benjii

Reading out Joe Public's questions is a complete cop-out but probably quite typical of someone who has never led anything worthwhile. He needs to convince people he has feasible and engaging ideas and policies. Doing the parliamentary equivalent of a radio phone-in isn't going to achieve that. You need focussed question sets that give a narrative and demonstrate the difference between your position and the government's. It was hard to imagine Labour coming up with even more talentless front benches than recent years but you've got to give them their dues, they've pulled it off with aplomb.

I do actually agree with this. Housing market should be much more regulated. Those with the inclination would probably still be able to get around it by employing various corporate structures but there are a lot of very mediocre people accumulating vastly undeserved wealth easily through property.

I will never forget that Reading game. I went berserk when Steve de Ridder smashed that equalizer home. Great memories - thanks Nige!

It is odd that Juanmi hasn't been used more. He has always looked very tidy and composed in the short appearances he has made. I doubt he will start this weekend (probably Wanyama, Romeu and JWP in midfield is my guess) but hopefully he gets a start against MK Dons and makes himself un-ignorable. I would go with: Stek Cedric - Fonte - VVD - Yoshida ------Wanyama---Romeu---- --------------JWP------------ Mane--------------------Tadic -------------Pelle------------- Bench: Gazza, Targett, Caulker, Davis, Juanmi, Long, Jay Rod

Seem to be fewer chavs now, f'sure. Also, what on earth was the steel drum, reggae nonsense at the start? Odd.

That's horrible, sad and a terrible scenario. However, I don't think this bill would have helped her anyway. It allowed the patient to make a conscious decision, if mentally sound and considered to have less than six months to live. My understanding is it didn't permit forward "opt-in" so wouldn't have had any relevance to those who suffer a catastrophic sudden event. Of course, it might have evolved over time.

I decided to go for the Mazda. Got a good deal. For an equivalently equipped BMW or Merc I would be looking at another £10k at least. It's really not worth it for a badge and personally I think the 6 is a better looking car than a 3 series or a C class. I still like the XE but, again, it would come in several thousand more and probably be less reliable. Performance is a bit better but not much in it. Hopefully I like it as much as you like the 3!

The boys are back in the barracks.

I don't know who invented the bloody skip. Bobby Moore. I don't bloody know, do i? I'm just sick and tired of you slagging farmers off. Are you going to apologise to them all on your show?

I might drive my Rover Vitesse Fastback to this event. It's the leather and walnut interior which really gives the car a premium feel and I think I'm right in saying that its mileage figures make it a class leader.

With special guest, Sue Cook.

Reasonably interesting piece from Robert Peston on why Germany has a particular need for a growth in its younger workforce: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34172729 An excerpt: "So in Germany, age-related spending on pensions, health and long-term care is expected to rise by a hefty five percentage points of GDP or national income by 2060, more than double the projected 2.3% increase anticipated for the UK. Here is the thing. Wherever you stand in the debate on whether immigration is a good or bad thing - and most economists would argue that immigration promotes growth - right now immigration looks much more economically useful to Germany than to the UK. Which is perhaps one of the unspoken reasons why Germany is being much more welcoming to asylum seekers from Syria and elsewhere right now. That said, some business leaders and a couple of Tory ministers gave me what can only be described as an off-message critique of David Cameron's approach to the migrant crisis over the weekend. They said that Angela Merkel is creaming off the most economically useful of the asylum seekers, by taking those that have shown the gumption and initiative to risk life and limb by fleeing to Europe. Precedent suggests they will be the ones that find work fastest and impose the least economic burden on Germany or any other host country. By contrast, David Cameron appears to be doing what many would see as the more morally admirable thing - which is to go to the Syrian camps and invite children and the most vulnerable of refugees to Britain."

I am not entirely sure if St George's posts are genius responses to the original question or the rantings of a dimwit. Sadly, we're probably in dimwit territory but they (the posts) still possess a certain pithy brilliance that really does get to the crux of the issue.

I think it's clear that his problem is either fitness or a lack of commitment/attitude (or both). He had several promising spells under Adkins and Pochettino and every time a spot was about to open up for him in the first team (ie. Lallana/Puncheon/Rodriguez/Davis etc out injured) he would invariably get injured himself and by the time he was "fit" again, the window would have closed for the time being. Same at Hull. Bruce gave him enough chances but he didn't grasp them and ended up injured a lot of the time. Last season he was involved in pre-season; I remember him playing against Brighton and then we shipped him out again. It's clearly not an ability/footballing issue as one thing the squad is obviously lacking is a genuine number 10 type, which would be his best position, and he clearly has ability. I'm not sure if he regrets moving to England, is depressed, has been genuinely unlucky with injuries or whatever but I am guessing that the likelihood of things turning round now for him at Saints are pretty slim.

I've just seen the Independent's front page for tomorrow band I have to say it's one of the most upsetting things I've ever seen. I would hope it has some sort of positive impact, rather than a negative one, but I have no idea what "the answer" is. I find it hard to feel sorry for people who "don't want to see that" when there are other people who have to live it.

Even if you have an "out" up the pitch, the chances of a clearance falling to them are slim. The exception would be where the GK gathers the ball and can distribute it accurately - in that scenario, I expect we instruct our quicker players, Mane included, to get up the pitch quickly. Mane does not go deep to make headed clearances, he stays by the edge of the box to pick up second balls and pressure the clearance; if Stek catches it then it's not going to take him long to get to the half-way line. We do a mixture of man-marking and zonal. We tend to man-mark the other team's biggest threats but also zonally mark the post and the six yard box in front of the keeper. Worth noting that our team is not the biggest, which means it is probably sensible to concentrate first-and-foremost on defending corners. I can well imagine the reaction on here when a corner bounces in our six yard box or gets headed home by the opposition having had a free run at the ball whilst three of our players hang about on the half-way line. Having Mane back allows us to make our box a difficult place to get a decent contact at goal away. If we had a back four of, for example, Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic, Azpillicueta and we also had Matic and Costa in our team we might think it worth leaving a few more players upfield. But we don't have six players like that. We had, at the weekend, two full-backs unlikely to win a contested header and no really big midfielder. Basically, we were relying on Yoshi, Fonte and Pelle to stick something on it or block their runners, with the zonal players as back-up (I remember JWP doing a headed clearance from the mid-six-yard box zonal position). Given last season's goal difference it seems a bit baseless to criticise a tactical set-up unless anyone is going to bring any persuasive argument or analysis that suggests an alternative would be better. So far, the counterargument seems to be a vague hope that Mane might dribble past two players and finish.

Don't think we can afford to let him go now. If things get really sour with Vic we're going to need him from time to time.

I'd say the problem was partly that but also that we showed no appetite for actually passing the ball around. Midtjylland are not very good so heaven knows why we decided to play leveller long-ball rubbish against them. They got knocked out of the Champions League by a team from Cyprus, for goodness sake. If we had just tried to pass the ball a bit then we probably would have won quite easily.

Disappointed with this. They've done little of note since 1986 (although "It's Hip to be Square" is a classic).

That's the really frustrating thing. We lost to a team that would struggle to get out of the Championship, largely due to weird tactics and selection.

£30 mill at least. He's the best forward we've had since Pahars.

That's what I would do, save for swapping Rodriguez for JWP or Juanmi. He was off the pace on Thursday and I doubt he's ready to start two games in four days.

Some cheeky **** has done a Branfoot brain transplant on him.

Pelle murdered them in the second half of the first leg; he won everything. It would be stupid to leave him out.

I'm pretty sure someone posted on here that he was in hospital before there was any publicity about the stomach illness. I'm therefore inclined to believe that the most likely explanation is that he is indeed ill.