Chelmofox

Have you learnt nothing yet. Give them 2 weeks before we start saying ’we need outgoings before we can bring someone in’.

This is when he makes the header. We are very bunched up on the right hand side but that header goes straight to Barclay. Barclay shouldn't be on his own but Vesty needs to do better there. Other than this i thought he looked good. Any news on the injury?

JJ goes round in circles. How is any player receiving the ball meant to anticipate anything he is going to do properly, and he can see Ayew is being tracked. It's made worse by the fact the pass he makes to Ayew is slow which gives the attacker everything he needs to press aggressively. You can see Ayew indicated to go long as well. It's a complete cluster from JJ.

Morsi is such a c***. Wish we had someone with his luck.

Although i got tickets, i don't care about the FA Cup. Use the time between now and the Palace game to get the deals done we need and to get some confidence into some of the youth that we may need. Give Alves a start against QPR. Can we recall Braybrooke and start him as well? Is Joseph a viable option if we can't get anyone in? If not - start Hamza and make him feel like the position is his to lose. Start Facundo and get his mojo back again. I am getting really concerned with the use of Vardy. He needs to be rotating Daka and Vardy, just not using Vardy for the full 90. Villa felt like a game where he should have started Daka and put vardy on in the 60th minute.

I'm not sure who would want to be a winger in the PL. Fans expect you just to be strolling past defenders with ease as if you are playing mid 90's sensible soccer. The reality is that even the very best get a tiny number of legitimate chances to do that a game. Even Foden did fek all against us in the PL. Stephy does need to be more clinical (and should be hitting the target with that first chance), but in the overall picture he is about as clinical as you would expect a £6mil winger to be. I think he will get better, but probably needs more chances to get more output.

Wingers are always hit and miss in the PL, but he is still one of the few that makes things happen out there. God do we miss Fatawu.

Im struggling to see why Ayew is to blame. Firstly, the ball to Justin isn't really that difficult for him to deal with. Justin has several opportunities to get rid including early on on his left foot. After going around in circles, Justin can see Ayew is being pressed and gives him a really, really weak pass that plays into the Villa players hands. If you are Ayew, you are probably wondering if / when JJ was planning to do anything and must have become impossible to anticipate. Lastly, JJ pulls out of giving away a foul as he must have assumed it was too close to the box and could have been a penalty. It's all on JJ that one, and just a collection of brain farts.

Could we recall Braybrooke and play him in this?

He will be 100%. There isn’t, nor there will be, anyone else.

But what do you do? Hamza can't play game after game in that position. We have to sign someone, and they have to be good.

Because there are 4 quality alternatives? Lets not pretend that Hamza is the answer, as we know he can't put 2 consecutive performances together.

We got relegated that season

Sh1t. Its only going to get harder from here. That (like the Man City game) was there for the taking. Positives. Thomas was alright, Soumare good again, i though Ayew played well. I thought Vesty was solid till he got injured. Jakub is a good keeper. Negatives. Bloody JJ. ffs. Mavi missing a sitter and struggling for form. Though Okoli looked awful when he came on and Facundo gave the ball away and had nothing in him to change the game. Even though he can do the link up play stuff ok, I'm not sure i want to see Vardy running around on his own much.

@Dahnsouff, im still of me ti*s cos of the painkillers. Did we win?

I love Facundo, but my god he gives the ball away so often so i get why away Ruud won't want to play Bilal and Facundo together. There really isn't anyone else to play other than Ayew. I think if Kasey is fit he would have started today.

You say that, but the consensus (although i don't 100% agree with it) was that we were shit against West Ham and most people whinge about that too.

We aren’t getting anyone are we?

Might be due to the copious pain killers i've been taking following an abscess and tooth extraction (i know how to rock new year), but i'm quietly confident we get something here, even if just a draw.

Who have Southampton brought in?

Wonder if Chelsea get top 4 we still get our add ons? Injuries this lad have had are off the charts.

I like what i've seen from Okoli at times, but he is young and still accommodating to the Premier League. Being a LCFC center back is a thankless task! Coady seems to be hugely in favour right now, so i can't see Ruud agreeing to get rid at the moment. I think if anyone goes its Faes and we might be able to make an amortised profit on him.

Because there is a market out there and if you want to compete there are baselines for being able to sign players. Unfortunately, the bigger clubs will pretty pay anything for PL players and this means the rest of us have to compete to some level. High wages and locked in contracts aren't a problem unique to us. Just look at what Man Utd pay for their squad if you want to feel incredibly sick. Moving forward, we do need to be smarter with players like Daka or Soumare who had no Premier League credentials but commanded wages as if they were established PL players. If you look at more recent signings, we are bang on right with the salaries for Bilal and Victor, but if we try and sign talent from existing PL clubs its likely they will already be commanding high salaries.

Surely he gets the rise when he breaks into the first team.

I don't think there is much point going round in circles on this one. Ruud was forced a shitty hand with this. Jakub was injured and wasn't match fit. I think Ruuds priority was to train in the way he wanted and Ward allowed that, as it looked like Jakub would only miss the Wolves game (and we don't know if he was very close to be declared fit). Whatever everyone thinks about Iversen, his stats were actually worse than Wards and if training with him delayed what Ruud was trying to achieve, i think i respect (though dont like) the risk that was taken. Even in the relegation season, Ward had games where he kept clean sheets - so anything was possible (yes - its Ward, and i was at the Wolves game and actually broke up a fight!). It doesnt make Ruud a sh!t manager at all. He took a risk that didn't pay off, but as we can see from the Liverpool and Man City performances, he was clearly working on playing out the back as it was much improved.