Tomaszk

We need a Grealish for CM and Grealish for LW. 100% what you'd except. Looked good first half, part of a great team performance. Shrivelled away into nothing and hid away when it got difficult. Was saved a couple of times by McGinn from launching Burnley counters by being scared he was going to be clattered so flicked ball off to no one.

I detest watching him. As has happened all season long, killed us when he appeared.

Wet yogurt is very accurate. Has to be dropped for Norwich trip. A pathetic, limp performance. Letting the whole team down. Wins absolutely nothing. Literally like having no one up front. If he was a youth player who had just appeared I'd be saying he's got no chance of making it as a Premier League player. For the McGinn disallowed goal it was right to him and he missed it 4 yards out.

Targett in. Bloody hooray. El Ghazi starts, Trez bench. McGinn, Grealish, Hourihane and Nakamba all start. It's either Grealish wide left or a diamond maybe?

They'll be high on us from all goal kicks, and when they get it there won't be many short balls. It'll be long floated passes out to our full backs where Barnes or Wood will have drifted wide to head it back inside. Getting to second balls from those knock downs will keep up a clean sheet, or cost us the match.

Christ, he didn't do it again did he. What a honking season.

I think he's absolutely fantastic and really don't want Leeds to go up so we can try and sign him again. In terms of confidence receiving the ball under pressure there's only Grealish better in the squad for me.

Couldn't give a toss if he only bags 5 if he's playing brilliantly and winning us matches with hold-up and setups. Need more at the moment, just not doing enough. Defenders and holding mids are getting an easy ride swatting him aside. Thankless task on his own up front I know, he may not see ball for 5-10 mins at a time. When he does it's half a sniff and I'm expecting him to win a foul, a throw, something, anything! This is it though Wes, this is the big leagues. It's not Belgium with some Champions League token losses thrown in. If you make a name for yourself here, the Brazil team will start appearing on the horizon. How much do you want to succeed? Don't think Keinan quite did enough on Wednesday, but he's getting closer. Another flat Wes performance and he could be dropped for Norwich I think. Give us a hat-trick big man.

Who the hell passes like that Circus act stuff.

Has to be time now. He's also taller so Dean can frame it that way if he wants. Should help a bit more with long balls.

Don't feed.

Not ideal purely from a fixture build-up. No chance we'll be playing proper reserves. I do think Steer, Elmo, Konsa, Jota and Hourihane are all certs to start though.

My opinion is the same. Some league cup goals don't change anything. Not good enough unless we're on top. Disappears when it's tough, necessity when you're on top. If he starts turning it on when we've got our backs to the wall and contributing outside of pure goals and assists (which are lovely obviously) I'll probably change my opinion. He should probably start on Saturday. Wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't.

Forget fitness, tactics, any sort of set piece work. Send him away with someone on the training ground to play balls through to him all day and get him finishing. A feather of composure and he'll be lethal. Hope one flies in off his shin early v Burnley, could unlock something.

Massive challenge at the weekend for the defence. Mings and Heaton need to lead them. Don't want anyone getting involved with Barnes, everyone knows about him. Win your battles and move on.

I agree he did nothing. Nowhere near aggressive enough, happy to let CBs have the ball without battle. Burnley could be a horrible matchup for him unless he wants to compete. They ain't great, but take no nonsense.

Hourihane has the problem that he just ain't as good as Grealish or McGinn in general play. His knack for scoring is outrageous, but disappears when the going gets tough. Although Burnley are rough and tumble, he's up against Ashley Westwood and Jack Cork in CM so he starts on Saturday for me. Grealish out to LW.

If you're on top in a match, get Conor Hourihane on the pitch.

To go along with this... He's back at the other end blocking shots! If we had team all up at Grealish's level, we'd be top half, no problem. Agree we need him further forward but Smith's formation requires him and McGinn to be up and down. I actually think we need the striker to drop a bit more on occasion and fill the empty "No 10" space a lot of the time. Trez and El Ghazi or whoever can arrow in making runs then. Don't mind having a target man but Wes isn't challenging those long balls anywhere near enough. It's literally only the Everton game he's competed with the CBs.

Exactly. He serves up sitters and others lash them wide. Those missed chances are just as costly as errors like Engels giving away pens. We need forwards to step up and stop being wasteful, it's costing us points we may not get the chance to reclaim later on. This goes for Jack in front of goal as well.

There's a much stronger squad down in Brighton than travelled to Crewe. Wonder if we might go a bit stronger to spread some confidence. I just want no Targett injuries.

He's the man. I'd love to see a stat for chances served on a silver platter as well.

Not sure. Hasn't played much last 18 months. Would his crossing he of any use to Wes?

Never been good enough sadly. How he made it all the way onto the pitch in the playoff final is remarkable.

The team was absolutely gassed. Grealish and McGinn had started to conserve energy and ease off because they knew they were tired. That's how the penalty happened, no one got to Guendouzi. He wandered forward and I don't think Engels was expecting to have to deal with him. Lansbury should have come on for either McGinn or El Ghazi at 1-0, or 1-1 or even 2-1. I don't think it's hindsight either, it was very obvious we were getting tired and letting Arsenal back into the game when with a fully fit 11 we were creating chances. Immediately following HT we made two or three good chances but didn't maintain control as we got more tired. The ideal sub for me would have been Luiz for Nakamba when we went 2-1 up but he wasn't on the bench Luiz would have been perfect v 10 men when we just needed some composure. Separate issue, but it doesn't make sense in my head for players to hurdle the bench? How can Luiz go from starting to behind Lansbury for example in the pecking order? How can Guilbert go from out of the squad to starting? Doesn't really matter but you should have the best options on your bench.