Mick

So we should replace him because you think he is in poor form but nobody should replace him on form, OK.

Who replaces him on form?

Cut out our mistakes and it's a possibility, I'm more confident about playing Man U than I was before today.

Ba is out top scorer for a reason, he's our best chance of a goal and could have got one today with a bit more luck. Dropping him would be total madness.

I'm not sure the pressure was on us, we can take a massive plus from today as we've shown we can play against the best teams in the division, regardless of the result.

It's not one bad game though, it's the latest.

I think he will keep it and was probably the reason that he made his sub's when we were out of the game. I don't have a problem with and of the changes today although I wouldn't have played Ryan Taylor 2nd half. Santon and possibly Tiote back for Man U in place of Ryan Taylor and Guthrie, even though Guthrie has played really well since getting into the team. Guthrie has been better than Cabaye when they've played together.

The message that dropping Ryan Taylor would give is that the player brought in to play at left back is ready to play in his position.

Positives, we defended well until we dug our own grave, we handed them the goals. Ben Arfa and Ameobi played well and didn't let themselves down apart from the 2nd penalty. Our toughest game of the season is out of the way and we might still be 3rd in the league once chelsea have played. We weren't disgraced against a really good team away from home and we didn't seem to pick up and more injuries. 3-1 was probably not a fair result.

Ryan Taylor has done better than expected but today has always been on the cards, he should be on the bench after today.

Is Jonas leftback now?

Ryan Taylor did do what he's capable of, that's why we're 2 down.

Jesus, Taylor.

That's as good a team as we could have expected, I'm looking forward to this now.

Shouldn't you still be out celebrating?

Gary and his eyes have parted company.

Gary don't need his eyes to see.

Looking at our (sort of) rivals in the league, the likes of Everton, Villa, Sunderland (I know, I know LOL), Stoke and even Liverpool, they either have managers who don't seem to like to buy from abroad (Bruce used to more but seems to bottle it now) or have no money, so I still think we're in the driving seat in that sense. I also think that our reputation would also help. All else being equal, players also look where they can fit in easier and having teammates or a coach or the same nationality helps. The same way the Frenchies love to go to Arsenal because of Wenger and the Spaniards used to love Liverpool because of Benitez, I think having the likes of HBA, Cabaye, Marveux and lads who speak French like Ba, Tiote...etc can be an important factor. Ba speaks French because he was born in France.

He looks to be an excellent footballer who knows how to get into good goal scoring positions and hurt the opposition. He hasn't done too badly considering he's in a new team.

Slightly off topic, how's Gameiro doing? I know he's getting goals but is he playing well?

Fair enough, I was just wondering as I've been surprised at the reaction of people who don't even follow football, I few people who don't seem to go to football have also been shown on local TV.

Where do you live? I only ask because most of the people I know would fit in to the "older" age range, not that they post on here. I know a few on here have said that they have seen no or little reaction away from the forum. I spend more time away from the forum than on it and the people I know are totally pissed off about the name change. I don't know a single person away from the forum who has agreed with the name change. Most of the people I spend my non- forum time with would be classed as professionals and I've heard some surprising comments from them about what they would say or do if they ever met Ashley or Llambias. I have no doubt they’d do or say nothing, the fact that they are saying things like wanting to knock 10 bells out of them is surprising.

oldtype has a point.

Dennis Wise could and nobody would say that he was daft.

Fron the Tribunal. 26. The Club’s explanation for these statements, which, on their case, were simply untrue, was that they were nothing more than an exercise in public relations carried out so as not to undermine Mr Keegan’s position and made necessary, in the first place, by statements made by Mr Keegan himself to the press. We found this explanation to be profoundly unsatisfactory.