melmacian_saint

I voted Fonte for MOTM because he commanded the defense quite well, that penalty was a ridiculous decision that frankly is only given when referee's are bored and he had Giroud in his back pocket the whole game. Of course this forum's hatred for said CB will never allow them to even judge his performances as they are. It has been like this even in his best performances and form moments. In fact most don't even pay attention to his game and resort to stereotyping or picking specific moments of weakness, which of course is cheap and hypocritical. Funny that since 2009 CBs seem to come and go but he is the only one who has been consistently in the squad sheet or in any case has come back to it after only leaving it through injury. But of course I'm sure any of the bed wetters on here will have plenty excuses to justify it and none of them praising him.

I get what you mean (and I agree), but it's not like they were going to lose all their games...

Maybe what's not helping is that the wing players aren't coming closer to the CBs/Boruc to given them a passing option. Same could be said of the centre-mids....this is a frequent problem in our game whenever the opposition sticks their forward players deep in our midfield.

Fonte had Giroud in his back pocket all afternoon and shirt tugging is something that I have seen Lovren get away with this season. In fact make that any CB of the big 4 and the PL. Lovren let the ball go for Boruc when that Stoke goal went in. Maybe if he wasn't playing it wouldn't have gone in? What is your point really? Sometimes it's better to write things as they are rather than how we want them to be.

To be fair we only had a clear chance on target and we never looked like we were going to score. Maybe get a corner and who knows but it always looked unlikely. Taking Lallana for Osvaldo meant that we lost a lot in terms of possession and presence in their midfield which I think is more important for us rather than having two strikers on the pitch. Regarding the penalty it was given because one player moaned like a kid, no other reason in there. There was a great shot on one of the replays that shows every single player around Fonte and Mertesacker tugging each ones shirt. More importantly the ball was way too high for any player in that area but it's always easier to decide for the big home team so that the media don't look into an already rep-damaged Mr.Clattenburg.

What a great game at Goodison. Martinez and Rodgers are class managers and so are the teams they are building. Hooiveld?!?! Arsenal play the ball on the ground, what is going on with Yoshida that he can't even make the bench most of the times? Clearly the best pairing to Fonte last season and would've seemed to me as the natural substitute of Lovren/Jose. Also I swear Lovren was all cheerful on twitter this morning, has someone poisoned his food??. Hopefully Tino's know-how has made our CB pairing changes unnoticeable. Not the game for these changes to happen but our tactics have reduced CB exposure so much that the organization of the team should really not suffer.

Apart from their french army I don't think any other players are involved in competitive games. Spain are in South Africa so lots of traveling for Cazorla, but Ozil is basically home as are Wilshere and the England brigade.

I think vs. City and Chelsea we can do something out there. It's Arsenal that worry me. Burial ground for us and worse than that they will want to react to the defeat at OT. Of course we seem to thrive in such conditions like at OT and Anfield so who knows, maybe our real concern should be Aston Villa (given it's a game we probably have to take the initiative in).

Great performance in the 1st half and it's good to see that we are now reacting positively to any signs of excessive relaxation and adversity during games. This means that we now control games and we never let Hull take the initiative at any point where our level of intensity dropped. This reaction was visible firstly in the build-up to the penalty and then after we conceded (introduction of Davis was important for this IMO, but we were showing signs of waking up before). We now look dominant at home and it seems like SMS will be a tough place to come (though games like Sunderland may happen again) for most. Lallana MOM with a goal that would be all over the world if scored in Manchester, the Emirates or Stamford Bridge (provided the scorer belonged to the home team, that is). Thought Rodriguez probably deserved a goal for all his work but it was another team performance more than any one-man show.

I actually agree. Also Wigan might have gone down, but what about all those good Championship players they need to go back up? Hasn't Europa League football helped towards a favorable decision?? What about some who have stayed, maybe it also helped them? Truth is everyone will forget the odd win against someone in the league. It's 38 matches! But a cup final, as proven by our 2003 nostalgia, is remembered for a long time. And so is a European run, as short as it may be.

Of course it's down to Toni the GK coach and MP but IMO it would be more useful to elect Gazzaniga as our League Cup keeper and actually allow him to get some 1st team game time in the early rounds against lower opposition or just games where the result is not the main priority like this one as Kelvin is not going to get any better and is clearly on an exit path from his career as a footballer and we don't seem to be interested in loaning out players for development purposes.

Better than the prop they flew around in a fair number of times last season!

We're not going to get a run like the one we got in 2003. Or the one Millwall got the year after. But it's still possible to play lower league opposition, and we won't get a Bradford but who knows? Remember Swansea were lucky in getting through their semi-final with Chelsea, and scored from 2 defensive mistakes at Stamford Bridge. Similarly, we may get a top PL team in our first FA Cup round again, rather than some non-league team on their dream day. To do something special, chances are you need a lucky break against slightly better opposition. Our 4-0 demolition of Tottenham was unexpected, as we had worked hard to get a result on NYD. Just like the Skates outrageous survival at Old Trafford was in 2008.

If Boruc had let in so many soft goals at his near post he would've been slaughtered on here...except he didn't. ****e happens, he thought the ball was going to bounce fairy comfortably into his position but it didn't and the routine nature of the situation distracted him from correcting his position and it was too late. He has been excellent and is at his career-best shape but everyone is prone to this. Should keep him off the press radar for speculation which is good.

If Norwich don't get rid of ****pants Hughton they will go down. Awful manager. Those stories about his team at Newcastle being promoted by Pardew are false. Just look at how he failed to promote an untouched PL-squad at Birmingham.

Another excellent performance, that 1st half is probably the best I remember at SMS. It could've been 5 goals easily. Everyone played perfectly. Great day, that little team we've got going this season is incredible.

Tiny and ginger and Irish would make them the perfect couple.

Has to be depeche mode. Tu tu tu tu tu ru ru tu Dejan Lovren! ....

I assume that after relying on them to bankroll the club to the PL, Cortese is now paying up to the Liebherrs. MBO?

I don't like us being in the spotlight. I'd rather the press carry on underestimating us as a club and team. Yes it's nice to hear all the analysis and praise but it usually brings about numbers of rumors and constant look for **** stirring that we really don't need. Maybe Cortese knew this when he decided to take a strong attitude on the local press from the start.

Yessss

Fellaini is a dirty cheat. Always getting a stump on the opposition achilles'.

The annoying thing is United look little more than average and are relying on Januzaj's gracious state.

Osvaldo's chance gone tits up and Moyes survives another month...

Wow, I've only just learned that Begovic played for Pompey. Always learning something!