Laivasse

I don't think Sylla's up to the pace of this league for a full 90 yet, I would have taken him off too. Not for Holman though...

Wigan turning the screws now on the Baggies, too.

Foul was outside the area for me...

****, Bennett no...

Incredibly stupid, they should be the ones getting frustrated at this stage, not us.

GABBBYYYYYYYY!

There's a real lack of urgency in attack. Zero movement when Benteke had the ball out on the left there.

The defence doesn't particularly worry me atm, we all know it's shit and that's been the story of our season. It's when Gabby/Benteke/Weimann look off the pace and we have midfield non-performers like Sylla, as we do today, then we're really in trouble. I'd probably get Weimann off for Zog at HT, since we definitely need some more teeth in attack somehow.

I'm not up to speed on PS3 RPGs but I heard that its version of Skyrim was pretty rough. What about Fallout: New Vegas? Have you played Batman: Arkham City? Not an RPG, but it's one of the best games of the past decade and it's almost endlessly replayable what with all the side quests, Riddler trophies and challenge maps.

GET IN!!! gorgeous calm finish

Decent effort from that range.

Not only did Gerrard tell the ref to **** himself, he would not shut up shouting about what was a clear foul and yellow. When I was a kid it felt like refs stood for a lot less of that kind of shit and Gerrard would have been off. In fact in those days (late 80's-90's) they seemed to relish clamping down on the big stars if Gazza's treatment was anything to go by. I understand that sort of thing is cloud cuckoo land now, due to the favouritism within the game, but I don't get why. What's stopping refs from laying down the law to a word removed like Gerrard when he's screaming expletives in their faces? Would they get an implicit rap on the knuckles from the FA for sidelining a big star? Or is it more of a human psychological thing, getting overawed by the billy big bollocks celeb in the heat of the moment?

Anything to offer other than "DURR SO WRONG"? I mean I know it's patent nonsense... obviously, Bannan is a midfield giant, reads play beautifully and has no problem shrugging players off when he's closed down... Or maybe it's somewhere in the middle.... You have heard of grey areas, right? A 'grey area' would be your average midfield workhorse or a fairly decent, unremarkable all round player. Bannan isn't that, for me, he's mediocre at the things he should be good at and just plain bad in several other important areas.

Anything to offer other than "DURR SO WRONG"? I mean I know it's patent nonsense... obviously, Bannan is a midfield giant, reads play beautifully and has no problem shrugging players off when he's closed down...

Something I've noticed lately is he seems to be terrible at receiving simple passes when we don't have the initiative. His anticipation of other people passing to him is poor and his first touch is shit. Partly that's down to confidence, but considering he's a crap player his confidence is roughly around the level it should be. Mostly, I think it's another symptom of the fact that he has zero physicality to his game. He has no chance of shielding the ball, so when receiving it he either has to be in loads of space or else he has to be moving towards the pass to get there well before any challenge arrives. When he fails to anticipate a ball or when his anticipation amounts to a panicky stumble towards it, or a rapey first touch, that's when he turns basic possession into a counter attack for the opposition. People used to give Stan shit for passing sideways and backwards, but 1) his sideways passing didn't create the problems that Bannan's does and 2) he was actually able to receive the ball under pressure and recycle possession confidently. Bannan can't do **** anything.

Until that stupid tackle I thought he was having a great game - much better than Vlaar - making lots of crucial, long-legged interceptions. The foul for the penalty was a massive error in judgement, but centre halves are rarely if ever the finished article at 21 years old. Unlike players like Clark and Bannan I think Baker's actually got promise, but he's not quite good enough to be a reliable first choice at this stage.

If refs had any bottle any more Gerrard would have been off before the penalty. He gave a yellow card's worth of backchat after a tackle that was already a yellow. Now he clears off the **** line for them. What a word removed.

Don't agree with Weimann off. Even in a bad game he has a tendency to pop up in the right place at the last minute.

Shit, and Baker ruins all his great work thus far.

Guzan did well making himself big (although that kind of takes care of itself). Miracle miss, still.

**** arseballs, Bannan.

Bannan is **** shocking at reading passes from other people. Seems to be always on his heels, terrible first touch. Great saves from Brad, and there's another.

Baker's having a great game so far.

Fired up Terraria for the first time after picking it up in a Steam sale ages ago. Hated it after 2 minutes, but was addicted after 30. I understand it's out on XBL now too, or will be soon.