Gomez

He won the tactical battle, because he won the match. He basically tried to reduce the game to chance and got lucky, he thought that was the best way for them to win. He did the same in 2005 and 2007, in those matches he didn't get lucky. BR could have played the same way, and in retrospect probably should have done, but the reason he didn't was probably because that was not our best chance of winning the match, we had a better chance than just relying on luck.

Would like Luke Shaw, but would have issues paying £30m for a FB if it meant we had to skimp elsewhere. Cole would seem like a makeshift option though. Liked the sound of that Siquera we were in for last year, hope we go back in for him, he only moved on loan.

We can't compete with that, but they don't have a great record developing with young English talent.

Still think Shaw is nailed on for Chelsea? Seems to be a lot of talk about man u recently, if they could get him, so could we.

That's the one. No examples for us yet though. Not convinced on Evra / Vidic either, certainly not to the extent they 'struggled badly'. Sure they got better, but you'd expect improvement, it's not down to not settling.

As an aside, have we had (m)any players, that have come in from abroad and struggle to settle initially only to go on and become good/great players? I think what an earlier poster has said is probably true, good players will settle regardless of the league. Xabi, Garcia, Suarez, Torres, Reina, Kuyt, Coutinho all hit the ground running. Sakho maybe took a game or too and Skrtel maybe a match (or 45 minutes) but hardly a long time. You could probably add Masch to that list, given he barely started at West Ham and Didi settled pretty quickly at newcastle. Agger was eased in, but he was seen as a youngster and looked to be settled pretty quickly. I am not sure it's a real thing outside of that arsenal player that is always cited whose name escapes me.

Borini would have got in on Sunday, lets recall him. Sorted. Stupid argument.

Because they were all younger than Lallana. The worry with Lallana is why has it taken him this long to appear at this level? Is this season a purple patch? Even if it isn't how much better can he get? Southampton are a tactically astute team and I wouldn't doubt that Pochettino is getting the best from him, but what scope does that leave BR? Can he do it at the highest level? The three above had played in the CL and or internationally, Lallana hasn't (bar a small number of international friendlies under RFH) He might be able to do it in the CL against better defenders, he might be able to keep his level when he is just a cog in a great team rather than the focus in a mid-table one, and one that teams are more likely to settling for a draw rather than trying to win. But all of that is a risk. He's looked a good player this season, but my concern is that at £25m we would be paying for the finished article without knowing that what we would be getting. I like him, but he's nowhere near a £25m player, and unless we have money to burn this summer it would seem a strange allocation of our resources.

English players are generally priced higher with respect to their achievements. Sturridge was a bargain, but that is a rarity. Lallana is being rated in the same bracket as Costa, Willian and HM from last year. I think he's good, but I am not convinced he's that good, nor that he has scope to become much better than he is. Yes, it would be great if could have played on Sunday instead of Lucas. But the same goes for the above 3, for Konoplyanka, for Salah, for Borini even. It would be great if we had Siquera or A.N.Other fullback(s) in place of Johnson / Flanagan. It would be great if we had another striker instead of a hobbling Sturridge. We need a number of top players to challenge the first 12-13 players. If AL is one of them, great, if he's the main target taking half of our budget, not so much. I guess it depends on how much we have. If we have more than net of £60m I'd be stunned, and I don't see much income from our sales given the size of our squad.

I don't think we are far from agreement, I agree with all your points re AL's attributes, would just think, assuming we haven't a mourinho-esque budget, that we'd be lashing our big money elsewhere. I would disagree a bit on him being an obvious replacement for Couthino, when PC plays out wide maybe, but I think PC's better in the middle, whilst AL is a wide player, which is why I initially thought Henderson, who's played out wide a lot.

True, but again, Coutinho's got 4 years on him and is progressing nicely. Lallana is not obviously better than him. The nationality is kind of key though, given the impact on price. Carroll is not a bad player, he just wasn't worth £35m, Lallana too is not a bad player, but is he worth £25m to us? Given that we'd be buying him just after he'd made his breakthrough, and therefore at peak of his value, the comparison is apt. If you like, you can compare him to Aspas, we bought him at 26 and the criticism was (before he'd played a game for us) that at that age, you'd have expected him to have achieved more.

Not entirely sure I want the manager to get his way with transfers. For all the wonders he's done this season, 'his' signings have not been unmitigated successes. Allen only now is looking like a £15m player, (not a £20m or £40m player, but a £15m player) and I'm not exactly gutted we missed out on Gylfi, Dempsey or Ashley Williams. That said, the 'committee' signings of Apsas and Assiadi haven't set the world alight either. (I'm not going to criticise the buys for the future as we don't know they came at the cost of the present) It's hard to know what to want. The top level targets, presumably committee ones (of which BR is a part) have been spot on (HM, Willian, Costa) it's been the competence of those responsible for closing the deal that has been left wanting. I want last summers window, but with the pull of CL and a better deal maker. I don't want a change to managerial autonomy when it comes to transfers.

In this specific case we don't, but it's clear that the club does brief the press about transfer targets at times just as we know that selling clubs and agents also brief the press. You basically have to make your own mind up, given the source, the emphasis and the timing on which direction this is coming from. As for Lalana, can't say he excites me too much, he's 26 in a couple of weeks and has had one good season in the top flight. I think someone on here (or it might have been on TAW) made the point that he's already playing under a very good coach, so (in consideration with his age) might not have much improvement left in him. for £20-25m, you'd think we could get better value abroad, and with CL experiences. HM cost less than that last year and is younger. I'd also struggle to see how he is a first XI player (I know we need a squad, but BR said he wants players who improve the first XI) Who's he replacing? Sterling? Unlikely, Suarez? Not unless we sell him. He's not a Henderson or a Lucas. He could be an upgrade on Allen, a more attacking, older, less experienced Allen. But Allen is already our no. 12, so you'd think that's not a priority. He'd be a great squad signing at £10-12m, but that's not going to happen, we'd be signing him at his peak exactly the wrong time. Blowing a huge chunk of our budget on an English player who's had one good season and who's value is at it's peak? Sounds like what we did with Carroll.

No. BR has performed absolute miracles this calendar year. Just imagine if he had got the backing of the board? Just imagine if we had more than 13 players we could trust? You know, like those we are up against? BTW, I like the owners, just think the last 2 transfers windows were shambolic. Hope we don't have a repeat in the summer, though from the outside, I am struggling to see what has changed that should give us hope. Admittedly, we won't be able to peddle the CL football excuse this year, but as that wasn't really the issue with most of the failures, I wonder what Ayre will come up with this time?

If there is blame for today, it is not BR or the players, it is the fact that we failed to strengthen in Jan, we had nothing on the bench after Sturridge, and the lack of cover after losing Henderson and BS in the City game looks like it will ultimately cost us. Going up against City and chelsea with effectively a 13 man squad, is the equivalent of bringing a knife to a gun fight. We got ourselves in such a good position, yet we as fans were failed in January, just imagine if we were bringing Salah or a Konoplyanka off the bench today, or we had someone that doesn't make Henderson's loss such a painfull one?

Dreadful today. About 6 warnings for chelsea players for time wasting in the first half, yet laughable gives the first booking for it in the 92nd minute. Never mind the other bookings he bottled.

Completely bricking it over this one. Worried that mourinho will have the refs too frightened to give us anything and we'll end up getting robbed.

Again, I'd cope. If I had to like.

Yeah, was just looking at last years and pot 1 had arsenal, man u and chelsea, whilst city were in pot 3. I guess it won't make a difference. Sure I remember something like this though a while back, one of the Italian sides was in a pot lower than then usually would have been because of another Italian team, seemed harsh but was to do with keeping them apart and how the teams from the same league are paired up for TV. Anyway, so is it better for us for Everton or Arsenal to qualify? (Not who do we want to qualify because we think Everton are all cuddly all of a sudden, but what would be of benefit to LFC?) Because we can't draw an English team, and arsenal would be in pot 1 with chelsea, this would mean we have more chance of getting a Barca, Real or Madrid Have City done enough to get into pot 1 or 2 yet? (they seem to be ranked below Spurs on that, I guess that will change next year) Also, if Everton get 4th they would be less likely to qualify (given their seeding) which I think would mean a bigger share of the group stage cash for us, as it is shared out on a per country basis? Any reason why Arsenal qualifying will be beneficial to us?

Could probably google the answer to this question, but f*ck it, we are back in the CL and that probably deserves it's own thread. I've read we'll be 3rd seeds because of the hit our ranking has taken in our absence. However, I seem to remember that they used to pair teams from the same leagues so as they could obfuscate the draw and fix it keep them apart. Does this mean we will actually be in the second seed pot or will we drag one of the other English teams down to our seeding? Does this impact on who we want to get 4th? Surely Arsenal will have a better ranking that Everton? Or have I completely mis-remembered this and it which pot each team goes in has nothing to do with other teams from the same country?

Maddock is saying we are back in for Mkhitaryan, not sure how realistic that is, or if it's just exceptionally lazy journalism

How stressful is this? Very concerned about today, can't see how we beat them with them just needing a draw and a bit gutted that Aguero has made it back.

TBF, I was surprised when I heard that they had such a good away record. How did that happen?

Should. But then Arsenal have a good manager and should be miles ahead of Everton (and us for that matter given their squad depth and stability). Chelsea and City, with their billions should be out of sight, not below us in the league. Spurs should be well in the race as well for 3/4th is not the league. But there are always caveats. The best scenario for man u (as opposed to what we want) is that they go into next season with a new manager. One who is likely getting to grips with either a new league / country, or, like Moyes, a massive step up to a big club, and that could go either way Even if they get Klopp or Koeman there is no guarantee at all 'Just one season out' is a narrative they will hope to portray. It implies they will be straight back in. It will be very difficult for them, just as difficult as it was for us. I don't think it is a forgone conclusion that they will get rid off Moyes. That plane stunt backfired, it, combined with result that day showed everyone that a lot of the fans are still behind him, and even if they do replace him, their best bet is to get a young long term manager who will take time to find his feet. Arsenal won't replace Wenger, even if they fail to get 4th (which they won't, they never do) and Everton are unlikely to strengthen, they will likely lose Barry and Lukaku, possibly Delafuea, They might keep Barry, his wages will probably cost them their budget. They might be better next year, because they will be a year further down the line with Martinez, but they are likely to spend the summer fending off bids for Barkely and Baines.

Not really, they are no more guaranteed to be back in 2015/16 than they are to be out of it again. At the moment they are out of it next year, it's not 'just one year' If arsenal failed to qualify, they will give the narrative that they are only out of it for one season, they will point to their stability and that Wenger qualifies more often than not. Man u can't do that with Moyes, and even if they sack him, the next manager will be giving it the 'rebuilding job' narrative, because that's what they do.