schmuckdonald

Yeah but we were playing a 4-4-2 then, not 4-2-3-1. From sky sports: About Turner. "I was talking with (Hull manager) Phil Brown, but I will not talk about figures. But maybe I was just talking to Phil about the weather," said Benitez." About the situation. "We have two options. One is to bring in someone at the back and the other option is to keep working with the young players we have," added Benitez. "We have three centre-backs to get fit and will need one more as a fourth. We have to decide what to do, but the one solution we can achieve is to work with the youngsters."

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Gerrard playing deeper. Especially alongside Mascherano. Gerrard and Torres should be together and Gerrard and Mascherano can't play together as they only play at one speed: 100 mp/h.

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I really hope not.

Ayala and San Jose have potential but they're not ready and Kelly should be inline to cover at CB/RB if we don't bring anyone in.

Qoute from Benitez post-Atletico Offal: "He knows Aquilani will need time. The players have to show the quality they have and when we decided to bring in Aquilani we knew he would be out for one month or so, so we analysed the squad and we think that with Mascherano, Lucas, Gerrard and Plessis we have enough." He praised Lucas as well, I guess we might not be getting another CM after all. Defence will be priority I think. Distin/Turner. And Silva please.

BBC have the rights to something like 20 games this season? Or something stange, I think there's a game on every fortnight or something. I could be making this up, however. Newcastle squad is strong enough to destroy the championship. Still got Gutierrez, Smith, Enrique, Collocini, Nolan, Steven Taylor, Ryan Taylor etc. etc.

I wish I had the channels to be able to watch Ligue I, Eredivise and Bundesliga. Although I did enjoy Southampton v Millwall today.

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Rafa came in after the Cissé deal didn't he?

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Snippets from Sky Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie has issued a hands-off warning to any potential suitors of Sylvain Distin, Niko Kranjcar and David James. Skysports.com understands a number of Premier League clubs are keen on signing Valencia ace Ever Banega. I just mentioned the Banega thing 'cause i'm sure someone said that they'd like us to go in for him.

I'd rather him than that sh*t Russian up there. At least he can tire defenders out and stretch them.

Where has this come from?

Pretty sure he was suggesting that he isn't a priority for the money that Valencia want as we can't afford it. Regardless, I wasn't defending Ballague, just suggesting that Yossi can fill the gap that most people seem to think is our big problem area.

He's a clown who only revels in the Carling Cup. I just don't think any of our CB's are good enough yet, and the other top sides don't defend like we do.

You can be a better quality CF than Pavluychenko for £5.50. And I don't trust having young CB's in our backline, when it's shuffled is when we've looked vulnerable at the back. Considering we play so stringently to zonal marking and utilising the offside trap you need experience and a good understanding between the players. At CF we can put Kuyt, Babel or N'Gog up there.

Re: this whole situation with players to play "in the 3", could Aquilani not play that high up the pitch as an orthodox playmaker? I don't know much about him, but just a thought....

What he says about Yossi does kind of ring true though.

We should sign that Adam Hammill. Has there been any other news on Poulsen since the Echo basically said it wasn't true at all?

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This on the basis that Xabi Alonso decided to leave after 5 years at the club?

Re: Lucas He's given some comments to offal about being eager to impress and looking forward to the next season. Not what someone off to Corinthians would be saying.

If we could pull off Silva and Distin/Turner then that'll be brilliant summer. It'd give us depth and quality all over the park. Right back might look a bit scant, but there'll be players who can fill the void.