Pamplemousse

Just scrolled through twitter to see if I could find anything else amusing. A fake account managed to troll Pompey fans by thinking they had sold their star player Chaplin A fan was tweeting Crouch, begging him to move back to Pompey to end his career there. And a couple of others were moaning that they hadn't won the FIFA award for best fans.

Liverpool and Man Utd guaranteed Derby v Leicester might be a good shout, I reckon our game as well and the Man City one.

They normally play the reserves anyway so not a bad draw Will probably be on TV too

That'll be a TV game I imagine

4th round draw coming up now

A fan posted this on Twitter. 20 years go when they were redeveloping the stadium "The stadium will rival other football grounds in the country"

I was hoping to give them the benefit of the doubt that these people are just a bit dim but unfortunately I think you're probably right.

Puel said he might play at Burnley

You think he's been changing around the team on purpose? He'd love to name the same side but the amount of games means that squad rotation has been (and will continue to be, at least until the end of January) a necessity. I can't believe some people STILL cannot grasp this. It's not that difficult to understand. At least he's trying his best in English, even though he obviously isn't fluent (yet). If he wasn't speaking in English and using a translator, there'd still be people criticising him. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in the world can speak English very well. You try a press conference in a foreign language and maybe you'll have a bit more sympathy for him.

Puel wants us to have more of the ball than we did when we last played Liverpool

Puel says that Fonte won't participate in the Liverpool game, but might play in Burnley. He's staying with the same defence of Yoshida and VVD.

It's a skate on a wind up. He'll look a bit of a plank if we end up winning the EFL Cup or FA Cup whilst Koeman wins nothing in English football AGAIN.

Yeh I'm not sure I could stand 210 minutes of that Hopefully we'll try and attack them a bit more, given that defensively they are frail. Unfortunately at the moment, so are we.

Liverpool forum expects a win, although it looks like they might be a light in midfield. Milner and Henderson are out, and Coutinho probably won't be risked. There a mix of views about whether they should start their strongest XI, given they have Man Utd in the match afterwards. Perhaps one or two youngsters will start, but it'll probably be a strong team.

We already have stopped Liverpool this season

Pochettino is ahead of the queue for the Barcelona job. I'm sure behind the scenes, Puel will be pressuring the club for some additions, but he's not stupid to belittle his own players in public.

Search for 'Boufal blessé' on twitter (Boufal injured in French) and you'll see how upset the Moroccan supporters are. They're not happy. One of them thinks this is a conspiracy and wants FIFA to punish us.

Does he genuinely believe that? Blimey

Brilliant news that Liverpool have a replay too. At least means they've got the same congestion problems as we do.

Not necessarily. Last year in the semis, Liverpool won the away leg but lost at home. They only got through on penalties.

How long is long enough? I'd say the full season at least (and maybe even a whole pre season period with no tournaments and minimal disruption) and if, having had that whole period, it becomes obvious that we are not progressing and that it isn't working out then change. Managerial changes midway through the season can work if you clearly know who you want to come in immediately. I'm not sure that our managerial type would be available at this point in the season.

You embody perfectly the short termism that so many of our so-called "fans" and so many clubs have. Not many of them succeed, and I'm glad the club is thinking long term. I wonder if Chelsea or Liverpool fans thought the club was going backwards when the club finished below their initial expectations?

Les Reed summed it up by saying that Puel has not had any time to properly work on the training ground with the players, given the quick turnaround between matches. There must be a legitimate reason why the club is so convinced of Puel's qualities, so he deserves time. If in the future it obviously isn't working, then fine. But let's wait and see rather than kick out a manager after barely any time. Do we really want to end up like Hull or Swansea who sack their manager after 10-15 games? That's really working out for them...

You see, this time last year, I was just as furious as people appear to be now. We were in a terrible run, and I was angry and demanding changes. I realised that come the summer, I was wrong not to trust the club. I've learnt from my mistakes, and I trust the club to get things right, and people like you will be proven wrong.

Yup, they won't be going down, won't be qualifying for Europe, so their season is already over in January. Reminds me when Pochettino named that weakened team up at Sunderland in the cup and we lost.