Chewy

Barring injury, I think 10 players are certainties to start, boruc, Clyne, Fonte, lovren, shaw, victor, Morgan, lallana, osvaldo and Davis. The other spot is between lambert, j rod and jwp IMO. The only change I'd make to the 18 picked yesterday is Ramirez on the bench for guly. Guly does have aerial ability which can be useful at the end of the game either end of the pitch, but Ramirez is surely a better option if you need something special at the end of the game. That aside, we really do look to have a solid 18 player squad there. Good times.

I actually think we will win. United are poor at the back and I can see us pressing them into errors. As someone said above if we concede early it might be very different, but avoid that and I can see this being a famous day.

They've lost no time this World Cup, have they. The most vocal rag when england don't perform, and yet every major tournament they try and undermine either the manager or some of the players. They are an utter disgrace.

While I don't rate sterling on current form, it's normal for England to use their current squad and u21 s for replacements unless there are major problems with injuries etc. the squad had 3 people who can play right back, and now there's two so why bother calling anyone up? I think Roy has decided on two wingers rather than a 3 man midfield so with Gerard, carrick, lampard and Wiltshire doesn't need another cm, and as sterling was recently in the full squad and is on England duty anyway, he was the obvious choice. Given walkers recent form, though, I'd like to think Clyne has an outside chance of making the squad next summer. He's not really started yet this season, but Richards isn't playing and walkers poor at the moment so if he gets his head down and has a good season, who knows? I can't see lallana making it, though.

Where did I say that italian football and scottish football are on a par? In fact, where did I say Morgan should definitely play for France? I'm making the point that just because you play champions league football doesn't mean you're better than someone who doesn't, it depends. These are two examples, of different situations, that make me think just because Morgans not in the champions league, he isn't definitely worse than A) an existing french international or B) his current team mate who we can directly compare him with. Fwiw I think juventus would struggle to qualify for the champions league in England and probably Spain and Germany. I think its a massive shame how italian football is haemorrhaging money and players (we signed osvaldo from Roma FFS) but they are still thankfully miles ahead of scottish football which is probably championship at best, celtic aside.

I answered this with its likely, but not necessarily the case. Care to answer whether comparing schneiderlin with wingers is right? Perhaps wenger thought he had a chance of getting cabaye, which is why he bid. And is wanyama better than schneiderlin?

You listed them as 'midfielders', I get that. It's just a spectacularly simplistic way of defining a player. 4 defenders, 4 midfielders and 2 forwards, right? Itwas that level of brainlessness that led to England having a midfield 4 of scholes, Gerard, beckham and lampard. Pick 4 names irrespective of what actual role they play and hope it works. Do you, or do you not think its sensible to judge schneiderlins right to be in the squad against wingers? I thought wengers interest in him was well known. I'm saying just because juventus are in the champions league doesn't make their players great. And the same goes for any team. If they're in the champions league having qualified from England, Spain or Germany they are likely to be top class, but less so from other nations. This is even more the case in the Europa league. celtic are in the champions league, so I take it their midfielders are better than schneiderlin. Wanyamas clearly proved this, right? I agree its likely that better sides have more possession, but then it's likely that teams with more shots on goal win matches. However, neither of these are indisputable facts, are they?

They're wingers, creative offensive types. It's like saying shaw should be in the squad ahead of Cahill and jagielka, when he's a left back and needs to be compared with cole and baines. If I'd left out statistics you'd accuse me of basing it on bias, so of course i will use statistics. Far more useful than your statistic about being in Europa league sides. How does that define how good a player is? Pogba, a player not good enough for United is likely to be sold by champions league standard juventus because they can't afford to keep a player of his standard. You see, it's all relative. Defensive midfield play is about breaking things up and statistically, in a far better league than most, he was one of the best. Perhaps if France had chosen him they'd have done better against the superior teams they have to face and have qualified? And you know that wengers never made a bid for him, do you?

Because statistically he was pretty much the best defensive midfielder in the premier league last year, probably the second best league in the world. Wenger apparently wanted him, I'd take his view over yours if that's ok. And why have nasri and Ribery in the list? Utterly different roles on a football pitch.

Yep, a really tough draw for them, they're far better than England, IMO, as well as Greece / Bosnia, Switzerland and Russia who will all qualify (that's Greece or Bosnia, and Ukraine if we d1ck it up). But if they lose in the play offs and don't qualify will he keep his job? Can you imagine an England manager staying on after failing to qualify?

No, but we need a win. Should have enough but this is england after all. Agree about Portugal, I don't fear them but it would be funny for either Ronaldo or the whole of France to be devastated. Not sure which I'd prefer.

Agreed they should make it, but there's normally a big name somewhere that doesn't. Could still be us of course. Ideally I'd like France to draw Portugal and eliminate one of them.

It doesn't matter anyway. France will be unseeded in the euro play-offs and probably won't qualify. At which point deschamps will be sacked and someone who will pick Spiderman will take over (arsene wenger anyone?)

What aspect of lambert is "massive"?

Yep, that would be typical saints. Thing is, though, we are so atypical of saints at the moment, looking relatively comfortable holding onto leads, solid at the back, and a bit dull going forward. I'm used to seeing us panic at the back and having the whole stadium biting their nails when one up. On Sunday it was fairly calm for most of the second half, and a little bit boring. Very strange feeling for a saints fan. Given that, I think it will be close either way. They clearly have the players to break us down, but the win at Sunderland papered over the cracks, they're not playing well. Their defence is ropey, their midfield looks weak and inconsistent, and apart from Rooney they've not clicked up front yet. At the risk of tempting fate, I just don't see us letting in a hatful, or them of scoring that many either. Not saying we will win, but think it will be close.

My, Turkish, how incredibly witty you are. Do you think 15 million is a reasonable price? Would you sell him?

Yep, because it was Gerard and not that very average pele chap, it means the save was much better ...

We're you not alive in the graham Taylor era then?

This really is a Mongol hoard, I mean Mong board

Apart from when we reach the inevitable penalty shootout in the 1/4 finals in Brazil. Where he'll miss, and be torn to shreds by the press just as Alpine will have predicted the day before. His resulting slump in form next season will be a major factor in our relegation, leading to the Liebherrs selling to Rupert Lowe, and the appointment of Glenn Hoddle as manager. Still, could be worse. Could be Poortvliet. And of course Glasgow will have bet on it all and won a fortune

Possibly has something to do with the opposition? Schalke and besiktas (btw, what european honours are they ever looking for?) both tried to play some football, as did west brom where we dominated and created plenty. Sunderland, however, parked the bus so it's a bit different. Mind you even then we created enough chances to win the game at a canter. Norwich tried to out press us, not play football, and as a result neither side created much at all. It's possible the attempt at a change of shape contributed to this, but I think a one game experiment isn't really enough to go on to support your view.

The most pleasing thing about the academy is not necessarily the star players like Walcott, bale and oxlade that come out (though that's clearly brilliant) but the amount of players that go on to have careers, suggesting the mentality instilled is spot on. Mills, carnie, bridge, Baird, blackstock, mcgoldrick, best, dyer, Tim sparv, kenwyne, Andrew McNeil, Alan blayney, Oscar gobern, matt Patterson, surman, Lloyd James, Simon Gillett ... The list of people succeeding (to a greater or lesser extent) as professional footballers is extremely impressive. Our current crop look pretty promising too. There's lots of stories about footballers getting too much too young and going off the rails, but our lads seem to come out with their heads screwed on, a real reason to feel proud of our academy.

I liked pele, but only as a dm. Even I had to admit he was rubbish at cb. Still, never forget having pele, best and Jesus in our squad at the same time.

You edited the spelling and left moyes as moyles?

So after the first three games, it strikes me that we're going to come across three types of games this year, which are games against the big guns, games at home where teams park the bus, and games away where teams try and high press against us, trying to beat us at our own game. We seem to have got our own high pressing game in order, but we struggle with the other two scenarios. Each type of game will have its different challenges, so I wondered what people think of the tactics we should be adopting for all scenarios. High press Against the top sides we need a strong defensive midfield, pace for the break, and a target man who can win free kicks and hold up the ball. We also need excellent set piece delivery to take advantage of whatever chances we get. Forgetting the back 4 and gk who pretty much pick themselves, I'd say we should have a midfield 4 of cork, spider, wanyama and jwp with Rodriguez and srl up front. If we get a goal, add Davis in for Rodriguez. Jwp offers set piece delivery, Rodriguez pace, and srl is our best bet for being a target man. Parking the bus Maximum creativity needed, and maximum goal threat. Don't worry about dm so much so have 5 players who can create and our most destructive midfielder to balance an attacking 5 and cover for the full backs. I'd go for wanyama and jwp, and a front 4 of lallana, srl, osvaldo and Ramirez. Lallana and Ramirez would operate as inside forwards, being overlapped by the full backs who won't be too concerned with defensive duties Countering the high press Need our own dms to be able to play the ball effectively, and creative types who can use the space higher up the field, as well as maintain our own high press to try and push them back. I'd therefore have spider and cork (better on the ball than wanyama), Davis (great at pressing higher up the pitch) and a front three of Ramirez, lallana and osvaldo. Mayukas and rodriguez's pace could be added if things aren't going well, for lallana or Ramirez. Or possibly if things are going well and we are looking to break? Might explain why yesterday was such a disappointment. Wanyama had time but couldn't use the ball, but is clearly a dominant presence which will be needed in the right type of game. Srl and osvaldo offer the best goal threat, but only one can play without destroying our shape unless we are dominating the game. We also badly missed our full backs who provide the width. Probably too much football manager going into this, but interested in people's thoughts. We have a good squad, but we don't seem to be getting the best out of it in the more low key games.