Dark Munster

Sunderland had every reason to rest 9 players: they are fighting for their PL lives.

Fonte was injured - Debatable, but even if true he wouldn't be if he (along most of the others) had been rested in the meaningless Hull match. Our midfield has played 3 times in a week - see above. Wanyama was starting every game over Cork - Cork is currently playing brilliantly; big Vic is still finding form after a long lay-off (and was hauled off at half time after playing crap in his first game back). There is no excuse for any downgrades for this match.

Post 54:

This. Excuses given so far: - Some of the poor darlings were too tired to play Tuesday and today. Fine, then play today's team against Hull (who cares if we lost) and play the strongest (and freshest) 11 today in the match that has any meaning. Many of us were arguing for this before Tuesday. I was concerned when I saw Tuesday's starting 11, and dismayed when I saw today's. It was all so predictable. - The 11 selected today should have been strong enough to see off a weakened Sunderland. They didn't did they? Yes, we had some of the first 11 in the team, but there were enough donkeys to drag the whole team down, from Kelvin who booted virtually every ball into touch, to a midfield without JC and MS that couldn't string 2 passes together. With this selection MP didn't guarantee a loss, but he did greatly increase the chances. Who can argue that Tuesdays team would've had a much greater chance of winning? We're not going to win the Cup anyway. Wigan won it last year. Citeh and Arse/Liverpool have bigger fish to fry. Looks who's in the last 8, Sunderland, some lower divisions teams ... including bloody Wigan. - We should concentrate on finishing 7th instead of 8th. The league is more important than the Cup: we may even finish ahead of Manure! F**k off.

Yes indeed. And MP should pay each of them from his own pocket.

Absolutely. I'm not angry with the players, I'm fuming at MP. Disgraceful starting line-up. The team that started against Hull would probably got a draw or win.

Apart from Hooiveld, Targett, JWP, Wanyama, Guly, oh and not playing a goalie, I agree 100%.

Lawro tips Saints to draw:

P****y as a feeder team?

I'm sure she has more than that lying between the cushions on her sofa.

Phoning an ambulance?

Well in fairness he may get 4p in the pound for it. Corrected.

Yes, isn't that an infraction offense?

No, but their brothers are rumoured to be about to sign.

What did they do?

No room for sentiment from now on. Safety being assured, play the strongest team in the cup.

F**k

Good point. Whereas a cup win will be forgotten a year later. Play the kids, I say, this Saturday.

Full strength team, no-one being rested/protected. If no-one gets injured/suspended, I'll be very happy and those that called it will tell me "I told you it was ok to play a full-strength team." If a key player gets injured/suspended, I'll say "I told you it was too risky to play a full-strength team."

They wouldn't have got injured if they hadn't played (dropped salad cream bottles on feet excepted).

It's not that simple. More likely for a key player or two to get injured or even suspended. Not to mention we want the team to be as fresh as possible for Saturday.

Like. Maybe replace Reed with Adam and Boruc with Kelvin. Full strength for Saturday, of course.

Great idea, and at the end of the season we can celebrate with a song like this:

Premiership survival is the number 1 priority for teams like Stoke (and us!) so it would take silly money for them to sell Shawcross to us. And we tend not to want to spend silly money.