Leo No.8

In fact this Cisse is much better that Rooney and Van Nistelrooy because he for ten minutes only played on Saturday and still won the match, at least not lose. Dave, Thailand.

Classic - at a time you need to win a free-kick to calm things down, you can be sure Didi will fall like a house of cards in a sudden gust of wind. Funny thing is you couldn't even call it a dive, it's just his very own skill of drawing contact and going down in a completely legitimate way. Good old Didi, great to see him on top form the last few games.

Vidic was a lot smaller than I thought he'd be when you actually see him live. I wasn't impressed with him at all, but the pace of that game probably would have been a shock to any player with little experience of the English game. Too early to make any definitive judgement on Vidic I'd say. Bramble on the other hand, has been consistently abysmal for years now; there's no doubting his credentials...

Very impressed by the job Pearce is doing there at the moment. He seems to be bringing some excellent young talent through in the likes of Barton and Richards, but also buying well from Europe. Riera and Samaras both look like good signings. Riera has a great left foot and puts quality delivery into the area, whilst Samaras looks gangly and awkward, but is actually very good both aerially and on the deck. With Pearce's honest, straightforward way of doing things and his great handling of the Fowler move back to us (and of course their shared dislike of United), City are becoming more than ever a team I like and would be pleased to see do well. Of course I'd be even happier if Pearce p1ssed off to Newcastle as it would win me as fair few quid, but watching them play I don't think my money is on the winning horse. He seems to be putting together a side which could challenge for Europe consistently for the next few years, comes across as a bloke with a sense of loyalty and would probably be foolish to leave for the Newcastle circus anyway...

1) Hamann 2) Finnan 3) Gerrard With honourable mentions to Sissoko, Hyypia, Morientes, Carra & Crouch who were all excellent.

Just on a more positive note - if Henry Winter's reading this, keep up the good work mate!

Absolutely woeful yesterday - I'm surprised no-one seems to have mentioned his performance, because I believe in hindsight he was he wrong man to referee that game. Rarely in my whole time watching football have I seen a referee give so many 50/50 decisions in the direction of one team. At one point, he waved away a foul on Kewell, then 10 seconds later blew for the exact same foul on Richardson, identical in every way; that was to be the pattern throughout the game. He bottled the pen, because you could see Giggs made contact with Kewell inside the area from where I was in The Main Stand, but he had an absolutely perfect view from the position a ref takes for a corner, one from which you couldn't possibly fail to see it. Kewell was going nowhere and it was idiotic by Giggs, but regardless it was a penalty. At one stage Sissoko was down with a head injury, for which you are supposed to stop play immediately, however Mr Webb kindly allowed United to play on from a promising position until Rooney's shot was blocked, then stopped the play as soon as we broke out with the ball. There were plenty of other incidents I could pick out, but one I believe actually led to a serious injury; if Mr Webb hadn't been either so incompetant, or so eager to give United an advantage, then Alan Smith wouldn't have been hurt so badly. After having strictly ensuring the Liverpool wall observed the 10 yards for Giggs' free-kick, he waved away Riise's complaints and allowed Smith to be just 5 yards away when the ball was touched to the side. By the time Riise struck his shot, Smith was practically on top of him, and the full force smashed into his leg. How on earth he allowed that to be taken without moving Smith back I'll never know. The reason I would want to see Webb not given further games of this magnitude is I imagine certain comments made by Alex Ferguson in the press influenced his performance. To me, unless Webb has a season ticket at Old Trafford which is very unlikely, his performance was badly effected by him trying too hard not to be influenced by the crowd. I believe he was deliberately giving the benefit of the doubt to the away team wherever possible, which really is very poor practice indeed, and the sign of a weak man incapable of reffing at the top level.

Neville was solid defensively, but his distribution was appalling yesterday. I pride myself on being objective; the other day I took issue with people on here over Cantona, as I consider him to have been a fantastic talent wheras others said he was over-rated. Being completely objective again, both are defensively solid, but Finnan is far more effective going forward. His delivery with both feet is as good as anyone's in the Premier League, and you just couldn't say the same for Neville. He puts a decent ball in now and again, but thats about it. I'm also very, very surprised to see a Liverpool supporter believe Neville to be the better full-back having watched Finnan play so well for the last two seasons. I agree there isn't anyone better than him around in the game at present - he is consistantly immaculate.

Not a f*cking Jack Palance he'll stay in England if he leaves Arsenal. More likely Salif Diao will win next year's Balon D'or than Henry come to us...

Didn't Rushie play for years before he scored and we lost for the first time? I remember it was against Arsenal in the Littlewoods Cup Final (think that was the sponsor at the time) when that c*** Charlie Nicholas scored twice that it was broken.

Smith is a dope. I know a lad from Birmingham whose Dad used to play non-league with him before he went to Leicester. Smith still drinks in the same pub as his Dad and their mates, and apparently they all take the p1ss out of him constantly for being a boring dope. I can really imagine that - he's complete drip.

Got a contact in the press to look into this - and he reckons its a no-goer. Says he contacted the club, and Pearce was in Manchester all day yesterday. He also says he's seen the footage of those two players in the scandal... Hope he's wrong about Pearce - he's been wrong before.

Kewell has been a massive plus since Christmas, really getting back to where he was before he moved to us. He seems to have found his pace again miraculously, and I'd say that is down to Rafa's team. One player who thrived on playing on the left wing then cutting in and striking the ball with his right foot was Paul Merson - he used to score a lot of scorchers that way before his career went downhill. I'm sure Kewell could thrive the same way on the right, but I wouldn't want to mess with him now he's performing so well on the left.

I hate people who leave before the end - where's the point in going at all? Not only because you're letting the team down, but the best thing that can possibly happen in a game is a last-minute winner FFS, why risk missing it? What's so important? Even when you're getting beaten badly you should stay till the end. The only game in all the years I've been going from which I've ever left before the final whistle, was when I was in the Everton end for the derby at Goodison and 'Big Dunc' scored his first goal for them. With about a minute to go, Graeme Stuart scored their second, all the horrible bluenoses round me went bonkers and I exited stage left...

Is it just me, or has practically every betting site pulled the next manager bets?

Nice one for that Sean - fingers crossed eh. I think the Newcastle job has a lot of pull for managers within the game. I know they flatter to deceive time and again, but the club has a huge following and back their managers with big transfer budgets. There's no doubt they have a lot of talented players there, its finding a manager with the ability to pull them all together as a team. Myself, I couldn't think of anyone better and I'm sure Pearce will know Shearer well from his time there, and through England as well. He said he wasn't ready for England yet, but I would imagine many people would see the Newcastle job as a step up from City. It does make more sense the more you think about it. Certainly hope so anyway...

I don't like that kind of defeatist speak... But seriously yeah, its been a good bet already! That's the way you should look at gambling, enjoy a flutter but do it for the fun of it and any winnings are a bonus. Otherwise it can be a problem for some people...

Ranieri has basically said he'd like to manage Newcastle, which is hardly surprising as he's unemployed. I'd like to manage Newcastle too - doesn't make me a favourite for the job. I've got a good, good feeling about this Pearce thing... Before they suspended betting, Pearce had gone from 33-1 to 10-1 within about half an hour from the time I noticed it...

I like Yakubu a lot, a real handful. But I think possibly even better would be Darren Bent. Just posted this on the 'unfashionable player of the year awards' thread in the general football forum, but its more relevant here really... What's interesting about Bent is that he plays in a Charlton system not too dis-similar to ours, but its more cautious and tuned into players with less quality. Curbishley often plays with just the one up front, and has a few attacking midfielders to get up and support; although it often looks like he has two strikers in the line-up, he tends to play forwards like Marcus Bent and Euell starting from wide positions, the way Rafa does with Cisse. They have shipped a few goals in the last few games, but in general, like Rafa, Curbishley sets his team up to give little away. Consequently, the centre-forward can be a bit isolated at times. Despite this, Bent is one of the top scorers in the Premier League. He's fitted into a difficult system that doesn't suit centre forwards in a way several of our strikers have been unable to do. Even though they've been a mid-table side for years now, I can't remember the last time a Charlton forward scored more than 10 in a season, which he has done easily. He's young, English, very, very quick and a quality finisher. I think he's different to the strikers we have at present, and would be an excellent replacement if and when we move Cisse on. He offers what Cisse does in terms of pace, but the hard work, eye for goal and general suitability for English football Djibs seems to lack. We were interested in him when he left Ipswich apparently - shame we didn't grab him then...

Look on Ladbrokes - it says 'next manager to leave'. Nothing about being sacked!

Here's a question - couldn't you do Pearce on the Ladbrokes 'next manager to leave' at 33-1 instead. He would be leaving City wouldn't he...?

Definitely - I've thought exactly the same. What's interesting is that Charlton play a system not too dis-similar to ours, but its more cautious and tuned into players with less quality. He often plays with just the one up front, and has a few attacking midfielders with licence to get up and support; although it often looks like he has two strikers in the line-up, he tends to play forwards like Marcus Bent and Euell starting from wide positions, the way Rafa does with Cisse. They have shipped a few goals in the last few games, but in general, like Rafa, Curbishley sets his team up to give little away. Consequently, the centre-forward can be a bit isolated at times. Despite this, Bent is one of the top scorers in the Premier League. He's fitted into a difficult system in a way several of our strikers have been unable to do. He's young, English, very, very quick and a quality finisher. I think he's different to the strikers we have at present, and would be an excellent replacement if and when we move Cisse on. He offers what Cisse does in terms of pace, but the hard work and eye for goal Djibs seems to lack. We were interested in him when he left Ipswich apparently - shame we didn't grab him then...

Pearce has gone from 16-1 to 3-1 today on Ladbrokes. There's certainly something going on...

Absolutely - Cisse's performance at Old Trafford was one of the worst displays I've ever seen from a footballer at the top level.

Agree with many of the names mentioned in Nolan, McBride, Yakubu, Given, our own Steve Finnan of course etc Two young players I feel have done particularly well this season for smaller clubs, and haven't been heralded as much as perhaps they should and haven't been mentioned: Darren Bent at Charlton is the first - he has impressed me this year for a young lad in his first year in the top flight. Well up on the list of top scorers, he's got quality but has to work as hard as everyone else in Curbishley's team (I don't think he dived for that pen, even though it wasn't a pen). Nigel Reo-Coker at West Ham is the other one - all action at the heart of a West Ham side which is level with Arsenal on points (plus he crippled Essien which only endeared me too him more). He's got pace, power, aggression and attitude. Reminds me a bit of Ince.