There's only one decent Austrian, one decent Austrian....

McAtee is tidy but not very robust. I think when he was at Citeh he shot a lot more. I am going to excuse him because I see he has qualities and he has been recovering from a virus for a while.

Kalibueno is currently fucking rubbish. Brushed off the ball way too easy. Cannot trap a bag of cement. He really was anonymous. I am thinking him or Taiwo in the january squad? I would take Taiwo.. He maybe a bit of a calamity but he is a handful and he has looked decent so far without bothering the net. Surely the Frenchman has more in his locker? Bit weird to pay so much for him when he doesn't seem to fit our style. Maybe he is fast but he has to get the ball on the ground to run with the fucking thing. Hoofing it up to him is completely pointless. Hopefully something we can work on.

Abbott looked good when he came on, considering he is not a winger. Might be a option if Savona is knackered. I think not having cover for Williams could be suicide. Hopefully he doesn't break.

Leeds is going to be an interesting game and I hope we have things going on. And could someone put N'doye in the gym with Kalinnobueno. He falls over like a bag of spuds too.

Anyway, bit of a dull match. Should have won it if we were on our penalty game.

Not too fussed tonight as we are still doing okay in the competition without pulling up roots.

Chicago: Missing out on the European tour.

TBH until I know what he’s supposed to be, I’m not sure how to judge whether he’s any good at it.

Ignoring the price tag.. he’s got a 1 in 3 scoring record in France, including international levels. He’s not just some chump off the street. Yet he’s not big or strong, doesn’t seem especially quick, doesn’t collect/move the ball, doesn’t get into it with the defenders… so what the fuck was going on when he scored all those goals?

The logical answer is that he’s a good finisher who plays off of service… and he’s been given none of that… and, possibly, has signed for a club where he’s not going to get the kind of service he requires because we haven’t been playing in a way that provides service to that kind of player since… Jonno?

If we wanted to play 2 up top then you could see that kind of player (which he may or not be) getting on well with Big T being the Marlon Mk1 to Kalimuendo’s Jonno… but in any world in which we play a diddy-man striker, Jesus is first in line because he’s, y’know, scored goals and generally had some degree of presence in games even where the team hasn’t been set up in his best interests.

Igor is also possibly the most fun striker we've had for quite a while.

Goals goals goals, strikers, strikers, strikers, that's all you lot bang on about. We've got Dyche now so you need to get over it.

It's the first time we've kept an away clean sheet since Labour hobnailed the domestic economy with their NI hike and for that we should be rejoicing.

We kept a clean sheet against Porto also.

Stop confusing him with your ‘facts’.

I know it’s early, and its Ingo’s post but you two should pay closer attention.

If only the edit history didn’t show that addition.

He definitely has that 'something extra' about him. Early days obviously, but he feels to me like one who might outgrow us fairly quickly. And fair play to him if so.

The first (and probably last after this) time Guru jumps to my defence and I'm hobnailed by the fucking edit history.

You don't get this shit with Wikipedia.

FFS Ingo…..I even let the anti-Labour bit slide.

Back to the Prem v Europe discussion. It’s not either/or. I think we can stay involved in Europa (even if it’s just qualifying for the playoffs) by playing a mixed 11 for the next two matches. A couple of people back from injury (and an adjustment to the squad in Jan?) should be enough to keep us in it. I reckon we need 5 more points.

Full strength side was enough to beat Porto and should have beaten Betis. (Midgets look better that we gave them credit for….) We can roll that out in Feb if we are looking more secure in the league by then.

According to Opta (and the table) Malmo and Utrecht are the weakest teams we'll play in the group stage, win those two (which any premier league team should be able to) and the last two games are just about seeding for the knockouts.

And we should have Jesus, Wood and CHO back imminently. Which would have given us some game changers yesterday. The lack of bench options was a bigger issue than the starting 11.

I'm annoyed he didn't bring on Jimmy Sinclair.

This is still the bit that worries me.

Create chances but don't score/win, does that evolve to create chances and score or cease to create.

Hoping it's the former starting Sunday!

We made 7 changes yesterday and those that came in were unsurprisingly rusty. But we still did more than enough to win the game. With Wood or Jesus up front we’d have won that.

Leeds on Sunday is far more important so hopefully those that come back in are firing.