OTF

In all honesty it may not be that much of an impediment. Of course it will be a deterrent to many players, but to others that are young and coming through the ranks a season in the championship with guaranteed time on the pitch the time to adjust to life in England would work. Likewise for the right manager it would form the ideal platform for implementing their system. Of course there is no guarantee of promotion, and we don't know what is in our players contracts relating to relegation but you would have to imagine that we would be capable of securing automatic promotion.

For the record and to my surprise Fernandez's exclusions from this game and the Palace one were tactical. Jones favours Clark and Krafth in defense over him, and also over Schar. He chose Schar for the bench spot as he sees him as more versatile. Based on everything I've seen I'd have a fit Fede as the first choice defender. Not only do I believe that he is our most consistent defender but he's also one of the best on the ball and generally doesn't make many errors. But what would I know.

I know it's the reality of our team, particularly against this opposition, but man this is a tough watch.

Well the wheels have fallen off. Dubravka back in next up.

It is nice, though there's still a fragility about it. Absolutely spot on regarding Longstaff. He's turned 24 today, should be able to get about the pitch a bit more than Newcastle era Geremi.

It's absolutely a foul, in his defense if the ref was looking at the ball he wouldn't have seen the contact. It was the other Chelsea player who won the ball after St Max started falling which may have looked a fair challenge.

Absolutely no need to worry about that, we're not owned by Mike anymore. ASM just barged over from behind there, not sure how the ref could have missed it.

I think I saw us string two passes together, a treat.

Muhammad?

Matt Ritchie is not someone you want on a yellow prior to his requisite bad tackle.

Pretty good defensive line there, hope we can maintain it.

Emil "if you can't beat em, beat em" Krafth

Gemmilltastic: MATCH THREAD "Well yes this is once again a selection of players by the manager that he believes to be the best for this match." "The players are making the right decision always out there, I assume, because each and every one of them is a better footballer than I." END THREAD

Answer the question

To counter the hate I'm going to go with Daniel Craig.

Who's hating? Are you suggesting that this is the lineup we should have started with?

Darlow time wasting already.

Wise choice. Graeme Jones reminds me of a cross between Mr Bean and someone else whom I haven't quite yet figured out.

I mean we barely had 20% of the ball in a match that we absolutely bullshitted a point from and here we are with the same team. Meanwhile Chelsea on the back of a 7-0 win make three changes

Last week he said Krafth and Fraser trained well, which is one thing, but did he not see our last match? No reason for either to be in the side.

Krafth and Fraser still in there after poor performances last start. Fraser is a poor defender from what I've seen and doesn't cover much ground, Krafth is just not up to much. Going to watch anyway but this is shaping to be a very dire affair.

Despite his many failings we had some really enjoyable games under the self appointed king. Mind you we had some quality players as well; Ba, Cisse, HBA, Cabaye, Wijnaldum, Colo, Jonas, Shane Ferguson and an untold number of substitute left backs.

I don't have a shred of compassion for him, he was told by those close to him not to take the job and yet did anyway, and then went on to get the results and the reaction that was expected only to have a public strop about it. In fact he actually exceeded the expectations of just how poor he would be. Embarrassing really, he's clearly out of touch. If he had any footballing intelligence and/or connection with reality he should have apologised to the fans for not performing as manager of the team, for taking us backwards and for leaving the team a right mess. On some level he's obviously a nice guy, but it's no excuse when he takes a job he shouldn't have and then performs miserably at it. Anyone that defends his record either has not watched a sustained number of our games playing under Bruce or is severely mentally deficient. I include amongst those journalists and the 'fans' that think he was doing a good job and unfairly copping criticism. Supporters of other teams you can forgive because they're not likely to have seen us on the pitch and will only have heard the drivel from the aforementioned journalists.

When he came on he actually had an impact making a few good passes. Shocking I know. Probably says more about how poorly our players on the pitch were doing.

I think you'll find I did.