Cronky

The main argument against using video technology is that so many decisions in football are matters of opinion rather than fact. In cricket, that can work well. In rugby it's turning into a bit of a mess. It's just simply the nature of the game. To take the Colo penalty/sending off decision, how much time would be wasted viewing it from all sorts of angles, and in the end you'd still be left with no certainty. In most cases, it wouldn't settle arguments, it would only hype them up.

It's a bit harsh to say he lacks conviction, but yeah there are issues with his physicality. Early days though. I take comfort from remembering a very similar looking player who I saw on his debut for the toon many years ago. A player who looked far too weak for professional football, and who I dismissed out of hand. His name was Chris Waddle. I for one am shocked that your footballing knowledge and judgement were proven to be lacking. Shocked I tell you. Once in 30 years it happens. I was probably drunk at the time.

It's a bit harsh to say he lacks conviction, but yeah there are issues with his physicality. Early days though. I take comfort from remembering a very similar looking player who I saw on his debut for the toon many years ago. A player who looked far too weak for professional football, and who I dismissed out of hand. His name was Chris Waddle.

By that logic, you would be happy to see us sack McClaren and appoint Curbishly to be seen as "doing something"? Happy? We're discussing the prospect of us going down or staying up, there's not a single hint of 'happy'. Would Curbishley keep us up? No, he wouldn't. Allardyce will keep them up. Silly example. Actually, if you look at his record, Curbishley has been pretty good at keeping teams up. Including West Ham from what looked like an impossible position.

No chance at all of that. It's the laws that are at fault here, not the ref. It's always surprised me that the goal-scoring opportunity rule has not had any serious review in the 30 years that it's been around. Allardyce himself has queried this today. With fouls which deny a goal scoring opportunity, there should just be a penalty, regardless of where the incident took place. The ref can then decide on a yellow or a red, depending on the seriousness of the foul. The punishment would then fit the crime in a much fairer way.

The biggest disappointment is we didn't get 3 points against such a poor side. Our passing wasn't always as confident as it could have been, and the defence is shaky, as we know, but otherwise there's still signs of hope.

Decent going forward, but let down in the end by the defence. No surprise there. Colo outpaced by Fletcher and panics. Strangely, I think we can still get something from this, if we up the pace a bit. The opposition is really bad.

I'd say the right approach is to calm down and not get caught up in the hype. No matter what players are out there, or how the teams are doing, they will always have the advantage of being underdogs. Getting worked up just plays into their hands.

We're still struggling to find the best role for this player. His best work is down the centre, but it looked at the start that he was still expected to help out the full back defensively. I'd like to see us play a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3, but as others have said we need a good midfield anchor man to make that work, and at the moment we don't have that. I'd like to see - Wiljnaldum Newbie Colback Sissoko Perez Mitrovic.

You can try twisting people's words and changing the subject all you like. The fact is - Results have deteriorated since Pardew left.

There's no getting round the fact that results have plummeted since Pardew left. Seriously? Pardew's league record last season - W7, D5, L7 League results since he left - W4, D7, L17 Yeah, seriously. What was his record in his first 9 games last season, versus McClaren's this season (with much harder fixtures). Cheers. If you're going to pick out a single chunk of games, you could equally go for the five we won on the trot. It seems to me that his record over the time that he was in charge last season, with its ups and downs, is as fair as you can get. You just don't want to admit that you under-rated Pardew, and under-rated the problems he had. Why would you go for 5 games Pardew won in a row? That makes no sense whatsoever Your "argument" was our results had nosedived since Pardew left, conveniently ignoring that Carver was in charge for much of that and won about 3 games. No. I was saying it is just as daft to isolate the 5 games that we won on the trot, as it is to isolate the 7 games at the start of the season when we didn't win. And Carver isn't the only one who has been in charge since Pardew left. All I said was that results had deteriorated since Pardew left. You can come up with all sorts of ideas about why that's happened, but you can't sensibly say that the statement's not correct. Just wind your neck in.

There's no getting round the fact that results have plummeted since Pardew left. Seriously? Pardew's league record last season - W7, D5, L7 League results since he left - W4, D7, L17 Yeah, seriously. What was his record in his first 9 games last season, versus McClaren's this season (with much harder fixtures). Cheers. If you're going to pick out a single chunk of games, you could equally go for the five we won on the trot. It seems to me that his record over the time that he was in charge last season, with its ups and downs, is as fair as you can get. You just don't want to admit that you under-rated Pardew, and under-rated the problems he had.

There's no getting round the fact that results have plummeted since Pardew left. Seriously? Pardew's league record last season - W7, D5, L7 League results since he left - W4, D7, L17 Yeah, seriously.

There's no getting round the fact that results have plummeted since Pardew left.

Great to get the win, but if we carry on defending like that, we'll go down. As others have said, the back four doesn't get much protection. Pardew just had us all getting back behind the ball as soon as possible and whilst it wasn't a great spectacle, at least it was some kind of strategy. Now we seem to be trying a half-arsed attempt at pressuring the opposition further upfield, but we don't really have the players for that. It's ineffective and the other team play through us quite easily, exposing the back four. I actually thought Dummett had a good game. He's here to stay. And it may be my imagination, but Elliot seems to have lost a bit of weight.

I can only think that there's a hidden assumption that the Championship would be a temporary resting place before we bounce back. That could take years. And if or when we get back, the gap between us and the top teams would then probably be even wider, with the financial advantages that comes with Premiership football.

I don't think he's been the same player since he injured his ankle against Bayern, and Fergie, in desperation, still picked him for the second leg the following week. He broke down after 20 minutes, but IIRC, it still took a while before he was brought off. He's still a very good player, but he carried that Man U side for two or three years, and yes, that's probably taken its toll. If defenders press him early on, he finds it difficult to evade them and he struggles to retain possession. Once he's on the ball though, he can still produce.

He's never played or coached outside Germany. The guy clearly has some ability, but will need to adapt here and there.

Well exactly. Every Liverpool manager over the last 25 years has struggled to bring them the success that they crave. What a club like that needs is either an injection of a lot of money or a bit of luck with a player that really lifts the team to another level. They had that bit of luck with Suarez, but lacked the experience to finish the job. The problem was then that they couldn't replace a player like Suarez like for like. The players that have reached his bracket can't be prized away by a club like Liverpool because they're with even bigger clubs. So they spend the money on a number of players who may be the best that's available to them, but who aren't that much better than the ones they've got, and who can't do for them what Suarez did.

It's the right move for them. I don't think Advocaat's heart was completely in it, and Pearson would be a good choice.

Yeah, I noticed that too. The lad's a loon. He doesn't look in great condition and my heart's in my mouth every time he runs for a block or a tackle, but he makes a difference to the mindset of the side.

Some positive signs - Mitrovic makes his presence felt up front and that makes a big difference, Mbabu was unexpectedly good in defence, Ayoze was excellent and likewise Colback. The spirit in the side looked good. We still look very weak defensively. Chelsea were very lack lustre in the first half, but once they got going we struggled.

He walked, didn't he?

Because you are wrong. Imagine being this thick For you, not a huge leap of imagination.

Whoever that is won't be helped by someone else at the club making a joke about it. James is right - the likes of us having a joke about it isn't the same as an official at the club making the joke in a public forum. The worry is that this player has a rather self-indulgent attitude, and doesn't realise that he has a responsibility to other people to conduct himself better on the pitch.