Ne Moe Imya

Upon consideration I think this would be my team but I'd have Lallana over Rooney. If Rooney were the kind of player to put his ego aside and work for the benefit of the team out wide, I'd probably say the same team as you as he's a better player than Lallana. However, he's not that kind of player, and him being in the side would put it all out of balance. Plus I actually think Rooney might be pretty good coming off the bench with 20 minutes to go to replace Sturridge or Lallana in that situation.

Says who? All the top managers, like Paul Ince for example, use paper for their tactical masterplan:

Think that's an interesting one, Paco, but I don't think I could keep Lallana out of the side myself. And I don't think I've ever even considered Puncheon either. The defensive part of the equation doesn't interest me much, I think that's going to be a weakness no matter who's the manager. Cahill is very good, Baines is excellent, and other than that I don't think much of the other choices. I do, however, think that a Liverpool-esque setup, with Gerrard and Henderson playing their regular roles with Lallana in as the Coutinho as the furthest forward of the midfield 3 could be very impressive even against the likes of Brazil and Germany. Further forward Sturridge is an obvious choice and then it's just a question of who plays alongside him. For me Walcott and Sterling would be lethal either side of Daniel, and with Henderson and Lallana's willingness to track back and cover the fullbacks it wouldn't be defensive suicide either. You'd still have Rooney, Barkley, Wilshire, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Carrick to come off the bench, so it's not as if it's a horribly thin squad either. Give Rodgers 3 months with those players and I genuinely think he could get them to at least the quarterfinals of the World Cup. He'd win a lot of games 4-2, like he does for Liverpool, but he'd win them. It's a bit odd, for me, thinking of England as a team that's actually underrated, but for once in my life I think it could be true if they had a proper manager. As rubbish as everyone thinks they are, there's actually some decent young talent there for once.

Besides the obvious response of burning Wembley to the ground and disappearing with an evil cackle. This is following on from a bit of an offline discussion with a mate and also from the talk in the Sterling thread of how England could use him. Obviously Roy Hodgson is an absolutely atrocious gobshite of a football manager and he won't have a clue what to do, so the England squad are doomed to fail in Brazil. But what if they had a real manager? Someone with a bit of tactical nous, who knew how to get a bunch of individuals to work together to make something more than the sum of their parts? In my opinion, there is a talented side there to be picked, waiting for someone to come along and make it happen. So, how would you set them up if you were England manager? Would Sterling start, or would you have him coming off the bench to run at tired defenders? How about Rooney, would you try to work him into your side? Or do what Argentina's done with Tevez and leave him at home and damn the newspapers who demand his inclusion? Any less-heralded players that you would think about putting in the side?

The thing is that they don't really have to add any extra money to make it a massive summer spend for us. Last summer we spent (net) around £16 million. Add to that the money you mention (say £25 million for the CL and another £10 million if we finish top) and that comes to over £50 million. Now, we probably won't have a lot of players leaving this summer for big fees, but even if we add another £10-15 million to that from the likes of Assaidi, Borini, maybe Johnson or Aspas or even Agger that would be a huge amount to spend. I don't know what "balls deep" translates to, but if we spend anywhere near £60 million on fees for new players I would classify that as a big summer. I will actually be surprised if it's quite that high but even £40 million would be hopefully be enough to get us 2-3 quality players. Edit: almost forgot, we didn't spend anything in the January window at all, so there's also probably some money that we had budgeted there as well. I think this summer will see the arrival of at least 2 players who cost more than £20 million, honestly. It seems obscene but that's the way football is going and for us to stay competitive at the top I think the owners will sign off on it.

I have some negative notes but I'm putting them aside to celebrate for the rest of the day. 3 points. 3 points. 3 points. That's the main thing to take away from this game - we took all 3 points, and we need to do it again next week.

That's correct. We win and it's only us and City, and we'd be on 83 points (the most they could possibly get is 86). If we had Henderson I think I'd actually be semi-confident. As it is I'll be bricking it again. Even if we go 2 or 3 goals up, with the way we've been defending I won't feel confident. It would be just like the universe to go and see us drop the title due to a goal by Torres.

I honestly don't think Gerrard will care at all. If he gets to hoist the league trophy at long last, they can give the sportswriters' award to Marouane Fellaini and it won't matter in the slightest.

I expect to see a massive bid from Real Madrid for Harry Kane any day now.

Can anyone explain to me why 24-year olds are eligible for "Young Player of the Year"? It should be a U21 award (players must be 21 or younger at the start of the season), and the candidates would be much more interesting: Sterling probably winning it over Barkley, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaw, Lukaku, Eriksen and Coutinho.

Don't think this is that far off, honestly. I'm not a huge fan of Borini, though I realise that's kind of an exception around here, but I think Wisdom and Suso (and maybe Hodzic, even) can provide some valuable depth next season. I'd like to see a top wide player, a top CM, and a pretty good LB, but other than that I think for the most part the youth and returning loanees can give us the squad depth we'll need. Perhaps one more 18-20 year old player who might be a bit of a flyer with top potential for the future a la Alberto (Will Hughes? maybe a centre forward?) if the budget will stretch that far, as I'd like to see us continue the strategy, but other than that keep the budget to concentrate on 3 really good players in those positions rather than stretching it to get 5 or 6 mediocre options.

Brendan and Suarez nothing but mammals they will tear you apart like the Discovery channel *repeat until the LSD wears off*

I like this one even better: So his complaint that proves Clattenburg's supposed bias is ... that he gave us penalties correctly? As in, the rules say he should award a penalty, so he did, and that means he's biased? The mind struggles to comprehend the depths of the idiocy of this person.

Am I the only one that thinks it should be "Kopites love you more than you will know" or maybe "we all love you more than you will know" instead?

I actually like the way Chelsea has their youth team set up (speaking as a Liverpool fan). They have some absolutely frightening talent in that academy; they mention 5 players there who might have a chance of someday playing for their first team without including the best 16-year old I've seen since Messi, a little genius named Jeremie Boga who tore our U21s to absolute shreds last season. However, there's virtually no chance he'll ever play for their first team, so none of it matters. If they had a manager like Rodgers (without the pressure from Abramovich to constantly spend money) they would be terrifying, as it is it's a very good thing for us that they're run in such a way as to waste all that money and talent. None of those players will ever get into their team ahead of the 3 or 4 £20m players ahead of them. Try to imagine a scenario where John Flanagan or even Sterling would be playing for Chelsea right now. No chance. Flanagan they'd have cut ties with 3 years ago and Sterling would be floundering on loan at Vitesse giving come-and-get-me interview pleas to the likes of West Ham.

I'm with you on this one. Law of averages, we have to have a difficult game against Norwich sometime. Suarez can't score another hattrick, surely?

Is Toni Kroos really that amazing? Everyone goes on about him, but when I watch Bayern I think he's about their third-best midfielder. I mean, I'd love to have him as a replacement for Henderson, think he'd definitely be an upgrade, but 260k/week? That's one-of-the-best-players-in-the-world money. Or at least it should be. But I guess Moyes has already handed out bigger wages than that to a worse player, so it wouldn't exactly be the worst deal in United history or anything.

I really, really like Ojo, but I'm willing to admit he's one that could easily go either way. When he's on his game, he's almost unstoppable. He could turn into the next Yaya Toure, he could be a poor man's Reus, or he could end up in League One. Depends entirely on his desire, in my opinion; if he works hard, he will end up as a top player. Not sure on what position or what kind of player he will be in the end, but there is definitely an excellent player in there somewhere just waiting to come out. If he can put together some consistency he will definitely be a first team contender. The other one you didn't mention from the U18s is Canos, who struggled a bit when he first came from Barca but has been very good in the last couple of months. Judging more from the amount of hype behind him at La Masia, he seems to be someone with a decent amount of talent. It was actually a moment of realisation for me how much talent we have in our youth ranks when he came over with a reputation as Barca's best attacking player of that age group and then he arrives here and is comfortably outplayed by our Harry Wilson.

I don't think there's anyone that's nailed on in the way that Sterling was a few years ago in the current U21 squad (Rossiter is close), but there's a good few that should get a chance and I would guess two or three will stick with the first team eventually. Wouldn't want to guess which ones that might be, but I would think Rossiter has the best chance, and then there's a group of players like Brannagan, Smith, Lussey, Trickett-Smith, and Sinclair who you'd think will get a chance at some point to get some first team minutes. Chirivella might be better than all of them but he's only just stepped up to the U21s so it's a bit early to make that call. He's very highly rated, though. Some of the best ones who are at the level of those I've mentioned are out on loan: Ibe, Mclaughlin, Robinson, etc. I actually think the current U18s are more likely to produce a bigger number of eventual first teamers. Wilson for me is almost nailed on, and there are good number of others in that side with an excellent chance to go all the way.

Might be overkill/kneejerk but I had a serious conversation with a mate today about how long it would be before he was in contention for the Balon D'Or.

Sterling Skrtel Coutinho

Feast your eyes and enjoy, he's quite a player. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kstiu4tz0B0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8drZCnNNY Merry Christmas. Edit: not sure why the last one doesn't embed. Here's a link.

Bit of schadenfreude with your breakfast is never a bad thing:

When you explain the joke like that it comes across as really condescending. "Condescending" is when you talk down to someone as if you don't think they're as intelligent as you are.

If that's the case I'll go for Sami. Always have liked him, always will. The "best" or "most talented" debate is much trickier. And I'm going to make a proposition that some might see as daft, but I don't care: if Suarez wins us the league this year and then sticks around for another 3-4 years at the same level, he will in my mind be right up there with some of the absolute legends of this club (I'm talking Fowler/Barnes/Souness-level players). He is an absolutely unbelievable player, and I hope we find a way to keep him for as long as possible; it's a privilege to watch him play.