Ne Moe Imya

When even when you somehow come back to win a key Champion's League tie, you have no idea how you did it or how to recreate that level of performance again.

I don't know why I want this, but just once, when a really brilliant goal is scored, I would love for the commentator to sacrifice his career by saying "Fuck me!" followed by about 3 seconds of complete silence.

I honestly think all of Brendan's recent quotes praising him are just really obvious attempts to unload him. Our fullbacks are the weakest part of our team right now, and Johnson's 90k/week salary must be target number one to dump. I'm sure if someone makes us a half-decent offer (more than a pittance, basically) he'll be off in the summer. West Ham can usually be relied upon to do us a favour, maybe we can give Big Sam a call and say "England's starting right back, top quality player for just £4 million, what do you say?" Wisdom/Flanagan are probably at least at the same level and wouldn't cost us half what he makes even if you added their salaries together. Use them for cover and then buy a better right back in the summer.

If we spend that amount on Shaw then Rodgers has lost his bleeping mind. "Sew up the position for 10 years." We could just as easily blow an Andy Carroll-esque fee on another player with limited track record in the Premier League. Granted, the odds are good with Shaw, but that is the kind of fee that gets you a game-changing player. We can find a top left back for half that price (or less!) elsewhere.

I will be hoping for a United triumph so emphatic that it 1)seals Moyesey into the top spot at Old Trafford for at least the summer and 2)dents City's GD advantage significantly. Every goal, whether by Phil Jones, Rooney, Young, I don't care, will be heartily cheered in the Imya household.

Indeed, I went back to double-check and spotted that you'd posted it. But now you've put it on this page as well, which is a creditable service to the forum. It's a gif that grows more incredible every time you see it. How he contorts his body ... it really beggars belief that a professional footballer could take a penalty like that.

Two fine-looking fellows: Not his face, but have to love the ever-popular "throw your hands in the air" reaction to watching Suarez skate through their defense once again: And finally, this fine penalty technique needs to be on every page of this thread:

You couldn't script this season any better. Every time you think "well, now they'll have to sack him, he's been that bad" he goes and wins a couple and it's right back to talk of a corner turned and all that. I'm convinced that one of the Fates had big money on United to win the title the Aguerroooooo year, and David Moyes and this season is her revenge. Which would seem to make us favourites for the title, because nothing would be harder for the Mancs to take than to beat City next week to keep Moyes in a job this summer, only to have that result hand us the league title.

I've seen this sentiment a bit online yesterday and I don't really get it, I must admit. If last season when we were nowhere near the title race, we had just lost 6-3 to Chelsea and the reporter asked Rodgers what he thought about their chances of winning the league I'd want Rodgers to say something similar. Maybe a bit classier in the words he chose, but I'd certainly want him conveying that he was only focused on our team.

And it's working for van Persie as well. Rumours in the press yesterday that he was about to have a "change of heart" about resigning with the Mancs, when he's already on a contract that pays him 250k/week up until he turns 33! Now he wants Rooney money, presumably on a 5-year deal that will also carry him up until he's 35 or 36. Why on earth they would contemplate giving an injury prone player of that age that kind of contract is beyond me, but I hope they do.

It's an interesting question that you pose, because now that we're actually, you know, good again, it's not nearly as easy to point to a player in our squad and say "Yeah, we can improve massively on him." So let me explain why I think that those listed in my post would make for a decent (not unbelievably good, but decent) summer as we look to next season. If we're looking at our forward options I'd say we need a minimum of 5 top-quality options for the 3 positions. Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling, Coutinho ... after that we are short (Aspas/Moses/Borini are not of the required standard IMO). From the list I gave Firmino would be the obvious player to fit in there, would probably start ahead of Sterling though Raheem will still get plenty of time on the pitch and Coutinho would be more of a midfield option while able to fill in up front on the left at a pinch. In the centre of defense, similarly we need 4 top-quality players, preferably two of whom can play at fullback in an injury crisis. Skrtel, Agger and Sakho are 3, but of the players I mentioned I think Caulker (who I rate) would come in and be a significant improvement over Toure. Obviously you don't like Richards but I think he would be a good option as well in the middle or on the right, and would be quite good value as well. Left back is the one obvious exception to my point at the beginning about it being difficult to improve our team, as there is a first XI position there we could easily upgrade, though I'm not sure who we'll be able to afford. Hughes would continue our plan of buying young players with an eye to the future, as well as a bit more midfield depth if we didn't loan him out, and for me, that makes a decent summer. Firmino the highlight, to be sure, but I think there would be plenty there to get excited about for next season. Anyway, it's all academic as I am sure we'll be buying different players from that, I was just surprised at your disgust at the idea those would be the players we went after.

I want them to stay in, just to feel more secure about him staying in the job, but if they have to go out I suppose I'd be happy with them winning 2-0 tonight and then going out on penalties or an extra-time goal. That would give more than enough evidence of another "corner turned," especially if they could take a point or more from City this weekend afterwards.

Anyone who says anything other than Flanagan's goal is objectively wrong.

Is Gaitan actually any good? I have only seen him play once and I thought he was poor, but I have a bad habit of forming an opinion on a non-LFC player the first time I see him play and then letting it colour whatever they do thereafter. I still think that Giuly and Pienaar are absolutely stealing (well, stole in the former case) a living after watching them in a poor performance the first time I saw them play. Caulker and Richards I'd have here, though. Add in Firmino, Will Hughes and a left back and that would be an excellent summer IMO.

It would be a fine building block in an already excellent season if they were to beat City at the weekend, thus keeping Moyes in a job for another few months.

Only just noticed that they actually have him under contract already until his 33rd birthday. Why on earth would they want to give a bumper new contract (he's already on 250k/week, so presumably he'd want around 300k/week to sign a new one) to an injury-prone player to keep him beyond the age of 33? They're far better off letting his current contract expire or trying to sell him for a few quid in January of 2016 when he has 6 months left. No surprise that Robin is making nice then, hoping to get a wage increase similar to Rooney's recent deal. I hope they sign him to extension that puts them on the hook for that much money all the way until he's 36 or so, trying to hobble around the pitch with knee braces and going for horse placenta rubs every week.

It's truly amazing how easy it is to forget. He was better than ace, he was absolutely brilliant. Better than Fowler or Owen, honestly. And it was only a few years ago, as well - he's still just 29 and should still be in the prime of his career. Shocking how far he's fallen.

Yep. Suarez, Gerrard (pen) and Sturridge, 1-3.

It's as simple as this: if we can't win a game at Old Trafford when United are reeling, then we don't really deserve to be champions.

For me the interesting question is who will be sold. I suspect that a player or two that maybe the majority wouldn't want to see go will be out the door. Agger? Suso? Who knows? Anyway, we need a fullback, a centre back and a midfielder at a minimum. Another forward and, if Agger goes, another centre back as well wouldn't go amiss. As for which players to target, I have no idea. That Firmino kid from Hoffenheim seems like he might be worth a punt, and we've been tentatively linked in a few places.

According to Deuteronomy 13, the thing to do with false prophets is to stone them. If I were him, I'd be very, very sure that he's gotten the correct info before trying to tell everyone what God says.

Costa would be in instead of Sterling; he and Suarez would buzz and change positions either side of Sturridge. It would be the most feared forward line in Europe and we would have been sensational. Imagine being a defender and having to look forward to playing against 3 different forwards who are all mobile, deadly finishers and two of whom are absolutely mad and could bite/spit on you at any moment. Mkhitaryan is harder to place, but I would guess that he would have played where Coutinho ended up in the latter part of this season, as the furthest forward of the three midfielders. His pressing, pace, and ball-striking would have been a help. I would probably say that had Mkhitaryan come, we would have seen a lot less of Henderson this season as the midfield would have consisted of Gerrard, Mkhitaryan, and one other (rotate between Lucas, Henderson, and Allen). Due to how well Henderson has played this season, it's probably fair to say that Mkhitaryan has not been a huge loss, though he does seem to have more of an eye for goal than our Jordan so maybe we would have netted a few more.

Maybe this is because I grew up in South America, but when I moved to England and played (just friendly kickabouts, nothing professional) there I was always startled by how physical the games were. (And I say that as a player who, at 6'5" and 14.5 stone, was much better suited for the physical game than the beautiful one.) For me, I want to watch players like Messi and Suarez dribbling through and around defenders like they aren't there due to magical control on the ball. The one-touch passing of some of those smaller players you mock, like Silva, Cazorla, Coutinho is the best thing about the Premier League. I honestly don't understand people who would rather watch Aaron Lennon kick the ball and then run onto it as fast as he can, or the likes of Roy Keane (or Momo Sissoko!) muscling players off the ball in midfield. I understand there's a place for physicality and strength on the football pitch, but for me if given a choice between the two I'd rather watch players with touch and vision instead. To each their own, I suppose, but I hate when referees favour the former over the latter.

Can't decide whether you should be repped for wanting to suffocate him or negged for forgetting.

I think 3rd is the most likely outcome, probably around 78 or 80 points. If, however, Chelsea/City drop some foolish points and we beat both of them at Anfield, I think we'll have a decent shot at shocking everyone and winning the league. If we go into that Chelsea game less than 3 points behind them, then I don't think we'll lose any of those last three games, which would mean the title. Gerrard simply won't let it happen IMO. The key will be getting to that game within 3 points and not dropping silly points at Old Trafford or at West Ham or something.