Tomaszk

I haven't heard that about Maupay's wages. Where was that? Be mad if he came in on anything more than £75k a week coming from the Championship.

Big bastards would be very nice indeed. Sander Berge or Marko Grujic would do nicely. Having impressed early on, Marvelous looks a bit scared of the ball recently. He'd be great to have next to a big lad in a 4231 though definitely.

Because in my opinion better midfielders wouldn't help that much. We're too gung-ho, which is something the manager wants. And we still do make loads of chances usually, we just can't score them.

Fingers crossed. Four isn't enough, has to be five minimum. Only a point more, but we need to stop teams gaining on us.

I think Smith's words were carefully chosen on Maupay. It was a public statement meant to show even though we had spent so much in total we aren't spending unless we think the player is worth it. Obviously though, the decision to go with Wes has backfired horribly and will cost us our Premier League spot unless he's replaced in the starting XI.

Grealish and McGinn left at home on the sofa please. I think I'd start Wes and try and get him to clobber some children out the way and smash some goals in. Maybe start and give him 45, then bring him off and try Trez if Wes is being outplayed by the children which is a distinct possibility.

Seasons starts here. We play the only three teams below us in a row. How nice would three wins in a row be? Southampton are not a good side, I think Norwich and Watford are both better. One point would be disappointing, none unthinkable. If Hourihane isn't fit, I'd move McGinn to the left hand side so he can combine with Grealish a bit, I think they're missing each other. Kodjia, Trezeguet, El Ghazi...one of these men must start the game up front.

It's incredible. Poor Overeem, he must be nearly done now. That thing will come apart every time he gets him now. Lucky to still have his head after Ngannou.

Nooo, don't bite! Starve him of attention and he'll go away.

We can be in the mix for him if we're in an "OK" position in January. If we're in the bottom 3, no chance.

Feels like O'Hare and Doyle-Hayes are having decent seasons. Both out of contract at the end of the season. Wouldn't be surprised for SPL sides to come sniffing round them on a free in January. They can offer them terms without consulting us I believe.

People are right saying some shouldn't get carried away with some bad performances against good teams. However, the issue of formation is a long standing issue with Smith. I don't think he has belief in any other system. We've played maximum 90 mins that isn't 433 since he joined over a year ago and 45 mins of that was at Swansea last season. We played it every game without Jack and had one win in 10 or something terrible. The system needs dominance, and thus, good players to work. We've seen flashes of it in this league when Grealish is on fire, but when it doesn't work, our whole game falls apart. I don't think we've had many average performances so far, it's been good or bad. There could be a future just forging this path, but we'll need lots more good players. We aren't going to get these in January, I expect it'll be maximum two players. If we don't get a striker, we aren't going to get enough wins and we'll be relegated.

Mad that lip. You'd think if it's possible for a face to split like that you'd have seen it many times in boxing and MMA. Not seen such a clean split that goes so high in well-worn faces used to been walloped.

Remember Bosko playing with boots that seemed to be missing studs. Sliding round all over the place.

They'll rot your brain mate. Can't even imagine the tripe that must be on there. Presume it's just the usual extremes of if we win everyone is great, and crap if we lose.

Don't respond to trolls.

Don't respond to trolls man! How he's got the stamina I don't know. He almost totally disappeared last season at times.

Holding onto this thought and hoping. We definitely haven't been really poor in majority of our games. We've been good against the teams around us. If they come and try to take a point, we'll trash them. If they come to try and win, it could go either way!

They can both play up front right now. Or one of them with Wes. We shouldn't be going to play it next game for me. We've shown we can beat poor teams at home with the 433. The time to try it was Wolves, Leicester, Sheff Utd, teams built to open us up like a tin of beans and games we struggled massively in.

Everton winning with that goal will be funny. We have been absolutely caned by VAR this season. Wow, next three are the bottom three. Simple question to the players before the next three. Do you want to be Premier League players? This is the whole season.

I agree they are always enjoyable. In terms of predictability though, that's exactly the way they've played all season long. I could have named that team and formation for you last Monday. Their squad fits the formation perfectly. Ours doesn't fit Dean's sadly. He's hasn't addressed it, and just continues to try and play it.

Not sure, depends on performances as it always does for me. Lose those and we're down, Pep with Klopp as assistant isn't keeping us up. Smith has shown he can get us out the championship. It was great to watch. I don't know though, and I hope we don't have to find out. His big weakness is refusing to ever change formation. The system isn't the worst ever but the front three are not good enough for what's being asked. It would protect the midfield if the ball would stick with them, they don't and the midfield gets overrun.

I'm glad he missed today because if he'd have started he'd have been blown away and his chance of starting the next game would have been reduced. Hourihane to score and villa win is bet of the match next up.

20th December 2018. John Percy announced we had signed Lovre Kalinic, the keeper we were absolutely desperate for. He arrived 1st of January and only registration admin stopped him playing that day. We need news like that coming in the next 5 days of a striker on his way. Ideally PL admin is slicker and he can be ready to start at Burnley new year's day. Things obviously didn't pan out for Kalinic but the efficiency of the signing gives a bit of hope when we're desperate.

Mad that. Certainly doesn't feel like that to me. We've got absolutely no bonus points we didn't have to work our nuts off for. From the next three games...you have to say 4 points isn't enough. It's 5 absolutely minimum if you promise me we're getting a striker January 1st. 6 is probably the real minimum, we need wins.