Billy Dane

Joe Cole is a cheating twunt (yeah, I know, tell you something you don't already know) but everyone is telling him to put the ball out of play (becuase drogba has been fatally wounded) and he carries on to score. Carvalho should be sent off each time he plays if the refs pay attention. He just assumes cheating is part of the game. The lad from Colchester was a little naive in trying to stay on his feet against these twunts. Still, well played Colchester, let's hope Barca stuff the Chavs.

so you're pleased we won then?

Phil Thompson if you are counting ones who came back, but not as players - might also include Phil Boersma?

Morientes and Bergkamp? Different leagues, it's an insult to Bergkamp to compare their efforts in the Premier League. However, Morientes isn't scared of flying, so at least one plus point for him.

Owen

We are never going to see the best of Cisse when he is bought on 15-20 minutes at the end of the game when we are trying to close the game down to hold onto the points. He has got the type of mentality that needs boosting by giving him the belief that everyone is relying on him and has faith in his ability to produce the goods. That is clearly not in evidence by the fact that the club has tried to sell him at every opportunity and only appears to be willing to play him out of position. Bearing in mind we are apparently paying him 60k a week and playing the likes of Morientes in front of him, despite the number of goals he was scoring pre-season I'm not surprised he is playing like a drain. When he moves on in the summer, he will no doubt scored many many goals for his new club.

Does he "only meet Everton fans" cos they talk to him because they are trying to associate themselves with success? If I saw him in town I'd just leave him to have a drink in peace.

you are taking the p*ss aren't you?

Exhausted or not, he's still more of a goal threat than Morientes.

For this to work, we need to have strikers in the box - this seems to be asking too much of Crouch and Morientes who are there to link up play between midfield and......????

Perhaps if he spent more time talking about what his team does on the pitch he might find they get a bit more respect. I'm really looking forward to Barca dumping them out of the CL - wonder how he will blame us for that?

I thought he had a decent game, no doubt go unnoticed by the "Cisse is s****" brigade. I think the time has come for him to be given a run up front to see what he can do, whilst Rafa gives Crouch a rest, and while he's at it Rafa could also give Didi a few games while Momo is put on the bench. Didi can then look after the defensive responsibilities and give Alonso the chance to move forward a bit more.

Can't believe he is taking Cisse off!

Does this question make sense? I think it starts at row 1 but you won't see much at the other end if you are right at the front. Row 15 in block 105 is about level with the cross bar at the kop end which is a good view in my opinion, so I would guess about row 30 is near the back of 105 Do you have tickets near the front of block 204 for the United game then?

Think Crouch needs a rest and although Morientes scored a great goal against Charlton last year wouldn't play him either. I'd start with Fowler and Cisse, with the option to bring on Crouch or push Kewell/Garcia up front when Robbie's knackered.

As everyone says he is a great prospect, but at the moment I would stick him on the bench and play Didi with Kewell, Alonso and Gerrard in front of him. This would free up Alonso to get forward more and make better use of his awareness and passing ability in the opposition half. You never know with Fowler up front we might even score some goals.

I think the difference between us and the 2 above us at the moment is that they go out expecting to score, whereas in games against them we only hope to score. We have a better defence than Utd but they believe they will score more goals than they concede. Chelsea know they won't concede many but that that they will always create chances and will stick some of them away. The only time we have gone out believing we were going to beat Chelsea was over 2 legs last season. I think Rafa has tried to build the belief in the team with his public announcements before the games against Chelsea and Utd this season, when he has declared the time has come to prove we are now the team to beat. Unfortunately this has backfired because it has given greater motivation to the opposition than us.

yeah, we might have won the last 3 games and only be 10 points behind Chelsea with 2 games in hand instead.

Reina put his hands up and was going to go. Any doubt in the ref's mind was eliminated by the often used tactics of the Chelsea players of "getting worked up" at the aggression aginst one of their own. They made out that world war 3 was about to break out, so the ref sends Reina off to keep the peace. United do it as well and Viera did it as Arsenal. The ref is undoubtedly swayed by such antics. That Robben dived is largely immaterial, although this is a huge blight on the game and should be stamped out.

Hang on, I thought the "experts" on here said Rafa had laid down a marker and would never pay more than a player was worth?

Fowler and Cisse are the most likely to anticipate rebounds/deflections etc. Cisse will provide the speed we lack up front and Fowler the predatory instincts. One thing they have in common is that they have both got a record of sticking the ball in the net. Admittedly Cisse has yet to prove he can do it in England, but being played out on the right he's not likely to. The cross from Gerrard which wandered across the 6 yard box would have been snapped up by either. Fowler will definitely be getting more games than he expected at this rate, and Rafa needs to decide to try Cisse in his natural position for a few games. Crouch needs a break and Morientes needs to stay on the bench.

Think we got the tactics wrong today. Playing Crouch up front on his own is pointless if the midfield aren't going to push up. I don't think he is particularly good at directing the headers he wins, so it is difficult for Kewell to guess where to run to pick up the second ball, as Crouch appears to have a head like a threpenny bit. We therefore need to have the whole midfield pushing up in support, but we seemed to be too focussed on nullifying Chelsea's threat. I think we need to be a bit radical with team selection - bring Didi back into the midfield, have Alonso, Gerard and Kewell in front of him. Ahead of them have Cisse and Fowler and leave Warnock on the bench with Agger, Garcia, Morientes and Crouch.

Ian Rush?

Book yourself a trip to Paris for say, the middle of May, to soak up the culture and the general ambience of the city and whilst there why not attend a football match if there's one on?

The double standards on display with these two players is indeed laughable. The funniest part is how people twist their arguments to try and build a defense of Morientes.... if you can't see how valuable he is to the team you don't understand football, he's not there to score goals he's there to link up midfield and the strikers (which is what his partner Crouch appears to be doing as well!?), if you think Cisse is a better player, you know nothing about football blah blah blah. Fact is neither player has lived up to expectations. Cisse has scored more goals, but is probably better suited to a different system than the one Rafa wants to play. Morientes is more of a team player but seems frightened to go near the opposition goal. I would be interested to see whether having Fowler as a strike partner would bring out the best in either of them, but as it stands come the end of the season I expect them both to go.