Stottie

No problem with the Ben Mee red card but boy did that look a penalty in the one look at it my river gave me.

Just looking back, but we've had 14 games since Oct 21st, eight weeks ago. In the coming six weeks, including the "busy" festive period and almost all the transfer window, we have six matches, four in the league and one in each domestic cup. There are some hard fixtures, but a chance for the lads to regroup. In those 14 games, our record was P14 W6 D2 L6, including the Man U away win in the Carabao and three losses in the CL.

Not sounding like Craig Despair for a change.

Great result and great to bounce back. Has to be said, but that's the second season running when we've been in a dip, played Fulham, and they graciously had a man sent off in the first half, paving our way to a much needed comfortable win. Like last year, the red was a VAR upgrade from yellow and Miggy scored. Last time was at their place, but it was a springboard for about 15 games unbeaten, Carabao included. What I'd give you for that this time. Bruno was class, great to see Miley score, and a clean sheet! Roll on Chelsea. Howay the lads!

Fulham haven't won an away game in weeks, and we've not lost a domestic one since that disastrous 10 minutes vs. Liverpool. I think the SJP factor will get us over the line. Maybe a big ask, but no individual errors please!

I thought the window was fine. Ideally, we'd have also sold Almiron to Saudi to get funds, but this would have attracted far more scrutiny than Liverpool selling two players to Saudi. Or however many Chelsea players went there. We got to sell Maxi and that was our lot. Tino's been great, Barnes did look good in the little we saw and should click straight in, Minteh's doing great, and Hall is very young. We needed Bruno backup, and Tonali has the experience/pedigree to qualify. He didn't exactly hit the ground running and has since been banned for something we could not have foreseen, but let's have faith in Tonali's experience and pedigree. We got him for Lavia money, so it should have been canny business. The other Italian lad we were supposedly interested in, Barella at Inter, looks like his numbers are down this season.

Probably the last place anyone should choose to look today. Second last is anything by Oliver Holt or the Guardian (full of Liverpool glory hunters, writers included, on trigger alert to gloat at NUFC).

Liverpool play West Ham next, a very strong cup team.

Pope was the best shot stopper in this years' group stage. Nearly five goals stopped relative to the shots he faced (post-shot xG), not where the shots were taken (standard xG). A goal a game in the matches he played. This suggests that a. we were riding our luck, and b. any other keeper was going to be a big dropoff from Pope. It looked that way watching them, but Dortmund too rely on their keeper.

Decent effort but not to be. Would have been Europa but for the PSG pen. We let Milan back into it with poor defending for their first goal. It came out of the blue and was hardly deserved. Once it was 1-1, pushing for a winner would always leave us exposed, and so it proved.

Sucker punch on the counter. Too easy.

Balls. Lucky pinball goal. Possibly a shoulder or armpit hair offside.

Lots of chances in the Dortmund-PSG game, including a great goal-line block after Mbappe rounded the keeper. Chances for Dortmund too. Huge miss for PSG by Lee, but there was an offside in the buildup.

What a goal Big Joe!

That's the nightmare scenario, because we would drop out of the CL specifically because of that penalty decision, during those bizarrely added minutes. It would be especially infuriating because both professional and armchair pundits are not likely to remember it or give us any sympathy.

Just remember folks, whatever the result of this match and the one in Dortmund, it looks like Karius will play more games in the 23-24 Champions League than Liverpool Football Club. This thought alone makes me very happy. Remember it if things don't go our way and wankers start taking the piss.

It depends on how close he is to Howe fit, but if he can cover the ground, I can see Kalvin Phillips being a success. Given his position and the Leeds connection, I half expect David Batty comparisons.

I reckon we'd have done better vs Dycheball with Burn playing. All them long balls would have been meat and drink to him.

The injuries worry me and I would be quite willing to sack one competition off if it meant recovery time and an improvement in performances (something which is far from guaranteed). However, I really hope we go through, because if we don't, the main reason will be that stupid penalty awarded in Paris. If it were widely accepted and remembered that we were robbed by what was supposed to be the world's best ref, I wouldn't mind as much, but it's probably been forgotten already. If we drop into Europa or out altogether on Wednesday, it will just be "Howe's team, gave it a go but weren't good enough. Maybe its the lack of experience. And now, onto Arsenal" and other such dismissive bullshit.

Some of Pope's issues with his feet have been high-risk sweeper-keeper moves well outside the box that must be him acting on instructions. Like the one on Salah that got him banned for the Carabao final, the laughable let-off he got against Wolves, or that Brighton first goal this season. Its rare for him to get caught in possession or knock it ten yards straight to the opposition center forward like some keepers do. He can't drop it on a sixpence to Gordon sixty yards away, but we have others who can play that pass.

That's true. It also fits perfectly into the narrative of our season. Our backup keeper actually nursing a training injury when our number one goes down. On the subject of narratives, we could get Keylor Navas in for Wednesday to see if he can go further in the competition than his old mates at PSG. If Dubs is injured, it means Karius playing in the CL for the first time since that final.

I'd prefer de Gea to Lloris. That one where Lloris bounced off Wilson and Wilson lobbed him. Getting back to Dubs, but the other question is how did he get injured if his only game prior to this week was Man U in the Carabao?

Still doing well on the whole, very well considering the luck with tough draws and injuries, but I'm a bit concerned now for Top 4/5 with Dubravka. We're built on defensively solidity and I don't see it with him on what he's showed this week. Dubravka played more than Pope in preseason and against Man U in the Carabao, so Howe's not neglected him.

Bad Wilson miss, so it should have finished 4-2. A fairer reflection than 4-1. We were shit, but made them look better than they are. Swap keepers and who knows.... If that's our rival for fifth, I can't say I'm too concerned. There are lots of games left to play and we'll get better in them.

Wilson keeping up that crazy goal-or-assist per minute played stat.