Lamare Bogarde

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I love his effort, and he’s had a tough gig covering different positions. But it was noticeable how much the structure of the midfield didn’t work with him today. He just isn’t good enough on the ball at his current level.

Certainly not good enough to cover for Youri today who took about 30 minutes to realise he wasn't still in bed. He wasn't alone on not being good enough on the ball today, in fact I'm struggling to think of anybody who was. As TV points out, the lad is only 22, not many can play the defensive midfielder role at that age, even Onana looked lost at times but has grown into the role this season though he's no where near the standard of Kamara. Who is.

[PaulWinch again]

No and it’s not really a pointed criticism, he might get there but he isn’t there yet and Unai left it too long to address it today.

[Matt C]

Not his day today and he looked rusty but he’s been a very decent squad player for us this season.

[brontebilly]

Not his day today and he looked rusty but he’s been a very decent squad player for us this season.

Squad players need to step up when called upon. Bogarde has made no impact when starting against Everton, Brentford and today.

In saying that, Tielemans was zero help next to him.

[Drummond]

He's a kid replacing a Rolls Royce and a £50m player.

He's useful to cover a range of positions.

[OCD]

Don't know why Barkley dropped down to the bench. The whole thing felt like we had our minds on Thursday.

[ChicagoLion]

Has hardly played for weeks now, so being thrust into the game looked too much for him.

[RichardBatchelor]

He's a good No 6 defensively (usually) but not good enough on the ball. A top class No 6 will have both. Don't want to judge him on this performance alone though, complete off day.

[Smithy]

Don't know why Barkley dropped down to the bench. The whole thing felt like we had our minds on Thursday.

Barkley can't play on Thursday, so he "should" have played at Fulham, from a squad rotation perspective.  My guess? Onana is a doubt for Thursday, and they were seeing if Lamare could be a like-for-like replacement for Thursday, which let's us play Youri a bit deeper in midfield with Rogers directly in front of him.

I don't think it worked particularly well, so fingers crossed Amadou is fit...

I still think our strongest line-up is with two slightly more defensively-minded midfielders behind Youri as a 10, with Rogers in one of the wide positions and SJM in the other.  Lots of flexibility in that formation.  But with Bouba out, we've not really found the perfect partner for Onana in there.

[OzVilla]

Bogarde will be better for the run out should he be needed on Thursday.

Let’s face it, everyone had an off day against Fulham so I’m not going to hammer a kid playing for the 1st time in weeks. Tielemans, Cash, McGinn, Torres were all poorer relatively.