Useful Idiot

Has to be Danny Rose at left back, Ryan Shawcross at CB and Jamie Carragher at right back. I didn't hate Carragher when he was a player, but since he's become a commentator I can't stand the ****.

I expect we'll look to clear out deadwood such as JWP, Ings, Hojbjerg, Redmond, Bednarek and Bertrand to make room in the squad for players returning from their successful loans. There's no way we could sign anyone as we've not made enough of a profit in the January window.

Personally, I'd say Heisenberg and Always_SFC are both trolls. Batman has a severe case of pessimism and negativity. Gordon Mockles seems very angry about things and enjoys typing about them in a long-winded fashion. I can't remember any of Mr X's posts, so if he's a troll he's pretty terrible at it. Turkish seems to just speak his mind in a pretty blunt fashion and occasionally bait Matthew Le God.

Yeah, today he was called Kevin Friend but all of the officials have been pretty magical for them this season.

Kevin Friend- biased ****.

I'd have liked a full back who might have been as good as the one who left, instead of a cheap fill-in who has never looked comfortable at defending in the Premier League. Say what you like about Cedric, his 1v1 defending on the deck was very, very good. KWP has never looked that capable in those situations, and Valery can be a clumsy liability at times.

I'm just glad we took the chance to upgrade our fullbacks when we had the opportunity, like Ralph suggested we should. It's lucky we have so many options in midfield too! Our strength in depth in this squad is amazing. I can foresee no difficulties ahead for us this season, all plain sailing from here on in. I'm so happy that the board managed to shift out more deadwood and replace it with quality so there no weaknesses left in our machday squad!

I'm pretty sure Ajax mostly play Tadic as a centre forward. Barca mostly play Messi from the right.

Are they the cover band that performed a gospel version of "Down Under" that was later stolen by a more commercially successful band that perform a version with the lyrics changed but suggest they came up with the idea in the first place?

He seems to be similar to Schneiderlin in that he grew into playing a deeper midfield role when he hit his mid-20s. To be fair, he's never looked really aggressive enough to play as a CM until last year. He's really kicked on and is now easily our best player in that role.

Had a header saved by a world class stop in the same game. Around 30 seconds in.

Don't worry, we'll only get 1 of each full back at most, possibly just one player to cover both positions so Val and Vo can be first choice. I expect we'll also promote Klarer or Jones to 4th choice CB as well, so more money saved! We'll probably end up signing a 19 y/o goalie and another wide player/striker instead of a CM, too. We have to work hard to challenge for the net spend trophy, after all.

We were told the other day that all the finances were in place for a signing if we wanted to make one but we weren't going to need to as our squad was strong enough. Surely the club wouldn't be misleading the fans by saying that sort of thing if it wasn't true?

Obviously with our amazing top half squad we have more than enough for a top six finish. Our strength in central midfield and across the back is there for all to see. We'd be foolish to spend any money when we are clearly one of the best sides in the country, as evidenced by our amazing midfield performance yesterday that did wonders shielding our defence.

I expect if he goes we'll move Smallbone or Slattery into the first team instead of buying anyone in. We have no need to strengthen as doing so would block the progress of the u23s. Besides, our squad is too bloated to fit anyone else in anyway. Two first team central midfielders are more than sufficient to see us through less than half a season.

3-1 loss. Team is easily good enough for top half though, it's obviously Ralph's fault for not getting more out of the world class defenders he has in the squad.

Personally, I think that after the Leicester game the board were considering buying in 2-3 average players who wouldn't be much better than what we currently have, possibly with weaknesses in other areas of their game. This could then have been stated as their backing the manager while the board crossed their fingers and hoped for the best. They've probably given up on that idea after our upturn in form as none of the players we were going to sign would improve the first team and buying average players to sit on the bench is probably too dumb even for the current bunch of clowns. I think unless we find a player for the right money (probably under £10m) who can immediately improve the first team we won't be signing anyone. The chance of that happening is pretty slim in January.

We have Danso as fullback cover as well so the board are probably wondering why would we need anyone else. I mean, he's played a couple of games on either side of defence for us and although he didn't look comfortable, he's probably the standard of player we'd get if we bought someone anyway.

Great assist again today. He picks a pass better than Long does at least!

It's Long, he's obviously offside

Silva's miles onside there. Linesmen never get a decision wrong and are far superior to VAR which can never get anything right.

Definite offside. Ref seems a bit crap in general though, letting them get away with feigning head injuries, fouling Boufal, and stopping play repeatedly.

I think you've already lost that bet, there are at least two people on this thread that think he's the most skillful player in the league.

Valery is still young, if it is a virus it could be something like glandular fever. That could keep him out with fatigue for a couple of months if it's a bad case.

It's more the Carroll situation I am annoyed about. He's pretty much guaranteed to be subbed on after 78 minutes, get two goals in five and then limp off the pitch and into the rehab clinic for the rest of the season.