Lighthouse

Well spotted by Moss there.

Perfect height for Adrian really. A foot higher or lower, that would've been in. Looking better second half, so far.

Awesome pass by Tadic there.

Daft from Cedders there, seen them given.

I see Sunderland are sticking to their normal routine of being utterly dreadful, losing every game and somehow picking up their only point at St Mary's. No doubt they will appoint a new manager, win 4 games in April and somehow stay up on the last day.

Might treat myself to 19% of one of those training tops, they look alright.

The thread title reminded me of my cash ISA, which recently paid out a whopping £6.30 in annual interest. Any suggestions how I should spend it?

Much like Sturridge, he seems to briefly become fit for a couple of weeks to play and score against us, before getting crocked again and retreating to the treatment room for another 4 months.

Cape Verde wasn't it? Decent defensive midfielder, poor CB.

Think Beattie chucked a noodle spoon at the Skate, that was the story I heard.

Forster Clyne - Toby - Virgil - Bertrand Morgan - Wanyama (I suspect Hojbjerg will soon push him out) Rodriguez - Mané - Tadic Lambert Bench: Boruc, Lovren, Shaw, Davis, Hoj, Lallana, Pelle

Gardos posted on Instagram that he is training well and his next step is the U23 game on Friday, so I'd assume he's out for this one.

We've had a 'real chance of silverware' for decades and not won this competition. I think this year, with a European adventure to keep us amused, it should be taking a back seat. After all, the toughest team in the EL is probably Man Utd, whereas they aren't even in the top 4 teams in the EFL, IMO. We have a better chance at winning EL and should go for that. Also, Austin isn't fit enough to play 3 games in a week yet. I'd save him for West Ham's colandrical defence at the weekend. McCarthy will need game time to stay sharp, should Forster be injured and was probably promised domestic cup games when he signed. I'd be astonished if he didn't play. Personally think we'd be daft to risk Virgil at such an early stage of a low priority competition. I'm sure people will moan if we lose, doesn't mean we should listen to them.

Last season we had Pelle, Mané and Juanmi This season we have Austin, Boufal, Redmond and hopefully a fitter J Rod. Everything else is the same. Stop being a drama queen.

The fact that we have actually signed a striker but you're pretending we haven't because we signed him before the summer window.

We got Austin in January. You know this but carry on pretending it didn't happen and maybe it will be true.

Another 3 days rest for this one. Like Christmas already. I'd pretty much play the kids and a few fringe players. Something like: McCarthy Martina - Yoshi - Gardos? - Targett Reed JWP - Clasie Isgrove Long - Olomola

That'll do pig, that'll do.

I agree in principle but we need someone better than Long and Redmond for the first half of the game. Both are substandard in front of goal.

Think he's playing further over at deep extra cover.

We are quite capable of finishing 8th with or without Koeman. He isn't worth being the 4th highest paid manager in Europe for, or whatever the stat was.

All depends on who's bidding. Because Palace and Stoke were both after him, that pushed the price up. With Clyne and Wanyama, Liverpool and Spurs were the only clubs seriously bidding so we got less. Either way, a player with only a year left puts us in a much weaker position to negotiate. Also Mané was not the same as Sissoko. The former was anything up to £38m with add ons, the latter is £30m. With that margin for error you might as well say we signed Redmond on a free.

And written off £20m in value. Financially speaking, keeping Mané for another year was about as good as the whole Osvaldo saga.

Two European games in 3 days, lucky they're both at home. I'd start with J Rod and Bertrand in for Long and Targett. Otherwise, same team IMO.

Great, confidence boosting win although Sparta really were dreadful. Forster had one Hollywood save for the cameras, second half, but otherwise had very little to do. Martina, Rom, Yoshi, JWP, Hoj and VvD all looked very good. Austin needs to work on his offsideyness a bit. Long wasted his chances, again. Good to see J Rod get another.