Bannofan

I think it's been widely noted that they haven't been good all season; defence very dodgy and Salah has been a shadow of the force he was last year. They kept getting late winners and riding their luck, but eventually it caught up with them and they are getting what their performances deserve now. I have a feeling Slot is on borrowed time, the manager is the easiest person to replace and didn't cost over a £100 million like Wirtz and Isak. Maybe Klopp comes back on a short term deal to rescue the season?

I think it will be studied as the season that a team just stopped caring about football due to the death of a team mate.

They should be embarrassed to be in the bottom 3 with their squad. It's why nobody in the media is giving them any credit. They should be ashamed for celebrating like they are, but United fans don't do self awareness or humility. I would absolutely love it if they came down with us.

Don't want to see players injured, but if there was one that needed kicking up in the air, it's this little bell end.

I've never seen a game on Match Of The Day where a player is not mentioned once, but that happened with Isak in the Liverpool/Forest game. I don't know how Liverpool turn this around to be honest.

Just keep it to less than 4 please

7/2 Anytime goalscorer. Believe.

Good points, thank you for the clarifications!. I think with Zaire in 1974, there's the classic clip of the player charging out of the wall and booting the ball away, with the summation that they didn't really know the rules ( pretty insulting, but that was the 70's). I didn't realise only 3 South American teams were in at Argentina '78. Would it have been 2 if Argentina weren't the hosts?

I think the breakup of the USSR massively increased UEFA didn't it? That's not to take away Scotland's achievement in making those tournaments though. 1974 - The one African side was Zaire ( DR Congo now) East Germany played as a separate nation. Our mates Haiti as the CONCACAF representative. No France, Spain, Belgium, England, Portugal, Uruguay.

Steve McClaren quits as Jamaica gaffer. Reggae boys have an almighty faff to qualify for the WC now, but still should make it. Haiti though, absolute scenes when they realised they were through. All I know about Haiti is what I learned from ' Live and Let Die' , and quite frankly I'm not looking forward to seeing Baron Samedi or Papa Shango again.

It's a bit of lightbulb moment from Tuchel. The stats for English strikers this season make grim reading once you take Kane out of the question. Tuchel doesn't see the value in taking an Ollie Watkins/ Dominic Solanke standard player as back up, when they are clearly nowhere near the level of the Kane. I think he was considering Welbeck, who's a very clever , technical striker and although it was a good while back, and always played well on the international stage ( in my opinion). I wouldn't be surprised if he feels his embarrassment of riches in ' number 10's' could fill any Kane shaped gap as well any dedicated striker could. Eze Palmer Foden Bellingham Rashford All better bets than taking a sub par striker, and more versatile as well.

Gattuso doing his nut about this, after losing to Norway. He's quoting the number of South American teams that can qualify, basically 7 out of 10 will probably go through. Italy haven't done badly , but Haaland had guided Norway to a ridiculous campaign. Now Italy have to come through the challenging play offs if they are to qualify, after missing the last two WC's.

It's all about his attitude and team work. He wanted to be the main character a bit too much again against Albania, he lost the ball quite a lot but that is going to happen if you want the sugar as well. Bellingham has more game changing moments in him than any other England player bar Kane. I don't think Tuchel learned anything he didn't know about Bellingham, so it's whether he goes with a more team and tactic orientated player like Rogers, or goes with someone less disciplined but more capable of doing something special to win a tight match.

This has been too easy for England, we need some games against the best that other continents have to offer. I know it was early in his tenure, but we did get our backsides handed to us by Senegal, and I can't help thinking we will still struggle defensively next year against quick, counter attacking sides.

It would of course be absolutely hilarious if we beat them.

I think from an SWFC perspective, there's blokes aged 40 + who love going to an event a Hillsborough to listen to their old heroes like Sterland and Varadi from the mid 80's Wilko era, and Hirsty and Shez & Carlton P. from the early 90's. A nice evening with a bit of food and beer, nostalgia for the glory days, and quite frankly providing an income and something to do for players that wouldn't have earned millions from the game.

That's a really good read, and very well written. It would make a good documentary, someone following these ubiquitous after dinner speeches & Q & A's.

Hi next stop will be a top Bundesliga job, then the national role if it comes up at an opportune time. I certainly don't think he's daft enough to take a job with a crap Premiership team like Leeds, Burnley or Wolves. He'd not be a bad shout for Bournemouth or Brighton though, thinking about it.

England squad for the final qualifiers announced : https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c0mxgd10j2yo I don't have many issues with this, good to see Adam Wharton back in, and I like the inclusion of Alex Scott. We have a couple of ' water carriers' there who will give the more creative players an opportunity to shine, whilst being very technically adept themselves. Tuchel seems to have decided on his full backs with James & Spence his go to players. I would imagine he is keeping an eye on Livramento and Lewis-Skelly as back ups as well. I really like that he hasn't tried to shoe horn a direct replacement for Kane either, with Rashford , Bowen or Foden available for the central role if needed. I think we have tried too hard with players like Watkins and Solanke, who are nowhere near the same quality as Kane.

That's a very interesting thread, it seems like quite a few groups were using the match to push their own causes/agenda, including a group of blokes with no interest in the game singing songs about Tommy Robinson. I think a few people talking about how quiet it was under estimate the power of a big police presence. Quite a few saying it wasn't necessary as it was so quiet , but that's because the presence of the rozzers had done achieved exactly what it was supposed to.

Didn't realise we had Dish and Chalobah still with us! How key a player would a fully fit Chalobah be for us? quality and experience.

Cannot abide Rodgers; arrogant egotistical chancer. Thinks he's a great manager because he's won a few titles with Celtic. Honestly, that job shouldn't be on a mangers CV as it's that easy to win domestic trophies with them. He'll be looking for the next easy ' spend loads of money, claim it's all his coaching talent' job. Kind of bloke that will be baffled if he's not offered a top 6 premier league job next.

I'd not seen this and wondered what the hell was happening as we drove down Parkside Road, it was like early knockings on Matchday. I don't think the club shop can get stock in quick enough. I hate the price of kit in the club shop, but I now want to do my 'bit' and spend some dosh. I'll be joining a long queue though! .

I'm almost in tears here. This is like a cross between the Berlin Wall coming down and the end scene of ' It's A wonderful Life' I know what Wednesday fans are like, this will be a sell out with people desperately trying to get tickets.

Nick Woltemade - what a player, absolute box office. Newcastle have a new folk hero there, fans are quickly forgetting about Isaak. They have Wissa to come back when fit as well. I think they will have a strong season.