Bailey

1 down... Awful defending from Mori which led to the corner.

Unfortunately it is heard for this type of thing behind close doors these days. Its not like Sunderland have tried to keep it quite as they themselves have been giving the story to the press as well.

I think people would look at this a little differently if they applied it to their own job. If you were promised a new contract for helping the team stay up, which he did being their star defensive player, and then they didnt offer you that contact at the end of the season you would be pretty pissed off. You would then find it more insulting if you got another job offer on the table and then they said they would only give you the new contract after the chance to join this other company was no longer on the table. Then to rub even more salt into the wound after you had rightly kicked up a fuss about what is going on, they brought their offer forward, made it known to everyone, but offered you a much lower wage than you were expecting. I can see exactly why he wants out and I sure as fuck would too.

Weirdly I thought both teams played like you would have expected them to play football in years gone by. The Dutch were more skillful and attacked as a team, moving the ball quickly but the Brits just dug in & relied on an individual attacks. Obviously the women just had a lot more bottle than our footy teams!

Plus it would mean that we have the same problem as Martinez's sides in that we have too many people ahead of the ball leaving ourselves open to the counter. If we play 4-3-3 with those players then I'm sure he will be in a supporting role rather than an attacking role.

Lukaku has confirmed he is going to stay according to Koeman in his article in one of the Dutch papers.

I was going to take the piss as well Mark but Newty beat me to it!

Those hockey players are crazy bastards. Never really appreciated it until last night!

I don't understand the Butland hype either. Not sure he even makes my top 10 keepers in the league.

I heard plenty of journalists saying that he would do well and at least a couple of people in our scouting team must have thought he was a goer. Personally I never trust the Russian leagues. Especially when a player does nothing and then turns into a goal scorer in Russia it should ring alarm bells!

But before that season Heyneckes was on the verge of being sacked because they had been poor the last couple of years. Bayern still reached the semi finals in Europe and if I remember rightly only lost to the eventual winners. The loss to Real Madrid was the killer but by all accounts there was a mini mutiny ahead of that game and they didnt play the "Pep" way. Yeh certainly cant knock Spurs they do everything the right way now. After watching the highlights of the Burnley / Swansea game, I think the latter might be a dark horse. They didnt really click against Burnley but from March onwards they have won 7 drawn 2 and lost 3. They picked up points at City, West Ham, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal and if anything they struggled against the crapper teams (lost to Newcastle & Bournemouth).

Completely agree that he needs game time. His shot stopping is excellent (bar that 1 free kick last season!) but his ability to claim the ball and dominate his area worry me a lot and that is the area that will improve most with games. At the moment I dont think he is good enough to be our number 1 but at the same time I dont think he is any worse than Stekelenberg. I hope we do get a new number 1, even if it is on loan, and the Joel can go out on loan and get a full season under his belt.

Haha yeh he is but there is always a time and a place for a James Milner... Just not too often!

The reason I said that about Chelsea is that they barely conceded a shot in anger yesterday. It was either because West Ham were that bad or Chelsea were that well organised. If I remember rightly, when Conte got to Juve he basically stopped them conceding goals. I am unsure about City, I think they will either win the league easily or finish out the places. I dont think that the philosophy is out dated, I just dont think it has been don't right for anyone else other than Pep as he won back to back titles with Bayern which is the first time they had done that for a long time. This is the first time that he has had to build a new team though and that will show how good of a manager he is, but his buys look very solid so far. We could be interesting this year but I think it will probably be a season too soon.

I hadn't see a lot of him until the Euros but I thought he was probably one of France's players of the tournament, which was even more impressive as his performances improved the further he got in the competition.

I would love to know how those errors are calculated. For example, if you look at Lallana's goal at the weekend, it goes right down the middle of the goal. Cech comes out rashly and dives out when he should have stayed on his feet. Massive error and no-one has even mentioned it.

I cant see much being changed from the weekend except Holgate and Williams being swapped around. Bolasie may get a run out but I think him and Lukaku may come off the bench. I think the West Brom defenders would hate to be up against Gerry.

Cleverly should only be played in one of the more advanced roles. He isnt and will never be a defensive player.

That is an awful kit!

Gibson isnt fit to clean Barry's boots!

What do people think then after the opening round of games? I think Bournemouth will struggle this season, West Ham & Southampton to be in the bottom half and Arsenal out of top 6. Chelsea to concede the least goals, Kane to score less than 10 goals in the EPL and Liverpool to score the most goals.

Odds on its a wind up!

Chelsea looking pretty lively so far whereas West Ham look bang average. Although fwiw they were bang average last season in their first game against Arsenal and won somehow!

Were you watching a replay of us under Moyes?

But he hasn't got a physical presence that Keoman bangs on about. He certainly isn't a box to box and whilst he is creative and could do that controlling role in an AM role I don't think he could do it from CM role. Either way I don't think he is in KKoeman's plans.