ALC Fox

Tonight's performance may have been partly down to the dearth of quality in the squad as well as the recruitment (and lack of). But the manager must take a lot of responsibility. There were no coherent patterns of play at all. Everything was reactive. The players received the ball and then took a touch and had a look around and wondered 'what do I do now then?' When receiving the ball after a corner, Soumare had a look and took an age to make a decision to give it back to Ayew, the corner taker. Ayew had two men to take on, realised his only back-up was Soumare who had made no overlapping run and then Ayew made the decision to take on a run at goal. There was no forethought, no moves honed on the training ground, no one-touch football. The players didn't know where each other were going to be. The midfield was absolutely vacant at times when Ndidi joined Vardy up top and El Khannous drifted out wide with absolutely nobody else filling the gap. With Mavididi and Buonanotte on the bench, there was no pace or penetration out wide. Both players now starved of game time and looking leggy for it when they came on, unable to really get up to speed with the game. Buonanotte still looks like a real talent but is being criminally overlooked. Absolutely everything stinks of poor management, both by King Power and Van Nistelrooy. Honking.

Like all wingers he'll drift in and out of games. Sounds like he was decent. Feels like he's on the cusp. Once he was one barnstorming game, he'll be their go-to guy.

Some selfish so-and-so on the M6 tonight not only hogging lane three of four at 60-65 mph but also having a very obvious FaceTime on a mounted phone and very clearly paying most of his attention to the call he was on

How good is Josh King in comparison?

Wondering if there will ever again be a stadium that doesn't play Freed From Desire after a home win

It's a fair point. It's also a risk to go into the second tier. If Parker doesn't fancy him for whatever reason, then he's failed to get into a Championship side which, you could argue, could be more detrimental for his reputation than failing to turn around a club that is currently a car crash on multiple fronts.

Marcus Edwards is an insane signing for the Championship. I know he hasn't been used that much for Sporting this season, but he was ripping it up the other season. Surely he can't have dropped off enough not to get a PL move? Should've been a no-brainer for a team like us.

Hopefully this is the Barnes to West Brom loan that indicates he's ready for us next season.

Send Edouard back. Get Rashford in. Just a six-month loan. No obligation. No option. Just work with Ruud again (who picked him consistently in his short interim spell in charge of Man Utd). Re-assess at the end of the season. Maybe another 12-month loan if we stay up, Ruud stays on and Rashford enjoyed it. Only a semi-serious suggestion because of wage issues, etc. but if no other move (for him or us) materialises before the end of the window, it could be a move that works for all parties.

Three managers didn't fancy him at two different levels (winning the Championship and fighting relegation back to it). He does look quite limited but he also does look like a very good, clean finisher. If he can develop certain sides of his game, he'll be a regular at the top end of the Championship and at the level we currently find ourselves at. But he's not there yet. We do need goalscorers but I think it's worth the risk to use the money and improve the squad in a couple of areas, including up top if possible.

Fulham's second goal was as atrocious a goal I've ever seen us concede. For a split second we actually look like we're in a pretty decent shape with the back four but some extremely simple passing and they're all doing their own thing, they're not alive to anything and the backline is being pulled around by actually nothing particularly special. And then Traore is free at the back post. Woeful. There's absolutely no doubt that these make up the worst defence I've ever seen from us in the Premier League.

The weird thing about Okoli is that Cooper seemed to like him and started him in several games, rotating him in and out - and he's been called up for Italy. It seems van Nistelrooy either doesn't like him or doesn't think he's ready to play Premier League football and prefers Coady, Vestergaard and Faes over him. But, the kicker is that - as a unit - we've been incredibly poor defensively whoever has been in the team. I think there's potential there, but I guess the smart play may well be to sell now while we can recoup a decent fee for him as his stock hasn't fallen much since he's been here. If we wait until we're relegated, then we could be stuck with a Soumare situation where we have to send him out on loan because his wages are too high and teams will try to lowball us on a fee knowing that we have to sell. I do like him, though. Not fitting RVN's blueprint might be a bit shortsighted as he could be a beast under a different manager, but if we're relegated and need to sell him anyway then I guess it makes sense to get rid now since having him in the side never really improved us in the first place. Tough call either way really.

King and Onanaye were notable absences. They injured or potentially could we see them in the squad today? Any others missing that anybody has noticed?

I don't like them. But coming so soon after our title win, it's good to see any team outside of the traditional elite challenging the established order. Their owner is a right whopper but fair play to them. They're upsetting the apple cart and hopefully more clubs like Brighton and Bournemouth can do the same (and us again one day!). The exception, for me, would be Newcastle. They can get in the bin.

People who don't clear their cars of snow before they head out on the road. Saw one car with snow covering the entire rear windscreen and another just dump a big pile of snow on the road from its roof, creating an unexpected hazard on an otherwise clear and ice-free road.

Duran, Rogers and Torres all out for Villa. Obviously they're still heavy favourites but those absences could knock them out of their stride a bit.

It's taken him a while to really hit his straps in his career but he's clearly found a home in English football. He didn't have the best start to this season after a stellar campaign last year, but he's got back to business and when Middlesbrough do well so does he, it seems. We're not fishing in the market of finished products. There's going to be an element of risk with every signing. We need a proper back-up to Vardy now. Daka and Edouard aren't it, so I'm happy to take the risk on someone who's currently in good form. I'm confident he's better than Cannon right now. The two of them will be decent options next season if we go down, but if we stay up we may need to strengthen again in that area.

It's very short-sighted of the club not to consider that loads of kids have siblings. It seems the club are actively trying to lose fans rather than gain or retain them.

Our saving grace here could be that the conventional opinion is that Tonali and Guimaraes are finding it difficult to play in the same side. Difficult for Skipp and Choudhury to come in but if they can strike up a partnership and ping the ball up to the four more attack-minded players, we could find a bit of joy.

He's saying so many of the right things. He doesn't even need to after the first two games, either. Having a good crop of young players is really exciting, so seeing them potentially get opportunities is brilliant. Pragmatically speaking, it also puts them in the shop window. If they do OK, there will be interest in them, either to go on loan to help them develop or for a permanent transfer that boosts our ability to recruit. In a perfect world, there might be a few PL quality players in there who will stay and give us great options as we challenge again.

Still feel someone like Jacob Murphy should be a massive inspiration for him. Not an extraordinarily flair player, doesn't show off, but has worked his way up to being a very useful player for a side who can be really good on their day. Consistency is key for him because McAteer does have a knack of getting into good positions and often doing the basics well.

Seeing him celebrating the equaliser with pure fire in his belly completes the redemption arc for me. G'wan Bouba!

Ruud has a track record of improving players, including youngsters. If RVN actually gives Alves a chance and he does well, AND we stay up this season, van Nistelrooy will be a very popular man here.

Glad he's back home. Hope he progresses well as a coach.

"So it's one hand on your hip, good, then your other arm out like this. I'm a little teapot, short and... Bobby, why on earth are you using your leg?!"