CanadaSaint

Watch it again. A simple call from Boruc and that ball clears our defence and poses no problem at all. Are you seriously suggesting that this would have created a worse outcome than what ended up happening? A defender can't get any power or distance on a clearing header when he's going backwards, and Boruc is experienced enough to know that. As soon as I saw Boruc retreating I knew we were in trouble.

If you don't understand that a high hoof through the middle is better-handled by a decisive keeper than a back-pedalling defence, then you might be the clueless one. Lovren didn't play well today, but the winner was more down to Boruc than him.

Schneiderlin is a player we just can't afford to lose because the midfield goes with him. Boruc really isn't good enough. All he had to do was come for the hoof instead of leaving his back-pedalling defence to try to clear it.

Oops.

I'm still shaking my head at the calibre of players coming through our system. There's a lot of difference between selling a young jewel when there's nobody to fill the void, and selling one when there's almost a production line producing replacements. A year ago we were anxious about a long term injury to Clyne, God forbid, but now it doesn't seem anywhere near as daunting a prospect. If we were talking about spending thirty million on a left back, most people on here would rightly go ballistic, but keeping Shaw is actually not that far from being the same thing. There's also a lot of difference between selling young jewels and using the money to strengthen, and selling but using the money to pay mounting bills. Katharina's clear commitment to the academy shows that she "gets it", and her commitment to her Father's dream suggests that - if Shaw does go - we'll end up with a stronger all-round squad. I hope he stays but I'm developing a lot of faith in the all-round judgment of the people there now.

Not necessarily. If he goes, and I certainly hope he won't, it wouldn't surprise me if the deal is structured with a lot of conditions. It could be 20 million with the potential to rise to over (maybe well over) 30 million based on club appearances, caps and so on, with a sell-on fee thrown in to cover a Bale-type situation. After all, he's still only eighteen, and that represents both promise and uncertainty - especially for clubs with high expectations and big competition for starting places. Having said that, the nutters running the big clubs are liable to do anything for a young, English right back. The more we keep saying "he's not for sale", and the more the big guys compete with eachother for his signature, the more likely it is that your 30 million will happen - sooner or later.

That's precisely the point. I've commented on Ralph before because I've seen him at work. He's a communicator, conciliator, outside-the-box thinker and motivator. He is excellent at building a team approach that embraces all key parties, and his warmth and positivity are cornerstones of his personal style - a very likeable man who values honesty and integrity very highly. Therein rests the major culture shift from the days of Cortese - keep the attributes but ditch the failings. I think Katharina knows exactly what she's doing, and is perhaps even more committed to her Father's dream than Cortese.

That's my concern. In truth I'm fairly resigned to Pochettino going because he's never really seemed attached to the club or its fans, and Cortese's departure wouldn't have helped one little bit. His loyalty is to the players, and theirs to him, so I do fear losing some key guys if MP goes.

You think we were a better team (in terms of opening Liverpool up) after half time?

FFS Roger, yet again someone who doesn't share your view is talking "rubbish" and getting needless personal shots. I think Davis is not much more than a damn good journeyman midfielder, but he contributes a lot to our aggressive pressing style. It was no coincidence that we outplayed Liverpool for 20-25 minutes with him out there. Or that our intensity dropped and Lallana disappeared after Ramirez came on. I'd prefer someone with more creativity than Davis and more intensity than Ramirez, but for me we often sacrifice too much for the occasional nice touch when Gaston comes on.

Corky didn't have his best game today. Unusually for him, things seemed to be passing him by, especially in the second half. That said, the last thing Wanyama needs is to be playing short of match fitness because his passing doesn't need to be 20% below a normal that's barely good enough anyway.

Do you actually have an adult response to what I said - that the bite, the press and Lallana effectively disappeared when Ramirez came on?

Ramirez on, bite gone, press done, Lallana marginalized. Sorry to all those who rate him - I do (kind of) but not in this team.

If MP plans on running the full press it's probably a good decision, but that line-up does leave us short of creativity at times. Gosh, I'd love to see us sign a player who can contribute to the press and yet offer the creativity we sometimes lack with (three of) Schneiderlin, Cork, Wanyama and Davis in the team. The only one we've been linked with who could do that is probably Banega.

Given Katharina's seemingly strong awareness of some of the things that irritated fans under Cortese, and given her apparent desire to rectify them, I wouldn't be surprised if a well-organized campaign was successful. I'd prefer the old-style stripes but I'd vote for this because it could quickly become distinctively "us" again. I still haven't got over paying seventy quid for an indistinctive red top in November. P.S. to LostBoys: That must have been 30 years ago, yes?

We will ALWAYS dominate possession but fail to score if we keep playing Schneiderlin AND Cork/Wanyama AND Davis. We need more creativity in there - all the more so because the delivery from the two full backs has been poor for much of the season. The decline of Rickie hasn't helped at all, and contributes to the fact that it's all build-up, no finish. Frustrating.

What I find frustrating about this forum is the tendency for some people to mis-characterize the majority opinion. The vast majority do not want Pochettino gone, are extremely happy with what he's done for us, and hope he sticks around for a long time. However, the significant majority also feel that he made errors of judgment on Saturday. Take your pick: fielding a starting line-up that couldn't play as we're best playing, under-estimating the opposition, failing to make changes early enough, failing to understand how important an FA Cup win would be to most fans (and a fair few of his own players). Sure, there was certainly no guarantee that we would win the cup, but going down fighting would have been much easier to handle than the abject surrender we saw at the weekend. And if I'm annoyed about it, having watched it online in the comfort of my own home, I can't imagine how it must have felt for the 900 who - in all good faith - made the long trip. But that's it. The milk is spilt and we move on. Or, perhaps I should say that we move on as soon as people stop starting threads like this - threads which bring out all the over-statement, misrepresentation, nastiness and polarization that continually screw this forum up.

I'm not sure it is "utter b*****ks". A desire to avoid qualifying for the Europa Cup (MP has already - surprisingly and needlessly - publicly expressed his disdain for it) was put forward as a possible explanation for him fielding a starting eleven that most people thought would struggle - and it did. But even when it was clear (well before half time) that we needed to make changes if we were to get back into something approaching our normal high-pressure style - which you'd think he'd be anxious to do if he was keen to win, Pocchettino decided to wait until 62 minutes to do it. That - for Schneiderlin and Rodriguez - was like trying to board a moving train. I love what MP has brought to the club, I'm ecstatic at our normal playing style, and I hope he's here a long time. He's a smart guy, but smart guys don't make mistakes like he made today (Guly in, engine room out), which - along with the delay in making changes - suggests that fielding a team that might struggle for a result wasn't entirely accidental. He didn't leave the dugout much, so he seemed okay with what was unfolding before him. I would suggest to you that the FA Cup doesn't have much "intrinsic value" to people who didn't grow up with it, and who arrived on the scene in an era when more and more clubs don't seem to take the early stages seriously. That covers most PL managers, including MP. If there's one flaw in Pochettino's make-up that troubles me, it's a disconnect with the average fan. He seldom acknowledges them, he still chooses not to speak directly to them in English, and, judging by today's events, he has either misread what's important to them or he's disinterested in it. I'm not trying to excuse what happened today, just understand it. And the Europa Cup explanation is not b*****ks but quite plausible.

The performance was woeful because the team selection was woeful. Our established pattern of playing out from the back went down the toilet with the selection of two central defenders who struggle with passing and a goalkeeper whose distribution is pitiful. But we might have got away with that if we hadn't also replaced the shield in front of them - and the conduit for moving the ball forward - by leaving out both Schneiderlin and Cork (IMO our best pairing at the moment), and if we hadn't replaced the highly-mobile Rodrigues with the languid, lazy, low-intensity Guly (along with his needless offsides and failure to present moving pass opportunities). And we might even have got away with that if MP had seen the writing on the wall and made the two changes at half time, when they could almost have started afresh, instead of at the 62 minute mark, when they were trying to jump onto a moving train. As others have said, those changes destroyed an established pattern of play which should have been easily good enough to see off the side that Poyet fielded.

Even the match commentators had the perspective to say that MP might have a lot of explaining to do. But I get your point, so let's see what the "Just back from the game" folks think then - in about six hours. I suspect that their views won't be much different . I don't think there's much escaping the fact that MP blew it today, big time.

You're talking about one instance - and yes, it was a lousy pass by Yoshida. I was talking about a trend. After the way he's played this season and much of last, and the impact that his slowness and poor reading and positioning have on others, you're not seriously suggesting that Jos is a scapegoat, are you?

I agree with you on the misplaced frustration but I don't think the problem was in the players' heads. I think it was in the fact that some crucial cogs in a quick-thinking, fast-reacting, high-intensity machine were missing - and they were replaced by players who are slow readers and lack intensity. Guly's the biggest example but not the only one. And, on top of that, Kelvin's distribution was almost obscene and the Maya/Jos duo struggles to play out from the back, which meant that we were constantly surrendering possession when we're used to winning it in those areas.

I can't help but wonder whether the demise of the FA Cup resulted from the widespread tendency to hire non-British managers. They don't have the emotional/historical respect for it that we have, after growing up with it since we were kids. Pochettino may have underestimated how important a win today was to the fans.

Jeez, if the forum is as unanimously p*ssed off as it is, imagine the folks with six hours of road ahead of them, God love 'em.

Lambert didn't do "absolutely nothing" - all his touches and layoffs were there but there was nobody to read and react to them. Granted, he missed a sitter but much of his normal game was there. Lallana is a match winner - even when he's knackered. The rest of it I don't disagree with.