The9

As if he's going to retire when he knows he can get paid for at least two more contracts in football and probably another 7 years' worth just on what he's done so far. Despite a question mark about his fitness he'll attract interest from every Championship club and any bottom half Prem sides for his next deal, and unless he completely breaks down entirely and even if he's just "there" on and off he'd also get offers 4 years down the line from EFL clubs.

It appears we've found 3 dual personality posters. Davis is a great player for us, always dispossessing the opposition and shifting the ball quickly and effectively. He's been a mile better than Hojbjerg in the past 6 weeks for a start, and had Austin played him in completely clean through instead of shooting, we'd have seen whether he could finish one on one on Sunday too as he was the only one with the engine to get up with him for that chance. He's a key player in away games with his interceptions and pressing and steering players towards our more defensive players. He's just as much about what he does off the ball as with it.

It was alright, but it wasn't even close to the level of interest in the 2009/10 JPT area semi-final, never mind actual first team Premier League football.

I'd argue it was a completely different competition tbh, the thing we won was only for League One and League Two teams, that's got some kind of integrity. This has a different name, different structure and different membership, it's the "same thing" in the eyes of the "E"FL marketing idiots only. The club has provided an appropriate level of information for the expected level of interest, which is basically "turn up if you like, it's a fiver, park outside, there will be plenty of room". As for Crawley running a coach, well yeah, it's one of their nearest games outside London, it's still a team in a Saints kit at St Mary's, and they've never played us before (have they?). I drove up there for the JPT to watch Newport a few years back, it's hardly a trek for them to see their first team.

We're not slow to get the ball forward at all, we did it quickly on plenty of occasions against Hull, but the final ball was usually poor - often as a result of our third choice CB playing as our third choice RB, which isn't really something to worry about. Tadic got past loads of times but rarely found a teammate, that's generally what happens when defenders are around. We had no problems at all with fatigue or energy and totally bossed the game for all but the first minute and the 4 minutes either side of their goals. Hull got lucky, especially when the ball rebounded over the bar from a yard out off Rodriguez from the goalline clearance in injury time. Austin had 3 shots on target well saved, and one block from 6 yards out. On another day we'd have had 5, this was a fluke - especially considering their best player by a mile was Snodgrass, who came on as an emergency sub for a second injured Hull player in a completely different position and completely changed the game with his contribution. FWIW I thought Bertrand was poor by his standards, and he's one that's had more rests than most.

Lots of people also picked up tickets from going online after that FB announcement. My advice would be to buy online unless you're disabled, when the club don't let you. Though I'm not sure any front row seats actually went on sale, I *think* they were selling Row B, because you can't see anything from Row A behind the higher ad boards. The other thing to consider is that they have a ramp in front of Block 4/5ish covering the front few rows as a result of having to move the disabled section from the front rows of Block 8/9 so they may not actually be able to sell the seats next to that at all.

Basically if we win in Prague we're through, unless Be'er Sheva beat Inter and us, and Sparta beat Inter. In that case we'll go out on head to head to Be'er Sheva, and become only the second team in CL/EL history to get 10 points and fail to qualify from a 4 team group. A Be'er Sheva/Inter draw would leave us just needing to draw with Be'er Sheva at home even if we lost in Prague.

Oh and while I'm there, here's the group tie-breaker: In short, head to head first, then results in all group games. With the way the fixtures and group are, we can't benefit from the tie-breaker in any situation other than tying with Sparta on 10 points. From the existing position and the results required to get to a tie, we'd lose tie-breakers with both Inter and Be'er Sheva. Article 16 Equality of points – group stage 16.01 If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied in the order given to determine their rankings: a. higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question; b. superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question; c. higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question; d. higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question; e. if, after having applied criteria a) to d), teams still have an equal ranking, criteria a) to d) are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria f) to l) apply; f. superior goal difference in all group matches; g. higher number of goals scored in all group matches; h. higher number of away goals scored in all group matches; i. higher number of wins in all group matches; j. higher number of away wins in all group matches; k. lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in all group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); l. higher club coefficient (see Annex D)

Sides of the draw are irrelevant from now on, what matters is finishing position in the group and best/worst 4 CL 3rd place teams, and I've already explained the rest of the seeding twice in the past 20 or so posts. But I'll check the regulations to confirm... (done that, was right...) Seeds: 12 Europa League Group Winners plus 4 Best 3rd Placed Champions League group teams Non-Seeds: 12 Europa League Group Runners-Up plus 4 Worst 3rd Placed Champions League group teams Seeds play away on Feb 16th and at home on Feb 23rd. You can't play anyone from the same country in the round of 32, not sure whether UEFA will still be segregating Russian and Ukrainian sides as they did in the group. The only other limit is that you can't play a team from the same group as you in the round of 32. From round of 16 onwards it is a "free draw" (I suspect excluding the Russia/Ukraine thing).

Ooh, look at this, the same criticisms Stekelenburg was getting last year - who incidentally was the best keeper in the League in the first month with Everton and has since been stuck behind a defence that doesn't protect him again with identical results. Forster needs to come off his line more quickly on occasion and is a tiny bit dodgy at getting down to stuff in the corner sometimes, but he's excellent overall, not getting dropped and he doesn't deserve to be. We keep getting beaten by "first shots" because teams happen to be sticking their chances away. For all the skill involved, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. Marshall made a few decent saves, but Hull also cleared a ball from their goal-line which bounced off a Saints player in the 6-yard box and looped over the bar - no keeper was stopping that one and all his work would have been undone from a fluke he had no control over - that's just the nature of it.

We actually did go direct and lose our composure for around 2 minutes after their first goal... guess what happened?

We didn't need an effing Plan B, plan A murdered them for 92 of the 94 minutes. Hull were 200/1 in live odds to win that when we were 1-0 up (we were 1/5), so replay it another 199 times and we'd get at least a point every time. Your second point - more down to not having anyone putting a decent cross in than any finishing problems this time. I am reluctant to criticise Yoshida at the moment as he's been doing well but Martina needed a break.

Indeed. Good implied ignorance of MLG there as well, back on the pedestal from the Saints Forever days.

That'll be our extra ranking point(s) for winning an EL match (rather than who it was against).

Not quite, it's group winners and top 4 ranked CL third place are seeded (12 EL groups and 4 CL teams) and the runners up and worst 4 3rd placed teams aren't seeded and will play a seed. Apologies for the late response, my battery cable broke when I was in Bradford watching them lose to Accrington on Saturday.

The worst one was the "advantage" he allowed for Rodriguez's shot reasonably early on, when the striker had already hesitated expecting the free-kick to be given and then hit a tame half-not-expecting-it-to-count shot only for the ref to not call it back. Admittedly he should play to the whistle, but the ref showed later on he was making it up as he went.

Miranda's first five or so touches yesterday gave me a warm fuzzy glow inside as he found touch or Saints players repeatedly too...

Spurs wouldn't have developed Kane if not for the chance to play him in the EL - it's great for development, albeit with one or two availability issues in the shorter term.

Not at all, the Premier League refs are clamping down on it. At least when we do it...

Ah, the free-kick for the diving header and "raised foot", he should have given it for the defender flinging himself through Rodriguez but that could have been a penalty, so awarded a laughable dangerous play against Saints instead. He did also give a couple of really weak dives, the two instances when McQueen barely touched Inter defenders when running behind them, and they "Skaceled". There was a blatant foul on Van Dijk as they went down the line before their goal, the penalty we got was soft, and he didn't give a couple of obvious holding offences from corners on Van Dijk either. And you're absolutely spot on with the advantages, all three he gave (one for them too) were no kind of advantage and should all have been pulled back. His arm waving also wasn't clear, and at one point he also insisted on giving Inter a free-kick when Medel was in 10 yards of space from the loose ball with Saints' defence stretched because he chose NOT to give an obvious advantage. So he was basically cack all round.

That's exactly the kind of nonsense the top teams do all the time precisely because they get away with it. Any ref with balls would have booked Candreva for scuffing the spot (precisely why the law about unsporting behaviour [once unsportsmanlike conduct] exists), sent Candreva off for the elbow, and confetti'd a few more yellows for the players pursuing him. Personally I'd have sent Medel off for dissent after about 5 minutes, but then he's a fat, dirty Cardiff reject so I may be slightly biased there.

He gave the ball away endlessly in the second half and was having an absolute nightmare every time he got the ball, I think he would have gone off early in the second half if he hadn't been off on the far side of the pitch from Puel. Hopeful it's just a blip, but he's had a run of 3 or so games now where he's looked very tentative and his passing has been below par. Still, it happens. Tadic's penalty was still poor even with all the shenanigans, and hardly an isolated incident. It seemed to affect his game too, as he didn't have the same impact second half. No point focusing on the negatives though, we thoroughly deserved to win the match, and it would have been (another) travesty if we hadn't.

It happened right before half time, should have been a red card for Candreva for the elbow, the ref may not have seen it but he should have been booked just for kicking up the spot and then at least a yellow (and realistically always a straight red) for the elbow. The ref also could have booked about half of their team for surrounding him after the decision, three minutes of chasing him around the pitch and various other stuff during the whole incident. One minute added and 4+ minutes later the ref actually blew the whistle.

Nice. Apparently (and I can't remember where I saw this), 10 points has been enough to qualify in all but one case since the EL/CL have had 4 team groups with the top 2 qualifying. Obviously there's a big incentive to win the group though, as the EL Group Winners and the best 4 CL third place dropouts are seeded to play either an EL Group Runner-Up or one of the 4 worst CL third place dropout. It's also confirmed that the seeded team are at home in the second leg. So basically if we win the group we're away on 16th Feb and home on 23rd, if we come second it's the other way around. We can't draw any other English clubs at that stage either.

I honestly didn't notice him (though I did notice how poor Hojbjerg was) - I'm guessing what happened was the commentators were talking about him a lot.