deep blue

And next game can beat it ... at W Ham ... easy pickings for him.

It was a cross ... that came from the corner. I've since watched the highlights again and can see clearly that, in fact, there wasn't a foul. It came clean through to their forward who was surprisingly unchallenged.

I think a few players have had a dip in confidence during the latter Rodgers era and then under Cooper. Will be interesting to see improvement in several players under the stewardship of RVN.

It was a clear, intended foul on Hermansen. It would be interesting to examine their goal, too. A messy one from a cross that might well have shown a foul by a W Ham player in the lead-up.

I thought the defence improved second half. Maybe, with a bit better organisation, our defenders aren't quite as bad as we all thought.

He was awful first half - lost his man time after time. To be fair, he improved a lot 2nd half, both in defence and also in getting forward much more.

Not surprised with recent performances and the late KO, but a shame for RVN on his first game.

But I'm looking forwards, not backwrds, to the player Thomas could be if the manager works on reigniting his confidence and playing him in a better-organised defence. I reiterate my point that he is potentially a good passer of the ball, and accurate forward passing of the ball out of defence has been a bad failing in the team this season, one of the reasons why we put ourselves into trouble and don't get enough attacks starting.

On the other hand, the win v W Ham in 2015 was the start of the Great Escape run, and look where that led ...

Isn't Thomas a better bet than Kristianson at LB? Apparently he played less worse than many of the team on Saturday, and is likely to improve with more game time and with an "arms round the shoulder" manager to improve his confidence. Many on here complain about our failure to pass out from the back and construct attacks ... I thought when Thomas was playing well for us back in the day he had a very good passing ability.

I sort of agree, but the explanation might not be down to lack of fitness, or not completely. I think that when a team is disorganised as much as ours is, and when players are lacking confidence in themselves and their teammates, then the will to makes runs when you have no reasonable hope of being found with a pass, to press when you feel you're doing it as a loner, to chase an opponent when you can see others not being marked anyway, etc etc is drained away. If we were organised more cohesively to play as a team then a lot of things will improve, and lifted spirits will automatically put more of a spring in the step of all the players.and a determination in their attitude.

Highlights how poor was our tactic to play with ultra caution against them rather than going for the throat. Had we attacked them and had a good win that might have encouraged Cooper to be more positive and adventurous in subsequent games ... I feel sure that would have put usvin a better situation than we find ourselves in now.

I'd forgotten Hamza's performance in that match, an unexpectedly good performance from a weak team on paper which shows what can be done with reasonable organisation and when the team are up for it. IfvI r.emember rightly, Rodgers praised Hamzacfor that performance and dropped him for the next game

Just noticed on the BBC match website that Chris Sutton's official title is "BBC Sport Predictions Expert". Ha ha.

The much-maligned Thomas was an integral part of the team that season and never looked out of place. It's odd how something seemed to affect Rodgers' mentality and he ended up bringing the whole team down and badly messing the career of some of the players.The football was exhilarating. As you say ... seems an age ago.

A good theory, except that I think such a dramatic announcement would only be appropriate at a home game. Surely they wouldn't drag it out till then?

We've redefined the meaning of "goalhanger" under Cooper. Hopefully we'll move on from that now

Would be brilliant - as long as his health is up to it.

Has nobody living close to the KP been out spotting at the ground? No-one know how to plane-spot for Top either?

There's always been a boozy, partying culture in football. I seem to remember similar events during the Great Escape and Prem Title seasons. They seem to help the togetherness of the squad. I see it as a good thing when we've had such a disappointing season, with apparent fall-outs with the manager, if those fall-outs aren't between the players themselves, and the squad remains pretty united. Ignore the ridiculous press/social media take on this. Let's just look forward for a hopefully more fruitful rest of season when we can start to identify more positively with our players again.

Certainly that's one requirement.

But as Jimjams pointed out, we were good against Bournemouth in the cup last season, even with more second string players than they had on the pitch. Two points from that - 1 Cooper isn't putting any faith in our youngsters who could probably perform adequately in small spells if managed well (e.g. BCR preferred to Alves yesterday, again), 2 Our squad has enough capability to compete in this division. The key in each case is the quality of the coach, and in that we are sadly lacking.

Echo Bernice Gunter- great writing, very interesting character & stories. Have read all of Cynthia Harrod-Eagles (a mouthful, and someone who I think's not well known) Inspector Slider series. Think Dalzeil & Pascoe et al. Detective series with 2 main characters with witty interplay, good supporting characters, interesting plots, and the whole writing style is full of humour. Ideal for TV series. For anyone who likes detective novels and hasn't heard of her I would recommend giving it a go, preferably trying to read them in order.

Neither were Man U

Sorry, .wrong thread