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With a pool of Gana, Garner, Onana and Iwobi to choose from, and Allan, Davies and Doucoure backing them up, I fail to see why we'd persist with a 2-man midfield. In a 433 I think we'll usually see Garner or Onana as the 6, with Gana, Onana and Iwobi rotating through the two box-to-box berths...

Would still be much more reassuring to get six wins in the bank before boxing day. I have no interest in getting into March and still being mathematically concerned about relegation.

I've repeatedly slated Maupay, and the club's decision to sign him. But if the choices are: a) keep Dele Alli, pay Spurs at least £10m for him and then pay him £100k p/w to sit on the bench; or b) shift Alli out, bring in Maupay for £12m and pay him £50k p/w to play whenever DCL is injured...

Maupay has played just over 300 senior games in the last decade. More than 290 have been at CF. He isn't anything other than a desperate emergency option out wide. More to the point, there were better wide options available than Maupay. He's clearly arrived to be DCL's backup. It's a shame he...

We have three CFs on the books. We needed, and still need, a winger.

Brighton offered him a contract at a certain wage level. Maupay wanted higher wages and the two sides didn't agree. He would have stayed there if Brighton had upped their offer IMHO.

Yep. Garner, Allan and Doucoure coming off the bench with 25 minutes to go will definitely tip some games in our favour this season, because our new midfield trio of Gana, Onana and Iwobi will wear a lot of teams down. Additionally we won't have to see our defence suddenly face waves of attacks...

Tend to agree with you. There's depth at LB, CB and at CM now, which is great. And we have very experienced, dominant leaders in key positions in Coady, Tarkowski and Gana. I'd include Mina in that group too if he was ever fit. I feel we lack depth at RB and RW, but that can be partially...

Wide right? Possibly. Leaves Gray playing wide left, and I can live with that for now.

I'm not convinced by McNeil and Maupay either, but it's hard to say that the rest of the work carried out by the club during this window has been anything less than very good. Tarkowski, Coady, Vinagre all look good in defence so far, and the outlay to bring them in was VERY low. Gana for £2m...

No worries mate, it seems there's a lot of Pereiras out there!

Gordon and Gray both perform best on the left. One of them will emerge as the starter over the course of the season. The bigger issue is the wide right slot: Townsend is ok there but won't be playing before Christmas, so at the moment we're choosing from McNeil or possibly Iwobi (now we've got...

No, that's Andreas Pereira. I'm referring to the lad who used to play for WBA but moved to Al-Hilal in Saudi last summer: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/matheus-pereira/profil/spieler/225984

Bold choice of words. Remains to be seen.

Snore. Should I apologise for not agreeing with you? lol

Shifting Dele, Gomes and Gbamin is significant. Over £250k per week in wages for those three - even if we're still paying 75% of it overall, we've saved £65k per week and lost nothing, because the three of them were never going to play for us anyway. That saving pays the wage for Maupay.

I really, really hope so Julio. Me included. But I just can't see it. Not with the limited playing time he will get should Dominic remain fit.

We should have either taken the £20m for McNeil and the £12m for Maupay and put it ALL towards a more established striker, like Dembele at Lyon, Terrier at Rennes or Watkins from Villa; OR we should have gone cheaper and younger than Maupay, someone like Terrem Moffi from Lorient for 37m or £8m...

I'm genuinely annoyed that we didn't follow up on Matheus Pereira. Having him in on loan would have given us depth and experience in the two places we lack it the most: wide right and advanced attacking midfield (the no.10 spot, for want of a better description), and would have been minimal risk.

Correct. Firstly, he won't even start when Dominic is fit (unless we switch to a 352, which isn't impossible). Secondly, when he does play he will find himself given fewer chances per 90 than he used to get as part of Potterball. It will be mind-boggling if Maupay scores more than six this...