pmcla26

Winks back as the deeper player and Soumare afforded to go slightly higher, let him carry the ball up the pitch. There will be space on transition against these for him to do that.

My bad. I know we weren’t as bad but I guess you could say similar thing for us with Fatawu and El Khannouss. It is pretty mental though.

I mean Lavia, Dibling, Livramento are hardly duffers... Hasn't worked out for Ward-Prowse, though.

Estevao and Neto on the right, Gittens and Garnacho on the left. Palmer 10.

People said the same about Thomas when Chilwell went on his down turn of form before his move. We need to be realistic about expectations. Aluko is a good prospect that needs time.

They were terrible against Leeds. I think they’ll be good at home but struggle on their travels. Going to be a very one dimensional side.

Stolarczyk Ricardo Okoli Vestergaard Thomas Soumare Winks Fatawu Ayew Mavididi (if he’s available?) Daka

Imagine he’ll only be signed as a replacement for El Khannouss. Maybe that’s where the talks stalled over the weekend - we might want to get a replacement lined up just like how Palace said they wanted Eze’s replacement lined up.

Our squad should be getting promoted compared to the others in the league. What are you talking about? The longer we are down the worse it gets. More money gets haemorrhaged in the Championship in comparison to us being in the Premier League. We need to get promoted and have a good summer window going into a season in the Premier League and build the foundation for success there.

Shame to see him go as I think he'll develop into a Premier League standard winger but it's decent money for him. Surely will be able to buy a couple after this and BEK go through.

Yeah totally agree. That’s why I’ve used my wildcard/bench boost so early. Planning transfers the right way from now though means can basically swap most of the team out in the weeks running up to/including GW16 anyway if things go wrong.

I would never normally do this but I've wildcarded GW2 - mostly due to AFCON meaning we get 5 transfers GW16 and then the second wildcard in GW19. In hindsight I probably should have just played free hit but I picked my original team based on just GW1 and bench boosted.

Ayew played well against Sheffield Wednesday. Links the game well for the 3 behind him.

I think with Ricardo in the side we’ll see two 8s and one 6 more often. I was surprised we didn’t start the game that way with Hamza at right back giving the option for him to invert. In hindsight we should have started Page and Winks as 8s over Alves as a 10 and Skipp as a part of a double pivot. Giving Marti the benefit of the doubt as we were always going to rotate and he’s still learning the squad.

I think all of our midfielders would benefit and probably play better with Ricardo inverting to support them and free one up to advance forward more often.

Stolarczyk Justin Okoli Vestergaard Thomas Soumare Winks Fatawu El Khannouss Mavididi Ayew

Soumare has been good tonight

He’ll be needed. El Khannouss can’t play 90 mins every game.

Just not really been in the game, nothing major. Probably just good to give both him and Page a half each.

Exactly, any team they’re likely to go out on loan to is either already out or got one or two more games in the competition at the very most.

Yeah to be fair you’re right there

He’s never really been deployed how he should be here. His best form for Lille came when Benjamin Andre was the deeper midfielder being the aggressive ball winner. Soumare didn’t have as much defensive responsibility in that system, and was allowed to progress the ball through his dribbling or short passing. We saw under Rodgers he’s not a 6 and in Cifuentes system he seems to be the player he wants there. I’d rather have Winks in that role, problem is then a duo of Soumare and Winks has very, very little defensive quality.

Depends on how our PSR situation looks next summer. We aren’t broke, it’s just whether we’re allowed to spend the money or not.

Where does everyone think Winks is going to go? He’s tidy but not an attractive asset to buy from us

Maybe a bit of anger he wasn’t afforded the chance to have an impact last season still lingering. Proving yourself right can be bitter sweet.