Cronky

In the post-match interview on Match of the Day, Eddie was asked about our plans for the upcoming transfer window, and he said that, at this moment in time, the club was going to concentrate on getting the best out of the existing squad rather than bring in anyone from outside. It was as clear a message as you could get - we're not going to be entering the market. Now that the team has clicked, I can see the wisdom in not rushing to bring in anyone new at this point. The summer is the better time to integrate a new player and, of course, the January window doesn't offer the widest choice or the best value. Our guy has a habit of getting things right, and I continue to have faith in his judgement.

All very promising - no-one else has done that to Ipswich this season.

No I didn't. But as for Zidane, remember where you heard it first.

Just how good is Morgan Rogers? He reminds me of Zidane - virtually impossible to knock off the ball and very creative with it. City's high press has gone. They used to be able to win the ball back straight away and dominate possession. Without it, their slow build-up looks ineffective. Pep has been very successful with a particular style, and he doesn't have the answers at the moment.

I think that's the best draw. It's better to lose Schar and Bruno for the away leg (I think) and we know we have the beating of Arsenal at home. I don't think they like playing us.

When we were taken over by PIF, there was this idea floating in the media that we were going to buy success through a massive spending spree, in the manner of Blackburn in the 1990s, Chelsea under Abramovich, and Man City under Sheikh Mansour. This idea has died hard. Despite the restrictions on our spending, it has been supposed that the expectations of the owners would be similar to those three other clubs, and that Eddie would be dismissed in the event of any failure to achieve on that scale, as was the case with Mark Hughes at City and Claudio Ranieri at Chelsea. Well there are two realities in the face of those suppositions. Firstly, PIF were going to be compliant with the current spending rules, which do make that kind of quick dash for success impossible. Secondly, Eddie Howe has proved to be a manager of the top drawer, and the growth that he has brought to the club, within those restrictions, is fully appreciated by the PIF. I don't think they have any intention of replacing him with a better manager, mainly because there isn't one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/crmn4g47lyzo Be prepared to shed a tear or two.

I'm not sure he was given quite enough credit on TV for that second goal. He was floating about 2 foot in the air when he hit it, but he got right on top of it. Brilliant finish. My doubts about this player have ebbed away. I think Bruno is getting used to his new role, which is helping a lot. It's starting to click.

I think I know what you mean. We're starting to open teams up with intricate passing moves around the final third, which we didn't see much of even during our top 4 season. Defensively we're a bit more dodgy than before, but Botman's return should help there.

Man City used to starve their opponents of possession with that high press of theirs, and their ability to keep the ball for long periods. That seems to have gone for the time being. It's probably a combination of the loss of Rodri, and a group of players who seem to have grown old at the same time. Man U weren't all that impressive but Diallo was outstanding and won it for them in two moments. Amorim made a bold call in leaving Garnacho out, but it's worked out for him.

It was good to see Gordon and Hall combining so well. In previous games, I'd seen Hall making a number of good runs that Gordon had ignored, preferring to try and create something by himself. I think there's been some work done on the training ground, which bore fruit yesterday.

Very impressed with Bakayoko on the basis of a You tube scouting. Then I come on here. It looks like a non-starter, at the moment. He seems to have a very high opinion of himself too, which may not go down well in the dressing room.

Agreed, but I think it has some importance for this particular job at this particular time. I think it needs someone who is a bit battle-hardened, and if that experience is within the Premiership, so much the better. There's a lot of pressure, and familiarity with the league makes it easier to hit the ground running.

If this is true, it's difficult to follow Ratcliffe's logic. It's said that Ashworth didn't provide compelling arguments as to who to bring in, but he put a premium on Premier League experience, which sounds very sensible. It's a very difficult, high-pressure job and it needs someone who can get to grips with things fairly quickly. The three candidates named all sound viable to me. Ratcliffe was apparently seeking someone who could shoulder the 'enormous responsibility and scrutiny', but a relatively inexperienced guy from the Portuguese league doesn't sound the ideal candidate by that criterion.

The reason Ratcliffe accepted the ludicrous position of taking responsibility for the football side with only a 27% stake was because he was a fan and wanted to play at being a football manager. There seems real confusion at Man U about how major football decisions are being made. I've had doubts about Amorim from the start. I think they need someone with more experience, preferably in the Premiership.

Bit of a late post. I watched the final part of the Arsenal - Man U game on Wednesday, and there was footage of Amorim on the bench, face downwards, looking the picture of thoughtful despair. Now he's saying 'We're not one of the best teams in the league' (Well actually, I think you are. You just haven't been playing to your max) and 'we're a massive club but not a massive team'. This doesn't strike me as the stuff to inspire the troops. More like getting your excuses in early. When Eddie took over, there were no negative messages.

He's a bit of an enigma. He seems a shy, quiet lad, but when at his best on the pitch, he becomes a bit of an animal. That's what we need to see more of, and there are some promising signs now. I think he needs to overcome his natural inclination to be in the background, and start dominating instead. He does have it in him.

Refs will allow an extra bit of time for an attacking set piece to be taken, but will then blow up once that particular situation is over. Unless someone is saying that the 5 minutes hadn't elapsed, it was consistent with practice to blow up once the Liverpool set-piece attack had broken down. We were unlucky with the Isak pen. It was a foul, but a difficult spot for the ref and then it failed on the 'clear and obvious' criterion. The Van Dijk incident was odd, but he was given the benefit of the doubt on the reasoning that his mind may have been elsewhere. I don't think he's a vicious player, and I'd have thought he was way too professional to deliberately clobber a player in open view like that. But it could have gone either way. I'm not a fan of the conspiratorial theory of refereeing. If it happens at all, I think it's rare in our leagues.

There is some disappointment that we didn't win, but the game showed that we can beat anybody. We're not a very technical side, so we have difficulty breaking teams down when they play defensively, but we look a decent bet for a Cup. At last, Tonali is playing with a bit of fire in his belly, which I think was one of the main qualities that encouraged Eddie to sign him. There were also signs that the Tonali-Bruno partnership could work well. I'm not 100% convinced yet, but I'm getting more optimistic. Eddie has this habit of getting things right.

I was dreading them nicking it 4-3 at the end again. We'd never hear the end of it. It would have been great to have finished them off, but a draw is about right. We battled really well.

Shame we couldn't have got a second before the break. We had them on the ropes. We just need to keep the pressure on them. We've expended a lot of energy so we need a good stint from the subs.

I think that's a very optimistic view of the state of our bench. Barnes is potentially a game changer, though very hit and miss. Trippier and Wilson can offer something different, but they're past their best. The rest are pretty ordinary, by Premiership standards. There's a chasm rather than a gap between the quality of our bench and that of the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal - even Man U.

It sounds like a messy attempt to please everyone. The guy is young and should be treated with some understanding.

As I said in an earlier post, our failure to strengthen during the summer has left us looking a bit stale. We needed some fresh blood into the first team - apart from anything else, to give the team and club a bit of an uplift after a tough season. I don't think our form is due to Eddie Howe being exposed as a limited manager. That was my general point.

I'm wondering whether Chelsea can feel a bit aggrieved about that indirect free kick. The ball should have been nearer the goal, and Martinez clearly wasn't on the line where he ought to have been, unless I'm mistaken about the rules.