Beren

Oh is Rashford on.

Need to play a bit more keep ball. To preserve energy for the weekend as much as anything.

Opposite of the Dortmund game, when the ball just wouldn't break for us. Now the ball can't not break for us.

Gerrin Willock - chuffed for him

YES THIS GIF AGAIN

Take AG off. He's knackered.

Bit nervous to start the game but I actually think he already looks reasonably solid. He needs to get a bit stronger, but showing some good stuff. Clever defending at times, good feet, good passer.

Willock still has a bit of rust, but he's working his socks off.

ETH is going to break the unspoken pact to play B teams here and bring on the cavalry at HT, consigning both thin squads to be knackered at a future important date

Get this Hannibal chump sent off before HT.

2-0 to Fullbacks FC

That ball by Miggy to Willock. Taking the absolute fucking piss, here.

And Hall

Did he look this good at Soton? Tell you what, whoever saw what they saw in Gordon and Livramento deserve a payrise.

Utterly surreal to watch, he's better passer than a lot of our outfield players today

Very good

The defending by Tino too to win the ball. It was 2 on 1 against him, and he beat them! Then the rest of the fucking team

LIVRAMENTTOOOOO

This XI are just on to graft and keep it 0-0 until 70 odd minutes. They're perfectly capable of that.

I feel quite foolish about my predicted XI now.

Dubravka Livramento Dabizaz Lascelles Bernard Acuna Bassedas Bruno Glass JDT Shola

I'm not massively invested in the discussion full stop, but it definitely denigrates the award if he won it. No way on earth he was the best player last year. If you were putting together a team last year comprised of anyone you like, you'd be wrong to choose Messi as your first pick. Any argument to the contrary feels disingenuous/based on sentimentality. Doesn't matter one jot anyway.

Fantastic effort after the equaliser. Can't quibble with the application and drive to win. A point away isn't bad, but it is slightly disappointing. In a way I'm glad Pope's pathetic punching has led to a meaningful detriment to the team. Maybe they might actually address the problem now. All you need is a jugs machine and 10 or so fat blokes off the street to stand in the penalty box. Fire in a 100 balls a day until he can catch the fucking thing consistently. I know he's not working on his distribution so he's got plenty of time for it.

Focus second half has to be on keeping possession, taking the sting and emotion out of the game after that first half.