Lighthouse

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.

Well that was sub-optimal.

How has that penalty not been given? Stonewall, didn't get within a yard of the ball.

The second wasn't much better. Just knock it over the top and run on to it, then nobody anywhere near Barkley. Reid suspended for their next game too.

So J Rod basically has one eye and one leg. Should we get him a parrot for Christmas?

Poor initial clearance, straight to Coleman. Dodgy save, either hold it or push it wide. Reid asleep to the follow up and nobody in the middle marking Lukaku. Good work by Bolaise but it wasn't lucky, poor goal to concede.

Watching Everton vs West Ham. One of those 'why can't both teams lose' games.

Would this squad win the League? Forster, Boruc, McC Clyne, Cédric, Fonte, Lovren, Toby, Virgil, Shaw, Bertrand Morgan, Victor, Romeu, Hojbjerg Lallana, Tadic, Mané, Boufal, Davis, Puncheon J Rod, Pellè, Austin, Lambert Okay, granted half of them wouldn't want to be here, sit on the bench etc. But if they did...