FairWooney

just watched the first couple of minutes of a rare underwhelming YouTube compilation featuring some basic passing he'd made, a few misses and an occasional goal. Only young and I believe missed most of the previous season in France due to injury. Started 15 games last season scoring 7 which was just above his Xg of 6.3 so beats Maupay on that front! Almeria only just survived relegation though they did score 49 goals so his contribution of 7 isn't great from playing about 40% of their games. If we're buying someone that can play but has potential to improve that's great but we need to make sure we don't pay over the odds as chances are if he does perform well he may end up leaving anyway! I saw some spider graph thing that showed similar attributes to DCL.

Different game on Spain though, not as quick and a bit more technical, I think he’d get on fine. hopefully he goes as I don’t see a place for him at Everton.

I wouldn't agree on that. Onana isn't particularly attacking, not that I've really seen. He put in a tackle, is ok a distributing the ball but isn't particularly creative or isn't really getting between lines or into spaces in attack to make things happen very often. Gana doesn't particularly show he wants to be an ACM. He gets into a position to launch one over the bar every now and then but generally sits back. Garner is also someone who isn't particularly attacking, he can pop up around the box and take a shot, he can pick a decent pass but he's not looking to push forward with the ball Doucoure is fairly attacking and at the moment is best placed to be the attacking one of those 3 but not exactly creating a lot, unlocking a defense to play others in or running at defenses. .

anyone know if friendlies count towards his games played? If not I'd like to see Dyche see what he thinks during preseason, spending time with him and seeing how he performs and what his mentality seems like. Only if he's happy with what he's seeing from him should we get him playing. I do think we are lacking a good central attacking midfielder like him. Where we are lacking goals we have 3 midfield players, none of whom are really creative/attack minded players. It would be good to see us get that better balance in our midfield and that's the area we're missing.

Shame to see Andros depart after such a long spell out and not quite making it back. I wouldn't have kept him on and he probably wouldn't have got a huge amount of game time but he did do a good job when he first came in under Benitez with him and Gray both looking ilke shrewd signings. That goal against Burnley was an absaloute screamer. Seemed a nice guy as well. Hopefully someone comes in for him and he can get a decent spell somewhere.

I'll be in Edinburgh sat watching on my phone no doubt in a beer garden recovering from running the marathon that morning. Not ideal! Doubt and pubs round there will be showing us!

our performances in the last few games have given me quite a bit of confidence but Wolves current home form doesn't! hopefully the old "nothing to play for" "on the beach" rubbish comes good for us! In their last 6 homes they've won 5 and drawn 1. They've only scored 9 in those games but have also only conceded 4. I do fancy we can play like we have in the last 2 and keep things tight, picking something up on the counter.

Man City soaking up pressure? Having to hit us on the counter attack? I think the game will be the opposite of that! We won't have more than 40% possession if we're lucky and I'd expect us to set up like we did against Brighton, keeping narrow and tight where possible and not allowing them any space to stroll through us. Quick counter attacking in numbers. It doesn't matter what team City put out they will dominate the game. I think we can get something out of this game if we play like we did against Brighton though maybe that's a big ask!

Top performance all round from the team, as stated by RPG, shout out to Dyche for great team set up, they kept narrow and made it really difficult to play their game fluently and when we won it we were quick to counter and got forward in numbers. I've gone with McNeil, it's great to see him performing so well under Dyche after most of us had written him off as a poor signing under Lampard. He works incredibly hard up and down the pitch, and showed great composure for 3 of the goals he was involved in. The first setting up Doucoure, I've seen so many times this season our final ball when we get forward be poor but having run a fair distance with it he took his time to spot and perfectly pick out Doucoure's run. His first goal, he received a lovely pass from Iwobi but I expected him to hit it first time which may or may not have got a goal depending on the keeper but he calmly went round both the keeper and defender. Similarly on his second he showed how much confidence he has back to unleash the shot in a difficult position. Couldn't really fault anyone. Mina had a brilliant game back though was daft to get himself booked. When he wouldn't go over to the ref after an early foul I think he did himself no favours and probably brought on the booking later on! Some great blocks though and did everything we expect from him at the back. DCL's performances keep getting better, lovely work for that first goal, turned the defender easily, got down the line and once again a good composed pass to find Doucoure. Won the ball, fouls and held up the play brilliantly in a tough game where we didn't have a lot of the ball. Patterson - He struggled against Mitoma a bit in the first half but got better as it went on and was much better in the second. He was a very tricky player to play against but I think Patterson held his own after a while. Mykolenko, similarly put in a massive shift at full back, had a tough time when March came on but kept working hard to win everything on his side. A quick stat on our defenders Clearences Mina - 13 Tarkowsky - 11 Mykolenko - 9 Patterson - 6 IMMENSE Much more difficult opposition but I'm sure Pep will be taking notes after watching this game, he's an admirer of Brighton's play and he won't want to see us frustrate them in the same way! Fingers crossed we can!

Hope to see him stood alongside Dyche barking encouragement to the team and giving them a good talking to at half time! Be absolutely gutted for him if he doesn't get to play for us again and equally if he does play for us but it's in the Championship.

Wolves have a horribly good home form at the moment. 3 wins in a row and 4 in their last 5. The only thing you can really say against them is that they don't score many. Similarly Brighton have won 3 and drawn 1 of their last 5! I'd rather not mention Bournemouth having won their last 3 away games! Hopefully Fulham and City get the results this weekend against Leicester and Leeds and we can at least jump out of the relegation zone if we get a draw. Forest v Southampton the next day is anyones guess really! In my dream last night we beat City 2-0 with a worldie of a performance from Pickford keeping 6 or 7 shots out and DCL scoring 2 goals on quick counter attacks in the second half. Fingers crossed for that one!

McNeil for me. Some good performances across the team, Garner had a very good game, DCL was looking sharp (apart from that miss) and Iwobi and Doucoure also put in a lot of good work. Pickford great penalty save, takes some balls to follow your research when the research says to stand still, even if the stats say it's the right move! Some other good saves and always looked a really safe pair of hands around the box. A note on Iwobi: i've seen it mentioned a few times but Iwobi really is wasted on the wing, he played well, was used a lot out there and made their defence work hard but his crossing is terrible. It felt like he had a lot of crosses that didn't hit anyone in the box and a quick check proves it so. 6 crosses, none deemed to be accurate.

his return really shows how much we've missed having a proper centre forward which isn't just down to him being injured but the board's ineptitude at ensuring we had a decent backup. Whilst he didn't get any clear chances or have a lot of joy in the box he kept their centre backs busy, won the long balls and was always busy. By having someone that occupies the centre backs the others get a lot more space and I noticed Iwobi playing more like a number 10 at times finding a bit of space to run into.

I was disappointed with how late he left it to make any changes on Saturday, main one for me would be Holgate, he was clearly getting beaten every time by Ayew and once he was on a yellow it was always a risk. Any fan could have told him that Holgate doesn't have the mental capacity to play it careful enough not to get a yellow and even if he did the fact that he was constantly getting beat was going to make it more likely he would end up comitting a foul that could get him a card. He should have been hooked at half time. It's difficult with the other positions I suppose in that Gray who wasn't playing well really didn't have anyone else who could come on for him unless you tried to use Maupay or Simms, neither of whom have the same match up. Hopefully we'll have Onana along with Doucoure back for Thursday to at least have more options available on the bench.

I don't think you can lay into the back line all that much, Crystal Palace peppered our box with crosses and worked their way around the box a lot but we gave them very few chances at all. Holgate was clearly skinned all game by Ayew and was a walking red after he got his yellow. If Dyche knew him he'd have known he had to get him off before he earnt himself another card but to be honest it was clear to anyone that he was still getting done during the second half. Keane hasn't been mentioned but he won 12 balls in the air as well as 7 clearances and 4 interceptions so was clearly pivitol in keeping things out when they were attacking the box. Shout out to DCL who showed how much we've missed having a centre forward. though we still didn't create much, he kept their centre backs busy, won plenty of balls in the air and worked really hard. Lovely bit of work to play the ball off then quick turn to get that left foot shot off. Annoyingly we seemed to provide a lot less crosses into the box than when he wasn't in the side or at least good ones.

He sounds like an ideal number 6, the position we are lacking in really. Takes the ball on deep and can play good forward passes. Still quite a step from league 1 but a good preseason and he could be challenging for a spot.

I've noticed recently since he's been out on the right wing how right footed Iwobi is. It causes him problems as he's not really someone that wants to cross the ball so he will look to beat his man but he can only ever go one way. If he want to turn back he needs to make a full turn back on himself to play the ball back on his right. One thing we are lacking with having genuine 1 footed players on each wing is the ability to cut inside and get a shot off, something that Gray excels in. It would be lovely to have a genuinely 2 footed player who could put a good cross in and cut inside for a quality shot! (dreams...) I noticed at the end of the game we kind of went to 2 left wingers for a bit with Gray able to come in and McNeil staying wide. Very unbalanced but gave us a bit of both worlds. I'd like to see Gray get a chance as a no.10 where he can get a chance to get a shot off more, he can then be a bit more free to pick up on the left and come in side but also play across the line.

McNeil, more for the first half than second. Worked really hard, had a tough battle with Cash but regularly got the cross in and usually decent. Also got into some good positions in the middle. I thought overall we did a lot of things well but our inability to score, not just from a striker but the whole attack is a major worry. At no point did anyone look capable of scoring a goal.

Key is that we keep up the home form and get as many points as possible from those. Villa, Brentford, Fulham and Bournemouth all need to be wins. I reckon we can get 2 points at least out of Spurs, Newcastle and City That would put us on 36. Hopefully we can get a win from one of the remaining away games and a couple of draws. Palace, Leicester, Forest and Wolves are the best hopes at a win. Chelsea not a bad chance of getting something the way they're playing.

Didn't realise that was him. I watched the all angles video and just wondered what the scream was at that point in each replay!!

is DCL a doubt? what issue did he have?

I think the depth is as big an issue as anything. Whilst he may be able to get something better out of our players and our team set up that sees us perform better we have a very limited squad numbers wise and one or two injuries would cripple us. We have 2 first choice wingers with potential backup from Iwobi and Stan Mills. Given that McNeil has struggled thus far he's now likely to be promoted to playing every game. We have DCL as our main striker with Maupay so far showing that he's not someone that can be up front by himself. If DCL was out we are left with Maupay and Simms. Even Gordon who stood in a few times at the start of the season is gone so a DCL injury would leave us with 2 fit strikers, one who's done very little and the other who has done alright in the Championship but is essentially untried in the Premier League. Defensively and midfield wise I think we can cope with the odd injury if we had to but in attack I think those positions really are very thin on the ground.

Agree on support for DCL. I'd say potential options are Maupay, Gray or Iwobi at the moment with potential for Simms also. I'm really open to what team put out as to whoever comes through a week of training and adaptation a to how Dyche wants them to play. If Davies has a great week, works well and buys into how Dyche wants to play then i'm happy for him to start. Like wise someone like Doucoure.

why are people so obsessed with Dyche picking Keane just because he was a Burnley player under him? A lot of time has passed since he had him at Burnely, he's had some good times at Everton but plenty of bad times and I don't see any reason why he would suddenly pick him over Coady or Keane. Keane has also shown that he struggles mentally when things aren't going well which doesn't make him a great pic unless there's some major change in his mentality just because Dyche has come in! @Formby what team would you pick instead? Apart from changing defenders and adding Gray there's not a lot of option really. I'd consider Maupay alongside DCL for some games but don't think it would be a great option for this game. Gueue's many errors this season would temp me to drop him, options to replace him would be Davies, Doucoure or maybe even Holgate. Whoever looks best in training and Dyche fancies to put in a performance really. I'd rather see Gray and McNeil on the Wings than Iwobi though that doesn't leave any space for Iwobi unless he's up top with DCL which isn't a goer unless he plays a number 10 kind of role behind DCL. I can't really find any side that looks good in honesty!! I'd like to see Mills on the bench as an option at least on the wing.

Great analysis this. It's easy for people to look at a team and decide that they are just lumping it to big players and throwing themselves around to top better players performing but this video really shows the good tactical work that goes into squeezing the opposition and things that we've really lacked tactically at all.