Andy

It's early days but he looks a cut above our other fullbacks like, which makes it all the more baffling that it's taken until now to get him into the starting XI.

We need two out-and-out strikers on the pitch to keep the ball in their half as much as possible and take the pressure off whatever rag-tag defence we have available.

Their insistance to consistently substitute a full-stop with "FTM" is right up there with the most cringe-worthy things I've ever seen.

No surprise, Ronaldo is usually found-out when he takes on anybody with a semblance of intellect. Stick to winding up the riff-raff, Ronny.

Aye, I'm the same as Dave, more of a numb, confused feeling than anything else. It's so strange knowing that someone has died but not having any rational or logical explanation as to why it has happened. Really has come as a shock.

Not. Pisses all over Bobby and KK. You're on the wind up fucking constantly these days man, you used to be worth reading. Yup, several people like this kicking around at the minute. Getting bored of it very quickly.

Ferdinand should have practised what he so regularly preaches and stayed on his feet; he didn't need to go to ground and he gave the referee a decision to make, even if it was ultimately incorrect.

Aye, his faith in Perch is interesting. He hasn't done much wrong when he's come on to the pitch this season though in fairness, and it's better than bringing on Smith... Lovenkrands is the only one that I don't really get; would make far more sense to bring on Shola if we're wanting to hold the ball up and slow the game down (which I assume was the intention). Can't fault him as long as the results are right though. No. Lovenkrands gives 100% and will track back while Shola will wait for the ball up front. If you want defend, it's Loven (in our circumstances atm), if we want to score, it's Shola. Lovenkrands gives 100% but he can't keep a hold of the ball for shit, and constantly gives possession away, which nearly cost us at the end.

Aye, his faith in Perch is interesting. He hasn't done much wrong when he's come on to the pitch this season though in fairness, and it's better than bringing on Smith... Lovenkrands is the only one that I don't really get; would make far more sense to bring on Shola if we're wanting to hold the ball up and slow the game down (which I assume was the intention). Can't fault him as long as the results are right though.

Much as I think he is underrated, Carrick wouldn't displace Cabaye and Tiote from our team like.

It's not saying much, but this is probably the most confident I've ever felt ahead of an away trip to Old Trafford. If the injury situation is kind to us I think we've got every chance of coming away with a point.

Fucking hell. When I read some of Christmas Tree's posts, I can only describe the inner battle I'm required to go through to drag my mouse away from the "delete user" button as being akin to a fat lass forcing herself to decline cake while on a diet.

I took "between them" to mean that one or the other contributed, in fairness. Ba assisted the goal.

I don't see how expecting to hold on to our better players should be seen as false hope. You don't have to sell players to increase revenue and it's just the easy way out for the club. If we increase our performances on the field then that should be reflected in our performance off the field. It’s been shown time after time that we’ve increased our income substantially when we’ve been doing well in the league and been playing in Europe. Getting to the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup would bring in something like £8 million a year and getting that far in that competition isn’t too difficult. We look to be very close to being able to take the step needed. Being in a league position to qualify would probably require a 6th place finish and that alone would bring in over £3 million when compared to where we finished last season. If we try to sell and buy constantly to increase our income then sooner or later it will go wrong and turn to shit. We will have to start showing some ambition if we're to avoind going backwards and now would be as good a time as any. It's false hope because that's what's going to happen, whether it's right or wrong. Simple as that.

The sentiment is great, but it's not going to happen and to expect otherwise is simply false hope. The club are following a modified Ajax-model - buy low, improve the player's reputation, sell high, repeat. I don't think any player in the club is exempt from this and that will be the case as long as the current owners are in the driving seat. It's a gamble, especially in terms of finding the right replacements, but the silver lining is that if the players are performing well enough for the model to work, then our league position should at least reflect that.

Depends who's bidding. If there was a bidding war between Chelsea and City we could easily fetch that kind of money, otherwise £20/25m sounds about right.

It's got nothing to do with "defending him", it was soft. Still clumsy, mind, but Richards went down far too easily.

City are obviously miles ahead of us, but I still think people are getting carried away by them and that teams in our league are giving them too much respect and showing too much fear. Napoli and Bayern Munich showed in the Champions League that they're far from invincible if you pass the ball well and get at them. We caused them problems in the second half today when we actually started doing the same thing.

Hard for the midfield to be anything other than anonymous when we're bypassing it completely.

Gutsy line-up, that. We'll probably get raped but it's good to see Pardew having the balls to name such an attacking XI.

Lack of options? No matter who we put there, it's going to be a case of square peg/round hole since we have no natural right wingers fit. Pardew will look for maximum defensive-protection, so it will be between Santon, Guthrie and Gosling I think - can't see Ben Arfa getting a look in as he doesn't have the work-rate to play that role. Out of the three, Santon would be the most sensible option since he's a natural wide player.

Aye. I think we'll line up like that, assuming Obertan/Tiote aren't available and Best is. Would certainly rather see Santon played in his proper position and Raylor in what is (supposedly) his proper position in right midfield. Raylor is fucking terrible in right midfield. He was supposed to be pretty fucking terrible at left back too. No point in playing two players out of position. So you'd break up a back-line that is statistically the best in the league, in order to move the left back from that defence - who is currently playing the best football of his career - into a position where in the past he has consistently failed to perform? Santon has shown in the past that he's more than capable of playing as an attacking right wing-back, so I doubt it would be too hard a task for him to play on the wing against City, given that we're probably going to need both of our wingers to act as secondary full-backs for the majority of the match anyway.

Aye. I think we'll line up like that, assuming Obertan/Tiote aren't available and Best is. Would certainly rather see Santon played in his proper position and Raylor in what is (supposedly) his proper position in right midfield. There's no way Pardew will unsettle the defence, and rightly so in my opinion.

Aye. I think we'll line up like that, assuming Obertan/Tiote aren't available and Best is.

It's a total myth that you need a "Bellamy type forward" in modern football, and Edinc isn't really a Bellamy type forward anyway tbh. Unless "Bellamy-type forward" is now simply a generic term that refers to "under 6ft and not black".