Howay

That's what people keep saying but I'm far from convinced that Anita is better defensively and he contributes nothing whatsoever going forward which is a real negative against a side as low as Blackburn.

Really don't understand Rafas preference of Anita over Yedlin. Not fussed about any of the other changes as they're pretty much expected

Aye I'd be happy enough with a loan for him as at the very least it would cover the last few games of Shelvey's ban but he's fairly injury prone, we need more than 1 in mind since we're going to be losing Atsu and Diame so any 2 from the ones SEW listed would be canny.

Pretty well, 7th in the Premier League. They have Odegaard on loan, Dario Lezcano is banging them in up top, and they also have Iwobi from Arsenal on loan who keeps getting young player of the month. I just played them, my lot won 2-1 and Shelvey got sent off .

Aye the move would suit both sides, hopefully Conte sees all of this and chooses us over the PL dregs. I just don't see the point in loaning a young lad to a Premier League side simply because they're in the Premier League, of course you have lads like Ake who are getting a lot out of their loan but we'd suit Loftus-Cheek's current circumstances more than any of the stragglers imo.

I don't think they're good enough to do what we're doing. I know a lot of them are now looking towards our side and thinking they can but they're forgetting we sold 3 players for over 50m and brought in a striker that is getting a goal a game, I also still argue we had a better side when we went down than they have now. They'd be scrapping for play-off spots at best imo, they have a bunch of loanees and their best player will absolutely be gone if they go down (if he doesn't leave in January anyway). I imagine Patrick Van Aanolt will be the focus of some bids as well if they go down.

Have you come across Maximiliano Romero on any of your saves Andrew? He starts at Velez, I got him first season for 5m and he has spent half a season on loan to Rennes (17 games, 13 goals, 7.36 average) and is currently on loan to Championship Leicester (18 games, 12 goals, 7.22 average). Seems to have bags of potential. I'm playing as Liverpool as I'm always too tempted to cheat when I play as Newcastle . I bought that Dolberg lad as a scout recommended him after my first season and he just won me a group game against Real Madrid. I finished 3rd and won the League cup first season, Origi is fucking absurd on this game and scored 36 league goals in 32 appearances in my first season, realistically Sturridge can't get near the pitch without breaking down. Toon got promoted, Leicester come 20th . I brought in: Diogo Costa and Diogo Quieros from Porto as they both have good stats and 4+ star potential for 1.2m combined. Timo Horn for 7.75m which was his release clause. Coric for 13.25m in January after haggling for 6 month. Felix Passlack for 8m in Jan I unsettled him and they got me right up to 25m in the first window but I pulled out of the deal, then he sulked for 6 month before they transfer listed him for 10m and I haggled down to 8m with some clauses that take it to 10.25m if he gets a ton of caps Doria for 5.5m (shit buy) Jan window Jonathan Tah for 26.5m after a ton of haggling, transfer listing etc in Jan. Romero 5m from Velez I sold: Lucas Leiva for 13.5m to Man City (didn't have a great need for him and Grujic was coming back from loan at the end of the season) Dejan Lovren for 20m to Quanjian (they unsettled him with 210k a week wages so I had to sell in Jan, hence my Doria and Tah moves) James Milner to LA Galaxy for 6m Klavan for 4m to Inter Loaned out a ton of kids, loaned Joe Gomez to the toon. Currently top in November 2nd season. Sold: Danny Ings for 4.5m to the toon Emre Can for 44.5m to Juventus (he was unsettled and wasn't having any of my convincing.) Andre Wisdom for 14.25m (10.25m up front with 4m over 24 months) to West Ham Brought in: Kuki - high potential Spanish attacking mid from Malaga for 9m release clause, loaned right out to Levante Leon Goretzka for 39m to replace Emre Can, he is actually performing better than Can did. Kasper Dolberg for 8m rising to 9.75m Loaned out a ton of youth and got a 5 star potential player in my first batch of youth regens. I either play a 4-2-3-1 or a 3-1-2-3-1 at home and often a 4-1-2-2-1 (with 2 wing backs and wingers) away from home. Firminho is starting to whinge as he wants to play with better players, so I'll have to keep tabs on him but Coric will probably be his replacement if he moans too much so I wont have to buy. I've spent the last 2 seasons trying to unsettle Kovacic as well as a long term replacement for Henderson. Edit: It seems Firminho has deemed the squad is at the level he desires and has dropped his complaint the fucking sack.

But if they protest they're no better than the maggie cunts, they're classy fans Fish, CLASSY. It just so happens they have a board with racist rants about their African players... You're spot on about that weird view of the PL v Championship, I said it to one once that you're paying money to see football and it's better to be entertained in the Championship than turning up to watch your side put in a non-performance and get battered in the PL, but of course when we're a division below they wont hear any of that. If they were challenging in the Prem it would be a different story but as you said their aim is 17th and they don't really look higher so they'd honestly be better off challenging up the league a division down, Boro fans have had far more entertainment and value for money than them the last few years. It's funny when you think the season started off with them thinking they were going to break top 10 with fat Sam despite the fact the fat cunt had barely got them survival after 30 games in charge. We're the ones consistently called arrogant yet they're genuinely trying to act above us while their team is a complete fucking shambles and is in the PL in name only as they have no hope whatsoever of placing above 15th in the near future.

Fucking hell. Aye players like Aubemeyang, Bony, Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure, Mane, etc are all utter shit and lazy... Just because his side buy shit players doesn't mean he can write off an entire continent of players in a racist way ffs. The rest of their team is fucking shite and basically always has been so going by that logic every single football player falls into that worthless, lazy ,twats category. Oh aye and blokes like Claude Makelele, Essien, and that were okay as well. He should write off all French players because Steed Malbranque was fucking crap.

They concede over 1.5 a game on average so their defence is dog shit. We'll batter these 3-0.

What a total fucking abomination of a side they are, it's high time they were out the Premier League ffs. They've been doing this for fucking years man and then clipping enough teams that have nowt to play for at the end of the season to survive another year of stinking the league up. Many fans in the league see them as the shit that wont flush, their fans are blind to it and still suck up to the occasional fan of another side that goes on SMB and slags us off but by and large people want rid of them from the league, in all honesty when was the last time they properly competed in the league? I know not many make title pushes but sides like Burnley and Bournemouth are trying to do well and come as high as they can, meanwhile the tramps have been in the league 10 years or so now and haven't come close to finishing top half.

Aye they've got to loan the kid out tbh, he's never been loaned out before which is crackers when you consider it's Chelsea. As Fish said from what I've seen of him (albeit extremely limited) he always seemed that type of player, good range of passing, calm on the ball, but very raw, he's a big lad as well so should handle people trying to rough him up. I get that they want him at the PL level but it makes a lot of sense to loan him to a side like us, I know I'm biased but he's never played frequently so it's far from guaranteed he'd get games for a PL side, he'd probably end up at a struggling side which is crap to walk into he'd barely get time to prove himself and if he didn't they'd drop him in favour of anyone else. In contrast with us he'd be managed by Rafa Benitez, in a confident side, he'd get a good run of games and there'd be less pressure on him. I was saying to someone the other day we should point to Brendan Galloway, he chose West Brom over us because they were in the PL, he has played 3 games and is being managed by Tony Pulis, if he had come to us there is a very good chance he'd have started most games as his main competition for the left back spot would have been Dummett. It's a loan and it's meant to get you experience, there's no point warming the bench at some hovel in Birmingham and having any talent/ability coached out of you by Pulis when you could be getting regular games and coaching from a title winning manager.

That would be class.

I agree tbh, I fully understand he doesn't want to play 2 up top going forward but the fact is we've got a player banned so I don't see the harm in dropping Diame deeper and playing Mitro and Gayle up top for one game at home. Perez and Colback contribute fuck all tbh, the few times Mitro has played he has at least looked lively and combative.

At least he has dropped Anita I suppose, Yedlin is far better going forward and I'm yet to be convinced that Anita is better defensively especially after going walk about for half the Sheff Wed game.

Nah, he'll play Colback and Hayden. The one thing I'm really hoping for is that Yedlin starts over Anita as then it gives us more creativity and threat since Anita offers absolutely fuck all going forward because he is shit.

I can't stand watching Anita and Dummett both playing full back. I think after Anita's horrific performance against Wednesday Rafa will put Yedlin in. The hardest issue is the Colback and Hayden one, a possibility would be to drop Diame into CM alongside Hayden but the only viable option if we did that would be to play Mitrovic alongside Gayle which Rafa isn't going to do, Perez isn't a viable option as we just saw what he does against a physical side and we're going to see a very physical side in Forest. I agree with Tom and the others that Atsu deserves a start, he was probably the brightest spark when he came on and he really does create opportunities whereas a lot of the others were passing to the CB's.

You could be right, as HMHM says he was really bright when he first came through and I think a lot of us still hold onto those performances in hope that he can get back to something resembling that.

Aye we desperately need a CM, Colback showed everyone that he simply isn't up to being a professional football player outside of perhaps League One. Diame should start in CM alongside Hayden until we can bring someone in. It worries me that Rafa is so against Mitrovic that he didn't bring him on in a game that was clearly screaming out for a player of his type. Perez doesn't look like he suits this division at all sadly, he just gets completely bullied and honestly he hid from the ball towards the end.

Why bother man? Your lot barely even turned up in their game today ffs, nothing to gloat about whatsoever.

Without Shelvey in the side we simply can't have both Anita and Dummett playing, they offer absolutely nothing going forward so without Shelvey's creativity we could do with a bit more coming from the wing. Anita was utter dogshit today, he was consistently missing when the attack was coming down his side while also being missing in attack, hopefully Yedlin gets a bit of a run in the side now. I've had my say on the ref so I'm not going to rewrite it but I will say after the Forest game the only thing that let me move on from it was that I was sure I'd never see a referee close to that shambles, the one today pushed him close for me utter disgrace. Rafa's subs were shite tbh, we were getting bullied and he brought on that utter tart Perez who yet again done less than nowt. Atsu was the one bright spark playing outside of the goalkeeper imo and he deserves a run in the side.

Yeah Rafas subs were shut tbh, Mitro clearly should have been brought on at least 20 minutes before he was and Gouffran was doing more than Ritchie.

Our lot have been poor today but ffs it's hard to do anything when the referee is like this.

Agree 100% he tried to hurt Anita there, no surprise this ref has offered zero protection.

Please explain how Wallace isn't sent off, that was a clear as day kick didn't even attempt the ball.