The weekend showed a lot of the same problems as last year mainly because we had a lot of the same players. Nolan cannot play off Cole the way he does AC - proved last year. Diame is not a team player but a show pony who is occasionally brilliant, Noble is far too slow and the further forward you ask him to play the worse it becomes, Jarvis and Downing do the same job, need one in the team not both etc. Zarate played upfront because BFS needed to see it and his alternative was to play Lee. There were positives eg the run Kouyate made into the box something only Nolan from our midfield ever did last year, Poyet looked composed and a player, younger than the likes of Whitehead etc but more of a prospect. As for Valencia I do not understand the criticism of the fact he will need three weeks to get up to speed. He probably had a break after the WC and as we agreed a fee for him about 3 weeks ago subject to permit etc you can be sure he has not trained much since. For different reasons neither club would want to risk it.