Rousseau

TB giving a player a compliment? And Wes Foderingham?

As frustrated as I was at the lack of energy and creativity that second half, I wasn't actually too worried defensively. Pena is lacking match sharpness, but I thought he did well when he came on: positionally good, always available and was constantly breaking the lines; should've scored and did well to tee up Herrera at the end with a chance. At their goal, I thought Niko was fouled; the player goes through Niko to get the ball. Niko only gets caught out when he dithers; for the most part he moved it on quickly and accurately; perhaps tiring at that stage - he is getting on a bit!

Re: Penalty incident - Anywhere else on the pitch and it's a foul; you can't tackle from behind.

The Ross County player was just protecting himself.

We've been comfortable - Foderingham having nothing to do - without really creating good chances. Morelos is a natural goalscorer; give him a chance and he'll put it away. That cross had no pace and neither did his header, but it was pin-point into the bottom corner. Great determination to get that second. Another absolutely awful refereeing display. Clear penalty, with Morelos being taken from behind - it doesn't matter if he got the ball, which is debatable. And that forearm smash on Miller was a disgrace. How there wasn't a red there, I don't know. It's just a league of hatchet-men; absolute disgrace.

Did you not see it? He was through one-on-one against Hearts, but the defender clattered him. It wasn't that tackle but the way Windass came down onto the defenders bended knee; like a wrestling move. Looked a real sore one.

I think he was a winger to start with - you can see it in his play - but he's been converted to LB. I agree he could be given a chance at LM.

I'll give it a go this week, as last week I seemed to get good feel for how teams would do... Saturday Bournemouth 0-2 Man City Crystal Palace 0-2 Swansea Huddersfield 2-1 Southampton Newcastle 0-1 West Ham Watford 2-0 Brighton Man Utd 2-0 Leicester Sunday Chelsea 1-1 Everton West Brom 1-0 Stoke Liverpool 4-4 Arsenal ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Tottenham 2-1 Burnley

It's not unusual for players coming to another country to take a few months to settle. Mkhitaryan never played for 3-4 months under Mourinho and now he's a key player, as he wasn't ready; and he was a 28 year-old international.

His (Rooney) statement implied Southgate had contacted him about coming back into the squad - whether that meant he'd play or not I don't know.

I thought he would've kept going until he overtook Shilton's appearance record - he was only 6 off equaling it.

Mark Allen signing, yes, but I have no doubt PC told him what he wants; and then PC will have to agree to it. Yes, MOH springs to mind about pace...

We needed a winger with a bit of pace - he seems to tick the boxes. That's what the DoF is there to help with. There is no rush with Walker: if we can get him on a pre-contract then that's better than forking out £1M on him, which is too much, just to get him a year early.

Why are we lumping Herrera into the Garner/Senderos category? He's been good, but unfortunately he is injured so can't play. Pena has the pedigree - that's partly why we shelled out for him - but we knew he had problems, so it's going to take a while before he's ready; he's not played for a long time and you also have to factor in the culture change. Too many are too quick to judge. Hardie played 10 minutes the other and did nothing - is he a 'dud' now?

Foderingham 5 - didn't have anything to do, but that's a good thing Tavernier 7 Cardoso 6 Alves 6 Wallace 6 Candeias 6 Jack 7 Dorrans 6 Windass 7 Miller 6 Morelos 6 Subs : Kranjcar 5 Hardie 5

I don't understand the criticism of Herrera? I think he's been good. It's unfortunate he was injured for yesterday as a target man would have been a real benefit.

I'd maybe swap out Keane for Gerard.

I remember when a few of us were laughing at the prospect of us signing Aaron Mooy -- formerly of St Mirren -- and now he's dominating the midfield for Huddersfield in the Premier League after they forked out £10M to make his loan permanent. Huddersfield look very good; I was sceptical as to whether they could take their Championship form into the PL, but they look good. Proper German, high intensity, vertical, transition football.

Far too early for Pena -- he's only played 10 minutes! The price tag was for his pedigree. It's just a case of getting him up to speed.

[tweet]899244161089646592[/tweet]

Wasted... so far.

That's twice you've made that point (going to 3 at the back). You do realise if we did, we'd have fewer attackers on the pitch? It was a back 4, but Tavernier and Wallace were playing like wingers, so it was only 2 at the back.

I'd take Moult if we can get him for a pittance, but I agree he's not the answer. Similar to MOH: plays well against teams that don't park the bus. Incidentally, anyone know where MOH was playing for St Johnstone? Is it wide, like with us, or as a forward? I always wanted to see him up top for us. I can't help but think his pace in between the lines - in Miller's position - could be effective. But, perhaps I'm blinded by his pace - what can he actually do with the ball when he gets it? For what I've seen with St Johnstone he goes on a mazey run until space opens up for him, which doesn't happen with us.

I don't think we know what we want. A few games ago Kranjcar was 'our best player', Dorrans was a player, Windass was 'unplayable', Miller 'does the job', 'we need Wallace back', Candeias was rapid, and now they are all pish? Even the formation-debate has gone full-circle; we wanted away from the 4-3-3 because it wasn't working and we didn't have the players for it. Now the 4-4-2 is not working because we don't have 'control'? We were crying out for crosses into the box, and now that we have them we don't want them? The same thing happens with any player that has been out for any length of time: we hang our hopes on them. I don't think we know what we want; besides winning - and I don't think any of us know what it will take, because we've never been in a situation like this. I thought we controlled that game; both in terms of possession and territory, and our defensive stability is very good - something that wouldn't have happened under MW. We are missing a bit of creativity from midfield. I think Pena is the player - in the sense that he seems to be that box-to-box type - but he's not ready. I've not been too fussed about Walker, and yesterday didn't change my mind, however we didn't allow him or Hearts into the game. We need someone to beat a player, and take up positions between the lines. Walker has the pace and dynamism for it, and can take a shot. I thought Windass was our main attacking option, until he got injured - really sore one. He was ripping that FB to shreads. I wanted us to take advantage of his yellow card, but as Windass was struggling, we didn't actually have anyone else on the bench to run at the kid - Dodoo wasn't on the bench was he? The positive for me was we dominated that game. And, it was pleasing to see Hardie get a run out - good movement and he knows where the goal is!