saintwbu

I agree with the injuries thing, but I always moaned about that attitude last year when we were flirting with the top 4, the old 'oh they'll drop off when the injuries hit' (which of course they did for us), but injuries are not guaranteed to happen, and as seen this season they can affect the big 4 as much as anyone (City will tell you that, not that they have an excuse with their squad depth/spending power). But the point about their style of play has been mentioned a few times in recent weeks on TV, and it's irritating. Chelsea played with 9 men behind the ball all season last year, and it was great tactics supposedly. For me, Leicester are showing they have a plan B and are bloody good at executing it. Around Christmas I was thinking that they are just outscoring the opposition (4-2, 3-2 type of thing), which always results in a rapid slide down the table once the inevitable goal drought arrives, but they have found a perfect plan B in defending solidly whilst still carrying a massive attacking threat. Brilliant, brilliant football from game 1 to game 32, they couldn't be more deserving of the title if they win it and I really hope they do.

I've always been of the opinion that handball is handball and that is it, it is very rare someone 'deliberately' handles the ball, and that rule leaves it to interpretation which is a significant cause of the inconsistency we see in officiating. In hockey if it hits your foot, it's a foul, intentional or not. Huth stopped the ball travelling towards goal because his hand was far away from his body, in my opinion that should be a clear cut offence, but I have to accept that for most people it's all about intent for some reason. Schmeichel is spot on IMO, keep it simple, make it easier for everybody.

Funny how it takes one supposedly bad game from Pelle to bring out all the critics, but scoring one, setting up two and winning a penalty against Liverpool got minor praise, as did scoring two against Stoke, and also every chance we had vs. Sunderland a few weeks back seemed to be created in some part by him as well. I couldn't watch the game today, i flicked through it later on and it still seemed that most of our positive moments came via Pelle in some form, most notable the Mane chance/Simpson handball all coming from a fantastic turn and pass from none other than the whipping boy himself. Certain players are just chosen to be blasted more than others I guess. I don't think he deserves to be dropped against a terrible Newcastle in favour of a Rodriguez who has missed almost two full seasons, and an Austin who has been out for 3-4 weeks.

Found it really refreshing to hear Koeman seem incensed at the end and finally give his genuine opinion on the refereeing. I personally thought the Simpson/Huth incidents were two of the least obvious refereeing errors that have gone against us this season, and I can see why they were not given, but come on we all know they sometimes do get given just not in our favour. I have said for ages we are too nice, there is no crowding of the referee from our team, which we'd all like to believe is something that we are proud of, but the referee's in this league are so weak that crowding sways them beyond belief, and we always suffer because of it (West Ham at home the main incident I can think of). Koeman finally saying just how **** the officials have been towards us in these three games in a row alone shows just how frustrated he must be, and in another season these decisions could be the fine line between staying up and going down, or Champions League vs. Europa League. People who say you shouldn't blame referees for our failure to win games are delusional, at this level you may only get one opportunity in a game, and if an oppositions player denies that illegally (foul, handball) then that is cheating and is enough to win/lose a game, so have a day off. As I said, today's incidents could've gone either way for me, but we never get them, and this season has been beyond a joke.

Couldn't agree more, been saying for about 5-6 years we should lose Rooney, but as you mentioned the UK journo's will be saying he MUST play, just as they were on Sunday Supplement last Sunday embarrassingly. Vardy and Kane both hitting the 20 goals mark this season, when was the last time Rooney did that!? Now he's played in whatever position they can squeeze him into in order to get him on the team sheet. Wayne Rooney is not Philip Lahm, if he is not the best option in his position then he should not play, his versatility is a myth shoved down our throats since his various managers discovered he was no longer capable of playing as a striker. Currently, he is so far behind Kane and Vardy in my pecking order, but alas probably not Roy's.

Lallana is now benefitting from the old 'play for Liverpool and you are guaranteed to be in every England squad' rule, after a poor season but for the last 3 or 4 games, so I guess he can enjoy that gain from his move. What have him and Henderson done to start today over Vardy or Drinkwater?

Anyone else still watching the highlights of this game at least once a day?

I put it in the match thread but: Anyone see Matchday Uncovered and at half time as Vic walks out the changing rooms in his kit it seems like Origi and Sturridge look at each other as if to say 'oh sh!t here he comes', might've even been able to hear them mention 'beast' LOL. When he is on song I do absolutely love watching Vic.

Anyone see Matchday Uncovered and at half time as Vic walks out the changing rooms in his kit it seems like Origi and Sturridge look at each other as if to say 'oh sh!t here he comes', might've even been able to hear them mention 'beast' LOL. When he is on song I do absolutely love watching Vic.

My theory is that when it comes to a big decision, it's easier to go against a small club than a big club if you aren't 100% sure, because the coverage in the media and criticism for your mistake will be significantly less. I haven't watched the United game on MOTD but I'd be very surprised if they didn't do a big chunk on the penalty that United didn't get, despite it having no hating on the outcome of the game, and yet ours didn't get mentioned despite neither having an effect on the outcome (I know there were less talking points in their game). As if a ref is ever going to give a penalty and red card to a Liverpool player within 5 minutes of the kick off, it just would never happen against us as we have seen in this season and last season's version of this fixture in almost identical fashion. But no one will talk about it, whereas had it been the other way round you can guarantee it'd be played on repeat. Does anyone else find it irritating that all you have to do when applying for a job in punditry is say "I played for Liverpool" and you're guaranteed the gig? Carragher, Souness, Redknapp, Mcmanaman, David James, Michael Owen, Lawrenson, Hansen, Murphy, John Barnes, Ian Rush, Didi Hamman - Just the names I can think of off the top of my head that I have to listen to regularly on Sky/BT (albeit Rush and Barnes less so nowadays), and then even had to suffer Neil Mellor on the steam I was watching today!!! NEIL. MELLOR. and the disdain in his voice when we equalised seemed so clear to me despite his efforts to hide it. God I hate that lot, beating them is amazing but to do it in that fashion makes it an incredible feeling.

Have we been fined for failing to control our players? That seems to be the usual compromise from the FA when they admit a refereeing error - "oh yeah that decision was wrong but we are going to fine you for trying to tell the ref how wrong he was"

I feel like one day we will move out of the mindset from the era where Rory Delap was our record signing at £4million, and realise that £12million is not a great deal of money and does not buy you much in football anymore. Yes at the time I thought the fee for Shane Long was over his value, but not because I thought it was a lot of money but more because I didn't rate him particularly highly. Last year at Stoke at home I think it was, I was crying out for us to bring him off the bench, which I didn't think I'd ever be doing when he signed! But his run in the team this year has really shown his worth, yes his finishing is hit and miss but he creates a hell of a lot purely through his exceptional work rate, the guy just does not stop. Steven Fletcher, Matt Jarvis and Andy Carroll - 3 British players that cost over £10million and I would not want anywhere near our team, that money really does not get you a lot (and was worth more when those three signed for their clubs at that price).

I loved Alderweireld whilst here, and I often didn't really notice him in games which as a defender I think is a positive thing. Whereas Lovren I always felt was the sort of defender that gets fans on their feet with last ditch sliding tackles and the like, which is why I actually think he's been let down at Liverpool by having to play alongside the (in my opinion) woeful Skrtl, because he has a similar all guns blazing approach, where Lovren needs a cool, calm Fonte-type alongside him in order to allow him to run around a lot and clean up. But I think Van Dijk shades it for me, mostly because i'm just astounded by how good he really is, and I absolutely love the way that he can pick it up in his own penalty area and then end up in the oppositions half in a matter of seconds, having beaten a player or two along the way, just sheer class on the ball.

IT WAS MARCUS BENT

i'd guess it's because they are slightly slipping downwards, whilst we have hit a pretty dramatic rise, so on momentum we would be the most likely. But I think they've got substance and think they'll remain pretty close to us for the remainder of the season.

I'd like to have seen the reaction had Fonte or Bertrand made that challenge last night. VW was brilliant until his dismissal, as he has been on this 5 game run, and the red looked ridiculously harsh from where I was sat and nothing I've seen on TV has made me change my mind. I feel like he's now paying the price for upsetting some of our fans and quick becoming a bit of a whipping boy when things don't go to plan. I get that it was an unnecessary tackle to make, and he 'shouldn't have given the ref the decision to make' but that is just excusing an extremely poor decision during an extremely pathetic refereeing performance (very much a performance).

Seeing a lot about Papa Waigo on Twitter and on here but he never played in the promotion seasons, just the JPT winning one. For me I'm just looking forward to seeing Rickie back at St Mary's properly, and hopefully Nigel Adkins, two of the biggest contributors that never actually got to say goodbye properly.

I hate how nice our team is. Alli just flew into Juanmi and every other team in the league would run in with their arms up pushing and shoving and the ref would probably panic and send him off. We just walk away and he gets a yellow. Regardless of whether its a red card or not (probably not from the replay i've seen), the ref's in this league are utterly abysmal, and none more so than Kevin Friend, so put some pressure on them ffs, everybody else does because IT WORKS.

We are so used to having full back's who play high and bomb forward (Clyne, Bertrand, Shaw, even Fox and Richardson in times gone by), that having a more 'defensive' full back in Targett has been foreign to us so far this season. I can see why people wouldn't favour him as our left back because it's not 'our style' really, but he is nowhere near as bad as people make out as Shance pointed out above. He has unfortunately been put in the Yoshida bracket of 'groan every time he doesn't produce a perfect piece of play', whilst other players get away with far bigger errors without any criticism from the crowd whatsoever, and i've found over the years that it's very difficult for a player to shake that off once they've got it sadly.

VVD in Glasgow airport on his way to Southampton according to this Celtic fan. £11.5mil

Anyone notice how the press are praising Chris Smalling for a massive improvement in performances lately? The Schneiderlin effect. I've said it to people for ages, Morgan Schneiderlin can make a good centre half look great and an average one look good. Lovren struggled after he left, Toby hasn't looked as good so far (very early days) and now it's Jose's turn

As much as despise them, Liverpool's use of this for Mignolet is brilliant, fits perfectly.

Did we ever make use of the old Balotelli song from his City days? Could work well with Jordy Clasie. Oooooh Jordy Clasie, he's a... etc. Someone else can think of the rest

Feel like I'm in a parallel universe where for a change we as fans are actually playing down the quality of one of our players, whilst the rest of the country is hyping them up. Usually I'm saying how [...] is good enough to play for England and being laughed at, whereas I find myself saying to people if JWP was called up to the senior England side then I'd be a bit disappointed as I don't think he's really done a lot. I do like him however, and I do think there is a lot more to come, I just find his inability to score from open play a real irritation, especially when him and Steven Davis are playing in the same 11. Hopefully once he gets the first from open play then they will start flowing, to be fair to him I don't see him miss the target all that often, just hit them straight at a keeper or defender instead.

Part of me is glad City aren't starting any talented youngsters who are hungry to prove their worth in their one big chance. City have been uninspiring on many occasions this season, if we take it to them and are on our game then I think there's definitely something in this. Amazing that i'm hoping for us to finish 5th today after having seen Oldham sit 10 behind the ball and catch us on the break at St Mary's not too long ago, who'd have thought it!