Mattoon

We win the midfield battle, hands down, but Liverpool have a knack for such a fast kick and rush game that we will be bypassed when we lose possession. We need to control their supply lines and deal with the ball over the top, do that with aggression and we stand a chance.

Honestly, after watching our left side get decimated in the last week for this game, followed by that unbelievably raggy, undeserved win against PSG, I'm finding it hard to muster any kind of excitement for this. I know I'll be all in on the day and emotionally dead inside by the end of it, all their luck and our distinct lack of it, especially when it comes to finals, blergh.

As much a must win game as you get, like previously stated it does feel like a much better chance at silverware than the Carabao, strangely as we're already in thr final for that. We can beat anyone on our day as we have done in plenty of cup games with Howe, the only team we cannot seem to beat, even when we're better than them is Liverpool. Hopefully we'll have 1 or 2 back for this and they can either play a part from the start or as an impact sub, Big Joe, Botman and Isak hopefully all play some part. Let's have these!

I try not to overthink it Just go with my gut early and leave it alone

Just win, I don't care how, just win, such a great chance of another final and a better chance at silverware than trying to beat a rampant Liverpool team.

I think the last line there hits the nail on the head, full squad, fully fit and we look incredibly good since Tonali found his place in the team but you take one piece of the puzzle away and it's a discombobulated mess. A PSR nightmare and an 18 month dry spell of first team additions will do that to a team though, a paper thin functional squad and complacency are symptoms of our current financial limits. If we can get a full team out for this then I would, we could do without rushing back our injured players but we have a very real chance of silverware here and will kick ourselves if we go out without a wimper now. Plus, as previously stated, although we need all our players fit for the final, we also need them match fit and sharp.

West Ham allowing Leicester the key to the city but they can't do anything with it, thus has turned into a properly boring game.

Looking like another round is beckoning, will this ever end?

Still a solid C for most of the PL, but again drifting out to a D for teams looking for Europe. He still has a lot in the tank but now looks a shadow of even the player he was last season.

Take a step back and a deep breath, there's a few factors in play tonight, we were playing away from home at the top team in the country, who are 13 points clear of the nearest rival. We're down Joelinton, Botman and most pertinantly Isak. The mentality was lacking today, Hall the only exclusion, the kid is immeasurably good! I can imagine the loss of Isak affected the confidence of the team also, Schar, sadly, looks to be on his way out, Pope looks poor too and Bruno has been uncharacteristically off the boil for a worrying amount of time. It wasn't an enjoyable watch, I think we did OK considering the circumstances, the change in formation and personnel. One thing I do know is that is nothing like what we'll see in the final, this Liverpool side aren't one of the greats, they are not infallible, we can do these.

Another wasted evening watching us play Salah United the darlings of the media. Another toothless, impotent display away from home against a "big 6" side and we only have our own mentality to blame for that. In the grand scheme of things it's not worth getting puffed about, but it's them, AGAIN. I'd swallow it all with another side helping of 90 minutes of verbal falatio for Salah for a win at Wembley though, that's all that matters.

Tbf the sycophantic running commentary doesn't help the old rage levels, could they be any more biased?

Frustrating, boring, predictable, cannot stand Liverpool FC and sick of losing against them.

We're winning this

What in the Alan Pardew is Villa's GD by the way?

@wiseman first past the post, all eyes on West Ham for tomorrow

Tough one this, Trippier still has a lot to offer and would be a starter still for a solid mid-table team but only a squad filler for a team with European aspirations.

Personally I would give nothing away about the final, in the grand scheme of things a final and possible silverware is a million times more important than a single PL game.

Win or lose the final I fancy us to go on a run after it, much like '23

I've kept him in mine, undroppable for me.

I think when we're up against it we need Pope in goal as he has much better command of his area, control on crosses and doesn't stay routed to his goal line. However, when we play out from the back and are trying to play around a press Dubz is by far the better player and you can see the players feel that too and I'm not just talking about long balls, his close control and short passing under pressure from the opposition is much better than Pope too. Tough one really because both have a good claim to start but both have glaring issues that could cost us games.

Face down, ass up

Not really bothered by VVD tbf, Isak has him on toast, he's just a dirty player that gets away with malicious fouls. Salah is their cheat code, anyone know any voodoo curses or some kind of dance we can do to have him out for the final? Saying that, perma-flop Nunez tends to turn into prime Shearer against us too.

Been so long since we beat these tramps, can't see anything but a plucky loss here and 90 minutes of me losing more follicles.

See NUFC under Pardew 2012, that 5th season was unsustainable.