4Serious

Agreed. I kept thinking he'd improve on crosses and in terms of commanding the defence. But he just hasn't. He makes me nervous. My friend jokes that 'good shot-stopper' is shorthand for 'crap goalkeeper'. I'm afraid Guzan might be a good shot-stopper.

Excuse me for the American-ism, but Clarke has to be ahead of Davies on the 'depth-chart' at this stage, right? As for Lichaj, he doesn't make the chart. Doesn't deserve a squad number on this showing. Although as it's less than a half I'll hold off on judging his entire potential.

Jeebus. What happened there? Curtis and Lichaj screwing up.

It is really bizarre to be watching a match where Albrighton feels like one of the established players that you're not worried about / watching closely to see how they do.

Guzan had no idea where he was there. Not good.

Agreed, but the back four are shaky as a whole. None of them is a commanding presence, they're not used to playing togehter. I've always rated Beye as a decent back-up defender. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest that he'd do alright.

Lol'd at Guzan about to roll the ball to Lichaj, then thinking 'wtf am i doing' and turning to the other wing.

20 minutes in, I'd say that Hogg and Lichaj haven't settled at all, and we miss Dunne terribly. Can't see us keeping a clean sheet here. On the other hand, Albirghton and Heskey are having blinders, and Wee Bannan has his goal.

Oooh. Close from a corner for them. And AGAIN!!! Tighten up boys, god damn!

Let's not forget Guzan. If he doesn't make that reaction save our young team has their backs against the wall, who knows how they react. But he does, and we have our away goal. Looking very good now.

BAAANNNAAAANNN!!!!!!!!!!! Goal! Jumping around the room!!! Albrighton is MAGIC!!!

Soft yellow, that. Won't complain. Anyone think that was a penalty before the save? I didn't, personally. Not surprised Dowie did.

What a save, Bradley.

Only ever seen him play once in preseason, but the impression I got was of a high energy, tackle-and-short-passer centre mid, if you get my drift. Somewhere between a Petrov and an NRC. Not an Ireland. But I really have no idea.

Also - to people in Ireland like me - ITV4 isn't on Sky normally, but if you go into the Sky Box Settings, it's under 'Other Channels'. Might be someone who didn't know that, so there ya go. EDIT: 200th post! Only took me a year+ to get there. :oops:

Just to qualify my above post about not liking the team - I realise we've injuries, but it's the inclusion of Bannan and Lichaj that I think goes too far. Don't see why Petrov or Clarke couldn't have played.

My thoughts before the game: Don't like the team. I understand resting some players but this is on the wrong side of the line between introducing new players and risking our involvement in the competition, personally. However I'll let the result play out before I criticise the manager. Also, saw Hogg in preseason against Bohs and actually thought he looked handy. Not surprised he's been given a chance. Don't like Beye at CB, although I'm happy he's getting a game. But ultimately, most clubs around Europe make a good effort at this tourney. Liverpool and Fulham didn't feel above it last year. We should do the same - getting used to playing midweek games is part of being a big club. If we get a poor result tonight I'll be really pissed off. A team near the bottom of the Swiss league just hammered Spurs... I can't see us winning here. Up the Villa, though. If one of the young guys gets his first competitive goal I'll be jumping around the room.

It's hard to judge Leonardo. Either he's a) tactically clueless and a poor manager, as evidenced by poor result after poor result in Milan or he was seriously unlucky to walk into the Milan job at a time when their squad was deceptively poor and aging, but the amitions hadn't yet changed and anyone would have failed under the circumstances. Think it's a combination of both, wouldn't want him.

But... a big, big man could turn out to be a muppet. It's not mutually exclusive. How Barca laughed when a 'muppet' their ex-translator, was given his first coaching job. Mourinho hasn't done too badly since, I'd say. And for all the excitement over MON, well, in the end he was no better than above average really, wasn't he? When he was meant to be the messiah, the biggest 'name' available at the time. Manager hunts are a crap shoot. I'll just back whoever we choose, even if it's someone I can't stand the sight of (Sven) or someone irredeemably crap (Curbishley, Southgate).

It does show what a goalie is worth though, doesn't it. Spurs come out like a house on fire, and Hart keeps them at bay against all odds through the first half. City recover and see out a decent away draw. Green was as shaky as ever today, makes a bit of a mistake for our goal, and our momentum built and built to the extent that the result was never in question.

I think there's a huge difference between a striker playing well but not scoring and a striker missing a ton of chances. Then you're not doing your job - all players should take their chances, but for strikers it's what they're paid to do. As a pro, you have to stick one of those away. The one-on-one or header at least. It wasn't good enough. However, good day for Big John to have an off-day. He'll be back. And as long as we keep making those chances, we'll be fine.

Oh dear oh dear! It's impossible for a goalie to play any better, IMO. A world class, 10/10 performance. One of the best I've seen.

Thanks for saving me the typing! I thought Ash was dynamite, though. It was his switching around that bewildered the West Ham defence, allowing Stu and Albrighton to have such fantastic games. As for Albrighton, he was magic, but there were a fair few dodgy crosses in there. Is he as good as he looked today? Hard to say, but I'm delighted. And as someone who never wanted to boo James Milner, his goal and send off were amazing. I'd love to see him stay now - the 11 we put out today were incredible. Ireland wouldn't get through the same amount of work and would get in Ashley's way. Newcastle away isn't easy, but as the premiership goes it's pretty far from hard. Could be a very nice start to the season building.

I like Bob Bradley. Thought he did okay with a limited US squad, though he blew a glorious chance against Ghana. I like that American style, too. No nonsense. Seems like a good man. I'd enjoy having him as manager here. But come on. It would be like promoting the guy who peels potatoes to head chef. It's such a leap... can we afford it? I'm not sure. Although if we appointed Bradley, I'd be convinced he'd be crap but would enjoy finding out. If we appointed the likes of Curbishley et al I'd be still pretty convinced but I'd hate having them there. Does that make any sense? It's a terrible market for managers at the moment.

I think OBE's post above sums it up for me. We're in different places as clubs at the moment. It's a lot of money and some of the players on offer are quite decent. We need more decent players. We could use money. It makes a lot of sense to me. It's my own personal opinion that 30m for Milner is more than fair, and more than he's worth. Could we replace him with the money? Maybe, maybe not. But I don't think our midfield was good enough to make the top four this season, and that was with Milner. I think his personality and work-rate have blinded some people to the fact that he doesn't have world-class technique or talent. This is not a player on the level of Fabregas here, and yet Fabregas is rated at 40m. It's insane, for me. Our strength this year was our defence. Milner wasn't carrying the team a la Fernando Torres or a Ronaldo. Our team won't be much different without him next year. We'll be worse off without him, but how much worse? It's hard to say. My problem with selling Milner is more the message it sends out to the squad. Our hard work and chemistry is a large part of the reason we've been successful over the last few seasons. Selling Milner might make the squad defeatist. 'We had two goes at 4th, didn't quite get there, and we sell our best players. Why keep trying?' I have faith MON wouldn't let that happen, but you can see where I'm coming from. But having watched Milner all year as a Villa fan, would I be terrified of seeing him in opposition colours, as a Utd or City player? Ultimately no. Which is why I don't mind whether he stays or goes.