NeilR

A Markus babel is what we need. That guy was immense & a shame illness robbed him & us of a few more top notch years.

Spot on with all 4 counts.

Impressive! Its actually something I expected us to do more under Rogers and something I think he tried early in his time with us but then adapted and changed what he was doing (for tactical or personnel reasons, I dont know) and there seemed less of an emphasis on it. Was great watching how the whole team did it as a unit at the weekend, and hope its something we'll continue to pursue.

M'vila only cost Ruben £9.6m and hasn't set the world alight with them (still think he'd do a job for us). Reports on Salah have all stated in and around the £15m mark. And Montoya is on a Free in 6 months, so a couple of million might do it. So I wouldnt think £25-30m would be too far off the mark.

Would be a fantastic piece of business. Plausible too. Would help us give a good push on for the 2nd half of the season with most of our main rivals still to come to Anfield. Would probably mean a right footer playing left back for a considerable number of games. How much is that likely to cost...£25m?

On current form I think he should be in for Agger, and I'm a fan of Agger's and never been 100% convinced in Skertl. Would have liked to see Sakho paired with Toure against Hull or Norwich.

Your are absolutely right here. Rafa built his side around a strong central spine first and foremost. It was the wings where we lacked under him (maybe just didn't get the time or backing to get round to it). But Right up the middle of the pitch we were extremely strong, which made us very hard to beat. Reina, Hyypia, Carra, Agger, Masch, Alonso, Gerrard, Torres...I'd kill for a spine like that now. Comparing it with our current team and you can argue we might have the backs and strikers to compare but there is a gaping hole in current quality and mix of quality vs that. At the moment, as been our problem all season, our midfield offers little resistance, exposes our back 4 when we dont have the ball, and can isolate our forwards when we win it back as the gap between them seems too big and itself doesn't score enough goals. I'm sure it is something Rogers is looking at, but we lack a monster / destroyer in the middle of the park. We have Gerrard, Henderson, Allen, Lucas, and even Alberto. Gerrard hasnt the legs to do that role now and switches off too much to opposition drifting in towards our box (he should be the forward most of the 3 in the middle in my eyes). Lucas had the ability at one point but it seems like its not coming back since the injury. The others are too light and to be fair its not their game or type of player they are. To me if we are to have any chance of top 4 this year it needs to be addressed in january and an enforcer brought in. Can see one making way too which in my view should be Allen as he seems surplus, but cant see rogers doing it.

Not to mention he then follows in with 2 feet like scissors to make sure he got him. That alone is an outlawed challenge even ignoring the assault in the first phase. How many red card actions did he have to throw in there to convince the ref to send him off? Thought we were also too nice about the whole incident too. Needed to do what utd do and surround the ref

Look what the palace player was sent off for today & tell me why a challenge by mirrallas which was ten times worse only warranted a yellow ???

Look what the palace player was sent off for today & tell me why a challenge by mirrallas which was ten times worse only warranted a yellow ???

3 excellent shouts but haven't seen any serious links between us and them before. Hopefully that changes,

We could do worse in the short term than reverting back to a flat back 4 of Johnson - toure - Sakho - agger while we wait for Enrique to get fit. Then 3 from Lucas, Gerard, Henderson, Allen in the middle, coutinho in the hole & Suarez & Sturridge up top

Would have liked to see it in place of Skertl with Sakho in the center to see how it panned out. Toure - Sakho - Agger at their peaks is our best back 3, if thats the formation we go forward with.

And even still you just know there will be plenty on here complaining we aren't scoring enough!

Dont think it will be hard to see where he'll fit in when back. At home or against weaker sides, we'll have Sturridge through the center with Suarez right and Moses left. Coutinho in the advanced midfield spot with Lucas and Gerrard holding. That top 4 can have license to interchange and attack, while the rest can give the solidity. Away or against the top sides, we might go for more cautious option and Henderson replaces Moses and then swaps postion with Coutinho.

Pleasantly pleased with the ref today. Never expected that was going to be the case (had a feeling the mancs would get the usual benefit). Was howling at the tele to send van persie off for his push on Skertl but ref was right & handled things in the spirit of how our games with them should be. Was consistent in what he called as a foul or not

Looking at the damage from last night, I'm of the opinion loaning Barry and Moses isn't such a bad idea anymore, if it means we then spend on getting a very good CB (e.g. Sakho) in as well

Early season yet, only 3 games in and no Saurez to be biased against in refereeing terms. But I get the feeling things are continuing on like they did last year (especially early last year). Against Villa we had a stone wall penalty on Sturridge not given, and then again last night I though we had 2 (1 definate on Ibe and I think they only got off that one as the ref took pity on them at that stage of the game). The only reason more hasn't been made of them I think is because we have gone on to win the matches. Looking forward to seeing how the referring has changed or not on Sunday vas Utd compared to the appalling display in the same fixture last year. Won't hold my breath!

-------------------Jones Kelly---------Skertl-------Wisdom-----Cissokho ---------------------Henderson ------Allen --------------------------Alberto --------------Aspas-----------------------------Sterling ----------------------------Borini ...Ibe to come on in the 2nd half or possibly start instead of Aspas and switch sided with Sterling

Watching them last night they do seem a tougher prospect than they did last season. Lambert has certainly got them more as a unit. They grafted hard last night and defended in numbers, while still trying to use the obvious target man up front supported by their speed to create several good opportunities. I'd hope though as they are at home it could work in our favour a bit more as the impetus will be on them to come out more and attack, putting less men behind it and giving us more space for the little magician to exploit. It'll be tight!

Ljajić, Lamela, Konoplyanka, Turan, Shaquiri, Sanchez, etc would all be good alternatives within our price range. With a few days left of the window we have time to make a signing like this (that we are obviously trying to make with attempts at Micky Ryan, Costa, and Willian). I just hope we are successful before it shuts but am not sure we will. It will have been a good window if we do, even leaving a new CB and DM for Jan or next summer.

Bale gone then. Hopefully we can hijack the Lamela bid. Think he'd be perfect for us, is in the ball park price where we've been losing out on during the summer, and surely we can say to him "Spurs have signed x, y , & z...where are you going to play week in, week out". Dont think he's ever been on our radar though unfortunately!

Maybe but we needed another right sided forward as downing was our only real one (Sturridge is being played central & Suarez has downed tools), & it now looks like downing might go to whu. Sterling seems to prefer the inverted role from the left. So I'd still have thought we were in more need of a right forward. Interesting to see who pops up now!

The BR quotes about looking for someone to play 'top left' surprise me a bit. We have Coutinho (OK he might be switched centrally into the hole), Sterling, and Ibe who all play there. Even Enrique didnt do badly for a few games there last season. Assuming Coutinho is moved centrally (removing the need for where we'd have probably played Micky Ryan) I'd have thought we'd have been more interested in getting a right sided forward to replace Downing.

For £25m we could bring in papadopolis, alderweireld, & cover cissokhos loan fee. Tempting. Still rather keep agger & can't see Barcelona actually going as far as £25m