Lighthouse

Not to mention having played 5 of last years top 6 away already (if you take out Saints). Hull was no different to Norwich away last year, Burnley the year before, Cardiff?, QPR I think before that. Basically somebody crap usually beats us, then gets relegated. Even going back to the Championship and League 1, the likes of Bristol City and Swindon beat us on their way down.

We are better than Sunderland, Burnley, Swansea, Boro, Hull, West Brom, Bompey, Leicester, Palace and West Ham. Probably Watford and Stoke too although they have looked decent recently. We only need to beat 3 of them to stay up and we will comfortably. Even the games we didn't win, like Hull, Watford and Sunderland we were the better team. Nobody is too big to go down but you can be too good and we are.

Also, should we sing the Lumberjack song at Dejan, or is that taking things too far?

First of a Souse double-header at St Mary's. I missed the boat getting tickets for this one, probably a good thing. Would it be too much to hope Mané, Firmino, Coutinho and Sturridge get their heads kick in on international duty? The last two always score against us.

Berahino who has a sh*t attitude, 4 goals last year and 0 this? Sign him up.

We aren't going to sell the club captain in January and Utd barely give a toss about it anyway.

I'd say the difference between our 02/03 defence (best outside the top 4 I think) and 04/05 defence (worst in the League) shows how influential Svensson was. There were other factors admittedly but the defence looked hopeless without him.

Personally I'd say Svensson and Toby were as good. Lovren too in the first half of his season. Couldn't chose between them in all honest.

Only for as long as we stay in 4 competitions. If you play like Caulker did against Liverpool or half the team against Sheffield Utd, you will soon find yourself without any game time.

I'd want a relatively easy team if we went through. Easiest route possible to the final, we will find the big boys eventually.

2 days and about 15 hours rest and we're at it again. I assume it's back to the Premier league team. Fonte, Bertrand, Davis, Clasie and Austin all to start, one would imagine. Possibly Boufal too. Hull are, TBH, sh*te. Since winning their opening two, they've lost every League game but for a 90th minute equaliser at Burnley. Their last home outing was a 2-0 defeat by Stoke. Without meaning to sound cocky, we should win this and have an excellent recent record against the Tigers. Won our last 4 matches I believe and on our last trip up there Wanyama scored early on from about 40 yards.

Must be one of those great European nights he left for. 45 minutes in Turkey instead of, you know, Inter Milan.

Nagatomo, their 55, is a dirty little midget especially.

What a result, even if the first half was a bit naff. Positives JWP Virgil Yoshi Romeu Negatives Dominating possession and doing little with it for the first hour J Rod looks rustier than a 30 year old MG Midget. A few sloppy moments which almost let them back in. Tadic's penalty. Dreadful from such a good player.

Ah, the classic 2009 vintage.

I can't believe you made that comparison without the utterly hilarious Jozy Altidore.

I'll just do a load of wizz and mushrooms like I do before most games.

I don't think the club expected Austin to be perennial, his fitness record was largely pretty good up until last season. J Rod's latest injury was eye related, which is hardly something the club could have foreseen.

This is true although it was largely down to the c*ntiness off Osvaldo, rather than Lambert looking amazing. The second half of the season he was off the pace, looked lethargic and most of his goals came from set pieces. A lot of people thought we were mugged off with £4m but personally I was pretty happy that we'd offloaded a player who was past his shelf life. No way CHDAJFU now.

Nah, if we're time traveling I'd have a 25 year old Le Tiss, Beattie, M Svensson and Pahars.

I think we're pretty good unless we pick up a long term injury at some point. The only signing I think we would get is a deal like Austin last year, where they are out of contract next summer and we can get a bargain.

Austin is capable of 15, all the others 10 if they have a decent season. The alternative being to sign experienced pros to not even make the bench unless 2 strikers have simultaneous injuries.

You've be posting this continuously since the window so I doubt you're suddenly going to listen to people now but... We've signed players to replace everyone who left from last season and then we had a squad designed to withstand a European campaign. We signed Austin in January, which to some people seems like getting your Xmas presents a week early, then on Xmas day complaining that you didn't get any. We have Austin, Redmond, J Rod, Long, Tadic and Boufal. That's 6 players for 3 forward positions, which is the right amount. Nobody decent is going to come here knowing they won't even make the bench, unless 2 forwards are injured. If that happens, the youth players are going to be needed to cover.

Just a little bit excited about this one.

Given that this team steamrollered Man Utd last weekend, I was never overly optimistic. They were simply a different class today. I didn't really feel like we were poor but when Hazard and Costa decide to turn up, the other team sure does know about it. Disappointing but losing 2-0 to Championship contenders is pretty much par for a club our size. On to the small matter of Inter.