Guz

To be honest I thought SG over hit it and gave Morientes too much to do

Sack Parry I guess

Which Carragher should've cleared away and not got caught behind his man

United, Inter...?

Yes, to an extent. But he still hasn't developed a great partnership with Crouch. Too often he doesn't even bother going for the 2nd ball after Crouch has won the first. He's just not right somehow. But if there's one criticism that shouldnt be labelled at him is that he's lazy. He's not, he works his b******s off and if he ever loses the ball chases back till the second he wins it back.

No because he's an icon and brings more than just his performances on the pitch. I'm sure the Barca crowd would say the same in reverse. He hasn't been on top form for a few years now. His first few months with us were excellent but probably not top form when he was able to simply destroy a team single handedly in his prime at Leeds. He's no where near that at the moment despite his improvements.

Puyol?

Bit like Solskjaer returning from injury for the mancs

Who the hell is the englishman to have played in the CL with 4 different clubs?

Gerrard, Alonso, Carra and Finnan for sure domestically. Not going to include Reina because he's only been here 6 months but made a solid start obviously.

Atleast brum at home will sell out

It'd be funny if Neville got banned simply because he is Gary Neville. But in respect to Sunday, people need to get a grip. It's not like he threw a coin at a fan or something...

We also have the likes Xabi Alonso, Steven Gerrard, Luis Garcia, Didi Hamann and Harry Kewell in midfield who can all be excellent in posession but we bypass them too often IMO.

Like who? I think Spanish fan made a very valid point that was up for debate. Maybe the stats were a bit irrelevent but I think the general point was a good one. Everytime the ability of our defenders on the ball is questioned, some people go into overdrive

Not sure which was more embarassing, the miss or the fact that he made a miraculous recovery

Which makes it even stranger that Rafa decided to bring him on with 5 minutes to go IMO.

You can see what Crouch offers. You get what is promised. He can win headers, he brings people into play and can hold the ball up. He hasn't played many poor games for us. Long term, I'm not sure what Morientes and Cisse can give us that we don't already have. Time will tell though and till the end of the season those 3 are the ones we will see most upfront + occasionaly Garcia and Kewell.

If ever there was a game needed to illustrate one of our big weaknesses, this was it. First half particularly, our distribution from the back was poor. All over the pitch our passing wasn't at it's finest but god help me it pains me so much when our defenders look up and play it long (not necesarilly hoofing it but still long) rather than move with the ball a further 10-15 yards and look for one of our midfield. We can't conceed posession so easily against teams like United. Even if it includes dead posession and just keeping the other team from the ball - do it but for the love of god Sami, Carra, Stevie and John - please please please pass the ball along that green stuff out there as the first option and then look long if needed, not the other way round.

He scored 7 league goals in his stint in the premiership. I think he'll do well but the fee is a couple of £m over the top. Crouch, Beattie and Ashton have all gone for that and Johnson is 'rated' at somewhere near £7m. Shows the difficulty in buying english players. I'm glad someone is taking a gamble on Ashton though.

Yup I watched the football first coverage too. He was excellent, showed a lot of fight defending from the front, good strength, good movement - looked to drop deep and form a partnership with Roberts. Vision was also pretty good. Excellent debut, hope he can carry it on.

Hence why Bascombe said we tried to get him on a compensation deal after he 17 in March instead of trying to sign him now? Unless I've read that wrong.

Did he even touch the ball for the finish? Only saw it once and it looked like the WBA lad touched the ball into his team-mate as he slid into make the tackle adn eventually deflected it past the keeper? So would Steven Gerrard, Luis Garcia and Harry Kewell which is one of the reasons he's elsewhere

The result means a draw tommorow will be a decent result, a win would be even better if that's possible. Not a huge shock though, Arsenal's away form is as bad as ours last year (or worse?) and at places like Everton who are playing like they were early last year they'll find it difficult. No 16yr old kid who can walk on water can change that

Basically we wanted him, tried to sign him but Arsenal blew us out of the water with a huge bid. Fair enough I suppose

They probably wont fill it unless they reduce the ticket prices.