That hour went very quickly and I think I need a lesson in touch-typing. Apologies to all those I missed. I was going as quickly as possible, honestly. Cheers

If Arsenal's Plan B is to play as they did at Man City, I would back them to win. the problem with Arsenal is that it was the first time I've seen Plan B in use and, very quickly, Plan A has come back into force.

At City, it was a rounded, professional show of football intelligence (with Cazorla providing some stardust). Compare that with the naivety against Monaco and all the old faults and defensive chaos.

That said, United seem to be on their Plan P or Q by now. It's difficult to keep up.

If he subbed him in 15 to 20 games in succession, perhaps.

As it is, I wouldn't read too much into it. look through Van Gaal's history and one of the things he preaches is that he does not get influenced by names.

He has subbed Van Persie many times and if you back to his Ajax days he subbed Jari Litmanen, his No 10, in the European Cup final against Milan.

There is, however, clearly an issue with Di Maria.

I've found the Ozil thing a bit overplayed as well, to be honest.

There was a point last season when he would have a decent game and there was all the 'he's back' stuff and then the following week he would have a bad game and it would revert to crisis. And on and on.

The truth is probably in between - he hasn't managed to sustain that brilliant early form from when he first signed (Cazorla seems more of an important player to me) but he's certainly not a duff and there are times when he is made the scapegoat.

You're right about Sanchez too. He has had a lull and it took him a while to settle in. I can remember going to some games at the start of the season and he was very much, in newspaper terms, a six out of ten. Yet the narrative around him has always been very different.

With Liverpool still in it?

No, not a chance. Not the biggest thing in the world, but it was a slightly clumsy statement.

He just looks a different player. The old Falcao could be explosive, he would terrorise opponents and you always wanted him on the ball. The new one just looks like a regular striker - the occasional nice touch, but none of the old greatness. Sad to see really.

I wouldn't rule it out. He's a good player, sometimes very good - it's just, as Van Gaal rather abruptly pointed out, he's not at the next level (an argument that is undermined, perhaps, by the failings of Falcao and Van Persie this season).

Giroud can be erratic sometimes and, yes, that game against Monaco was a personal ordeal for him, but he's generally a better finisher than Welbeck and much superior at holding the ball up, bringing others into play.

People also forget that Welbeck actually asked to leave MUFC. It seemed to become a debate about United moving out one of their own but he had actually told the club he wanted to leave last April (then strategically leaked to the Sun).

I've told this story before so forgive me for the repetition but that miss against Bayern Munich in the Champions League at Old Trafford . . United's scouts/coaches thought they had seen one tiny flaw in Manuel Neuer's game before that night: that in one-on-one situations he would come off his line and leave the floor in a kind of star-jump move to block the shot.

It was part of United's planning. Moyes told his players that if any of them went through to keep it low. Then Welbeck was put clear. His big moment. The chance to put United in front. What did he do? He tried to chip Neuer and put the ball into his hands . .

All that said, I have to emphasise I think he's a good player for the most part.

I'm not a huge fan. He's obviously a decent enough defender but it feels to me like people still stalk about Evans as this young player of great potential. He's 27 years old.

I don't really think passion is the problem. If you look at Rooney's part in the winning goal at Newcastle last week, that's a player giving absolutely everything in the last few minutes. It's a much quieter team than in the past but that is the same for most clubs.

The greater problem, I'd say, is the team understanding what Van Gaal wants and the fact, eight months in, it still feels like he's experimenting.

There was a nice line from Michael Walker - formerly of this paper - at the weekend. Van Gaal, he said, is "presiding over a puzzle" and that's how I see it. I'm not sure anyone - possibly even his own players - is absolutely certain where it is going.

It's a bit weird, that video. I could understand if someone might think it looks strange but, equally, I can see why the club are irritated that it suddenly generates 900-word think-pieces about whether Giggs wants out. I guess that's just the microscope on United. I get a lot of supporters from other clubs (City, especially) complaining that their coverage is magnified. The spotlight on Old Trafford is always burning that little bit more brightly.

I haven't detected any problems between Giggs and Van Gaal but (slight name-drop) I did speak to a former United player about the footage from Newcastle and his view was that it was more than strange and probably something in it. It's all supposition, though.

The pressure on Wenger would be pretty intolerable, wouldn't it? I think there's a lot of respect for Wenger in the media but there are also lots of legitimate questions about whether he's ever going to be a title-winning manager again. It's a difficult one but it is possible to admire him and also to realise that greatness can leave a man and that managers, like players, have periods of good form and bad form.

The press box at Arsenal is behind the dugouts and I'm always quite shocked by the level of pent-up anger there is around there. It's a grumpy place sometimes and he obviously polarises opinion these days.

For Van Gaal, that would be a pretty joyless first season and it would warrant a lot of criticism. I'm not really one, though, for campaigning for managers to be removed and I would be really surprised if it meant another change. It would, however, put a lot of scrutiny on his second season.

The mistake United made - and no apologies for repeating this - was not getting the best in when Ferguson left. That is Van Gaal's description by the way. "I was always the 'arrogant Louis van Gaal.' Now, he is better than me." And the guy we're talking about is about to win the Premier League title for Chelsea.

Completely agree with you. The FA Cup sixth-round weekend is meant to be one of the great weekends of the season. As it is, it has been flat in the extreme. But it's modern football, isn't it? We don't have to like it but it's never going to change and we probably just have to put up with it.

It was the same in the third round when they actually stretched it from Friday night to Tuesday night. File it with having semis at Wembley, 5.15pm kick-off times and those Budweiser ribbons on the trophy, in my old-fashioned and grumpy view.

Part of the problem for United and the transfer market is that they plan it all up to six months in advance but for the last two seasons they have changed manager in the summer. The new manager has new plans and that means that all of the background work, or a lot of it, is then lost.

One example - Ferguson wanted Thiago from Barcelona and the club had spent three years looking at him. Then Moyes comes along and he hasn't seen enough of the player, feels uncomfortable about it and the club - rightly, I think - support their manager (the fact Moyes then went to Fellaini is another story, clearly)

Last summer, the same again to a degree. United started looking at their summer targets in the winter, in keeping with all the top clubs (City actually came up with Mangala, Sagna and Fernando in October). Moyes wanted Fabregas. They looked at Cavani and Pogba but it was Fabregas they really wanted and - despite what he will tell you - the player was more than keen. Then Moyes is sacked and the whole thing sort of fizzles out.

This summer, it should be different obviously and we will know for certain that any signings are Van Gaal signings. To answer your question, they have to trust him. They have come this far, there is no other choice that I see.