even with supposed saf magic that team was struggling towards the end in some ways - didnt manage to get past the quarters in any cup competition in his final two years, crashed out of the group stage in the CL and into europa where they got battered - the cracks were showing even if the league form was good. lategame saf was certainly not your slightly older brother's mun.

In other world, fergie might make better use of funds but then he didn't really do it in his last wave of transfers. He did well to retire when he did for self preservation. Whenever I see him on tv he looks healthier than every other manager so probably could have done more time but figured he couldn't be asked to squeeze out all the juice from someone like young and let everyone else's reputation suffer. Only black mark is recommending Moyes. Should have left in silence.

should've done us all a favour and handed the poisoned chalice to mourinho

When leicester / Spuds win the league he'll be back on tv firing shots at Wenger and Pellegrini, "in my day, we'd never let Leicester / Spuds win the league"

While the results have been excellent since the New Year, I haven't seen us put together two good halves of football yet this season. I suppose when you can blow teams away in one half, as we have done to Brentford, MK Dons, Bristol City, Charlton and, to a lesser extent, Derby then it's not really necessary to perform in both.

It looks like Dyche has finally found his best team after the big defeat at Hull when he brought Ward and Lowton in at fullback and moved Mee to the middle. Barton has been brilliant in the middle with Jones and Arfield is in the kind of form that helped us get promoted a couple of years ago.

Gray is a pest for opposition defences and you could see last night that Keogh and Shackell were frightened of him. He hasn't been as effective away from home though. Vokes seems to be getting back to his best.

Wednesday have quietly sneaked into 6th position on the back of their good form, so it'll be another big test for us. I rate Forestieri, so hopefully he'll be ruled out. Nuhiu just looked like a big lump in the home game, but it seems he's been quite effective for you? The likes of Hooper will always score goals in this division.

One impressive stat I heard last night is that whenever we've gone in front in a game this season, we've never failed to win, so you'd better hope we don't score first

Well put . I also liked the leaked Mourinho letter to ManU, assuming you wrote that. Fwiw.

It's another Arsenal injury as Carl Jenkinson is out for the season.

Cheers TP.

We're similar in many respects then, I think. We can also look great in the highlights but in reality we're not playing for large proportions of many matches (usually in the 1st half for us). I think we've been fortunate not to be punished more than we have. Leeds could have had a couple in the first half last week. Burnley offer a lot more going forward and I'd be worried what would happen if we played in that manner for the first half against you.

I'll be interested to see how the midfield battle plays out. You identify it as a strength of yours but I think we're strong there too. If we have struggled, it's been against sides that out-muscle us. I don't really see that for Burnley in the middle of the park so hopefully we can exert some influence.

Nuhiu is so ungainly that when he has a bad game, he can look really atrocious. I don't think he's quite good enough tbh but he has the attributes to play a role which we don't really have another option for. As a result, we tend to look a better team with him in it, despite his shortcomings.

Wallace pretty much definitely starts, by the way. We're probably lacking most in terms of depth in the wide areas, which is why we've been sniffing round Alan Judge (as have you). I think the manager would prefer to use Wallace much more sparingly but we don't have enough options to give him a rest.

I complain about this every year (here, here, or here for example). It actually makes me genuinely mad. **** off you old fat clown.

Ugh, this is going to hurt us..Lloris is going to have to stop taking stupid chances..won't have Vertonghen to save his arse..

Pretty good that he got injured now as opposed to in May.

That depends on your point of view, obviously.

thanks sweetie, honestly made myself lol for about a minute with that. but then i'm probably the target audience

pool game tonight if anyone forgot, they face stoke for the right to lose the mickey mouse to city

can somebody explain the differences between:

a) manager
b) first team coach
c) assistant manager


I swear some managers are classed as first team coach. Some managers have manager role. And then we just signed an (apparent AM) to be given the first team coach role?

link?

Went through the last few pages, came up empty

Manager picks the team, does press conferences and waves his arms about on the touchline on matchdays.

First team coach is in charge of coaching the first team.

Assistant manager puts the cones out.

Have a feeling Everton comes up huge tomorrow.

How does the tie-breaker work again? Away goals?

If City wins 1-nil, then they advance to the Final or a replay or ?

Isn't this the cup where away goals only take place after extra time?
Like, if City 1-nil, it goes to extra time and then:
If 0-0, City advances
If 1-1, penalties
If 2-2, Everton advances.
Is this even remotely close?

well, Everton are 2-1 up, so the more accuare scenarios would be

draw or Everton win in 90 = Everton progress
City win by 1 goal in 90 = ET
City win exactly 2-1 after ET = penalties

edit I misunderstood your post, I think you're saying the same as me

Let's keep it simple

Scenario 1: Everton bottle it, City advance.

That is all.

Tonight's even simpler, right?

Liverpool turn up: Liverpool advance

Sounds about right

If the Potters couldn't win the first leg at home, how could they win today?

Predicting Liverpool wins by at least 2 goals..

Not a lot between those two teams on paper...