Segun Oluwaniyi

The majority of the players on the pitch were bought during his tenure, so if Rafa does not trust them, that is Rafa's own problem. Three seasons ago, Carver ended the season with a run of seven points in the final 13 matches. Currently, they are on a run of 5 points in 12, so hopefully he can better Carver's run with a win against Stoke.

Maguire is far inferior to Lascelles. He's the weakest link in Leicester's side, and Salah took advantage of him today. I wonder when Stoke will just give Hughes his payoff, so he will leave him. He and his side are sleepwalking though this season; possibly towards relegation.

I find it genuinely hard to believe that there exists no one that could implement some sort of cohesive attacking play after being at the club for 21 months. People are making far too many excuses for Benitez. Good managers make teams into more than the sum of their parts, and I have not seen enough of that this season. The club is essentially operating with no ownership structure at the moment, so sacking him is not a viable option, but Rafa has been average, imo.

You can say this for any manager. The performances have been timid, the tactics confused. This has to fall on the manager at some point. I feel as though there is enough in the side that it can be one that is tough to beat, rather than one that capitulates.

Absolutely. It’s f***ing dead as a formation. Not if you have midfielders who have a f***ing clue what they're doing The midfielders seemed competent enough when there were two of them deep and Perez chasing around in front of them. Now the middle of the pitch is a sieve.

The approach in the couple of minutes before the goal was incredibly naive.

How many goals has this side conceded from players running completely free on the right side of defence? One diagonal ball and they are in danger of conceding. It has happened repeatedly.

The second half would make Mourinho proud. All the possession to Napoli, but the match could have continued on for several more hours without Buffon being seriously threatened.

Maybe we are listening to different pundits, but everyone I have heard has mentioned Group D as probably the most even and competitive in the tournament. Iceland are respected, though not favoured to advance. Most of the pundits will not have seen Iceland (or Nigeria, tbf) play at all in this cycle. Croatia are favourites because they have big names at big clubs.

I cannot believe we have drawn Argentina again. Six World Cups and five times with Argentina in the first round. It is almost a derby at this point, and generally a good match. I like this draw, tbh, the matches should be entertaining and SE have a good chance to go through, imo. England's group is incredibly easy, Tunisia and Panama are two of the three worst sides, along with Saudi Arabia. No groups of death whatsoever (It is hard to see man of the big sides failing early), and Russia will likely make it through now, despite being very poor. Nigeria will fail as they always do. We have been to five World Cups and made it out of the group three times. What rubbish are you talking?

Based on World ranking I think. Aye, world rankings suck though, seriously flawed system. I’ll take Poland, Iran, and Panama. A loss and two valiant 0-0 draws for England then. Still better than 3 no shows we’ll win a World Cup before England does again. No Americans will see a World Cup trophy until they are being sold on discount at Wal-Mart. You should leave this discussion and focus on crafting a strategy to defeat the varous Caribbean islands you will face next time around. Nigeria have been to the World Cup five times, were drawn against Argentina four of those times, and have lost to them by one goal on every single occasion. We rubbished them on Tuesday, but I am not fooled. I will take any of the other top seeds over them. It is difficult to see anything other than a tough group for them, anyway. Falling into pot 4 and the new format for the draw means we have made this hard on ourselves.

Tbf, Lookman is just a simple Anglicisation. Someone in his family has actually changed the spelling of the name to sound more English. Your pronunciation is correct for his original surname. I keep hearing Solanke as "SO-LANCK" or "SO-LANKY" but the S and and the E are the same sounds as in S(h)ola Ameobi, both are Yoruba names. It is "SHOW-LAN-KAY". Honestly, these are small things no one should care about. I am just turning into father already.

From the highlights it looked like Nigeria played some really good stuff y'day. Iwobi in particular looking the part. Ekong, Mikel, and Iheanacho were very impressive as well. It was a strange match, tbh. We were embarrassing for the first 40 minutes, including possibly the worst minute of goalkeeping I have ever seen in my entire life. Then Iheanacho scored a wonderful freekick after the first decent attacking move and the rest of the match was pure domination. Argentina's defense just could not cope with the pace and skill going forward. June is far away, but the manager has impressed me with what he has built thus far.

I watched some of this rubbish yesterday. England will be a tough side to beat next June, imo. Fairly solid and they have one of the two or three best forwards in the competition. It is a fairly good formula. Solanke is next what will seemingly become of a long line of British players (looking at the youth sides) who are either blatantly mispronouncing their own name or having it continually mispronounced by commentators. Ibe, Lookman, and Solanke shouldn't bother me to the degree that they do, but I cringe whenever I hear them.

2-0 Australia. Jedinak again from the spot. USA should be ashamed of finishing behind this team in qualifying.

Australia 30 minutes from the World Cup. Jedinak with a deflected free-kick. This match has been been complete rubbish, btw. Nigeria-Argentina and some of the other friendlies yesterday were welcome entertainment, but this has continued in the vein of the other playoffs. Horrible to watch with two poor teams (Honduras especially). Hopefully, the goal changes things.

The quality of play in these World Cup playoff matches has been atrocious.

Both of our centrebacks are half-white. We call them the oyinbo (white) wall. It is out of love. Cote D'Ivoire have been desperately poor. Absolute rubbish. They don't deserve to go to the World Cup. They were horrible against Gabon and again today. Morocco look a very good side, tbh. Renard is a good manager too. He knows the continent well. We are hoping and praying for Libya to score now! Dr Congo 3-1 up and a goal for Libya sends them to the World Cup. Drawing from 2 goals up at home with less than 15minutes to go cost DR Congo a place at the World Cup. Shame, would've loved to see a new team like DR Congo there. Definitely, they are a better side than Tunisia man for man, imo. A well coached and composed team would have held that result and qualified. The wife's people will be upset, but they have a good base of very talnted players and plenty of foreign born nationals to call on. It should be an optimistic time, but being that this is Congo they will probably still underachieve. So, Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia are going to Russia from Africa. Four good, competitive sides, imo. (Excluding Tunisia). I have no desire to see Ireland at any tournament. Hopefully Denmark win.

Cote D'Ivoire have been desperately poor. Absolute rubbish. They don't deserve to go to the World Cup. They were horrible against Gabon and again today. Morocco look a very good side, tbh. Renard is a good manager too. He knows the continent well. We are hoping and praying for Libya to score now! Dr Congo 3-1 up and a goal for Libya sends them to the World Cup.

I think this ref has even surpassed the dunce from the NI match on Thursday in terms of terrible penalty decisions. It was a dead rubber, anyway, so I hope he received the funds into his account without any problem. Peru and New Zealand starting in 30 minutes or so. I am always fascinated by the intercontinental qualification playoffs for the World Cup, but it seems like the matches are always rubbish.

Didn't Rafa mention him as an option when he was talking about Colback's banishment? I think both Anderlecht boys are players Rafa simply has no interest in, who he will look to sell in January and only use as desperation options in the meantime.

No i'm not. I'm saying we've spent money on dross that could have collectively bought a player who possesses the quality we actually need. I am quite sure there is a player somewhere in the world available for 12 million that could beat one man, put in an occasional adequate cross, complete a few passes and not lose the ball in dangerous areas. All things that Murphy has failed to do thus far. I am not looking to dismiss the boy's chances right away. I have seen the same highlights as everyone else. He has talent, but is low on confidence and adjusting. However, he is currently useless and a detriment to the first team. I don't understand why he was the most expensive transfer in the window.

I wonder how much of the Abraham call up has to do with Nigeria sniffing around him, we've been quite aggressive about this sort of thing under new leadership and might have given him a World Cup place just to tie him down. Already, Iwobi, Aina, and Moses have come through England youth to play for a different nation. Judging by the surnames of the England u-20 World Cup side, this issue is likely to keep happening in coming years. Agreed, they should be taking Shelvey for similar reasons. There isn't anyone else as creative from deep midfield as him available for England. I don't see what Fabian Delph brings to the table for you at international level other than a Manchester City contract. There are already three left backs in the squad and he doesn't provide anything different in midfield.

I accept the forthcoming beating, but I vastly prefer Colback (and Saivet, tbf) to Diame. At a minimum, he can run for 90 minutes without his legs falling off. I am not sure I agree with the way Rafa has handled him tbh, but if the other players have no problem with this, then no one should really feel any sympathy for him. He still picks up his weekly wage and can move on in two month's time.

Is the comment important? Obviously, we are all against racism, but I cannot imagine any comment justifiably allowing you to fully kick someone in the face with studs on your foot at your place of employment.