This is a very plausible turn of events, made worse only by benteke stopping to apologise to an opposing centre back he brushed past in the car park, and Wickham pulling a hamstring watching.

Then Zaha getting sold to Chelsea.

I think it must be something they put in the water in Norway. Ajer from Celtic just missed an open goal from a yard out.

Ball was actually going in when he helpfully swung a foot at it and hoofed it over the Salzburg bar.

Luckily for them Rosenborg managed to equalise in Leipzig: otherwise he and Gordon would now both be looking extremely embarrassed. Ghastly howlers from both of them.

Edited by chateauferret (13 Dec 2018 10.46pm)

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The Ferret
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Sometimes players are just in the wrong environment. Granted Sorloth looks shyte at the moment but that’s not to say he’s a bad player full stop.

I’d argue Benteke and Ayew would be better players away from us at the minute. Equally Valerien Ishmael was terrible for us, but went on to play for Bayern (iirc). Also, Andy Johnson, Delaney and Bolaise were quite gash directly prior to joining us.

Plus Stan Collymore was crap for us, whereas Jordon Mutch was good before he joined.

So it’s not an exact science. My main point is: most strikers seem to struggle here over the last 18 months, which seems to suggest more of a tactical issue.

Vive le Roy!

It is a good point. In a recent interview Allardyce stated how he believes it was largely down to Bentenke that we stayed up under him. But under Sam we played high crosses into the box, whereas since then we have switched to low cut backs and neat one twos, which I would not say is CB's strong points. The more I think about it, the more I think if we keep playing the way we are then we perhaps need to place more focus on getting a quick and skilful striker, rather than another big man. Perhaps Defoe can be a relatively risk free testing of the water? In his pomp he would thrive on some of the chances our forward players are getting.