I just think Mitro is a better all round player than Joselu. We will never ever know what has happened but all i can think is that they have had a royal fall out. Makes no sense!
Thats all we really need and maybe another good solid midfielder. I actually think our defence would be ok if they had players in front of them who could keep the ball!
I don't mind losing, If there is something positive in the performance. I am a negative person in general, so I see things different but we didn't get hammered and we played ok for the last 25 minutes. I am also positive that we may have a new owner in the next month which will lift the gloom. Even if we go down we can rebuild with hopefully an owner who wants to succeed. Ashley just wanted an advertisement vehicle without paying for it and that is exactly what he has had. He is getting all his money back and not had to pay a penny for 10 years of advertisement in the Premiership. I honestly think Staveley might just be the best Christmas present ever!
We've been fairly unlucky to get nothing from the Everton and Arsenal games. We need a new striker through the doors in early January, not waiting until 31st Jan to get any business done. We're not scoring goals and we need to fix that urgently if we want to win matches.
True, a cheeky loan offer for Giroud maybe? Or Theo Walcott? Or Danny Ings? Or Daniel Sturridge? All them players would help us. It really depends on what the new takeover means financially. Are we going to be pumped with money?
For me it was very indicative game of the problems we have, it kind of summed up our season in 90 minutes. Early on in the season we were compact and disciplined, hard to beat - took a moment of genius to beat us here. The defence marshalled well by Lascelles and Elliot, with the latter head and shoulders above Darlow in both ability and leadership. Manquillo the weakest link, as he's not a fcking left back, but nothing we could have done about that under Charnley/Barnes/Ashley and a bit absurd that our only left back has been out for a World Record amount of time with his hamstring - still not on the bench either. In front of the defence the lack of ability and game management is killing us. I think Rafa had this one really well set up, but having to rely on Joselu and Perez for goals - holy **** we could play til Xmas 2018 and not score with those two clowns. Perez did some bits, but he's just a bit of a nothing footballer; his only real trait is he wins free kicks on the halfway line, he doesn't really do anything else. Joselu wins the odd header, but that's about it. Ritchie was just as he's been all season - a glimmer of decent play, the pass for Perez to fck it up was brilliant, but mostly slow and going the wrong way. FFS he was outpaced in the 88th minute by Ozil - and Ozil had the ball. Murph showed flashes, ultimately delivered nothing, Atsu was worse. Merino had some exceptional moments. He's a real gem and I think we should just accept he's top drawer and build around him, what's going to work for him. Or, if we're owned by Ashley, we'll sell him in June to support our Championship season. The troubling thing is if we'd had players who could take chances, we'd be fine. That's the balance. It takes the pressure off.
Well that was frustrating - if either of the two good chances in the 2nd half had fallen to Gayle not Perez we would have had at least a point from that - margins...
Elliott was fine today - nothing he could do for the goal and a couple of good saves. Also did well to shut down angles and stayed big on occasion forcing early shots from the Arse players Sure we probably need a better keeper in time, but personally I think there are other priorities right now
Completely. We have to get the central threat sorted out. It frankly doesn't matter who; the whole league knows how **** Joselu, Perez, Diame and Gayle are so there's a desperate need to add at least two bodies in here, then a midfielder to add strength to our two dm roles. Goes without saying we need a left back urgently, because anyone thinking Dummett is the answer to our prayers clearly hasn't seen him play before. You think Lejeune lumps it long too much?! Wait til Dummy's back. I think we also need a reality check. It's going to take a lot to be competitive in this league. If we don't, and we actually do go down yet again, I think we're well set up to just bounce again. Why? None of these players genuinely think they're PL standard, except maybe Merino. They would all walk into the Wolves side, more or less. And none will leave, unless we want them to. I don't think Rafa is needed for relegation battles and Championship seasons, tbh, so if we go down and he walks I don't think the world ends. In fact, we may need to be patient with the takeover and look at the long term plan. City were in Div Two around 19 years ago!! It can be done. We have the City, the capability, just not the leadership. And with Mike making what may be yet another fcking atrocious decision by holding out for too much, it may work in our favour.
