Damian_de

Sportsmail saves tha day! I think we should show willing.

Answered you rown question there, Knoxy.

Yeah. But which kids. Thats the question. Ayala against Gomis? Darby against Lisandro? I can retype this all night long.

Best thing about this is that Loblaw is taking the piss, and yet his first choice is a deceny shout for best player on the pitch. Watched it on the teletext?

I'd like Kev to answer this too, because he knows that Lucas was way better than Spearing could have been, so does he really think he wanted Ayala against Gomis or Darby against Lisandro?

Would have got us none, whereas the team we put out came within 60 seconds of getting the 3. I know you're disappointed, but such is the way when things aren't quite happening for you. But kids, kids is kids mate - let them get blooded when it isn't make or break. We made one mistake, and it cost us - thats the CL for ya.

I think we would have been beaten. We deserved to win this evening, on the whole because of the platform provided by players with experience, even though some of them are young. You have banged on at length about spearing over lucas, but lucas was very very good tonight, the kind of good of which there is no evidence that spearing could ever produce. You can't think that was not a high pressure environment, and thats the kind of situation that makes inexperienced players make mistakes. Your options instead of Kyrgiakos or Agger at centre half tonight was Dani Ayala, or Darby. You fancy Darby up against Lopez, or Ayala against Gomis? Really? You can't chuck kids into games like that. Unless you fancy getting fired... but then again, you haven't quite nailed your colours to the mast on that one yet, have you?

But it's not true. Mistakes were made, but throwing kids into pressure situations like that is a guarantee of mistakes.

They would, and you know it.

It's true.

Mascherano Lucas Reina

Just because Rafa wanted to sell Alonso doesn't follow that he took his abilities for granted, or underrated him, or didn't like him, or any of the myriad other bizarre leaps of illogic that get bandied about. Rafa decided that for the team to evoilve we need to be stuffing the teams we had been drawing with. Realistically he couldn't afford to keep Alonso AND sign another CM in the mould he wanted, so he tried to sell to raise funds for the new player who would IMPROVE THE TEAM. He didn't hate him, or take him for granted. It's business. Nothing more, nothing less. Seeing as how we've been unable to see how Aquilani and the rest of the obvious first teamers play together we can't know for sure how successful the change will be. But it's the name of the game, you can't stand still, you need to keep evolving, especially if we are serious about challenging for the title.

Thank f*** the players themselves have got more bottle than the fans.

I honestly think we'll be fine We're having terrible luck, and we're still within 3 points of CL qualification next season presuming everyone else wins their games in hand. The title is probably gone, but hey, no divine right to win it. In the CL this season - anything can still happen. No crisis until we're knocked out early and seriously mid table after Christmas at the very least. We all want to win the league, but whats with all the spoiled brat stuff? As for the subs yesterday, I hope Rafa writes in his biography that he did it just to do the Internet warriors' heads in, I would laugh so hard.

If you have a listen to the podcast there is a discussion about Darby and the fact that he's too small to make the breakthrough, in the context of Rafa's general unhappiness at the physical development of the youth team players. He won't play today, or perhaps ever.

But keep dreaming.

Deary me, defo penalty. As someone said, happy to swap for Henchoz.

If Voronin made this much effort all the time he might be ok...

Another vote for goodness from N'Gog today, doing some nice things. Would be rude not to mention Insua and that shot, friggin' brilliant!

Capello would be boss. Winter could start bitching about how he doesn't put an arm round the players, meanwhile Rafa takes over England (to pass the time) and brings the hands off approach required to get the best out of the hard to motivate squad.

I'd go so far as to say the only situation in which it might be warranted is if we get relegated. I know I shouldn't, but... some believe part of the deal is designed to prevent him mouthing off too much. That said, no one knows that for sure, I guess it comes from a journo surmising... It's ridiculous to expect Rafa wouldn't have been lied to in the contract negotiations (about financing, or anything else), when all the evidence is that those 2 do lie ALL THE FRIGGING TIME

It wasn't a must win game. I'm not saying we didn't want to win it, but we can still qualify, and have done from a worse position than this before.

Completely disagree.

We can still qualify as it is, so even a draw would have been OK. There's a difference between managers and fans about the big picture - fans can be completely lose the plot after a defeat (or 4...) but the manager has to think about the season as a whole, or even how the next 4 or 5 seasons might pan out, for example, when it comes to transfer strategy. One seemingly odd substitution is meaningless in the context.

The team that finishe dthe game isn'y anything like the best team though, so what does it matter? We all know we haven't got much strength in depth, and we know why - because the money hasn't been made available to build a squad. I'd be amazed if Rafa got sacked even if we get stuffed at the weekend. f*** me, can you imagine?