The Fish

Anything to keep her husband out of the house, eh?

Villa are awful, however they may start playing with a bit of freedom and take points off clubs around us. They face West Brom and Norwich within the next 3 league games. They can still have a say in how the rest of the league pans out. Not much has been made of sunderland’s inability to beat 11 men. 50% of their points have come against 10 men (9/18pts)! Each of those 3 red cards were controversial, with only 1 being upheld and that was Shawcross’ 2nd yellow, where I'm fairly sure if you could appeal it, Stoke would have. They do have a quality finisher in Defoe, but I’m not sure if that’ll be enough on it’s own. And their new man Jan Kirchhoff had an interesting debut; conceding a penalty and deflecting a shot home. I can’t see them spending a lot, but Allardyce will likely make them hard to beat, so they might have enough. Swansea have appointed a new man with a decent record in Italy but they are flogging their stars in a fire sale and seem to be planning for the championship already. They’re quite shaky at the back but win tonight and they’re back out of the bottom 3. I honestly think we’ll be fine. Would like to see us sign a proper Left Back and maybe some competition at CB/CF but I doubt we'll see anyone added to the backline. The thing only Norwich have in their favour is Delia Smith’s pies… Their defence is a shambles, the goals they conceded on the weekend were hilarious in their incompetence. If they want to survive they should spend £40m on a striker and some defenders. Instead, they’ve sold £15m of striker & midfielder and brought in a couple left wingers and a right back for a total £12m… They’re like Swansea in that it looks like they’re planning for the Championship already. Bournemouth are the only other team in the mix that look like they’re willing to spend to survive. £18m on strikers shows they’re willing to bet the house on scoring enough goals to stay up. They need a leader at the back in my opinion, but goals win games and if they’re going to try and Keegan their way out of trouble, then all power to them.

Pato? but he's never played left back?

You sending your free coat to someone in need?

He's got to concentrate for 90 minutes. I'm worried Colo isn't the man to learn from in that regard...

£10m on Balotelli, £7m on Gomis? Fuck that.

Watford win 1-0, I reckon

Called it

Agree that we need a 3rd. Early goal for West Ham could really make our boys nervous. Early goal for us kills the game.

You should be a motivational speaker.

I'd be amazed if we brought in a striker, or a left back.

Played less Premier League games than Gouffran, so can he be called "proven" premier league? Inconsistent, one trick pony in the last chance saloon if you ask me.

If Perez was firing on all cylinders I'd wholeheartedly agree.

and Leicester. It's a shame for his career that Carroll is injured, but I'm delightedwe won't see him bullying the shit out of our centrebacks at set pieces.

If Tiote is going, get him to knacker Payet as a parting gift.

Hah, I've never been the mad optimist, just the realist when everyone else is pissing their pants. Stevie is the one that predict comfortable wins every other fixture, he's the optimist. Dr Gloom is the one that predicts relegation if we lose the toss in the 1st game.

Guess I just don't have the faith in our team to outscore them, certainly have no faith in keeping a clean sheet.

I see him like Gini, ostensibly a wide player, but when it comes down to it, he's more central than that.

I've a much better beard than that.

I just checked his heatmap v Bournemouth on FourFourTwo's Stats zone and he seems far more central than you suggest? Whoscored.com actually have him central and right.

The other option is (as you point out) have Sissoko & Janmaat try to defend against Payet. Which would be unlikely to be successful AND would stymie our most productive avenue of threat. I don't think that the formation I suggest is perfect, but it isn't the same as the 2 DM system we've been playing because it also includes a central midfielder who can spread the play, can pass forward & can retain possession.

Dunno why, but I thought you were a fairly recent addition to the board. You recently started posting more?