A team of grafters will only take you so far. You need the skill factor as well.

That's not a team that has me jumping out of my seat I'm afraid Mark. Centre midfield is too plodding and predictable. We need at least one of those three that can regularly get up and beyond the strikers. I can't see that in those three. Also I'm not sure Nyambe and Bell are creative enough to contribute enough from out wide for that system to work well. I agree with Mowbray we need to build slowly, a couple of good players every year. That's what Dyche has done down the road. He signs a couple of good players each year that go more or less straight into the first team. They'll do it again this close season. Piece by piece you end up with a good team. You could say Mowbray did that last year with Smallwood and Dack. The thing is these players we sign have to be good enough to hit the ground running and go into the first team right away. Signing back up players isn't the answer for us now we're playing at a higher level.

Those tattoos are just God's way of telling you that you have too much money.

Not good enough.

We won't be signing any released Premier League players. The wages for even the average to poor Premier League players are way beyond our means. That ship sailed years ago.

He looked a class act when he first got into the City team.

Ravel Morrison ?

How could they be fair challenges. Kane was wrestled over and thrown onto the ground ! I'm glad he got his own back in the best way possible at the end of the game.

If it is £2 million we won't be paying it.

How did Sterling miss that chance that was ruled out for the guy who passed the ball being off side ? My mum could have got that one on goal and she's in her 80's. He looked like he'd never seen a football before. How many times did he run down a blind alley and lose the ball ?

I was concerned with the way being on the receiving end of some really bad refereeing decisions seemed blow us off course. We lost our way almost completely for the rest of the game. We ended up playing walking football.

Walker's always got a mistake in him. I don't rate Young as a left back. Trippier was excellent, never made a mistake all night. Linguard was poor in front of goal, Alli started great but went quiet. Sterling is clueless, he dribbles when he comes to a pair of feet, too much head down. Rashford should start next time. Kane had two touches and won us the game, one a really good headed finish. At that point in the game it's easy to panic, he didn't. I couldn't believe how he got that amount of room, before that they were all over him like a cheap suit. Henderson was ok. The goalie only touched the ball once. Did the referee have his eyes painted on ? VAR is a joke. If Tunisia ever start a rugby league team there were a couple of good recruits out there. Play like we did in the first 20 minutes and we'll be a threat. Play like we did in the second half and we'll go out in the first knock out game.

I don't want us to be signing " back up " players at this point. We want players who can come into the first eleven and improve it.

Unless England surprise me tonight I've seen a few sides that look better than us. Even the sides that have lost games.

That's hard to believe. Most people would give their left testicle to play in the World Cup !

I never rated him Mike, he just got lucky.

They'll be back. Just not their day today.

Can I just say I think the referees have been excellent so far.

Costa Rica v Serbia, really end to end stuff. Great to watch.

Me too but I'm not Mowbray. I agree about Williams being better at the back than as a full back.

We won't win many games in this league playing well for 45 minutes.

If we play the system that Mowbray is alleged to favour, 3 centre halves, we'll need another one I think. Downing is a decent stand in and Williams can play there at a pinch, Wharton is coming through but another first choice centre half would be handy. Having a centre half who's dominant in the air would be a plus too. Having said that not all tall guys are good headers of the ball.

I've always liked Peru. I think it might be the shirt, it's unique. I was watching highlights of Peru v Scotland 1978 yesterday on the Internet. What a player Teofilo Cubillas was, he scored two fantastic goals in that game. The first one was an absolute rocket into the top corner, the second was a free kick using a technique I've never seen another player use.

I think he lacks a football brain. You need that even on the wing.

Hoban looked a decent player until he got injured and Emnes was handy.