S-Clarke

I absolutely love it when a striker has a shot at Bazunu, feel so comfortable as his crisp wrists drop it into the bottom corner.

Quarshie is a good shout too, I thought he was good. Maybe he played a tiny part in the goal as he wasn't setup to receive the ball correctly, but that's being ultra picky. I thought he did the basics fairly well and he's got something about him. There's definitely a case to start with two new CB's at the weekend for sure.

I don't think you can moan about his interviews, he's as fucked off with the stupid give aways as the rest of us. He doesn't tell them to pass the ball to the Liverpool player in the penalty box, I'm sure of that - that's on the players in-game non-brain moments (of which there are lots). He sees it as we all see it really, frustration and good moments let down by the same cycle of so many years - self inflicted sabotage in play.

I think I speak for most of the fanbase in that we all feel much, much more comfortable with McCarthy in goal. He's not perfect, of course he's not, and it's a shame we're having to choose between him, Long or Bazunu - but here we are, and for where we are I feel safer with McCarthy.

I like Jelert, I think he gets a league crack now. Jander - I hope he's fit, I thought he was key in that first half. I don't like Downes and Charles together. Armstrong keeps his place on the right, left is up for grabs still - I don't think Leo grabbed it by the scruff today, he was OK but not 100% yet. Fellows could play left side, or even Robinson back into the fold. One of Stephens/THB shouldn't start, any of the CB's put in a case - but probably Wood for me. Obviously the no brainer is McCarthy in for Bazunu, but sadly that 'give away' made the 'club choice' easy again for the weekend, so we know how it'll be.

That's also my feeling, I'm a little bit cynical in that regard! But you see it all too often, players step it up for the big TV games at the big PL ground, and then shirk away in the bog standard away days at Sheffield United or Derby etc. Proof will be in the pudding in the league games, that's where it matters.

I think the choice is this - GK who cannot play with the ball at his feet or GK who cannot use his hands or make saves. I'll take the risk on number 1 tbh.

I think Armstrong starts for now, he injects that little bit of life into the attack - movement, jinking runs etc. He's not the best player by any means, but I think he offers us more right now in that role.

Let's be honest, his role is transitional. We know how it plays out, same as it played out with Wilcox and Shields. He's here for a flying visit to leave us with some iffy choices, and then onto the next one.

This is my take. It's one of Downes or Charles, I don't think they're any good together.

He's 'raw', but as we all said, we didn't need a gamble striker when our options weren't convincing as it was. The two ends of the pitch remain our problem places, most of our goals will need to be from wide and AMC imo. It'll interesting to see how his stats look come the new year.

I never expected the thrashing most predicted, as these games never go like that. Lower league side to PL side - lots of huff and puff, good moments, but ultimate defeat. It's pretty much the nailed script, so no surprise. It played exactly as I thought it would in that sense. Did we play OK? Yes, I thought we saw more today than we have seen in previous, especially the first half with the intent to press and press quickly. We moved the ball quicker on the transition which is what made us look dangerous, but ultimately it's the quality in both boxes which will make or break it. Their first goal was everything really. Poor up top, should have scored. Poor at the back by arseing with the ball, almost immediately after the miss. The second half, in my eyes, wasn't as 'good' from an intent point of view. I thought Liverpool had more of that 2nd half, especially once Downs came on and Jander went off - I thought Jander was really key to the press in the first half, and him and Downes worked really well together. I'm still not convinced that Downes and Charles can play together, it just doesn't look right to me. Charles scored a good goal, but when those two play together it just feels like the midfield has no control. Still early days for Downs obviously, but we lost all attacking control when he was on the pitch. Nothing stuck. His touch was out of this world, in a bad way. You have to hope and assume it will get better, but it was a risk (as was said) to buy a gamble striker when we didn't really have reliable ones as it was. The pluses for me though were Jander, I hope it's just a tweak. I like Jelert, happy to get up and down and was defensively sound I thought. The centre backs were good, Wood especially for me. McCarthy, bar the thing he really shouldn't do (play Russball) did a good job. The goal kind of summed up why I think a lot of our players are thick as fuck, because he did exactly the same play at Newcastle at the start of the PL season last year - same result. Weird stuff. Overall it means nothing if we don't take this into the league. There were things to take away, but also stuff not to get carried away with as it was a really shoddy Liverpool setup in the main, but we gave a better account than we did under Martin in the FA Cup for sure. Boro will be a tougher test at the weekend.

The VVD was the genuine turning point for me, it had gone slightly downhill before that, but to piss £85m or whatever it was up the wall on utter trash killed us stone dead. And that was the end. To think most of the VVD 'fortune' was spent on the likes of Carillo, Elyounoussi, Vestergaard - criminal. 85m for a club like us should have set us up as a PL club for many years to come, but we fucked it.

Sessay just looks like one of those normal academy kids who gets some games in pre-season, everyone assumes he's going to be part of it, but the likelihood is that he's never really quite good enough at this point - so he floats back to his level for now. That's how I see the Sesay situation. I've seen it before with Jamie White, Hesketh, Simms, Josh Dutton-Black if we go way back.

We ruined any potential he may have had by putting him into the firing line in the PL that season. He may look shot, but that's all he's going to look like these days. We ruined him by pinning everything on him too soon.

This is exactly how I've always read him, he doesn't have a proactive bone in his body and his game is literally built on reactiveness. His best games come in the backs to walls efforts, where he's reacting and blocking all the time - but if he needs to read a situation prior to it evolving (i.e if we're on top, and they try to break on us) - he struggles. It's not a new thing, this has simply been his game for however long I've had to watch him. THB frustrates me too, I look at him sometimes and he seems to mirror Jack in a lot of ways these days - is there a possibility that Jack brings the rest down to his level? He's a frustrating player because he clearly cares and you have to appreciate him for that, but he just doesn't have the ability to contribute to a successful team - and that's all it boils down to really. I want good players in my team, not 'good lads who care' as harsh as that sounds.

You can't truly waste a season at this level when you have the 'finanaces' we currently have to our name, and we have spent a fair bit to ensure we need to be in the conversation right up until the end. Failure this season would mean another turnover next summer, you'll see more of our 'better' players go and more proven lower league players arrive for less money. I know you can somewhat compare it to Leeds when they stayed down after we beat them, but they had such a ridiculous squad for this level anyway - and even after losing Rutter/Summerville and those sorts, they were still able to field a team full of PL quality. (they had returning loans such as Aaaronson, Wober and the such which helped maintain their level). Staying down this year increases our likelihood of us just becoming also-rans, because we don't have the buffer of quality that Leeds had.

I guess as long as we continue with Stephens and Bazunu as part of that back 4, nothing will change no matter who changes around them.

I think it's hard to say right now. It looks non-cohesive and disjointed because we have a load of new players at once, so nothing quite looks joined up at the moment. It's never as simple as buying the best players from everywhere and making a team, it takes time. They've got to understand each others strengths, weaknesses and all of that. Because of the turnover I think it's been hard to pin point a style or approach at the moment, I'd even say that during pre-season it was hard as we were working with players who were probably not going to be here in a few weeks. The next month or two is where the action needs to backup the talk, this is the period of time where I think we will start to see the fruits and why I think ditching a manager at this point is an incredibly short sighted move. If we get to the end of November and into December and we are 20th/21st, then I'll start joining the queue of people asking WTF is going on.

He was heavily linked in the summer, so safe to assume he's on some sort of Rasmus 'list'.

I saw that, but he just doesn't look massive in goal to me. Not sure what it is. I mean Casillas was under 6ft I think, and he did alright. The problem with Bazunu is once you add every other limitation of his game together, it just doesn't look good. He's not 'excelling' at anything, physically or technically. It's a poor mix.

It's a really poor situation to be in, comparing AM to Bazunu, but you are right.

It will probably be that young guy out in the MLS - Eric Ramsay I think? That's who we'd switch to if we got rid of Still, which is another reason why I think dumping him wouldn't actually achieve anything. I just don't trust SR, it feels safer to give Still a chance to mould a side here.

It's instincts and also physical profile. He looks tiny in goal, it dwarfs him. I saw a squad picture of us this season, and he was a midget compared to George Long and McCarthy. He also started off as an outfield player, he was only converted to a goalkeeper in the later years of his development - which probably says everything you need to know.

I'm exactly with you, I think they've been given a lot of rope and I don't think they should have been given as much as they have. I also have zero confidence in them. Every major decision they screw up, every single one. Hoping it changes at this point is just hope casting, the reality is that what has gone before will continue to occur. They have simply destroyed our football club at every level and we have no future under them.