Cronky

They should have had a pen, so I guess we're lucky to be only one down. They can pass and receive the ball at pace and with confidence. We can't, and that's the big difference. We've still managed to get into some good situations, so not out of it yet.

A lot hinges on Riviere. I've still not written him off, despite the iffy performances. So here's hoping he can finally arrive.

It was a very smart move of Mourinho's to bring Drogba back. Despite his age, he's still a player who most defenders would dread facing. He very nearly turned round a losing position for them last week. And of course, in his day, he was key to them winning the league.

Once he gets going, he's fast, but in most situations it's speed off the mark and over the first five yards that counts. Plus the ability to change pace. Sterling is the player who I'd say can use his pace to most telling effect.

Looks pretty good every week on the FL show. Might be the most boring interviewee ever though Yep, looks like a talent, but if we get him we should either loan him out or put him in the first team. I don't think it does young players any good to be playing first team football, and then not get games at their next club.

Name one.

It's a good observation, but I'd say a bit more complicated than that. Tiote naturally sees a lot more of the ball than the others, because of the position he's playing in. Trouble is, his range of passing is limited and his delivery is slow. It's difficult for receivers to know when or where to make a run, given his limitations. Quite a few times, I spotted a decent penetrating pass available to Tiote, but he didn't take it because he didn't trust his technique. To get more fluency, we need a player who is better on the ball in that position, and I'd now say that Abeid is the better bet, despite the fact that he's not as strong in the tackle.

He just seems to run into trouble too much of the time. It feels like he needs to go back to the drawing board and start adapting to a totally different league. Even then, I'm not sure he'll eventually make the grade in the Premiership.

The lad needs help.

We looked a bit tentative, as though a bit overawed. We seemed to lose a lot of midfield skirmishes and 50-50 balls. Object lesson in the problems that Tiote creates. He sees a lot of the ball but his distribution is slow, unambitious and inaccurate. I think we've looked at our best with Perez playing up front, and I was disappointed when Cisse got that role.

Played really well again yesterday. He seems to be able to play in any attacking role, whether wide or central, advanced or withdrawn. But personally I'd have him as our main striker. He's able to get a yard on his opponent in all sorts of situations and I'd rather see him do that inside the penalty area than outside. Plus we really don't have anyone better in that role at the moment.

Physical fitness doesn't seem to be the main issue behind the fall-outs at NUFC and Hull. It's his attitude. He needs a psychiatrist more than a fitness coach.

If we had Sissoko, I'd be fairly optimistic. But he's a big miss, as someone who, two or three times a match, is going to open things up.

I'm not sure how that front three would work together, but otherwise a very solid, sensible choice. Typical of the man.

He always manages to say that bit too much. Coming out in support of Wenger is fine. Trying to predict the Gooners' reaction at the weekend and talking about renaming the stadium is not in his territory.

I lifted that from The Times because it's a journalist (Tony Barrett) who is despairing about Rodgers resorting to defensive football with long ball inevitably creeping in. Quite sickening how Liverpool supporters are sympathised with for having to watch this stuff while we should be lapping up the turgid shit served up by Pardew and thanking him for it. I found that a strange article. He doesn't mention the loss of Suarez and the absence of Sturridge once, but that has been the most significant cause of their decline. The three-pronged attack of Suarez-Sturridge-Sterling was what nearly took them to the title.

I thought the ref got both decisions right. For the pen, the keeper clearly got to the ball first and knocked it against Gerrard. For the red card, you could see Markovic look back, size his opponent up and then flick his fingers into the bloke's eye. It wasn't an accident and it doesn't have to be a punch to qualify as violent conduct.

His link up play really is poor, but you could get away with that if his finishing was very reliable. Unfortunately we've found over a large number of games that it isn't. The trouble with these specialist poachers is that the minute they go on a bit of a scoring run, everyone starts to say that they've recovered form, as though normal service has been resumed after a blip. In fact, by the laws of statistics, a striker's goals aren't going to be evenly spread out, and you are going to get these good runs and barren spells. The question is, taking into account his overall play and his finishing ability as shown in bad times as well as good, is he the best option. For me, no. I'd continue to let Ayoze lead the line.

Make it five!

Of course that could happen. But such a person would have to get his hands dirty by operating within the messiness of the real world, and having his ideas tested out in a practical way at each stage as he tried to rise up the ladder. What surprises me is anyone thinking that developing expertise on a computer game can be a substitute for that process, or even for a part of it.

This discussion has taken a strange turn. One is a computer game and the other is real life.

It's not a matter of being a 'Pardew fan'. My attitude was that he should have another season in which to prove himself, because over the previous two years there had been problems that weren't of his making. (eg Kinnear) I wanted to see if he could get the team improving again, and playing better football. So the time to assess that wasn't at the end of September, of even now, but in May, where you can take stock not just of the final result, but all the inevitable ups and downs along the way. But I would say, so far so good. This team is definitely improving, in terms of individual performances and overall cohesion.

It doesn't look like the love is mutual.

For an experienced player, he's still very prone to losing his composure. The first booking was itself the result of indecision. The second was a tackle he didn't need to make, and also a somewhat dangerous one. He could have broken the guy's leg.

Sammy put in 3 or 4 very pacey crosses today. They were difficult for defenders to deal with and the odds were that sooner or later one of them was going to drop to one of our players.