Leeroy

No one really knows but I'd be surprised if a centre back wasn't at least being considered.

OK, let's look at it from a different angle. Only five of the players listed there are used to playing centre back as Dendoncker and Kamara are primarily holding midfielders and I think both have only played centre back in emergencies and usually in a back three. We also wouldn't want to move them from the holding role as then we'd have no feasible options there. So we will rule them out. Of the five actual centre backs you have listed, one of them (Hause) was playing on loan in the Championship last season such was the huge interest in him from top level teams and he played three games because he was injured. He's also extremely clumsy on the ball and would not be at all a good fit in an Emery system. I'd be very surprised if he's still here on 1st September and disappointed he hasn't yet been moved on. Forget him scoring against Man Utd, that's the only highlight of his whole career. Everyone seems to wax lyrical about having Chambers as an option but the fact is he is also extremely slow, has barely played in the last few years, and I recall everyone sh*tting the bed when Mings got an injury before Man City away last season and Chambers had to play. Again not good enough for a top half team. So that leaves us with three centre backs of a strong enough level, but even then there are problems. Konsa without Mings is an unknown, never seems to have played well without him. Torres is new to the league and lacks the physicality, although potentially our best centre back for sure. Diego Carlos was brilliant for Sevilla and has all the attributes, but is again an unknown because of that long term injury which may have affected his level. I think other positions need to be addressed too but saying centre back is fine is very naive IMO and to ignore it could be dangerous. II'd certainly be worried if our defence concedes on Sunday against an Everton team that score very few goals.

Maguire is far better than Chambers or Hause (who are both Championship standard and one of them if not both should be moved on IMO), anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. Maguire is also a leader and good in both boxes as well as being a very good passer of the ball. But on the flip side he is very slow and risky in a high line - although I'd be very surprised if we play such a high line going forwards without Mings or pace in the backline and in a lower block Maguire would be decent. His wages are stupidly high though and I wouldn't want to be paying Maguire £190K a week so unless he's prepared to half his wages I think it won't happen. I think people are too relaxed on the centre back situation given how we were torn apart by Newcastle. We could do with one more because any more injuries and we'd potentially be playing Chambers or Hause or moving Kamara out of position to play there and both scenarios are problematic. Priorities for the rest of the window in my opinion would be getting at least one more attacking player in (Zaniolo), a right back, and then a centre back for me. Acuna will likely replace Digne too which is fine in the short term but longer term we will need to bring in a younger left back.

We are clear favourites for this one, first home game, and we have a very good record against Everton who are obviously a side nowadays struggling to stay up. I'd be very surprised if we dropped points and if we do i would be very concerned. We must win our home games against the sides that finished bottom half last season or it's going to be one long season. First we need to tighten up defensively because we looked all at sea against the barcodes. I'm not sure if Everton have as many runners in behind, I don't think they do, and I think we'll dominate possession, but we have to be very careful out of possession and not be so open like we were against Newcastle which was similar to how we played under Smiyh and Gerrard. Everton are likely to want to get something from set pieces under Dyche so again there we have to be diligent because we weren't against Newcastle. Emery is known for being a more pragmatic, defensive minded coach so I'm very confident he'll fix it quickly. It's all well and good saying the season is long and we don't need to win here, but we really do. If we can't beat Everton at home what makes us think we'll win at Burnley or home to Palace and Brighton, let alone Liverpool and Chelsea away? Football is about momentum and if you start **** up in the games you should win it becomes a dangerous cycle. We are just as desperate to win as them if not more so because if we don't we really are playing catchup.

I don't think anyone saw the Newcastle game as a gimme and if they did they were clearly out of touch with reality. Newcastle were favourites, at home with a big crowd behind them, and only lost twice at home in the last 12 months to Arsenal and Livsrpool. Add to that we haven't won there in nearly 20 years then you're clearly getting ahead of yourself if you expected to win comfortably. What shouldn't have happened is getting battered as it should have been a far closer scoreline if you compare the two starting lineups and I attach most of that to our high line which could have shipped more goals had Martinez not saved three times from one on one chances. Clearly something to be looked at.

Probably where I'm at too. Around 8th or 9th most likely, although of course I'm hoping for better. A lot will depend on how quickly our centre back partnership flourishes without Mings, if Zaniolo hits the ground running, and if we see any more signings to improve us.

I think the optimism I had before the injuries has been taken away somewhat but I still expect us to be in the top 10 this season. A lot of poor teams in the bottom half who we should be comfortably ahead of.

I think we are just a very self indulgent fanbase. We're not the only team with problems, lots of other teams have problems too, many of them finished in the top half last season. You don't think Brighton losing their entire midfield is worse than our losses? Tottenham losing Kane who scored nearly half their goals last season? Chelsea are a complete joke, they've sold off about £300m worth of players and bought another £300m worth of players. What about Brentford losing their top scorer in Toney and a player who saved them probably at least 10 points last season in Raya? What about Wolves losing the heartbeat of their team in Neves and a top manager in Lopetegui just days before the start of the new season? Those clubs have had it worse than us mate. We've had a very positive preseason up until the injuries, pretty much everything went right. Now we have had some setbacks we are not in as great a position as we were before, but at the same time we're no worse off than some of those other teams I've mentioned. Plus in most of the cases we have a better manager than those teams who has enough experience to know to deal with setbacks. Without Mings of course we have to adapt the defence. Or we go into the market and bring in a new defender. But now the bedwetting because Mings is out when most people on here were saying we had the best centre backs outside Man City in the league. From one extreme comment to the other, but then I expect that from our fans. Diego Carlos and Pau Torres were key defenders in Spain for their clubs and conceded on average less than a goal game every season while they were there for clubs finishing in the top 7 (and in Carlos' case Sevilla finished in the top 4 every season he was there). Now they have to step up in a new league and learn quickly. If they can't do that then we should never have been spending £30m on them in the first place.

I hear what you're saying and the injuries are bullsh*t but that means all of the following teams are having transition seasons too: Brighton - lost Caicedo, Mac Callister and Sanchez Man City - lost Gundogan and Mahrez Spurs - lost Kane Chelsea - Nkunku their big summer signing out until new year and Fofana out for season, changed their whole squad selling previous key players like Mount, Kante etc Liverpool - lost Henderson and Fabinho in midfield Brentford - sold Raya and Toney out until new year Palace - lost Zaha and now look like losing Olise too West Ham - lost Rice and soon to be Pacqueta Wolves - lost Neves and numerous other players and not really bought anyone Before the injuries to Buendia and Mings I think we were coming into the season in better shape than pretty much every other team except maybe Arsenal. I was genuinely expecting us to be close to top 4/5 this season. Now with those two injuries we've suffered a bit much like those teams listed above have but even so I would still expect us to be easily top 10 and still finishing close to where we did last season. Most teams don't have Pau Torres replacing their injured centre back and with Zaniolo coming in to replace Buendia who by all accounts could be a better player, plus we have Ramsey and Moreno back soon. And the window is still open for us to fix any issues in the team.

Against lesser teams without a lot of pace it's fine, especially at home. Against the top sides in the league away from home it's suicide. I was surprised and a bit concerned Emery didn't change it during the game against Newcastle when it was clear it wasn't working.I think they don't score goals 4 and 5 if we change it before then. We need to adapt the high line in different games otherwise we could be on the end of another embarrassing scoreline again.

I think you got confused. It's not a must win in the sense that we have to win it to finish in the top 6 or top 4 or at the other extreme avoid relegation, but if we can't beat Everton at home after that horrific performance against Newcastle then I'll probably start writing the season off. On the Newcastle forum they were saying that the game against us was a must win. Maybe you should go tell them what you've just told me.

I actually have no idea how we will line up defensively after Saturday's horror show, but this would probably be my team: .....................Martinez..................... ........Konsa.....Carlos.....Torres....... McGinn.....Luiz.....Kamara.....Digne Diaby...........Watkins............Zaniolo Choosing between Konsa and Cash was hard as they were our two worst defenders against Newcastle, but I think Konsa's consistency last season keeps him in and hopefully it was only a one off. Gone to a back three because I think we need to change something at the back without Mings, even if I'm not really a fan of a back three. When Ramsey and Moreno come back or we sign another player in defence maybe we change it back. I'm throwing Zaniolo right in because Bailey was the worst player on the pitch against Newcastle and I don't want to see him start.

Digne was marginally better than Cash who was absolutely abysmal. Pretty much every Newcastle chance came down that right hand side. Cash even got taken apart by Anthony flippin Gordon. Playing Bailey in front of him of course didn't help, but still. If we're dropping one of the full backs it has to be Cash. Hopefully we have a new right back lined up and Moreno isn't far off being fit. And I think Torres if he is to settle in quickly has to play in his favoured position, not at left back.

Hopefully he starts against Everton so we don't have to see Bailey in the starting 11. Think it's too soon for Philogene to be starting an important match that we must win.

I would like to see a Pau-Carlos partnership, it just depends on how recovered Carlos is from that injury. Given time they could become great together with Konsa in reserve, we just need one of them to lead the team. If Carlos can do that effectively then we probably don't need another centre back right now (might do in 12 months depending on Mings' situation). My personal preference would be another forward or two, and a right back who can also play centre back. It just depends on how much we have left to spend, I fear it's not much before we end up in FFP trouble given we are targeting loan signings like Zaniolo and if it's to be believed Harrison. It can't be that we have no money because we have only spent around £70m this summer which is not much in this day and age. Maybe we see some more spending if Aaron Ramsey and Archer are moved out the door to give us more FFP headroom.

I think the new leader at the back has to be right footed to play alongside Pau. Another left footer wouldn't make much sense. Zaniolo's FBREF stats worry me somewhat and I think he may frustrate us a lot if he comes here, although FBREF isn't always the best indicator and he's clearly got talent. It's a shame we didn't get Doku done who is a brilliant young player. I also think Thiago Almada could be a good shout, only played in the MLS but is young and similar sort of player to Buendia except he will end up being better. I don't imagine he would cost the earth either. Looks like being Zaniolo, another centre back and a right back. I just hope we don't start compromising on quality as the Harrison rumours scare me a bit, although it could have all been nonsense.

Can move this to other football thankfully.

Absolutely gutted for Ty, and bad news of course for us. I wish him a full recovery and hope he can play a part for us again in future, but of course we must try to build a new defence without him in the meantime. You can't help but wonder sometimes whether some unseen force is **** us over. We've had very little to smile about for a long time until the last season where we finally appointed a suitable manager and had a strong season at the top level. Everyone was extremely optimistic about this season, myself included, and then out of nowhere within the space of a couple of days we get season ending injuries to two players. I know other teams have injuries but we have had long term injuries (I.e. out for the entire season) to Heaton and Wesley in our first season back, Diego Carlos last season, and Buendia and Mings only one game into this one. Five season ending injuries in four seasons. How the f*ck is that even possible? Anyway, all the best to Ty in his rehabilitation.

Unfortunately one of dubious quality. Harrison is probably just about Premier League quality but for a struggling side than a side pushing top 8/6. No better than Bailey IMO so just a waste of our time. Going from links to Joao Felix, Ferran Torres and Doku to Jack Harrison is just so thoroughly depressing, particularly after getting dry humped 5-1 by Newcastle on opening day.

we probably spent around that on Diaby. and if it were a case of just getting in players on the cheap, we may as well just litter our squad with average players from relegated sides then we'll definitely achieve our ambitions.

Neither is Harrison and he'd only be moved on after his loan if we have aspirations of top 6.

It's funny how so many like the idea of us signing Harrison but were dead against us signing Barnes who is a far superior player. Weird.

He's currently injured for 5/6 weeks anyway, no way should be consider this. Even if he were fit he is only going to be a backup and that's exactly what MON did when signing players and guess what? We ended up deep in the sh*t. Zaniolo is just about ok as he's clearly got the talent when applied properly to get in our team. Harrison doesn't. Move on and let him go to Everton please.

We needed an attacking player here anyway even if those two players were fit, Buendia is out for the whole season, Harrison is just scraping the bottom of the barrel. The fact Everton want him tells us everything we need to know. Honestly if we make this signing after losing 5-1 yesterday I am really starting to question our decision making. I can see us doing a Leicester from last season and finishing 18th.

Christ almighty this would be underwhelming. Let him go to Everton please.