Jai27

He pretty much has to be on the bench tonight because we simply don't have anyone else.

If Swansea go down I reckon they'll get around 18mil for him. Could be a little too much for us, but what a signing he'd be...

Agreed. It would do more harm than good defensively if we were to switch. Assuming VVD is out, my team would be unchanged from Sunday with Stephens taking his place and Long coming on a bit earlier. Same game plan with quick build up putting pressure on them from the start. If we sit back the entire game and invite them to attack then it's never going to end well (might have worked once at St. Mary's but I doubt it will do at Anfield).

Hojbjerg and JWP were pushing forwards far more than usual and both were finding themselves in some brilliant positions just outside the box after we put a cross in. Romeu looked a little busier because of it but I think this was the key to our success yesterday. Tadic also looked like he was getting back to his best. Much sharper than he has been the last few games.

Missing Wednesday is bad enough, but if he's out for over a month then we absolutely need to bring someone else in.

Wasn't aware of this, thanks for sharing! Seems like increasing the clubs global brand is top of the to do list at the moment.

Hardly... He's been a solid back up defender for us since he joined and anyone who's said he's a league 1 defender isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

I'm predicting he'll be a total flop. The one decent season he had at West Brom perfectly suited his style of play always breaking on the counter attack, much like Long excelled last season. Stoke don't play that way any more and he'll go missing.

Didn't Omerod open up a sandwich shop or something?

Really? I thought we looked awful for the home game against Hapoel Be'er Sheva and none of our players stepped up. The home Milan game was the only match I thought we actually looked like we wanted it, which is obviously going to be the case with players wanting headlines and scouts watching.

Everything about our European campaign was just odd. Puel's tactics were baffling and the lack of passion and commitment from the entire squad was frankly insulting to those who made the trip for the away games. That was a golden opportunity to make club history and instead if fighting tooth and nail we bowed out with a whimper. Would we have played better with Jose in the squad? I'm not so sure.

Very true Hopefully he performs as well as Lovren has on his return to St. Mary's (bar a recent clearance off the line...).

Unfortunately I doubt we'll ever see Jose back here after this. I guess you never know though! Best moment for me was his diving header against Coventry in the promotion game. It was at that exact moment that I knew for sure we were going up. Worst moment was probably a couple of weeks ago when he handed in a transfer request!

Yup. Very unlikely we'll just suddenly pull an incoming transfer out the bag this weekend.

Sounds like we'll be getting around 8mil for him. That's an insane amount of money for a 33 year old CB. With West Ham now being the most likely destination (also the only club that's likely to pay Jose what he's after) do we think he'll do well there? Personally I reckon he'll have this second half of this season putting in a middling performance, they'll then buy a new defender in the summer and he'll spend the rest of his career on the bench.

That's a hell of a risk. We're one injury away from starting a player who hasn't been anywhere near the 1st team this season or going with an untested academy player...

Think he'd do well for us and VVD wouldn't take any **** from him as a defensive partner. If Liverpool aren't happy loaning him (with what I guess would include a buy option in the summer) then they can do one and we'll look elsewhere. It should be done on our terms or not at all. I'm very happy with Yoshida starting for us but am slightly worried if either he or VVD gets injured, so we definitely need to get someone in if not Sakho.

What about Nicolai Jorgensen? 16 goals and 9 assists this season.

What if we get knocked out of the EFL and FA cups and finish 13th? Obviously this wouldn't be classed as a successful season also considering the way we conducted ourselves in Europe... But would people still want Puel gone? Personally I think if this is how we end up come the end of the season then he's not the man for us.

After the way we've conducted our previous business with Liverpool you'd think they'd have the courtesy to keep their scouse gobs shut about any offers.

Yet another game that should see our players really trying to push on and get some momentum going. Leicester are having a turbulent season so far and on paper we should be winning this. A win before the Liverpool game to get our confidence up please. My heart says a comfortable 2-0 win with goals from Jay and Redmond. My head says 0-0 with both sides looking bland and dull.

Or, as reported by numerous sources (MLT included), he's been acting like a bit of a t**t since the Euro's and we want him out ASAP. If West Brom want to pay a wage over the odds for a 33 year old and stick him on a 3 year deal then so be it!

Looks like West Brom are really keen to push for a Europa League spot, investing a fair bit of money!

I'm not 'bashing' Austin, I just disagree with the notion that he's this incredible striker who's head and shoulders above Long or Jay. Statistically Austin completes the least dribbles, is dispossessed the most, has the poorest first touch of the 3, and personally I think he's the least suited to our current tactics. Having 2 strikers playing alongside each other would be an interesting change of pace. Last time Austin and Jay played together up front they had 38 goals between them in a season for Burnley...

Agreed bar Austin who is far from being top half prem quality. West Brom have actually made a loss of approx 10mil on transfers so far this season, so technically they have invested more into their squad than we have. They also didn't loose any major players or a manager...