London Blue

So you took in what i said then. Didn't he say he got the tactics wrong in the Spurs match?

I think a big reason the defense is poor is that Coco undermines their confidence when he plays. Its like they know (like the rest of us) that he is going to get caught out defensively in one of his many Don Quixote like charges forwards. I think Williams is having a poor start too, but, as someone as said he is a 6/7 out of ten player out of 10 every week, so far this season he has been mostly a 6/10 but he will get better.

People are getting carried away - easy enough to do with the team we all love. I believe we are still in a transition phase, we have changed most of the 1st 11 this season and lost our main attacking threat, it is always going to take time for new players to settle in and the team to adjust to new strikers and tactics. Plus we have not replaced Lukaku, I don't blame Koeman for this, not his job to sign the targets he identified, and by the sounds of it our 1st tier targets were not available. The fact is we are where we are and have the players we have, no point crying now, we just have to get on with it and look to the January window to address this. Add to that we have the start from Hell it was always going to be rough, it was always going to take a toll on our confidence. The good news is we have plenty of games to help players adapt and get some confidence, thanks to Europa, and after next league game the opponents get easier. Fergy always said don't look at the table till after 10 games, with our situation I would say a better time to judge would be after 15 league games, then we will have a better idea of how the team is progressing. Talk of getting rid of Koeman now or somehow looking for the next manager without saying we are looking at the next manager is pointless. Koeman is Moshiri's man,he has invested allot in him and there is no way he will sack him UNLESS we are a poorer team at the end of the season than we were at the end of last season. He has proven success with Southampton and us in the first season. Yes he is under scrutiny now, and rightly so, but we must show faith and support. In my job there allot of flap and jerk (Knee jerk reactions, and panicking when things don't go as planned), right now this seems what some of us are doing. Patience people lets not judge till we have the proper evidence to make an informed decision.

Right, I am off out with the Mrs and will only be able to check the score periodically, I hope that we play well with high tempo aggression and skill. I want a win, don't care how, but performance is also important - I want it all. (will accept a point if we play well tho )

Coco in a back four with Spurs attacking quality has me worried, would much rather Holgate.

World is full of arsehole's, sorry you had to run into one of them. Hope the operation went well. We are due a win over them, and we need a win to kick start our season, hope we get it tomorrow.

Not quite, he chose General McCellan who was great at training army's but a terrible field general to be in charge of the army of the Potomac due to lack of alternatives. He also played power forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

To quote Abraham Lincoln "We must use the tools we have".

Being in and out of the side hasn't helped.

In those games we also tried to slow the game down and deny them possession which would also explain our lack of speed at getting the ball forward. As I said all stats are pretty meaningless so early in the season, wait till Christmas then we will have a better idea of where we are as a team.

I like it when players play for their country and I am a proud Brit, I have no complaints when African players go to the Cup of Nations. What pissed me off with McCarthy is that he knew he was injured, he was told by us us was not fit but he went and played anyway and made his injury 10 times worse. I don't call that being patriotic I call it being a twat.

Not really as in both games we had to wait for players to get forward so we passed it around between midfield and defense first.

Pretty meaningless stat when you consider 2 of our 3 games so far have been Man City and Chelsea away.

A fit McCarthy yes I agree, but he has not been fit since his first season here. Plus with Besic coming back into the squad, the emergence of Tom Davies and signings of Morgan and Gana we have enough players to cover his position. McCarthy also pissed me off by playing for Ireland when injured making his injury worse. I like our players playing for their national team, but not when it risks their health.

I don't think Koeman is losing the dressing room, the vast majority of the players were bought here under his tenure. Lukaku was always going to leave, nothing to do with Koeman and everything to do with his ambition. Barkley in my opinion is leaving at least in part because his relationship with Koeman has broken down. Mirallas's ego was always writing checks his talent couldn't cash. The epitome of inconsistent, and a trouble maker, part of the Eto gang and very highly strung. He will go in January hopefully. McCarthy, to follow I hope.

Its fucked up is what it is, a born Blue leaving the club when its on the up. It will be a while till we find out the real reason why he is refusing to sign.

Holgate can cross, just not as well as Coco, it was Holgate and DCL who set up Rooney against Man City. Coco is just too poor defensively. We tried the "Well score one more than you" under Martinez and it didn't work so well. Coco would work well in a back 5 but in a back 4 he is a liability.

Loving the new(ish) look.

Good job we signed him as its the one are we are short of......... Hopefully he will be a Cahill type player which is something we could do with developing in the U23's

Any port in a storm and all that, he is a striker (of sorts) he has experience of playing in the premier league so makes sense he is included. Hope he proves people wrong but I expect him to pop up with the odd goal now and again as a sub or as a starter against weaker teams.

This is a project, strengthening the U23's gives us a pool of quality players coming up that are used to us, the league and the way we play. We have also signed some quality players for the first team. Not signing a striker is disappointing but if clubs wont sell there is not much we can do.

True, it will toughen him up, big 4 months for him.

Good experience for him, just hope "Arry" gives him game time.

DCL is going to get some game time - which is a good thing.