The9

Ronald will have known exactly what he was getting into when he took the job and the first thing he had to do was give his input into replacements for a bunch of players who hadn't even left yet. He knows our limitations and is not going anywhere. There's a reason he kept saying we started better than he expected last season.

They were doing that loads on Thursday, he dropped off, Rodriguez or occasionally Mane (twice both) went for the flick on. Rodriguez is completely fit to play about half an hour, the only way he's getting past that is by playing longer.

I think the flag was already up for (edit) him pulling the defender back.

People have to want to buy them.

Why is anyone expecting players not to want to leave and get paid loads more money for doing the same thing somewhere else? The last player to turn down a move out of "loyalty" was Kelvin Davis to West Ham when we suddenly weren't being wound up. That one was probably more down to knowing he'd get a pay rise staying put and not have the hassle of moving house, plus whatever sell job Markus and Cortese did on taking over.

We dropped him against Chelsea last season and he's been substituted a couple of times recently. What seems to be fairly obvious is that Koeman is happy playing Rodriguez up top on his own towards the end of the game.

The same way we did it all of last season, in achieving our best Prem points finish.

I've played with two pulled hamstrings*, but I couldn't even move my leg to kick the ball with a groin strain. *Technically I played for 6 weeks with one pulled hamstring and it was only when I pulled the other one taking a free kick that I went off.

Pelle's chance was going in, from 10 yards out and an excellent save. With the chances made in the areas they were in, I'd have expected us to score at least once.

Long's shot was a very good chance that he was also very annoyed about. Made space on the edge of the box and then curved it 10 yards over the bar.

I've picked him based on him not making a single thing resembling a mistake in all of the competitive and pre-season matches I've seen, compared to keepers who had made mistakes by now.

South City Si, Pat from Poole, Lazlo78...

Because unless you weren't eligible, took a gamble on them changing the ID rules, had already got someone else to buy a ticket for you and forked out for travel to Denmark and back on the off chance, you wouldn't be affected by this change. They're not remotely interested in whether you actually go, only in discouraging people from passing tickets on. They've been very successful.

It's worked very well at restricting the tickets to the people who have actually qualified for them. It will also make allocations a lot simpler for the rest of the tournament if we get through Thursday. As for the "collect with ID" rules, they've also done well with that, making them restrictive to stop people cheating the rules and then relaxing the restrictions when the tickets were sold to make collection easier for people.

Is your point that all of the current side would look poor in the Championship and League One then?

It's not deluded, we proved it all last season. If we don't concede, we win a lot more often than not. What's deluded is taking one result of 38 and regarding it as proof. There will always be some 0-0s. You've also forgotten Pelle's shot into the top corner which Gomes turned round the post, Long making the space for a shot on the edge of the box and ballooning it instead of bending it into the corner, and Cedric's shot just over which was pretty good but should have been on target. Plus Long's near post header onto the roof of the net. And apparently that Mane creates lots of our chances with his movement and he got injured and had to be replaced.

It's factually accurate that wages paid has a strong correlation to final league position though.

Give us a chance! He's better than Forster, don't know why there's even a discussion.

Seeing as until yesterday we'd pretty much only played 4-2-3-1 for the past 2 years I'm picking the side in the usual formation... For me: Stekelenburg Clyne Alderweireld Fonte Bertrand Schneiderlin Wanyama Mane Rodriguez Lallana Pelle Bench: Forster, Chambers, Lovren, Shaw, Cork, Davis, Lambert Including 1993-2006: Same first XI except Bridge for Bertrand and Marsden for Wanyama, Le Tiss for Rodriguez. Bench: Niemi, Dodd, M Svensson, Wanyama, Beattie, Pahars. - More attackers to reflect the more attacking formations of the last Prem period and I'd drop Bertrand altogether to get Dodd in there and Rodriguez to put in Marians.

The club does this stuff all the time, he's probably got a cold.

Yeesh, they run blood tests all the time and the club has given out information plenty of times about the fact that often players are rested if they've got signs of a virus that they're not even aware of yet.

He did, and then when he came back on he got clattered and whacked his head (apparently, I haven't seen it back).

Ah yeah, so he did. Davis for Ward-Prowse is an equally valid choice. Cedric did well at Watford, I suppose it depends how attacking we want to be, there's obviously the risk of them hanging their 6'7" striker at the far post if he plays - he could do without bleeding from the head in another match too...

Most of the intel from last week seemed to be that they'd play the same way home or away, which will suit us. They certainly seemed to be a lot more attacking when they needed to be though. Will be interesting to see if they press our defence like they did last week, as that will open up space for us to score at the other end, and if they don't press, we'll just have the opportunity to attack more without committing defenders forward - which is why I think we could stick with the back 4 for this one and not the 5 used at Watford. Mane's fitness will also be a factor as our most creative player.

I think if we play like we did in the last leg and on Sunday we'll go through comfortably. We've created a lot more chances than the opposition on both those occasions and the only goal conceded was a shot from outside the box that went in the corner. We need to score, but we'll defend in numbers and attack with the front 4 (unless we play 5 at the back) and probably pick up the goal we need. I'd pick ------Stekelenburg Cedric Fonte Caulker Yoshida -----Wanyama Romeu Mane Rodriguez Ward-Prowse ------------Pelle Which I think is unchanged from the first leg. Hopeful Mane recovers and is cleared to play, Tadic if he isn't.