FairWooney

what's wrong, he plays every league game and stek played very well in the last game. Nothing wrong with giving the second keeper the odd game.

Hi All, I'm just picking between tickets on Stubhub for the Arsenal match. I'm between Top Balcony and Upper Glawdys section 1 at the moment. I know what top balcony is like as I was there last time, great views over the pitch but it can be a bit dead. Has anyone sat around UG1 that could tell me if the view is ok there and if it has that Glawdys street atmosphere. I've got a feeling I may have been around 1 or 2 before but can't remember properly. obviously at that corner area the views aren't going to be as good down at the other end. The tickets are in Row R

Rooney played well but I'd say he was starting to give the ball away and make rash challenges because he was dead on his feet. Mirrallas at least provided us some pace, energy and directness. We have 3 huge games in the premiership now and a big Europa game in the next few weeks. All of them we should be winning. I'd take nothing less than 7 points from the 3 premiership games and a solid win against Limassol. Those games plus the league cup game are a chance and need to see us start to pull things together and find our feet as a team. If he can't get them playing decent stuff by the end of that then he's really not doing something right.

pickford Holgate Keane Jagielka Baines Gana Sigurdsson Lookman / Vlasic Rooney/Klassen DCL Sandro Just an idea here. Though in truth when I watch DCL, as much as I like his work rate and the way he puts himself about His passing at times having held the ball up is very poor and he very rarely seems to look threatening in the box. For me we shouldn't be relying on him as a starter. But I suppose that's mainly down to some poor transfer activity! Not sure i'd bring this out against Man utd but home to Bournemouth maybe. It's a bit lopsided but Baines would have more freedom than Holgate to push forward, sig would play as a box to box midfielder. While he is talked about as a 10 he typically coveres a lot of ground and can get involved up and down the pitch so for me in our squad he would fit best into a central mid position. I want to see more of Lookman along with Vlasic to provide pace and directness in attack that we are lacking.

PICKFORD

I look forward to who will get the central number 10 role every game, I expect it is a real head scratcher that Koeman looks forward to as well.

the whoscored website shows both Rooney and DCL to have had 7 shots each. DCL had 3 off target, 2 blocked and 2 on target. Rooney had 3 off target, 3 on target and 1 blocked. In the league so far we've had 35 shots, 18 off target, 7 on target and 10 blocked. 10 of those shots were from set pieces The only people to hit the target apart from those 2 are Klassen and Gueye. Obviously we've had tough games but these stats show we've done very little to trouble any goal keeper thus far. We have a good run of games after this weekend and we'd sure as hell better see these figures increase, along with the goals scored of course!

really hope we don't loan him out, even if he's not considered ready for regular action he has enough about him and plenty of pace to cause problems off the bench. As has been said we don't have enough pacy players to be letting him move away.

with the start to the very busy and tough start to the season we've got lined up it's ideal if we can get our squad as complete as possible for the start of training. The last thing we need is to be having half a squad and players possibly leaving when we come to the start of the season, it's what makes the deadling day when it is so frustrating. Hopefully if Lukaku is going that gets down in the next few weeks as well, I can see it being something that will run and run though but I hope I'm wrong. At least it doesn't seem to be restricting transfer activity like it has done in the past though.

Lets hope we get our transfer activity moved on early on because I don't want to see us messing around with players on their way out or new players not settled in going into that lot plus the European games!

7th place isn't good enough but breaking into that top 6 isn't a forgone conclusion for any manager. The teams above us all have quality squads, managers and have plenty of money behind them. The best we can do to any of those things is match it in those terms. We obviously want to establish ourselves like Spurs have but with the level that the teams above us are at or can get to at least (in terms of man utd for example who didn't really achieve last season) we do have to accept that we could end up finishing 7th again, all be it with more points, improved performances and more competetive against the top 6. Would that be disapointing, yes it would but it wouldn't necessarily make Koeman a failure.

I agree with this. I saw a lot of positives from early on though it took a while to fully come together I could see where he wanted to take things and how he wanted to stamp his mark on things. While his straight talking management doesn't work for all players I do think it is a good way to go for some. He's had no qualms about berrating Barkley publicly because everyone can see that Barkley doesn't deliver on his hype and this keeps Barkley in check somewhat and spurs him on to perform better. It will be an interesting transfer window and my biggest hope really is that Lukaku either stays and whether publicly or privately commits to staying for the season or he leaves early in the window. The frustrating thing with these big transfers is they normally end up running a long time, if we could complete a transfer of Lukaku in July then that would give us lots of spending money to improve the squad. Spurs showed what could be done with a big injection of cash when they let Bale go and with a solid manager and Walsh (whatever his job is called) in place I think that we would spend wisely to improve the whole squad given that extra money. I'd take 65m plus to let him go. Looking forward to next season, we have some decent foundations in place and Koeman I believe has a full idea of who needs to go and which areas need improving. I've no doubt that with Walsh on the case we should have a good idea of a number of players that we will be making enquries about. The Europa league will be a challenge as it is for any team that ends up in it but with plenty of options in the squad and lots of quality young players fighting for game time I believe that with the required new faces on board we will be able to cope with it pretty well. Bring on August!

The way we're playing we can keep pressure on those teams above and that's all we can do, play for as many points as we can get and keep improving as a team. We have some tough games in the final couple of months with the Liverpool/Man utd double away within a few days of each other starting off a 6 game month that ends with Chelsea at home (hopefully they'll have won the league by then and won't be as ruthless!). We basically can't afford any silly dropped points and probably need to beat one of Liverpool or Man Utd depending on who drops the most points elsewhere. No doubt come the end of the season people will complain we don't want to be in the Europa anyway! I think with a few more additions to the squad next season we should be strong enough to cope with the games. Rom would definitely need someone to allow him a break. He's so much fitter than he used to be but I couldn't have him playing full 90 for a load of extra mid weekers. A chance of Lookman, Calvert etc to get more game time.

Thought he was quality today especially later on in the game. I’ve noticed he’s a lot fitter than he was a couple of years ago, not sure how much that’s improved under Koeman from Martinez but he’s certainly not struggling at the end of games like he was and he was looking like he could easily get another goal or two towards the end. West Ham looked pretty weak defensively but he go made the most of it and played others in well. The assist for Barkley’s goal was quality, great ball from Barkley and with no one in the box Lukaku held it up brilliantly with a few defenders in front of him. The ball to Barkley was just perfect. I don’t think we’ll see him ever do the kind of chasing around the Koeman would like but if it means he can play 90 minutes well and score goals consistently then I don’t mind that!

Good that he's doing well and Unsworth is happy to have him. He won't play for us until January at least as he's not in the squad from what I recall so can't be added to the squad until January. I'd be happy for him to return and prove himself but probably more chance he gets a transfer than a first team game.

Bolasi for me, really impressed with his hard work and graft as well as great strength and ability on the ball. Seemed to work well playing closer to Lukaku. My only thing against him is he lacks the finish or certainly a strikers instinct to take a shot on. A few times he could have had a chance but would hold it up to try to get someone else in, I wouldn't say he's that confident a finisher as his stats would suggest. Would be nice if was more confident to have a crack sometimes.

A bit surprised at what i've read over the last couple of pages as I feel I've been watching a different game to everyone else. I'd agree on some points but totally disagree on others. This was the first full match I'd seen this season, though I'd seen quite a bit of others it was the first time I'd been able to sit down and watch a match fully. From early on it was clear that Koeman had given them a kick up the arse with regard to starting better. They came out quickly, pressing, moving the ball forward quickly with Barkley (all be it making errors), Bolassi and Lukaku looking to move forward quickly and trying to make things happen. Palace for the most part defended pretty solidly and thwarted any efforts. Palace slowly got themselves into the game and started to look better as the half went on. The second half they came out much better and got more control, their crosses were a constant threat and they defended our attacks very well. Overall the difference from Martinez time were very clear to see. We attacked fast with players looking to quickly move things forward, the fact that we ended up not creating a shot was more down to good defending than players arsing about ala martinez time. Yes you can say they need to be more creative but I felt the efforts were ok if a little disappointing that they didn't produce enough chances. I found the game so much more entertaining to watch than anything over the last season from Martinez, they pushed forward fast with some crisp moves that weren't quite coming off, Bolassi was a highlight for me, skillful and quick but also strong and works very hard too, the only thing he seems to lack really is an eye for goal. A couple of times he got in positions where others might choose to shoot but would look to get it across to Lukaku. Defensively we coped pretty well with them most of the time, obviously Benteke wasn't covered by the centre backs for the goal but for the most part they had him covered well and though crosses came in and were dangerous they got dealt with. I don't think you could say we didn't press them or that we didn't look to attack them at pace. We didn't plod around with lots of side to side passes. It's a disappointing result, especially after the last 2 games but I felt Palace posed a tough challenge and would have given most sides a very hard game with the way they played. We do need to work harder and getting chances and as someone said a few more shots from outside the box (something better than Barkley's awful 35 yard conversion!) wouldn't go a miss. -- On the note of "based on that City will smash us" attitude. Last time I watched City they weren't spending most of their time to hoof the ball into a big centre forward. In fact Crystal Palace have had more crosses than any other team in the league (7.9pg) while Man City are 15th with just 3.9pg. With that in mind I take little relevance to the defensive troubles we had against Palace, our defensive were generally solid against them on the ground. Palace had 10 shots but we blocked 6 of them. They actually only got 1 non headed shot past our defensive, which was wide by a mile. Attack wise I think we are well capable of posing a threat to City, I think they will probably score against us but certainly think we can cope with their attack in the most part. Enough of the doom and gloom.

The good thing for us is he knows we're not going to let him go for less than we feel he's worth (plus some) and we're not going to get a buyer at that price unless he plays his socks off and proves he's worth it. He needs to shut up about what he wants to do, get on and play and prove he's a player that should be playing for a top team and that they should splash big cash to get him. Hopefully with those performances he can then help us win something or make champions league like he wants!

hafina my point on Bony was that he's spent ages sat on the bench, if he goes to us he'd likely be sat on the bench again. The lad probably wants to be guaranteed some starts.

TW - 5/10 TDD - 2/10 the deadline day wouldn't bother me if we'd done enough decent business before hand! Defense Stones going was disappointing but he wanted to leave and the fee was great very good so a decent deal. Replacement in Williams is a good one, an experienced quality centre back with great leadership qualities. I'm happy enough with what we have at centre back for now, an extra one might have been good but they would likely have been cover or rotation. I expect we'll be on the look out for someone to bring in January though. Right back - I'd seen we were after a Southampton right back. I definitely think a new right back was much needed. We don't have any real cover there though I guess the emergence of Holgate as a competent stand in lessened the worry. Another position I think we have to add cover in thought. Midfield McGeady (loan), Osman and Pienaar gone, 2 have had their time, the other never proved much cop so no worries there. Gana looks an excellent signing, solid, hard working, fast and good tackler who can also pass. Hopefully he continues to prove a real good value buy. Bolasie, i'm not convinced by, he was pretty expensive for a player that doesn't have great scoring or assist stats but his pace and power can hopefully make him a good addition. Hopefully can prove a decent signing who can improve his goal and assist contribution in our side. Did we need more? I'm happy enough with the wings, Duelofeu, Mirallas and Bolasie are good attacking options while Lennon can provide backup. Barkley is looking good in the central role and if he's out the others are all well capable of stepping into that position. The one position I'd have liked to have seen upgraded would be a central midfielder who can create things, I guess a replacement for Barry. Holding but with some attacking impetus and ability to make things happen and fine the front players. Sissoko would have taken that position but given his awful season at Newcastle and high price tag I'm not too disapointed we missed out on him! It's a shame the other deals didn't come through there. Striker We really needed a decent backup striker, I'd imagine that whether we went for Bony or not he would have picked Stoke as he will get to play where as we would have wanted him as backup which would rightfully not be in his interest. Enner Valencia has played a fair bit and managed 4 goals a season for 2 seasons in England. He's hardly set the Premiership alight. Maybe he can prove himself but I'm not convinced. Ultimately we could have really done with backup and if Lukaku gets injured then we are really lacking goal scoring pedigree up front. -- Not too impresed with our work really, maybe we went for the wrong targets and no matter what money you have barring paying silly wages players will want to go to top clubs and generally clubs that are in Europe. That isn't us right now so we can only sell ambition. You have to be realistic as to who you can get. I don't like the last minute stuff either, Berhami, Sissoko and Gabbiadini were all rumoured for days if not weeks and surely could have been crossed off before the final day if they weren't likely to happen. I didn't expect mega money to be spent, Moshiri never said he was giving us loads of money for transfers and the constantly touted "moshiri's millions" was a load of shite that was never said by anyone but media and fans. He will stabilise our financial position and help us get a new stadium but I don't see him waving blank cheque books around. That said every team had a large amount of TV money available if nothing else and with Stones going out for 45m we've really pretty much spent nothing. I would have expected at least 20m more spent than we did. I'm not too worried though, the team are playing well, growing into Koeman's style and the new signings are settling in ok. Hopefully we'll be working on reinforcements for January and ideally getting them in early having had time to work on it.

0-1 Lukaku I expect Bolasie starts from the bench but not sure. is he a right or left winger by trade?

Whenever I saw Sissoko for France during the Euro's I thought he was quality and the most likely game changer for them in a lot of games. He reminded me of Yaya Toure, charging forward through the middle out muscling people and looking to make things happen. I've not seen him much for Newcastle so don't know how he's got on in the Premiership but every time I watched him for France I wanted to see us sign him. If he doesn't do it in the Premiership then fair enough but what i saw of him I thought he was quality.

plus whenever we've been in Europe we've not had to play this round. I imagine Williams will play on Saturday so maybe more likely to not play in this game than Jags/mori. Hopefully we'll have another recognised striker by then who we can play!

We were probably at 70% fitness last season all season anyway! The difference is that under Martinez we were strolling around passing side to side and not pushing anywhere near as hard when we didn't have the ball. Koeman wants us pressing high with all players looking to press to win the ball back, that takes a lot of fitness, especially if you haven't got the ball a lot which from the stats it looks like we weren't on top possession wise. Barcelona press like that but they also have the ball 60% of the time at least so get more of a break. Hopefully we can pick up at least 4 (ideally 6) in the next 2 games before the international break then will have a bit of time for the non internationals to put in a few extra fitness sessions to finish off the fitness process that they'll have been working on between now and then. Can't complain at a draw against last season's 3rd place finishers who were league contenders all the way through the season. We might always have pretty close games with them anyway but it's a decent result considering it's in theory the hardest team we'll play until October.

Glad it's done before the start of season, it had the potential to drag on unnecessarily towards deadline day. Assume we've made them wait until signing someone to replace him, who appears to be Kone from Sunderland. We seem to be investing in matching name players, Gueye comes in to replace Gueye, Kone in to replace Kone.