Two quick thoughts

[toshes mate]

I agree that Christie is similar to Fredericks when the latter first appeared, but the marked difference in them is that Christie hasn't improved through appearances.  A mitigating factor in that may be down to him not having a settled team with a settled midfield and a settled wing partner at Fulham, but his appearances for Ireland suggest that he plays to the best of his ability no matter what.  Is that good enough for a PL side?  In my opinion it isn't. 

I flicked through the ninety minutes against Brighton and overall really couldn't fault the effort of the team most of the time, but our defence (no player excluded) is appallingly slow to recover at times - you can almost count the seconds before reaction - and seems to lose position and organisational shape far too easily.  Brighton's goals came from Murray being allowed to find space at ease and he should have scored more.  There are weaknesses on both flanks and through the middle since we often rely on Odoi's ability to perceive danger quite quickly (for a current FFC defender at any rate).  Unless we sign better players by the deadline we are going to need more possession in games and less reliance on defensive numbers because we have to play much better than we are - the game against Brighton included.