Mattoon

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.

Take that back, Betamax was supreme in every way

Hopefully Big Jow is back soon and we can look at maybe giving Bruno a little rest and try Miley along side Joe and Tonali, we need a fit Bruno for the final and he's looking a little jaded right now.

I said it before the game and I'll repeat it now, Pope is clearly the better keeper, better shot stopper, better sweeper, better at crosses and better at commanding his box. I think it's fair to say that first goal can be put down to rustiness as the rest of the game can attest. The only thing Dubz is better at is his distribution under pressure. Pope is the best option we have this season, but we do need a new No.1 for next season.

I actually think we'll give them a game and lose by 1

Such a spawny team

I have them finishing 6th too fwiw but they aren't just luck merchants

Forest are 3rd for a reason, it isn't just luck, they came out 2nd half determined to get something from the game and forced us into errors, they were as bad as we were good in the first, we stepped back as much as they stepped up 2nd half. I think its rather arrogant to suggest that 2nd half was all of our own making, sure we didn't help ourselves but Forest believed they could still get something from the game and very nearly did with their belief and tenacity.