Tonto

Despite both having French/Walloon names, they were both born in the Flemish region.

Ben Smith ‏@BenSmithBBC 7m There are no plans to fly Konoplyanka back to UK. If #LFC do this deal for him, it will all be done out in Ukraine. #DeadlineDay Why do I have an image of Ayre getting Dr. Nick from the Simpsons to perform a medical?

You'd have assumed Chelsea were planning or at least open to both of those departures before the window opened and, given their wealth, they don't have to sell to buy. Mata leaving is a hardly a surprise even if the destination is. De Bruyne was tipped to move on for a while. Stands to reason Chelsea would have options lined up in advance. Anyway I don't want to get into a back-and-forth about hypothetical scenarios, I just can't be as certain as you that this all down to our prevarication. I don't think Chelsea have to wait for opportunity to knock given their wealth and current status.

It could be that regardless of how quickly we moved that Chelsea would still come in and try and gazump us in the final stretch. They let us do the work of getting the selling club and player to the point where they are prepared to part company and where there is an agreed fee and then outbid us - because they can. Or regardless of how quickly we moved, Basle would always have done one last round of touting the player to other clubs to try get a few extra million. Or the player's agent would always stall until he was sure that a richer, higher-paying club wasn't prepared to make an offer. There are lots of ways this could have gone that don't involve us being at fault for dragging our feet. I doubt it's possible to buy a player (at least a good, CL-level one anyway) on the QT and genuinely catch other potentially uninterested clubs unawares. There are too many parties involved in such a deal who have an incentive to let other clubs know what's going on. I'm also not sure that Chelsea would operate this way. "Hey Liverpool have that Salah fella tied up don't they? Smooth feckers......oh what? They've not closed it yet? Let's throw in a bid so". If they want Salah, or want to stop us getting him, and knowing that they can outbid us or most other clubs, they will try and buy the player regardless of what we do or don't do. They don't need to wait and take advantage of our prevarication.

That was his first goal right? His first appearance was as a sub on the opening day of the season at home to Leicester. I was there that day. Awful game and Henry looked clueless when he came on.

Also in the Interpretations section: Holding an opponent includes the act of preventing him from moving past or around using the hands, the arms or the body. Referees are reminded to make an early intervention and to deal fi rmly with holding offences especially inside the penalty area at corner kicks and free kicks. To deal with these situations: • the referee must warn any player holding an opponent before the ball is in play • caution the player if the holding continues before the ball is in play • award a direct free kick or penalty kick and caution the player if it happens once the ball is in play In the actual Laws, there is no explicit direction as to how to deal with foul play before the ball is in play (at least not that I can see). The problem with this, obviously, is that refs are unwilling to start doling out yellows for this stuff knowing it will result in more reds overall and more scrutiny of their performance.

Fifa Laws of the Game: From Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct: Basic requirements for a foul The following conditions must be met for an offence to be considered a foul: • it must be committed by a player • it must occur on the fi eld of play • it must occur while the ball is in play From Law 17 - The Corner Kick: ....The ball must be placed inside the corner arc and is in play when it is kicked.......

Thanks for the links. There's a youtube compilation of Allen's best bits from that early run of games last season. Whether it is Allen or not, we are crying out for a midfielder who can do what he did in those clips on a regular basis.

Fair enough. I posted that link in response to some of the more general points about why 3-5-2 has a bad rep. Do you have a link to the Kristian Walsh piece? Can't seem to find it.

This is worth a read. http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/03/24/three-man-defence-in-football-soccer/ It links the decline in the use of a back three to the shift away from 2 out-and-out strikers. The article was written in 2010 and this shift is probably even more pronounced now.

Alain Rolland

Three Utd players, including the scorer, goal side our defenders when that came in.

Jordan begs to differ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tpun-VbTmU

Agree with that. It could work a bit like the French defence in 1998 where they would swtich from back four to back three by Thuram tucking in from the right while Lizarazu pushed forward as an extra wide midfielder on the left. Of course it was helped by Thuram being simply awesome and being able to be a very effective attacking weapon on the right when needed to vary things, like against Croatia. In our case, it would be the other way round, with Sakho acting as Thuram, except on the left, and Johnson as Lizarazu.

They tweeted that link with this: Central da Bola ‏@futebol_pontual 24m Liverpool perto de anunciar William - http://goo.gl/Ny2XMn Which apparently means "Liverpool close to announcing Wiliam". Unfortunately, as you pointed out, the article itself is nowhere near as positive. Or maybe we're signing someone called William and WIllian is going to Spurs.

Couple of paras about him yesterday on lequipe.fr but just saying that he was to be called up to the French squad after his excellent finish to the season and because of doubts around Nasri's fitness. Nothing about him since then, at least that I can see,

www.footylounge.com/films//motd-highlights-2012/liverpool-3-wigan-0-17112012-video_3d560b092.html

He also reported the term of abuse as being a different word at different times.

Nice compilation of his performance from last night here: http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/individual-highlights-nuri-sahin-kickstarts-liverpool-season-into-action-with-two-goal-v-west-brom/

Is there any video online of the Scholes tackle immediately after the Suarez penalty shout? I recall Scholes diving in two-footed on Sterling. He seemed to win the ball cleanly, but only because Sterling wisely got out of the way. I thought at the time it was a straight red and pen but I may have been a bit wound up at that stage and I haven't seen a replay or any comment about it.

Obafemi Martins?

Do other clubs do these? They always strike me as rather bizarre.

No idea. I just highlighted Pascoe's name. Just thought it was interesting that a Swnasea fan would think Pascoe was a fixture at the club and highly unlikely to move with Rodgers.

I saw this just moments after finishing reading an article on WSC that contained this: The club's strategy has been to create a long-term culture and appoint managers to fit that rather than expecting each new boss to redefine the place in his own image. Unless there is a major change of policy, Rodgers' successor will be expected to accept long-standing elements, such as assistants Alan Curtis and Colin Pascoe.

He followed that up with this though: duncan jenkins ‏@duncanjenkinsFC @AdrianPrasetio @LFCTS no i didnt i said they had 2 candidates and no more. not certain to be either of them mates.