Varadi

wtf is going on man - is this just Chinese whispers getting out of hand or is it purple monkey dishwasher?

Timing

Damn you Matt with your cold business logic

I think I'm at the stage where I actually prefer false hope over no hope

They're bottom by a canny bit as well

Aye, you give him space like that and he's going to hurt you, especially with pacy options to look for.

Fucking hell man, that's not so much glass half empty as glass broken into pieces and used to open your wrists. Have to disagree on the Shelvey point in particular, thought he absolutely ran the show today.

Its what in trying to work out (I listened to it) as some on here are saying he played through the middle. He played through the middle but roamed all over. When he roamed did Perez go through the middle ? I love fluidity and one of my criticisms of Rafa is that we are often too rigid. Yeah, they were pretty much a front 2 with Perez the furthest forward - some nice link up play between them as well, Perez seemed to like having someone with pace and movement to play it on to.

Best centre half we've had in a good while, absolutely brilliant against Carroll when we beat West Ham then again up against Crouch today. Top notch captain as well, really keeps everyone on their toes.

I hope you'll be kind enough to explain exactly why the changes would've made all the difference too

Aye, there's only so many ways you can stack the piles of shite - it's not like he's leaving Garrincha and Pele in the reserves.

Shelvey vs Adam could make for some interesting midfield clashes mind.

Ritchie at 10 behind Perez?

We're a poor team playing with very little confidence - hard to see us staying up without significant investment, which means takeover or bust I reckon. Rafa certainly isn't blameless but i don't think there's a manager out there who could do any better with what's available.

Aye, basically - it really is do or die for the future of this club.

It is, which is a worry when you consider we had 9 of that 11 in the Championship. The only additions are Merino and Joselu.

Proabably Manquillo at left back

There's nowt to choose between Elliott and Darlow tbh, they just have different weaknesses.

Don't think there's enough between Elliott and Darlow to make much of a difference tbh. Think it'll be Atsu and Ritchie back on the wings and Gayle & Joselu up top. Only real decision for me is between Hayden and Shelvey to partner Merino.

I quite like Shelvey but if we need to sell to buy and Rafa can use the cash to unearth another Merino-style gem then I would be OK with it I reckon.

I cant argue, that is true. But I watched Stoke City dominate Man City a couple of seasons ago, and they just went for it. That City side apart from KDB last night was weaker than ive seen. Especially throwing fernandinho into the back four. Pep was laughing inside fully aware we had bottled it. Ye wha? Ederson Walker Kompany - Jesus Otamendi Danilo De Bruyne Fernandinho Gündogan Bernardo Silva Agüero Sterling For a little context: Ederson - £35m Walker – £50m Kompany – £6m Jesus - £27m Otamendi - £34m Danilo - £27m De Bruyne - £55m Fernandinho - £34m Gündogan - £20m Bernardo Silva - £43m Agüero - £38m Sterling - £49m It's fucking staggering man.

Doubt it, Pep gives his forwards some degree of freedom which Rafa never would. He’d have Sterling playing the role Aaron’s did for example. It's easy to have an attacking philosophy when you always have much better players than everyone else mind - be interesting to see how Pep would cope with a relegation fight.

Exactly what we all said, Yes theres contact, not enough to bring him down so no penalty....had it been Aguero, PELANTY! Aye, the pundits would all have been saying how it was clever play to draw the foul.

Has there been any injury updates for this one - do we know if Hayden, Merino, Lejeune are due back?