honeybradger

He did about as much as Winks. One gets celebrated for passing sideways and offering little in attack and defence, the other gets hounded. Soumare is at the same level as the rest of his teammates (Winks, Vestergaard, Faes, Ayew). If youre fine with those players starting then you should be fine with Soumare.

Why not both?

Good defensively as well just a couple brain farts.

Couple mistakes defensively but he is just so ridiculously good. No way Kristiansen is on the bench ahead of him on footballing merit.

Taken off early so maybe.

Back on

Aluko injured

Sat behind me in the stands

I kind of agree that he's not been as good as the last time we were in the championship, his passing game seems to have regressed quite a bit and he's pretty much solely taking players on and shooting. That being said he's just got so much natural ability that despite being more one dimensional that dimension is still far too good for this league and he's still effective.

The negative is that he was left off the bench in the first game after signing his pro deal for Bobby Decordova Reid. Really hope the club do right by Page but i fear that we won't see him play for the first team for a while now that we have him nailed down on a contract, especially when Ramsey is back.

Monga shone because of Ayew

I remember looking at the season before he left Palace their win rate in the league with him starting was around 30% and without him starting it was 70%. It was a sample size of 31 games vs 7 games mind you but it just shows you how much a player like Ayew can hold a team back. Anyone who has played football themselves know that ball hogs like him are a nightmare to play with.

Yh Faes and Vestergaard who kept passing the ball to the opposition in the second half are proper decent whereas Thomas was useless I'll have what youre smoking

Got to be happy that he's at least playing and got the backing of the fans. Hopefully the form continues.

Interesting to see the polar opposite reactions to Winks's and Soumare's performances last night. One is getting slated and the other is being treated as the second coming. From what I saw there wasnt much between them, both were tidy in possession but didn't offer much in terms of forward penetration or defensive work. The reality is Soumare, like Winks, is good enough at this level because the opposition is so poor, he was fine yesterday.

I think we should look to sell in January if it looks like Cifuentes will still be here to the end of the season. Cifuentes clearly doesnt rate him and Nelson will only have one year left at the end of this season. It would be the best for both parties, allows Nelson to get a fresh start elsewhere where he can hopefully kick his career on and means we dont lose him on a free.

He was available, just dropped from the bench for Cordova Reid. Cifuentes himself said so in his pre match conference. I wouldnt put any weight into those 2 starts, now that we allegedly have him locked down with a new contract there is no longer a need to show him a pathway into the first team, he's not even making the bench with Ramsey out. Nelson was also available btw.

All I want at this point is to at least see one of Nelson or Page on the bench. It's been a bit gutting to see the divide that Cifuentes has created between the first team and the academy.

Viktor Kristiansen expected assists in the last year for us: 0.05 per 90 Luke Thomas expected assists in the last year for us: 0.12 per 90 Thomas is a far better passer than Kristiansen and offers more in attack and defense. Kristiansen is liquid dog muck. Edit: apparently Luke Thomas's numbers no longer include his time in the premier league but it does show that he's creating for us in the championship.

Forget the positioning for a second, what about the poor decision making, poor touches and misplaced passes. Cifuentes making Ayew an ever present in the side is staggering to me.

Monga should start there instead of Mavididi or Ayew.

He was fine today, like everyone I would love it if we had a marauding left back who is also solid defensively but by no means did he have a bad game like some are making out.

I would rather have players that miss sitters than players that don't get on the end of chances at all. He wasnt good over the game but in the lead up to his chance he did well with heading the ball on then making the run to get one on one with the goalie.

All that wanking off over Finn Azaz in the summer. He's so average, no coincidence that Middlesbrough have improved massively upon replacing him with Nypan.