Damian_de

Maybe I just hate Spaniards?* *I don't, at all, and I'm quite open about the fact that my dislike for him is out of proportion to my ongoing support to other average players like Charlie Adam. Nonetheless, get rid, he's a div.

My favourite poster. In a way, I'm serious. Norwich at home I called Reina for never making saves anymore. You went ballistic (as you always do about anything outside your view of reality), but now it's OK to wonder about him, it's widely recognised that his level has dropped over a prolonged period. Maybe Enrique isn't the boss fullback you think he is, either? Nothing. I admit that I cut Enrique no slack, but you should think long and hard about whether he is a player we want if we have serious intention to get back near to the top. Poor decisions, almost no meaningful contribution as an attacking force, and today as clear an example as you will get that he doesn't have the mentality to become a top fullback playing big games. Make no mistake, I'd be delighted if he becomes a brilliant, world class fullback, and we look back and see we got a brilliant deal. Why wouldn't I? But we won't. He's going to be a nothing player for us.

I hate him, he's garbage, a stupid footballer. He manages to make Downing look worse than he is, too. His first half of the season he was playing at what looks like his absolute maximum, and that was basically just about alright. On TAW they asked Rafa when he thought he would play for Spain and you could almost see Rafa cringe and make some evasive statement about Spain having faith in Jordi Alba. He's never gonna play for Spain because he's seriously average. Apart from central midfield it's the position most requiring a signing, IMO. Johnsen stays right, and someone better at left. I don't care who. Every team that finishes above us in the league this season will have better in that position.

No way RFH's vinyl stash is better than Kenny's

Rose-tinted much? He has shown nowhere near the level that JAR did It so is. The xabi alonso of fullbacks

Aurelio Finnan Arbeloa

And if we win it can probably wait until Tuesday

You're almost right, Macca, on the night, but in the big picture? Nah.

It is unprofessional - exactly. Not just tonight, although that was very, very poor, but the whole settling for whatever in the league with a league cup won, and the FA Cup run. In the past we've used cup runs as springboards to putting together good league form, but we are looking at our worst league finish in a very, very long time here, and there's no getting away from the fact that Kenny is going to be sailing close to the wind this summer

Hope you all appreciate the reverse mockers I'm handing out to the boy Jose here

Whatever 'better defenders' means, I'm not at all convinced Finnan or Arbeloa are clearly ahead of Aurelio. Whatever ' they find theselves in better positions' means I don't see any clear arguments in their favour, either. Obviously they both have far superior fitness reords, but bringing that up as a defining factor in who is the better player is certainly only looking at a very narrow aspect of the problem. For me, in 'pure' footballing terms, which includes everything that happens on the pitch, but maybe not things such as availability, AUrelio is the stand out player. One thing is clear, the call that Aurelio is one of our best is not that contentious, and certainly not in the time frame since last time Kenny was manager.

Let's hope so.

Arbeloa and Finnan were both fine fullbacks, can't disagree with that, but IMO neither had quite the pedigree of of Aurelio. You have to go back a long way to find a clearly better LB as far as I can see. So in that case the 'one of our best' shout isn't so foolish. The Enrique thing I'll accept. My hatred for his brainlessness clouds judgment to a certain extent. But I'll be delighted the day we sign a left back that we could get back to the top with.

Not having all the easy but ill thought out accusations of craziness here folks. Babbel aside, who has been a better fullback in the past 15 years?

Injuries aside of course, but Aurelio has been absolute quality. Just a brilliantly intelligent footballer. He is lightyears ahead of Enrique.

He is? How do you know?

No friggin s***! Aurelio is one of the best fullbacks we have ever had, Enrique one of the worst frequent starters in a long long time. It's almost rude to mention them in the same sentence

That's probably to England's benefit

They introduced exactly this in the Bundesliga to OK effect

Absolutely right. The german 'Royal Family'. Rarely said but.... c'mon Bayern!

Was it 3-4-3 tonight though? Looked more like 3-3-4, or even 2-3-5, that's a proper pre-WWII type formation!

Kagawa at a club going nowhere is he?

I think the hardest thing about his job is keeping players who have won absolutely everything and been performing at very high intensity for years to keep being motivated, and I see his 3-4-3 move at least partly in that context, almost like setting the likes of Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Alves etc a puzzle or challenge. What he has already done which sets him apart as a coach is to create an iconic team that people will include in their all time greatest teams for the foreseeable future, and that is something that basically none of the other top coaches today have done, and happens really pretty rarely.

For the rest of my life I am going to say that we won this game comfortably. There is no way that one of the men who was happy to preside over the destruction of the soul of one of the world's most iconic clubs can stroll back in and be allowed to win. It's against all reason. Just as well such things don't happen in reality. Phew.

He did