TRon

Well that's the point, we need to be pessimistic for that to work. Don't start talking about winning.

Let's just accept we are getting beat lads and take anything we can get. It's like a free hit really.

Think he'd have been on the bench if that was the case.

After the slating he's been getting over the last 24hrs on here, Wilson is nailed on to get a goal.

I'm with Howe on that one.

Don't know why he played 80 mins on Sunday when we were 4-1 up. Just asking for it tbh.

I was furious with that.

Hopefully he'll get more than the usual 5 mins. If h gets a good 20-30 mins to run at Liverpool I think he could cause them some problems.

Looks like the game is being written off. Isak is the one player they would be worried about, he's raped VVD on multiple encounters. Ah well, would probably have lost anyway, not the worst game to miss I suppose.

Isak benched. Could at least make it realistic if you are going the ITK route.

Tbf, if any team needs an injection of pace in their side more than us, it's City.

Ba was fantastic, very underrated in England because his career was kind of short over here. Look at the goals he scored for us, think he probably could do just about everything, good in the air and with his feet. Even cracked a decent free kick which we didn't see enough of IMO, although we did have Cabaye on hand as well.

Agree, thought he's looked generally decent in the cameos he's played as a sub, he's getting into goal scoring positions, and he was never much more than a goal scorer anyway. Still good to have him as an option, but he's not ever going to be much use on the counter.

It does sound negative when you phrase it like that, but the general idea is right. I would not risk any player who is not 100% and maybe go with the cup semi final formation we had against Arsenal. We aren't likely to get a result anyway, I was reading today that Howe's record against Liverpool in his managerial career is 20 played and 17 lost of those. Can't really blame him, not easy to go toe to toe with them when you have worse players, and he would have done that at Bournemouth as well. But it doesn't work most of the time, and with our creaking CBs can't see it working this time round either.

I think any team finds it hard if you can sit back and park the bus, just don't think we are set up that way, and our players would struggle to implement it effectively. We always seem to get stuck in no man's land, neither defending well or attacking.

I've not really seen any team successfully sit back against Liverpool, but there probably have been teams who have done it, just I don't really follow other games that carefully. Would be interesting to see how teams that get good results against them usually do it.

Agree with this. The reason we lose possession is because we have players who struggle to control it when we are getting pressed. Not saying this is all on Murphy, for example, even Bruno has been guilty in a lot of games this season. But ultimately we'll only get better by having a team full of top class players. Murphy's not one of those, and that's not his fault, he's having a great season personally.

He's the reason we win, and he's the reason we lose. Plays like a lucky dip bag.

Not really arsed about this one. Don't think we are good enough to live with them unless we're at full strength, but I think we'll put up some resistance before losing comfortably.

In hindsight it probably went towards costing us the cup final against Man U. They were a very ordinary side having a poor season, but we went in there with Wilson who did nothing on the day. I think it's fair to say Isak might have caused them a few more headaches.

I'm sure there are loads of players who do that successfully, but there are also loads who do that but miss. Isak is one of the best penalty takers we've had in my memory. Probably only Shearer would inspire more confidence. I think when a player has a penalty record as good as Isak you just let him get on with it personally.

Let's see if they are third after 38 games then.

Provides a bit of a tricky dilemma really, as it means we might need to go a bit more direct instead of playing it out. But that usually just leads to the ball coming back quicker. We just need better players ultimately.

They've had a good season but they won't finish in a CL position. They are in a false position and I said it before today's game FWIW.

Looks great until you get to to the penalty area.