me a rebuild is 6 or 7 first teamers incoming, which if that’s what you are suggesting is a little much, in my opinion. I always worry when a club tries to replace half it’s line up as it always it often borders on desperation territory and as everyone knows new signings can be very hit and miss, especially early on. As per our relegation season it only needs a few too many misses and it can have severe consequences - We’re not in as perilous situation now but the point remains. I expect Sanson, maybe Luiz and the out-on-loan players will be sold which will be a fairly busy summer for us anyway. I hope we focus our efforts a limited number of high quality signings in a few key areas rather than churning too much in the hope that something sticks “this time” compared to previous times. I completely agree with your logic that we have to be aggressive otherwise being at risk of being left behind. But for me it’s about being aggressive for the right players in the right positions rather than a “rebuild”, if that’s the angle you were going for then I apologise as we’re on the same page, but in my mind a rebuild is all encompassing whereas I think we should be more selective in what we focus on

I would rather we built a team rather than a rebuild, which always ends up moving back to square 1 just with a massive bill to worry about on top

How many times have we said that before only for it to be resurrected like a reanimated corpse which goes on to die on the pitch again

I wouldn’t quite call him “abysmal” but considering he was apparently a forward in his earlier Forest days you’d expect much better end product. I think he’s decent but if a silly offer came in for him we’d have to accept

We obviously need a new DM but it’s a bit of a red herring because a lack of a DM doesn’t explain why we failed to create any chances with 60% possession or why Digne played most of the game up front with Ramsey at left back today. It’s Lambert-era bizarreness. Gerrard needs to stop over complicating things and go back to basics like we did in his first few weeks.

Terrible performance which I put down to the tactics rather than the individuals. Instead of trying to get our top class attackers on the ball around the box we only wanted to get it to the full backs. The full backs should be providing well timed overlapping bursts forward, rather than basically playing as midfielders whilst our more technical midfielders drop ridiculously deep to cover the defensive gaps. Back to the drawing board for Gerrard, as it should have been after the last match, unfortunately

Not an expert of youth football but I’d guess that the best prospects at that age are just better all-round players both attacking and defensively and it’s only when they step up to senior football they become a bit more specialised. I remember Jordan Henderson when he first played for Sunderland he was considered a box to box or even an attacking midfielder, you certainly wouldn’t look at him now and describe him as that

Probably on what all the 13year olds who’ve never watched him are saying on Twitter

Yes totally agree. Bissouma spent his first 2 seasons at Brighton as a squad player, just 17 and 15 starts respectively. Only last season he became their first choice midfielder starting 35 games. They were able to take a long term approach with him but for us we need a player for the here and now. The problem we have is as we move up the food chain it gets harder and harder to compete.

The “2 quality players at every position” is a bit of a fallacy. If we were in Europe we could rotate, but if it’s just the league and the occasional early round of the cups then there just isn’t enough games to come close to satisfying that many quality players, if they all have the right mentality. Look at the problems signing Ings caused with trying to accommodate him and Watkins, it got our last manager sacked. Of course we need options and competition in the squad, but there’s the need for the right balance. There’s nothing wrong with having key players who are clearly first choice where rotation would difficult to achieve or even just disruptive

No problem with Matt Targett from me, he wants game time and should be lauded for that when so many others are happy to sit on contracts without contributing. Realistically we aren’t paying £25m + wages for a ready made PL left back just to give Targett a chance, no matter how much people say “he should fight for his place”, as soon as Digne came in Targett was never going to get a look in regardless so he might as well leave now. If he does well for Newcastle hopefully it keeps his transfer value high for when we inevitably cash in.

Too many cretins on social media. I can’t understand why the players even open their accounts to the public, not that that excuses the comments they get though. Who knows what’s going on with Ollie whether he has family issues, unhappy at villa for whatever reason or just on an unfortunate run of bad luck Either way, as much as I like Ollie, it’s surely time to give Ings a run in the team. He scored a lovely goal against Brentford and hopefully with Coutinho coming in there will be more of those types of chances being created. There’s no point in having 2 decent strikers if they aren’t going to be switched if one goes 5 or 6 games without scoring.

Let’s see what Gerrard does in the next couple of games with the set up and player selection. I don’t think his “2 number 10’s” formation has worked too well, it leaves us a bit too exposed in midfield and hasn’t resulted in an overload of chances created either. To be fair it was worth a chance and I think most liked the idea of multiple playmakers and aggressive full back bombing forward at every opportunity. Will be interesting to see if he perseveres or if he changes things up. Obviously with Smith he kept the same failing system for too long until all confidence was shot. There’s a balancing act of not reacting to poor performances but not under reacting to poor team structure, either. He’s still finding his feet at this level and with this group of players. Hopefully by the end of the season he will have us flying again

He would do well in a team where he can emulate Henderson‘s role at Liverpool with a specialist DM alongside him like Fabinho to win the ball. Unfortunately with us he’s paired alongside McGinn in midfield who is a quality player but his energy levels and willingness to chase are key to his game and as such he can’t be tied down a disciplined defensive role to support Luiz, which leaves Luiz’s weaknesses in the middle exposed.

I personally always thought Targett was good but he’s the sort of guy who needs an arm around him which Gerrard obviously didn’t want to do. Digne should turn out to be an upgrade overall but I don’t think it’s as much of a step up in quality as some people may believe

Could be a great player in the future, but right now I haven’t seen him have any real impact in any game, a side from a decent assist vs Norwich when their guy Gilmore was having a stinker all night. I think we’ve let the contract situation rumble on for too long, it should have been decided one way or the other in January (at least) so we know whether to commit to giving him more of a go, loaning him out or binning him off entirely. We shouldn’t develop him just for him to go somewhere else when his contract expires, and crucially he shouldn’t be in the team unless he proves he is ready to make a significant impact, which at the moment in my eyes he hasn’t.

He wrote an article on the BBC website a few days ago saying we were in for him so if he’s rowing back on that now shows how little he knows about our transfer business either way. Certainly he didn’t know anything about the Chambers or Ings deals, nor did any of the other journalists for that matter.

Sick of reading this blokes name now, either get it done or move on

I like Luiz but £30m+ for a player who is possibly running down his contract does start to seem like a sensible option for us to cash in on. Obviously lots of discussion recently on how he fits into the team and what “number” he should play but if we could reinvest into someone who is better suited to a defined role for us it might even improve this side

Just seen the rumour is from The Sun. Come on people are you all that daft to believe that waste of space “newspaper”

£40m for Cash?! I can’t see it personally but if it happens I won’t be too disappointed as I think he’s on the same level as Targett (who I also like), maybe slightly better, but improve-able nonetheless