FairWooney

Begovic someone we failed to buy* Keane Mina Digne (hopefully) Allan Gomes Doucoure Townsend Gray Gordon * Godfrey I guess, I didn't see Kenny at the weekend so don't know how he got on. More likely Begovic Godfrey Mina Keane Digne Townsend Allan Doucoure Gray Iwobi Rondon Rondon not fully fit still it seems but been underwhelming thus far, I quite fancy going with the Gray as a bit of a false 9 with 2 fast good attackers to his side and some support through the middle from Doucoure and Gomes. I expect though we'll see something very similar if not the same as Saturday.

I'd agree the comparison is worthless. A team of 10 Alan Shearer's or Gary Lineker's for example would probably lose to a team of Doucoure's but they are players who played a particular position and were very good at it. If you could create such a game then someone like Doucoure would have course be a great player to choose as he can work all over the pitch, tackle, pass and score goals though he is unlikely the best any any one of those things. -- I see I was quoted twice! He is a quality player, has a lot of ability but disregarding whatever has gone on between him and Rafa I don't feel his heart has really been in it a lot of the time and his desire to play and succeed is pretty low. Sadly the World Cup in 2014 was his pinnacle that he's never quite lived up to wherever he's been and his move to Qatar makes it even less likely that he'll play at the next World Cup (though at least his in the right country to go and watch!!). -- I can't be bothered with the never ending James debate anymore, especially now that he's gone but if I could have a team of players who want to wear the shirt, perform for the club and fans and work hard to give it their best every game versus a team of super starts that can only be bothered when they feel like it i'd go with the former.

Times are hard, could give Lonergan a go in goal! Amazed quite how many teams he's bounced around mostly as reserve and never playing in the last 15 years! I'd like to see Digne rested but not sure we can really Begovic Kenny Holgate Godfrey Digne Davies Gbamin Gomes Iwobi Rondon Gordon If James is fit and up for playing then he should definitely play. Would be good to see Simms get a run out but expect Rondon will get the start as needs the minutes on the pitch at the moment.

They've had a few injuries and had different looking teams in each game so far. AS you say not quite clicked but that may be down to players missing. Buendia may be back this week though giving them most of their players available It's tempting to go with the side that you've said which is what we played with when we turned the game around on Monday. With no DCL and Rondon not up to speed yet I'd go with that line up. Options are pretty slim, bench wise, be interesting to see if the elusive James makes the bench. Would be good to see Gbamin get some game time as that 3rd spot is one that he could well be pickign up if he was match fit. Tough game I think but we'll put them away 2-1. Gray to get another along with Richarlison. Ings for them.

I've gone Doucoure but Townsend would be close behind. Doucoure really is giving so much to the team under Rafa with that bit of extra freedom. Wins the ball all over, plays some beautiful passes and gets into positions to score as well. Likewise Townsend is proving a lot of people wrong. Lovely cross for the first goal, so useful to be able to switch feet and give that in swinger. The goal was sublime and he made a few similar runs in the game, one that produced a foul and another that he another lovely shot from. Really dangerous player for us. Great run and finish from Gray as well though didn't have as much action in the game overall. Mention for Gomes who came on and did a top job helping us take control in midfield, played it round well and was really composed, shame about his horrendous close range miss and his awful shot from the edge!

so your saying watching a bit of training video doesn't make me a smart FPL manager?! very annoying. Hopefully comes back quicker

he seemed to be ok training this week so hopefully nothings flared up in his injury, bit annoying after i'd just transferred him into my FPL side too! mostly rage on Twitter at "back 5" hoping our full backs are very much playing up as wing backs and Godfrey can also bring the ball forward too. Hopefully a masterful move to tactically deal with Burnley. Interesting to see how Richarlison gets on up top. Hopefully see a bit of Rondon later on but hopefully not need him desperate for a late goal!!

We hate international breaks as someone always comes back injured, usually Seamus Coleman...and also ex international Fabien Delph who finds away to get out of playing no matter what the occasion! Delph now has a shoulder injury

can't have been much of a hamstring injury for him to not be out for even a week! never normally less than 2/3 weeks for a hamstring injury

According to Rafa, Coleman will be fit. If he is then it's a VERY minor hamstring injury! Delph on the other hand has had a tough international week and is now injured!

i'll back down on the eagerness, he just doesn't give it a sprint when they get told to have a burst of pace in running drills. Generally taking it pretty easy...this could be down to fitness

can't be bothered to read the rest of this thread, can I have an update on James' latest wage?

fuckin hell lads, 3 minutes of training video and we've drawn conclusions on the fitness of our squad!! Rondon didn't look the most eager trainer, I'd imagine he'll get some game time on Monday but not a massive amount. James probably happy to have another Spanish speaking South American to joke around with, him and Mina always seem like their having a great crack.

I think the difference is Carlo is someone who has always managed top players. He doesn’t need to do a massive amount to direct them on the pitch but he is a good man manager. Players like him and he deals with big player egos. rafa likes to direct every player on everything they do. For some I imagine they’d hate it as they want to play with freedom. I’d imagine James would be like this but for those that really need guidance they’d really benefit from his input. Iwobi is definitely the kind of player that needs a bit of guidance

It’s great to see our central midfield players contributing more around the pitch. I’ve always thought 2 “holding” or defensive mids is too limiting on a team and players in the top teams offer much more than that. So it’s good to see us getting more out of our players.

This would actually be a good game for James to play as we should actually see more possession, they're the only team in the league that have less possession than us! However I don't see that happening. We had 65% possession last season but put in a poor performance in a 2-1 defeat after being 2 down in 25 minutes. In that game Holgate was right back but Coleman came on and made a big difference providing us some attack on the right. The difference between then and now so far as the right side goes is then we had Davies playing out on the right while now we'll have more attacking intent and pace from Townsend. We were also missing Doucoure on that day actually I don't even want to compare the two sides as we played such a dire sluggish performance in that game and I'd expect a lot more pace and energy here. Pickford Holgate/Godfrey Keane Mina Digne Allan Doucoure Townsend Richarlison Gray DCL Gone with the attacking pace, Richarlison just in behind DCL and Gray and Townsend on the wings. Doucoure box to box getting stuck in all over again. If Godfrey is fit I'd like him to be playing, either in Centre back or right back. McNeil on their left is the main concern so I'd probably favour Godfrey as the better defender of the two even if he's not as comfortable pushing up the wing on that side.

He'll be like a new signing

Agent's always love a good stir! Could have been a good signing though not convinced he's any finished article and may have also found himself on the bench with us looking at how the players we have have started the season. Would have been a useful addition though at a good age and i'm sure if he doesn't get much game time come January and we offload James then i'm sure we'll be back in for him.

Interesting looking at our stats so far this season. Obviously we've been playing very much fast counter attacks and it's worked well thus far. I've not seen much of our play as I've been away since the start of the season so looking forward to getting in some proper viewing now i'm back! Possession: 37.5% - 19th in the league for this ahead of only Burnley. Interesting this, less than 40% really seems way too low to me. It's ok playing a counter attacking game and it worked wonders for Leicester when they won the league but to have such low possession given the teams we've played it's almost like we're giving up possession deliberately! If we'd played Man City or another top side I'd understand but I'd be interested to know from people who have watched all of the games how we've gone about having so little of the ball? Defensive play 13.7 Interceptions per game - second most behind Chelsea (no doubt caused by Liverpool game at weekend) Fouls per game at 11.7 - 3rd most in the league We are a reasonable 12 for shots against (12.3) and 8th for tackles (18.7) The high interception count shows how hard we are working at the back, Keane, Coleman and Holgate topping the figures on interceptions. Passing Another one i'm not too mad on we are 19th on passing accuracy with only 71%. Obviously our possession is always going to be on the low side if are regularly giving the ball away through bad passes. Whether this is sloppy play, desperate hit and hope passes or trying champagne passes I don't know though a quick look into it further I can see we are 3rd on the most inaccurate long balls played but 13th on short passes so obviously we are going direct often and failing frequently. We are also 19th on total passes but this isn't too surprising given our possession. Attacking play A major plus seems to be that our direct counter attacking is proving successful not only in goals and results but we are 5th (15) for most shots and 3rd (6.3) for most shots on target which would have been unheard of under Carlo where we were struggling to create chances. DCL has had 3.7 shots per game of which 2.3 on target (all be it 2 pens in that) and others are also getting plenty in there. Summary I know stats can be misleading but I can see some positives and negatives in these stats, on the plus we are working a game plan well to counter attack fast using the pace we now have in our ranks and are successfully creating chances. On the other hand having so little of the ball and such low passing stats can only get you so far. The only team last season who were really an outlier from the number and accuracy of passes for the season was West Ham, admittedly they are a team Moyes has got playing a similar long ball counter attacking style. Hopefully with a bit of time we'll see our possession increase a bit if nothing else to help manage the game and work rate of the players who must be spending a lot of time chasing the ball.

Is this the Rodman thread? When did he join?

Pickford Coleman Godfrey Keane Digne Allan Doucoure James Gray DCL Townsend Richarlison is probably more much fit than anyone but can't afford to overwork him and hopefully we'll be able to give him a run out towards the end (ideally not because we're desperate to score). I've separated Doucoure and Allan after reading the piece on the official site as Doucoure sounds like he's going to be allowed to push forward a lot more while Allan I expect to fully sit around the half way line. Like wise, hopefully DCL can be rested after an hour. Perhaps a swap with Richarlison as Richarlison's been enjoying some time up front recently for Brazil but if we are going well then would be good to throw Dobbin in for a run. I've been dreaming of a DCL opener created by Gray Cross in the first 10 minutes... wishful thinking and maybe my head backing up my decision to put Gray in my FPL team! 2-0 win - DCL and Gray

Quite an upgrade for PSG from Kean to Messi! If only we could have such upgrades on our players!

at 24 you can't say he's "one for the future", he might not be ready to walk straight into the team but at that age he should be ready to start playing once he finds his feet in the squad (yes I know some players have come through successfully at later ages). Only played 15 games for Antwerp and Benfica B before that so not a lot of first team experience for his age though he has started the season already for Atwerp this season. Attack wise his brief stats don't suggest he's been doing much more than Coleman. 20/21 season him and Coleman played pretty much the same amount - 1600 minutes Buta - 4 assists, 0.8 key passes per game, 25 passes per game (80% success), 0.7 crosses per game, 0.5 dribbles per game Coleman - 3 Assists, 0.8 key passes per game, 26 passes per game (82% success), 0.4 crosses per game, 0.8 dribbles per game Defensively they look pretty similar though Buta commits more fouls Buta - 1.2 tackles, 0.6 interceptions, 1 foul, 0.6 clearances, dribbled past 0.3 Coleman - 1.6 tackles, 0.5 interceptions, 0.5 fouls, 1.3 clearences, dribbled past 0.4 By contrast this is Digne 1.5 key passes per game, 42 passes per game (77% success), 1.5 crosses, 0.6 dribbles 2.1 tackles, 1 interception, 1.1 fouls, 2.4 clearences and 0.8 dribbled past I know these stats don't tell a full picture, especially when you are looking at players in different teams and different leagues but it's interesting to compare. This season after 3 games Buta has so far had more passes, twice the number of key passes and 2 assists though 3 games isn't much to go on! Seems like we don't have much money to throw at getting players so if they think he can be a replacement right back for us and do a job then hopefully they've got it right and he can at least step up for a while.

Probably tracks back more than Sigurdson! We have great reputation for taking on Barcelona rejects so he could fit right in! We have had ex Real Madrid managers in a row though! I'm sure he'll look forward to linking up with Seamus down the right side!

I always think this but if you watch Messi he generally keeps things on his left but still manages to beat most defenders and I always think that surely you know which way he is going to go. I know it's my biggest issue when I play though, i'm very much left footed and can't do a thing on my right! anyone that's played against me for a while knows which way i'm going every time! If only I could use my right I could have been a great player!