MancFox24

Yes and yes

Much better second half. Mavididi was good, Kristiansen has improved, Okoli looks a beast, Ndidi put in a shift but just lacks a bit of quality at the end. There's encouraging things there. It's not nearly as bad as this forum would have you think it is

Possibly, I just think you need the buy in of the fans first before you start with the siege mentality stuff. To me, it looks more like a self preservation thing. I'd much prefer him trying to create a positive atmosphere around the place because I think there have been things to be encouraged by in the first 4 games

I think the point is that there would have been more in the media either way if it had been one of the big clubs. I honestly don't know whether it was onside or not but it was interesting what Mike Dean said about Selhurst Park being a difficult ground to get VAR decisions correct

Of course it would have been all over the media if that VAR decision happened to one of the big clubs, but I don't see the point in spending over half of your pre match press conference for the next game talking about it. Yeah he asked about it but he was also asked a couple of times about Edouard and he seemed far more comfortable going on a rant about VAR than he did about talking up the qualities of Edouard.

I wasn't a fan of Cooper's appointment and I really can't stand his constant blathering on about refereeing decisions. But 4 games in and I actually give us a better chance of survival now than before the season began (not just because of the point deduction decision). The football hasn't been great but we've been competitive in all the games and have scored in every one, despite the defensive set up. I imagine the target given to Cooper at the start of the year was 17th and while that's still a realistic possibility, I can't see them getting rid of him any time soon.

More encouraging performance today and hopefully the international break will give time for the new players to settle in. Still not really sure why we spent £20 million on Skipp who seems to do the same things as Winks. Surely that money should have gone on a striker

I can see why he's going for this midfield against a champions league team, and I don't think he'll play them all against weaker teams. But I think at home we need to be more adventurous against all but the very best. Skipp and Winks are doing pretty much the same job (Skipp better than Winks in that first half)

Their xg was about the same as ours by the end of the game. Their chances mainly came from balls into the box and winning the first header. There's going to be lots of games this year where we have to sit in, soak up pressure and play in moments so you're going to be in for a long season if you're so down about that performance tonight

Good from Cooper at half time, made some tactical changes which turned the game. Have to get more aggressive in our defending from crosses into the box both from set pieces and open play. It's been a problem for a long time which no manager seems to be able to fix

For all we've been battered, they haven't created that much from open play, which means the defensive shape has been ok. I just can't understand that for about the last 5 managers nobody can sort out our issues from set pieces

God I miss Vestegaard standing on the ball for 10 minutes before anyone closed him down

Maybe not the position we need most urgently, but I've always really liked him when I've seen him. Good age with resale value. This makes more sense to me than some of the others we've been linked with

While it isn't the greatest look to be doing deals like this with mid table teams in the same division, I think the club's strategy will be just about trying to find a way to stay up this year while keeping the finances in check. If that means having to hold your nose and develop a player for somebody else then so be it. On the otherhand, the fact that somebody at the club had to leak it to the journalist that we want 3-4 more signings whilst announcing this one probably tells you that the club knows this won't go down very well with the fans

I've always really liked him as a player and wanted us to go after him 4 years ago when we could offer European football. His best days are probably behind him but wouldn't be at all surprised to see him as a regular starter rather than a back up like some people are thinking

While I do think that overall him leaving is bad for the football club, I find it hard to get too bothered about it. I guess it sort of mimics his football philosophy in that way, it was all very methodical and clinical, but just lacked emotional attachment to the fans. It might work for Chelsea, but from a football fan's point of view, having Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea all playing pretty much the same way isn't good for the league

No chance the board will go for Moyes. They'd be ripping up their whole philosophy to go for him. Don't think Cooper fits either. Potter has been linked to England so can see him assessing his options after the euros.

It won't happen, but I'd like to see them try to push KDH out to the right and bring Kel or Cannon in as a no 10 to partner Vardy or Daka. Scrap the inverted fullback idea and have Wilf sit deeper so the fullbacks can get forward more.

They made that a proper ugly game and it worked for them. Watching that performance from our attacking players tonight and I think Enzo has done an unbelievable job to get this lot on the brink of automatic promotion. Mavididi and KDH have been so poor in the second half of the season

We were spending £1m a week more than we generated, the wages alone were 116% of turnover, the average wage was £90k a week. You can stick your head in the clouds as much as you want, I think 'fans' have a right to be pretty pissed off at the way our club has been run.

I don't know those are the reasons but that's what I've taken from the statements made. They may be holding something back but the biggest issue they seem to have is the technicality around who punishes us. Who knows, they may have found a loophole to exploit but from my uneducated point of view, this seems pretty weak. And it shouldn't take away from the complete mismanagement of the finances. I remember a few years ago that concerns were raised about our wages to turnover ratio but rather than get it under control, we seem to have continued to hand out contracts like we were dealing with monopoly money

Does anybody know what our mitigation reasons are? From what I've read they seem to be: 1. We weren't expecting to get relegated having finished 5th twice and 8th in the previous seasons. 2. We don't think we should be being punished by both the PL and EFL. 3. The whole system is unfair. These seem to be alot weaker than the reasons Everton have given. 1 is just poor running of the club, 2 is a technicality, and 3 is a non starter given that 19 out of 20 clubs voted it through. On top of that, we can't even claim cooperation now were trying to take legal action against them. I've a feeling our deduction is gonna be bigger than all of those given so far

But this was our model and apart from 21/22, we did sell a big player every year. The problems have come when we put squad players on ridiculous wages and then haven't been able to shift them. I bet agents couldn't believe their luck at the contracts we were dishing out

I would get this argument if the losses were down to player signings. But our net spend over over 9 PL seasons is around -£190m, or around -£20m per season. That's more than sustainable considering the revenue we would have been bringing in from the success we had. What has been completely unsustainable is the wage structure at the club. I dread to think of the size of the contracts we must have been giving out to get in this much of a mess. So we can blame the rules as much as we want, the financial mismanagement of those handing out the contracts is verging on criminal

Always the way. Players always seem to get better on the bench in the minds of fans. As bad as Fatawu and Mavididi have been and as much as I love Albrighton, I really don't think this would improve the team