MancFox24

It's not an inspiring choice and he wouldn't have been my pick, but it makes sense in terms of the possession based footballing style the club clearly favour. I think it's the wrong strategy because football has moved on from the era of dominating possession for the sake of it. But it makes far more sense as an appointment than Cooper or Cifuentes. I was one of the ones who was critical of Maresca's tactics but I've learnt to be careful what you wish for so if it's dull to watch but effective then so be it, we just need to get out of this league this season

Lost all 4 of our 12.30 kick offs at the KP this season. Oddly enough have won all 4 of our 3pm kick offs. Away form at both times isn't great but still better at 3pm. So we just need 3pm kick offs for the rest of the season and we'll be fine

Much better organisation. Ricardo's best game for a while, Nelson was really good, Winks and Skipp put in a shift, Daka worked hard. Get Lascelles fit so he can play once a week and we stand a chance

Nelson has been very good tonight

Mukasa is levels above anything we've got. Not sure how you fit him and James into the same team but there's a glimmer of hope there. Have to just play to outscore the opposition for the remainder of the season. I don't think anyone could sort that defence out

Oh Luke

Their winger had chance to bump into one of his own players and still nobody got within 5 yards of stopping the cross

Can you imagine in any other line of business being able to spaff about £15 million up the wall with no consequences

Don't think I've ever seen a worse player with the ball at his feet at this level than Okoli

Get some minutes for VK and experience for Aluko. That's about all there is to be gained from today. That midfield looks very lightweight

You're right, they have started to use bank loans secured against parachute payments, which is a worrying sign. But they do still have access to a £40 million loan from KP if needed. Like you say, when the parachute payments dry up, that's when the shit hits the fan. Best case scenario for me is we survive this year, somehow manage to rebuild in the summer and get promoted next year, and then the owners sell. I don't see another quick way out of this

I have this fear as well but for slightly different reasons. Chansiri was actively looking to sell Sheff Wed but put a ridiculous asking price on them to try and recuperate some of his losses and that's why he couldn't sell. He then stopped funding day to day operations of the club. As much as I'd like to see the owners sell, if they do start looking for a buyer and ask for silly money to recuperate their losses, they may also decide to stop funding day to day operations of the club and we could easily end up in Sheff Wed's position.

I'm about 80% sure we go down. Things that keep me hopeful are: Mukasa, James and Fatawu do carry a threat going forward and will score goals; if Lascelles can stay fit, he's better than what we had before; VK isn't good but he's much better than Thomas so he needs to come in when fit; Blackburn and West Brom are also really poor.

You can make up the squad however you want, there isn't a limit of on the amount of players you can have in one position. We cleared room in the squad by getting rid of Carranza, Faes and Soumare, so you replace them in positions that are the biggest problem areas in your team. Admittedly we've got loads of problem areas, but when teams are consistently targeting your left back, you have to make that your priority.

We needed to strengthen in all areas, but with limited resources you have to prioritise. I don't rate any of our 3 centre backs that highly but left back, right back, defensive midfield and striker were much bigger priorities in this window