Nibs

Think you're a bit off the mark there. Unless you were there it's hard to comment. TV do not always stick microphones right under the noisy area of the ground - although I know they do like to do so at the Kop, just to keep that myth I heard plenty of singing and it was far from flat.

That points to Uncle Ken being involved somewhere along the line. "Look don't worry about the low capacity - as long as there are restaurants and appartments................ "

I'm pretty sure you'll find their pitch is turfed, just like all other pitches.

Not sure if these have been done in one of the other threads - haven't seen any if they have. This is how I saw it anyway: Cech 8 Solid - as good as ever and 1 very good and important save Paulo 7.5 Did well - rarely trouble by that useless Dutch bloke JT 7 OK - without being back to his best yet Carvo 9 MOTM. Great throughout and set up the move for the goal. How many defenders would have just hoofed it out? Ashley 7 Mainly did a good job, although one rash challenge when Gerrard skipped past him could have cost us Maka 8 Back to something like the Maka we know - great job doing what he does best Mikel 8 Another impressive showing. Showed a lot of composure and made a brilliant pass that Kalou should have done more with Lamps 7.5 Lot better and unlucky not to get on score sheet Joe 7.5 Well taken goal - lively early on but tired - still a match winnner and what we've sorely missed when he was out. But cut out the falls! Droga 8.5 Liverpool fear him so much. Great display, spoilt just slightly by a few theatrics but not much. Sheva 4 The one low point. The stage was set he might as well not have been there. Kalou 6.5 Always lively, but needs to learn when to release that ball. SWP 6 Didn't have long enough to make an impact but made one good run that ended up with a foul (although not according to Carjaker!!)

Don't get me wrong I love Jose on the whole, but he did make such a big thing about it. The interviewer was asking him about the game but he kept going on & on about the "penalty" and no way should have he been making such claims if he hadn't even seen the incident. It makes him and us look stupid - especially when he then again couldn't resist mentioning the "Garcia goal". Two year ago Jose - LET IT LIE!!!!!

Thought the ref had a great game and I'd be more than happy if he was ref for the game at Anfield.

Seeing Zenden in their line up last night definitely calmed my nerves. I mean, that bloke wasn't good enough for us 4/5 seasons ago so why on earth would you pick him in such a big game? Rafa big time cock up - lets hope he plays him second leg too. Riise has given us big problems over the last couple of seasons so it was good to see his only involvement last night seemed to be cleaning the ball with his shirt and taking throw ins!!

At times last night I was cringing any time Sheva went near the ball. He was terrible. I don't care how much running someone does, running alone does not contribute much to a team. It was like playing with 10 men for the large part and I think we could have another Kezman scenario here - one season and then bye bye.

A mistake maybe Loz - but is's not the first and he really needs to think sometimes before he opens his mouth. I was embarrassed with his comments last night on what was otherwise a bloody good night.

Erm, you seem to have mis-spelt the word QUALITY. i spelled it exactly right, i even did a spell check. as good as he might be i have never seen a flukier player than him. it is not a bad thing to have. Nothing "Flukey" about Joe's goal last night RRM

For the neutral that was a great game to watch - I really enjoyed it. The way it swayed one way then the other. Had mixed feeling 'cos I always like to see Man Utd get beat, especially at OT, but then I would love to meet and beat them in the final. Fair play to them 'cos at 1-2 they looked down and out, yet in the end could easily have won by more.

Not sure about "fine". He came on for 25 minutes and did precisely nothing. If Sheva is gonna play I would start with him as he just doesn't seem the type of player that can come off the bench and help change a game. That said, the form he is in (or isn't) I wouldn't play him. But then again, he has CL pedigree (whatever that is), so maybe I would start him. Oh why did I bother with this post - I'm off to lunch!!!

Erm, you seem to have mis-spelt the word QUALITY.

Yep, the butterflies are already there and they're only gonna get worse. Trying to forget about the Newcastle (non) performance. That's the trouble with the league and why it's so difficult to win. You have to be up for every game and normally to be fair, we are. You can afford the odd slip up here & there but not now we're at the stage we are. But it is understandable how some times, the team is a bit flat. Can't use that excuse for a Champions League semi final though and if anyone puts in a sub standard performance, that will be hard to accept. Who knows how Mourinho will play it. Essien is out, we know that. Hoping Carvo will be back as I won't be at all comfortable with Boula playing. Will Diarra come back in at right back - personally I hope so and I would prefer Bridge to continue at LB but expect Ashley to get the nod. As for midfield/attack we all know JM likes to keep it as tight as possible and who knows, he may be happy with a 0-0 at The Bridge? That's why I reckon the flair players such as Joe, SWP and maybe even Kalou will be on the bench. JM is happier having them on the bench so they can come on and change the game if need be, rather than have a Sheva or Ballack who chances are won't be able to change things. Is Robben meant to be anywhere near fit for this - perhaps for the bench? If I had to select a starting 11, it would be: Cech Diarra JT Carvo Bridge Maka Mikel Lamps Joe Kalou Drogba Bench. SWP, Robben, Sheva, Ashley Etc Etc.............

No PC access at the weekend so got a lot of catching up to do. This game looked like one game too far for us. That is worrying with so many big games still to come and I do hope it was just a blip. You really would have thought that with Man Utd dropping points on Saturday, the lads would have been as fired up for this game as ever. It was just so lethargic and very disappointing. We don't have a good track record at St James Park but to come away with a 0-0 is very poor. This is the sort of game when we should have thrown everything at them. The stats at the end should have read Chelsea attempts 50+. I wouldn't have minded if it had been 2-2 or 3-3 but 0-0 in a game that was there to be won? Feel JM got it wrong by starting with Maka, Lamps & Ballack, but even when fresh legs did come on, we still lacked that cutting edge. As others have pointed out Lamps is in worryingly bad form at present. How can you criticise a player who has scored so many from midfield and how can you even think about dropping him? It's difficult because you cannot say "without the goals, Lamps is nothing". He is very important to us, but you have to say, on current form, he really doesn't deserve to hold down his place. And if he does start every game, I'd like to at least see Jose take him off when warranted - and yesterday I would have taken him off no doubt. And why does Titus Bramble play crap all season and reserve his best performances for us? If you judged Bramble on that performance he would be starting for England every game!! Doesn't need saying that we need a huge improvement for the Liverpool game Wednesday. I'd love to see us put this one behind us and come flying out from the kick off, but I expect it will be another cagey start and see what develops type game with the likes of Joe starting on the bench

Quite Right. I thought Ballack was as good as ever in this match.

Must say, RedRobMol always comes across as a pretty decent bloke. Always welcome on here as far as I'm concerned and I look forward to exchanging views during the course of the semi final, regardless of the outcome ( ).

Nicely Put But sadly true

Of course none of our players have ever done such a thing

I think you're all getting a bit paranoid chaps. I've heard plenty of good things said about us - our performance last night including both of SWP's goals AND the run we are on at the moment. Jamie Rednapp & Gary Mac were both full of praise last night and even Andy Gray had plenty of good things to say - with the "Take a bow son" for SWP's goal. So lighten up you lot!!!

Football has moved on so much in the last decade or so and most of it we just have to accept. The kick off times / Sky TV etc - can't ever see that going back to how it was - 3.00pm Saturday or midweek games Tuesdays & Wednesdays 7.30 / 7.45 kick off. Love the idea of terracing again and being able to "just turn up" on the day, but again - it ain't gonna happen. The one thing I do hate in games now, is the putting the ball out when a player is "injured" - it's gone way too far. Originally, if one of the opposition went down and you could see it was a bad injury, yeah put the ball out and when play resumes they give you the ball back. All very fair no problem with that. But now, ANY time someone goes down everyone expects the ball to be put out. It's crazy. Most of the time the player isn't even injured. It was noticeable in the Blackburn semi final how players on both sides got irate when the ball wasn't put out and it's a stupid situation. If say we put the ball out because one of our own players is down, why should the other side give it back? CHANGE IT NOW!!! And personally I would also like to go back to just having one sub. Again, I know it will never happen - not in these days of massive squads and players who don't play a lot being on ?50k+ a week (I'd also like to see that changed!!), but 11 players and you get 1 sub and that's how it is for everyone. Keeper get's injured? Too bad - it used to happen and you get JT (or Speedie!!!) go in goal. Would make it more exciting AND you wouldn't get those stupid 89th minute wind the clock down substitions. Good Thread!!

These things always turn into a Robben vs Cole thread!!! Of course they shouldn't and I am as guilty as others in that. As it's been said we should be happy to have them both, especially when they are both in form and fully fit. For those who think that Robben is better than Cole - fair enough - it's your opinion. I don't and although I think on his day he can be brilliant, for me he's never had the same all round ability and skill that Joe has - and that's nothing to do with Joe being English - it's just how I see it. I'm just happy that we have these players who can change a game and if SWP can repeat the sort of form that he showed against the Spammers all the better.

Here Here. I know at times Bridge can look a little awkward defensively - but then again so can Cole? Bridge seems so much better going forward and the way he set up SWP for that goal was brilliant. Fair play to SWP - two great goals and a pretty good all round display. Cech had a game he'll want to forget though Happy that those slips came against the Spammers. As long as he's back to his best for the huge games coming up.

What a GREAT GOAL. My dream is for us to sign Messi. That ain't gonna happen I guess. That goal has probably put his value up by another ?10m. Anyway, as other's on here point out - he isn't a patch on Robben

That HAS to be a wind up You have talked of Joe Cole bias in the past. What you have just come out with there is Robben bias to the extreme!!! GET REAL!!