Cronky

Curbishley would be a good choice. He got West Ham out of a far worse mess. Sound bloke and under-rated.

I'd be very confident if it wasn't for the Europa League. We've got our two most winnable games coming up, but they straddle the Benfica games. If we remain in the Europa League after Benfica, we'll really struggle to pick up points, given the opposition.

Dull selection really. Simpson and Obertan have never shown much desire and they were a hopeless combination. For me, Anita's better performances have been at right back, and I'd have stuck him there and Perch in the middle. And anyone instead of Obertan. The best you can say about this game is it's out of the way.

What's the point of Obertan? He isn't helping out the attack or the defence. Every attack down our right side is getting through.

In theory, we should be in for a thumping. Hopefully, Man City will be in one of their cantbearsed days.

I never like it when Dads get involved.

I think it means, 'I'd love you to go to Newcastle'. Who young Hadja is and why she's keen on his arrival in the North East is not specified.

Perch has improved a lot, and although he's not as strong as Tiote, his distribution is a lot quicker. A year ago, I never thought I'd say this, but he's as decent an option as we've got in that DM position. After his good start, I think we're seeing now why Tiote was available to us for £3.5m. He has his limitations.

You're the one with the thing about Gerrard. Carrick and Cleverley miles better? Craaaazy.

Agreed although i don't think he's ready yet, nor am i convinced he's a winger i actually believe Oxlade would be best in a central position. I think he can play in either position, but yes, his future should lie in the middle - basically, in order to give him as much of the ball as possible, and where he can get more opportunities to shoot from long range.

He's a crock of shit and Carrick wasn't much better either. Both were and are miles better than Gerrard. Not in 10000000000000000000 years.

With the Ox, I think Wenger is wary of the Wilshere situation, where he was over-played at a young age and ended up out for a year with injury. His inexperience shows at times, but his all-round ability is outstanding. He should become one of the best players in the world, and to have him and Wilshere together in England teams for the next 10 years is something to look forward to.

Yeah, I agree. When Montenegro changed their formation in the second half, that should have given us an extra man in the midfield, but if you bang the ball over the heads then the advantage is lost. It reminded me of how we (ie NUFC) sometimes play (though not as often as before). The British disease is a lack of confidence in passing and retaining the ball under pressure. Although we do produce players with just as much skill as the continentals, our technical ability is often confined to half the team. If we're to achieve real fluency, all the players need to show some level of technical competence. It's not just a matter of confidence in your own ability, but in your team-mates as well. I lost count of the number of passes that went slightly behind a team-mate, because the passer wasn't confident about playing the ball into their stride. You see it so often.

Missed Wilshere. Neither of our full backs looked like they wanted the ball.

The sub of Cleverley for Young was badly timed. We'd lost our attacking threat, and Young gave it back to us, but it's no good waiting until you've conceded before making the decision. The team as a whole seemed to lack pace. They just seemed to be running away from our midfield in the second half.

It's neither a foul or dive. It did look like a genuine stumble. Whether he was clipped is hard to tell. Ironic that although the Montenegrans have been diving around all over the place, it's one of our lads that gets done.

I don't think we're playing that well, but certainly well enough to get through what's a poor defence. Rooney has been great. Gerrard's having an off day with his passing. Cole looks a liability now to me. He doesn't seem to have the pace any more.

Some good combination play from Rooney and the Ox which bodes well for the future, particularly when Wilshere is included. Walker has great pace and strength, but he doesn't look like an international player to me.

I'm not. I saw him f***ing do it. Back injuries can be very difficult to confirm by medical examination. It's an old trick for agents to advise players who want to leave to say they've got a back injury. So his agent went "I'll tell you what Colo, do a f***ing wicked overhead kick near the corner flag against Southampton and we'll say you've knacked your back"? I somehow doubt it. I'd also like to think the club and its doctors have enough of a grip on this newfangled x-ray technology to see if he has actually broken his back. It's conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory on here sometimes. Exactly, the club have come out and said 'he has broken 2 bones in his back' ... I'm sure they checked for themselves Unless they're in on the conspiracy Okay, fine. I withdraw the insinuation.

I'm not. I saw him fucking do it. Back injuries can be very difficult to confirm by medical examination. It's an old trick for agents to advise players who want to leave to say they've got a back injury.

Great news that will give everyone round the club a boost. The Wigan game was such a downer, with everything that went on. How he's escaped with just bruising I don't know. Maybe the knee didn't actually twist, so the ligaments stayed intact.

Ignoring the examples given, you are saying you don't want the player who has assaulted our player punished? You aren't bothered he has gotten away with it? I am bothered he didn't get sent off, but banning him after the event doesn't help us one iota. It's not about us being helped though. It's about giving the message to all players that they have to take some responsibility for one another's safety and not go into tackles with that level of aggression. It's about helping players in all clubs in the future. Whelan has done the worst possible thing for his player, because his message, coupled with the FA's response, will probably make McManaman think he's done nothing wrong. I can appreciate the FA needing to follow certain guidelines, but Whelan is in a different position and he's spoken out in a selfish and idiotic way. From the point of view of McManaman's future, he'd have been better off getting a punishment. As it is, he's going to come up against various people inside and outside the game who think a score still needs to be settled. He'd better hope Haidara plays again.

Looks like the player has got off on a technicality. The fact that one of the linesmen (presumably the one on the same touchline) got some kind of a view of the incident, even if it wasn’t a complete one, means there’s no retrospective punishment. I understand the principle of not re-refereeing incidents, but I suspect that the linesman saw the clash but couldn’t see precisely where McManaman’s foot was making contact with Haidara. To me, that’s the same as not seeing the incident.

It's a worry because the player went straight into the side of the knee with full force. If Haidara gets away with a 6 month lay-off and a return to full fitness then I'd count that a good result. I fear it could be a lot worse. Time will tell. Whelan's comments won't have helped his player at all. Apart from anything else, IIRC the contact with the knee came before the contact with the ball, and the contact with the ball was fairly minimal.

Did he? The view they showed on MOTD2 was with a zoom lens which foreshortened the distance. In practice, the lino would have been standing in the other half of the field, more than 30 yards away. What's more, at the point of contact Haidara was between McManaman and the linesman and it would have been difficult to see with the right degree of confidence where the contact was made. We're all angry about a tackle which has put a young lad's career in jeopardy, but we have to be realistic about what we can expect from officials. They can't give what they don't see. People saying that Halsey could have sussed out what happened by what was going on before and after his view was blocked are in cloud-cuckoo land. No-body can say how long his view was blocked for, and in any case he can't send a player off based on supposition. That's basic. Fuck me. Absolutely incredible. Say something constructive, Dave. Surprise me. You're totally wrong. How's that? A fail, I'd say.