S-Clarke

This. Could have been a once in a generation opportunity. The league comes round every year, the FA Cup comes round every year, for clubs like us European football comes round after a very, very good season which we won't always have.

I don't buy the relegation ********, that's just over-emotional rubbish. But you cannot fail to be disappointed by tonight, I think you'll be in the minority if you don't care about Europe. What else is there for us? This was going to be a great experience up to Christmas, potentially further, but to not even get to the group stage is a bit of a mess. Just don't feel we'll be back at this stage for a long time, and you just have to wonder what else is there to hope for if we don't want to play in Europe?

Lallana/Lambert/Guly/Chappers would have given that team a much bigger game, I'm sure. Sad.

Yes, the absences have come at the wrong time for us. But the guys we had out there should have been enough to see off FCM. I don't think we'll see the true team until after the internationals. Not sure what to expect on Sunday.

To be fair, we haven't tried the same stunt. We lost Morgan, which was always going to happen. We got one more season out of him, but he was always going to go. Everyone knew it, the club knew it. Clyne was the same really, kind of expected as he only had 1 year left - but we did seem confident for a bit, will be interesting to know what changed. (Lallana, probably). I think our losses last season were eased by the fact we still had the spine of Fonte, Clyne, Morgan. We don't have a 'spine' as yet, I'm sure it will come, but I'd say the impact of Morgan and Clyne over the course of the season was as important as the new guys - if not more.

To be fair, Caulker was never a replacement for Toby. He's cover for the injured Gardos. Hard to judge Clasie given that he hasn't played for us yet.

Nah, he was still a rock when Toby was out last year (which was quite a bit tbf). He just looks totally off his game.

I must admit, I'm more concerned by that post-match interview than the actual performance. What is going on.

Koeman seems to have totally lost his head there, what was he on about. Baffled.

Come on Koeman, we weren't unlucky. ''It was our best performance until now'' come on...don't start spouting ****! please....you're better than that.

I'm really worried about him this season so far. He looks very uneasy, making rash decisions, his touch is off, his positioning has been all over the show, he keeps losing his man. I'm not sure what's wrong with him, he's clearly better than this...so somethings up with the guy. The entire team is seemingly mirroring his form right now.

The balance wasn't there, we seriously miss Clyne there - or Cedric up to speed. Targett is a bit of a mess tbh, he offers nothing and I have more ability in my left finger than he has in his left foot. I think once we get Bertrand back in there and Soares up to speed, we'll look a hell of a lot better.

He has lost his way, we're carrying him.

I don't get the tactics tonight, to be honest. From the start we played a conservative formation which was clearly in place to get it up to Pelle quickly. It wasn't working after about 20 mins and we should have changed it then. The whole setup was disjointed and not cohesive for an attacking performance. If we were going there protecting something I'd understand, but for crying out loud this is FCM, not Barcelona. We should have gone all guns. Long, Jay, Tadic, Pelle. Feels like Koeman has no trust in our back 4, so he's trying to protect them as much as he can. It's gonna take me a long, long, long time to get over this one.

2p?

It's not even that good, it's just hell.

It was a mess from start to finish. No pace, no guile, no creativity, no zip, no passing ability, no brains, no composure, no idea. I am absoloutley devastated, this was our shot in Europe which clearly won't come in a long, long time again. I have no idea where we go from here, no idea where at all. This was just a mess.

That was a disgrace.

No changes, ok then.

A 2nd half to make last season worth anything what so ever, otherwise it was a waste of everyone's effort. The worry is that FCM are just trash themselves, all they can do is delay the play, play for fouls, fall over. They won't care for another goal themselves, they'll just time waste and frustrate an already frustrated side. We're going to have to show something totally different.

Absolutely insipid trash.

I would imagine that stopped when players like Benik Afobe cost £15m. The value is elsewhere, although I'm sure if English players are available at the right price they would be preferred. Clyne cost us about £2.5m when we signed him. Soares cost us about £3.5m. Clasie will *apparently* cost up to £10 if all clauses are met, Wanyama cost us £12m. Lovren cost us about £8m, Virgil will likely cost us around £10m.

But when we bought them, they were unknowns. Very much in the same way as Soares, Juanmi and Clasie are. In a few seasons we'll probably be saying ''we should be buying quality like Clasie'' etc. At the end of a day, we cannot buy the finished product. We develop talent into the finished product. I've accepted that's our place.

They've got to have something to talk about on deadline day.

I saw that. I reckon it'll end up being a loan with a view to a perm. though. He's a weird one, he has the same sort of reactions with Spurs fans as Gaston does with us. Always hoping he'll come good...but never quite achiving anything. To get £20m back for him would be a job well done though.