Very close to my view. I really like the off the pitch stuff that Southgate has done to change the feeling around England. He seems to deal with the players very well, says the right things, etc. But - and it's a massive but - there's very little evidence that he has the tactical nous to get the most out of the talented squad available to him, or that he can react when things start going against us. His record in tournaments is far more chequered than some admit. We lost three games in 2018, and were taken to pens by Colombia. Flat track bullies in one of the most fortunate runs to a WC semi that you will ever see. He deserves more credit for 2020, but there too I really believe a different manager makes us more likely to beat Italy before pens.

Spain look handy, but then again they have the potential to be flat track bullies with their style of play. Their game against Germany looks like it should be a humdinger now. Even a draw might effectively knock the Germans out if Japan win well against Costa Rica.

100 percent. They were a hair's whisker away from knocking out Belgium in 2018. You'd obviously back the Germans against them more often than not, but it nothing like the same as yesterday.

I'm still trying!

The VAR decision genuinely took the shine off what was an excellent performance for me. Obviously 6-1 bs 6-2 doesn't make much difference, but is this what we can expect as the tournament progresses? If those sorts of calls are going to be made in the knock out stage you might as well award the World Cup by drawing lots.

And they won the World Cup!

Don't think there's many at this level who do all of those things well consistently, and those that do tend to get snapped up pretty quick.

If Mola is fit (thought I picked up that he was injured, but I could be wrong) I'd play him centre back and play Edun at left back. Leave S. Wharton on the bench. Otherwise I'd probably do something similar with JRC at right back and Carter in the middle. I'd avoid starting any outfield player who's in line to play on Sunday.

We probably wouldn't, but prices are usually inflated in January and teams get desperate. Teams might want to pay a decent fee to avoid having to compete with more clubs in the summer. It's not out of the question that a team throws decent money at BBD.

Partially agree with this, but some of those players were only going to be bit part players. I'm not overly bothered if Phillips isn't fit if Bellingham is playing instead, or that Calvert-Lewin hasn't been on form for a while. Others are more concerning, but (and I'm pinning a lot on this) are going to be playing in a totally different system for England than they do for their clubs. Maguire, despite everything, could easily be a completely different player when playing a deep 3 in the back compared to what he has been asked to do at United for the last couple of years. Grealish hasn't become a bad player either and it's not as though England will be asking him to play the same way as he does for City. Sterling is a bit more worrying as there's nothing about how Chelsea play which accounts for his poor form. Some are coming into good form too. I wouldn't start him, but it's good to see that Rashford is looking more like the player he can be.

I think this would be a mistake, based on what we've seen from the team and the limited bits that we've seen of Dack. But - if JDT has made his mind up - there's little point to keep a player who is probably our highest earner warming the bench, and sometimes not even that.

Completely agree with those saying make wholesale changes. Hopefully gives a chance to the likes of Buckley and Markanday to get closer to the side, although it's not exactly going to be ideal circumstances for them to showcase their talent.

A few wins like this one wouldn't have gone amiss after Christmas last year. We now have around half of what we'll likely need for a top 6 spot - which is an impressive achievement for the management team given the tricky situation they inherited. As a pointless bit of trivia - when you look at our results this season compared to the same fixtures last term, we're 14 points up. Obviously you can't read too much into that, but it's good to see that we're picking points in games that we didn't last time out.

Both of our results today are perfect examples of why next week is going to be so hard to call. If they really click and we don't rise to the occasion there's a pretty realistic chance that they could demolish us. Equally, every week they give teams a chance, and their weaknesses in theory suit us. A team with three centre halves, Brereton and Gallagher should be looking at the chances Sheffield United made today and be licking their lips.

I know we have to drop a good centre half if we're going with a back four, but I hate seeing S. Wharton left out of the side.

I don't think we will get £15 million - probably a lot less. But the circumstances of a January window means that teams might pay a premium. Brereton is showing that last season wasn't a flash in the pan, and any team who wants him will know that they'll be competing with a much bigger group of teams in the summer if he goes for a three.

I'd leave the whole first XI at home for the West Ham game! That's the side I'd go with too, albeit it's harsh on A. Wharton and to a degree, Carter.

I'd be surprised if there aren't significant knock on effects from that bug. If it's flu as has been reported, that's not going to clear up for them all in a day or two. Plus you'd think there's a very decent chance that some players will have developed symptoms later, and they won't have been training in a meaningful way to prevent the bug spreading. They even had to put demonstrably unfit players on the pitch for 90 mins at the weekend due to a lack of options, so they won't welcome another game just a couple of days later. If they can still perform to a good level with all of that going against them then fair play, but by all accounts they were lucky to escape from the Blackpool game without a hiding.

If we were languishing in midtable and managed to get a bid around 8 figures, I'd strongly consider letting him go. Replacing him like for like will be near enough impossible irrespective of the fee, but at least there's a profit on our initial outlay and the opportunity to invest back in the squad. If we get towards the end of January approaching 50 points though, then we'd be absolutely insane to sell for any price. Such a frustrating one as you can see the rest of the squad being in a great position next year (assuming we don't go up this year) but BBD is such an enormous hole to fill.

Robins sounds pretty certain that the match will go ahead, either at Cov or somewhere else. Apparently a flu bug has been going through their squad the last day or two. Could be an ideal time to play them.

Might seem like an odd thing to say, but I'm really pleased that he signed a new contract before being dropped. I've got total confidence that - sooner or later - he'll get back to and surpass his good form from last year. The fact that his contract runs for as long as it does means that neither party should be tempted into hasty ideas of him moving on.

Oooft! That is genuinely worse than us at Elland Road a few years ago, and that's saying something.

For their good points, we used to concede more than our fair share of late goals under both Bowyer and Mowbray. It's going to take a while to get that out of our system!

I think there's an element of not wanting to make a premature call on him, and there's definitely been some of that. Players do sometimes come back from serious injuries and be just as effective, but usually that involves a bit of patience and letting players get back into the rhythm of playing. Obviously you have others like Jansen who was given years to try and get back but just couldn't manage it. We still don't know which of the two Dack is going to be, and we won't until he gets a consistent run of games.

Brighton have tended to be pretty good at not losing their assets for less than their worth, so I suspect they'll have something up their sleeve on Van Hecke. No idea on what sort of fee he would command or whether it's remotely realistic that we could get him, but if we could put Ayala's wage to getting Van Hecke next year then that would be a tremendous bit of business.