16 Apr 2018 13:50:36
I think the back three thing should continue. we have played better in the last two games, and yet we still can't get results. I think we should drop tadic, and play sims. also drop Long, which is quite harsh, but charlie Austin does bring the goals. long works hard and is possibly a better lone striker than austin, but doesn't score as many which is what is needed. either that or play lemina in midfield as well, and play austin and long up front without tadic, or JWP. if we do go down, these players I think will leave:
Lemina
Bertrand
Cedric
Romeu
Gabbi
Poss Austin altho he's quite committed to the club.
maybe PEH
we need to get rid of:
boufal
forster
redmond
carillo (unless he can prove himself in the last few games) .
this is a lot of players, but we have the van dijk money, good youth players who need to play, and I think the right manager.

1.) 16 Apr 2018
16 Apr 2018 17:36:12
Tadic played well against Chelsea and as our one creative player, if we drop him when he is starting to play well we lose something. I would have agreed with you 2 games ago but after the Chelsea performance he deserves another go. Sims doesn’t play in the same position and has different attributes so not really a like for like change. I’d like to see Austin up top as well. I’m not sure whether he’s being eased in gradually or simply a victim of MH’s preferred formation. Time will tell, but Shane Long works a little bit harder for a little bit longer than Austin so understand why he’s preferred. The down side is that if he is not getting assists or goals, putting the opposition under pressure is not always better than picking a proven goal scorer. Ideally, there would be a way to play Austin and Long together, perhaps with Long playing off Austin like JWP and Tadic have been.

I’ve lost confidence in Lemina as the season has gone on. He has made some silly mistakes that have cost us goals and games and since his return from injury, has largely been a shadow of his former self. Romeu has the experience and PEH the tenacity that should see them continuing to get picked first.

It would be surprising to see us sell so many players in any event. If we were relegated, the club may be required to for financial reasons but I’d like to think some of those players would be prepared to play a season in the Champ and see where we are. Stay up or go down, I don’t see MH as our manager beyond the summer. Whilst I would be concerned about bringing in a new manager in light of the last two we’ve hired, I would still prefer to hire a manager with ambition to build a squad, a project of development and progression. Someone who could stay in place for a number of years to give us the consistency we so desperately need. That is not MH’s MO in my book so we need to look elsewhere, hire early in the summer to give the new person time to assess the squad and then back him in the transfer market where finances allow.

2.) 17 Apr 2018
17 Apr 2018 10:00:05
I think Shane has made the difference with the work rate in midfield because he makes himself available all the time and by doing that speeds our play up. He is a totally dedicated give it all player which I’m afraid has been a bit lacking over the season. Tadic is frustrating but is technically gifted and if you take him out we have little creation. Lemina was giving us that in his early days but he doesn’t seem that bothered these days so has been rightly left out. The defence? Good players but just not quite good enough for the PL as a group, When VVD left we needed to replace him with a leader at the back regardless of cost. I honestly believe if we had we would escape relegation which now seems increasingly unlikely, Some players need a run in the side to shine through and now I think we are seeing the true potential of Hjojberg just a shame we didn’t play a settled side earlier in the season. Just seemed to me we lost a game and the management thought, oh well we’ll chuck somebody else in to see how they do. A players confidence gets hammered if they know they will be dropped if they don’t have their best game. We still have a chance but it’s looking more and more unlikely we’ll survive.