stevegrant

I think that, in hindsight, we probably just ballsed up on that one, to be honest.

Am I right in thinking that the Sun is the ONLY publication to have run with this story so far? And this was after a spoof SSN Twitter feed posted it? If no other national newspaper, or the Echo, has run with a "out for three months" line some 18 hours after the original tweet, I reckon we can safely assume that someone at the Sun will be feeling rather embarrassed this morning.

Point of order: Away goals never count double, otherwise a 4-2 away defeat and a 2-1 home win would result in a 6-6 aggregate draw. The "away goals" rule - where ties are settled by the higher number of away goals if the aggregate is level - applies after extra time in the EFL Cup.

If the officials deem Yoshida to be in an offside position, then he's clearly interfering with play as he's in contact with Morgan, so from that perspective I've no issue with the goal being disallowed. Whether he's actually offside or not is a more contentious issue, IMO, as you could argue that it's only his arm that is technically offside, and as you can't legally play the ball with your arm, it should be disregarded by the assistant referee. That would imply there was an attempt to play the ball by Morgan. Anyone with a pair of eyes can see there was no such effort.

Arsenal in 1993, beat Sheffield Wednesday in both finals. Boring fact: the League Cup final that season was the first domestic game in this country where squad numbers were used.

Yes, the Milan trip was much more expensive, almost certainly required more time away, and it was only a group stage game.

Did those domestic responsibilities not exist in October when 8,000 managed to make it all the way to another country for a midweek game? My specific point to you was that the Liverpool game - where we played very well - was barely a week ago, and yet you claim "team are playing utter toilet".

I think it basically relies on people nominating him.

There's every possibility of that happening at any time. We were apparently quite good last season but still took a 6-1 shoeing at home to Liverpool. If that's genuinely impacting people's attendance at games, then I'd suggest that perhaps football - or sport in general - isn't for them. In terms of people being unable to get time off work, surely there aren't many jobs (other than, for example, teaching where if it's term time, you're pretty much screwed) where nearly two months' notice isn't more than enough to book anywhere between a half-day and two days off? The draw was made on 30th November. It's not as if we've been given a week to make arrangements.

Assume you missed the first leg of the semi-final, then? That was barely a week ago, FFS. I'm looking forward to when someone complains that they've missed out on a ticket for an away game because the club didn't think it was worth bothering taking the full allocation. Nobody will be in any position to complain. This is a ****ing semi-final of a major cup competition, we've only had one of those (2003) in THIRTY years, FFS, and yet nobody seems arsed about it. People complain, rightly or wrongly, about a lack of ambition at the club at times, and yet they demonstrate none of it themselves, but of course they were the first to complain when previous managers didn't take the cup competitions seriously.

You are aware of what the concept of an average is, right?

Didn't he join them from Chesterfield in the first place, at great expense?

Yawn.

Train ticket available from London Liverpool Street to Norwich on the day of the FA Cup game, out at 10:00, return at 18:30. £18 return (same as paid).

Yeah, as much as Howe is rightly deserving of praise for the job he's done there, he's also wasted an absolute ton of cash in doing so. Even when they were in the Championship, the only player he paid any sort of decent fee for that turned out well was Callum Wilson (£3.5m). He's another one who seems to be a bit "style over substance" - with a back 4 that wouldn't be the best defence in the Championship, that's not a good look.

I largely have no great issue with our playing style, only that we switch up the pace of it more frequently. The theory is sound, passes between defenders and midfielders to draw opposition midfielders out of position to create a space behind them and then that gives the creative players the freedom, but too often the switch in pace doesn't come soon enough. It needs the central midfielders and full-backs to be a bit sharper. Cedric makes a big difference on the right with that, as Martina's first touch generally goes about 5 yards away from him and any space that he's earned with his pretty decent positional play is then surrendered immediately and that's what often forces us to go sideways and backwards and start it all again.

This is basically Mike Bassett.

As if he reads any of them anyway. His social media accounts are all run by his agent/management company. Personally, other than a brief cameo against Sunderland in August which basically persuaded the club not to send him out on loan, I've not seen a great deal from him that suggests he looks likely to get back to anywhere near the level he was at before his injury. On Sunday, in the first half particularly, I doubt a central defensive pairing will have had an easier game all season, his movement was non-existent, didn't want to come short for the ball to feet, didn't want to spin in behind to run the channels, and those were two of his key assets when he was on top form. Added to the fact he's had two chances put on a plate for him this week from a combined distance of 1.5 yards and STILL not managed to score, I don't think it's unreasonable for people to take a view that he's perhaps not up to it anymore. We'd all love him to come back and be how he was in March 2014, but from what he's shown on the pitch this season it's looking less likely by the game, IMO.

There's no price cap in the cups. Clubs can charge what they want, hence why West Ham fans paid £30 for their league game at Old Trafford a few weeks ago and then £45-50 for the same seats in the EFL Cup a few days later. We've decided to make it cheap, which I think is a good gesture considering the number of additional home games we've had this season already, the time of year, etc. It benefits far more Saints fans than Liverpool fans. Liverpool are charging what they believe is fair, that's up to them - if people don't want to pay it, they won't. They charged Leeds £25-28 in the previous round, so a £5 increase for a semi-final isn't completely ridiculous, IMO.

Not really an awful lot of choice at right-back with Cedric ill. Martina has had games where he's looked decent enough, but most recently he's been pretty poor. Think I'd have had Clasie - who was superb on Sunday - in ahead of either Ward-Prowse or Davis for a bit of added midfield steel, but other than that, it's pretty much the side I'd have picked.

Leeds were charged £25-28 for their quarter-final at Anfield, so would expect ours will be around the same price.

Fairly clear that the club aren't overly happy with the pricing, judging by the wording of both the article on the OS and the linking tweets/Facebook posts.

Historically they've always been published on the last possible date, 31st March. Last season, I believe, was the only exception.

Current third-placed teams (italics still with a game to play): Lyon 7, 8 or 10 (or Sevilla 10, requires a 2+-goal win for Lyon over Sevilla for positions to change) Besiktas 7 Copenhagen 6 (or Porto 8 or 9, requires a Copenhagen win over Brugge and Porto to fail to beat Leicester for positions to change) Tottenham Hotspur 5 (-2) or 7 (or CSKA Moscow 6, requires a win over Tottenham for positions to change) Rostov 5 (-6) Borussia Mönchengladbach 5 (-7) Sporting Lisbon 4 or 6 (or Legia Warsaw 4, requires a Legia Warsaw win over Sporting for positions to change) Ludogorets 3 Theoretically, Copenhagen could end up being unseeded, but they'd need to lose to Brugge (who have 0 points from 5 games), for Sporting to win in Warsaw, AND for there to be a 6-goal swing. Realistically, it's probably going to be Lyon, Besiktas, Copenhagen and Spurs as the seeded 4.

It has already been moved back to the Sunday at noon.