Cronky

It was very disappointing because, although AZ were better on the night and deserved to win, I wasn't that impressed with them. Dyer is far more effective playing down the middle, either as a withdrawn striker or attacking midfielder. He ended up drifting inside to try and make things happen, and while I don't blame him for trying to get involved (particularly as no-one else was producing anything), it messed up our shape. Eventually Roeder realised the need to play Dyer inside, but he didn't want to bite the bullet and abandon the tactic of hoofing it on to Sibierski's head. The result was our shape got worse after the substitutions. All we needed was one goal, and we ought to have got it. Their defence wasn't any better than the one that showed up at St James's. Overall, I think Roeder has done a good job, but he got it wrong last night.

A very important point. Never once in the entire game did Huntington even attempt to get forward to support Duff. I'm not blaming Hunty particularly, because left back isn't his position, but you can't expect a wide player to function single handed like that. As it is, Duff did okay tonight I thought. Their defenders had to resort to fouling him quite often, and he won us a few free kicks. As far as I'm concerned, Duff has still got it.

He had a poor game, but shouldn't take all the blame. On the first goal, he shouldn't have moved up. However, I don't know if my memory is playing tricks on me, but it didn't make any difference. The wide player would have got the ball regardless. For some reason, they were able to expose our full backs at will. The second goal is down to him, but the reason he lost his man was he had to run around a knot of players in order to try and stay with his man, and in the end didn't make it in time. There was an element of bad luck there, although all in all he wasn't aggressive enough.

I agree. We weren't set up for counter-attacking football at all. I'd have kept Duff on. The reason he was quiet in the second half was we weren't giving him the ball. I'd have put on Emre and Milner for Sibierski and Parker. I don't think Parker played that well at all. It was the usual story. Good at closing down the opposition, poor in possession. Once we went 2-0 down that wasn't what we needed. The really big failure was not scoring. I don't think their defence was up to much, but we didn't get to them until the last few minutes.

I just don't think this tactic of trying to get on the end of a big man's headers all the time can work at that level. Besides, a lack of pace was the real weakness in the Alkmaar defence, and we didn't exploit that at all by that tactic. Martins and Dyer are our best combination and that's what we should have played. I'm not one to get on to Roeder, but I didn't like his substitutions. We completely lost shape and it all became a bit of a mess.

Our only tactic seemed to be to hoof the ball long to Sibierski. He won plenty of headers but they mopped up the resulting balls quite easily. I think AZ were quite happy to see us continue to play like that. On the day, we just weren't good enough in all departments. Can't complain about the result. All of the back four played poorly, not just Bramble.

That just isn't true, Rooney is terrible in the air. Disagree. Martins has a good leap on him, but he misdirects a lot of headers. Rooney doesn't head the ball that often, because he's usually the more withdrawn striker, but on the occasions I've seen him head it he's looked pretty good.

Christ, I'm amazed it's that close. Martins was a good buy, but he'll never, ever be as good as Rooney. Martins is quicker, but Rooney is more skilful, has a far better football brain, can head the ball better, pass it better, is a better finisher, takes free kicks - is better in every other respect.

Best all-round striker outside the top four. At first, I thought he was going to be a total flop, but he's shown a fantastic improvement.

3-2 to us. I think we'll want it more.

I really don't understand that attitude. He didn't want to be injured. If at other times he lacked dedication, that's different now. I think he's grown up as a person and as a player. It's what he's offering us now that counts.

We've got a decent quartet of forwards there, but as a group I don't think they're the equal of any of the top four.

I agree with this. Give him a licence to roam. The more space and freedom he has, the more damage he can do. It means to an extent building the side around him, but I'd be happy with that. He could also be given a roving role in a last season Chelsea style 4-3-3.

Hugh Johns - ITV commentator in times past - 'His name's not salmon, but he leapt like that mighty fish'.

Tbh I wouldn't have thought he was good enough yet to seriously interest any of the big four. If he went to any of them, he wouldn't be first team material at the moment. Apart from possibly Chelsea, I can't see them wanting to fork out a mega-fee in those circumstances.

Keane has his faults, but I don't see him as a quitter. The Ireland incident arose out of stubborness. McCarthy rather foolishly drove him into a corner and Keane refused to back down. I'm not saying Keane did the right thing, but the whole affair wasn't handled right. I think Keane will prove himself as a top manager, but I'd far rather we swapped Chairmen instead. Quinn is an intelligent guy, he understands the game and he doesn't interfere with his manager's judgement. Shepherd is the opposite on all three counts.

Give the lad a break, please. His finishing has improved immeasurably, mainly because he's added that little chip over the keeper to his repertoire. Often that's far more effective than a blast, unless you can hit them like Shearer. He's also giving credit to a coach whose local reputation isn't great, which is good to hear. Often people are subjected to these black and white judgements, and it's good that someone takes the trouble to modify that a bit.

Fabregas, I think. He doesn't look particularly strong, or fast, but every time he gets the ball he uses it well. Very economical with it. Doesn't show off. Rarely tries to beat his man. He just quickly does exactly the right thing with it. He's nearly always able to keep things moving forward, and very rarely plays a negative ball. Amazing maturity for a scrap of a kid.

Just to add my 2p to the great Alkmaar first goal controversy - I did think that Duff could have made a better job of blocking the cross. He could have got that bit closer, but he stopped further away than he really needed to. Not a terrible mistake seeing he's a winger, and he might not have been able to prevent the cross anyway, but that was my thought at the time. Otherwise, I thought he had a good game.

If we're playing 4-4-2, I don't think Butt and Parker are our best combination in the centre. Parker as an attacking midfielder just isn't good enough in possession. They could maybe be accommodated in a 4-3-3 / 4-5-1.

I'm surprised there's not been more anger about the penalty. That second goal has completely changed the complexion of the tie. They wouldn't have fancied their chances of pulling back a three goal deficit, but a 2-0 or 3-1 home win is a very realistic target for them. Normally those decisions where a cross hits a defender on the hand when he's closing the ball down, are very difficult to assess. But short of putting his hands behind his back, Taylor couldn't have done more to keep his hands away, and that was very, very obvious. You accept that refs are bound to make a few mistakes, but that was just incompetent.

I thought it was a typical Parker performance. He worked hard and put in some good tackles, but never looked comfortable in possession of the ball.

Martins does sometimes look like he's only just started playing the game. One of those instincts that you develop even as a kid is to play the ball quickly to the man in space, and it was really naive of him to try a different option.

got to disagree ref had a great game I disagree. I thought he was too lenient with a lot of challenges where the defender took the man before the ball. And the penalty decision was an absolute shocker.

I think we deserved our three goal lead. Their back four looked a bit ponderous. The penalty decision was one of the most unintelligent that I've seen. Taylor had his arms pressed right down by his sides, in order to minimise the risk of handling it. I think the ref knew the minute he'd made the decision that he'd bungled. If a defender goes towards the ball with his arms flapping all over the place, that invites suspicion, but Taylor was doing the dead opposite. Some good individual performances. Titus produced the tackle of the season to prevent a near certain goal. Duff showed a few moments of real class as well. Nobby created a lot down the right. Looks a bit 50-50 now. A 2-0 win will see them through.