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His winning of the ball, and then picking out the right pass, be it short or medium range into the feet of the correct teammate was a joy to watch. Quality player.

Look at the defence record that season - I think it was second best in the league. The notion that Evans' 3 man defence were shoddy is not accurate - it was only after 96/97 which he switched to a 4-4-2 that we started leaking goals in. Right before the second Newcastle 4-3 match, we were top of the league, with the most goals scored and least goals conceded. And looked very strong to grab our first title in 7 years. And then David James decided he didn't actually want to win the title after all.

Finnan was excellent against Arsenal and Blackburn in the attacking third of the pitch I thought. Remember his little turn which setup Stevie's shot that led to Alonso getting tripped for the free kick against Arsenal? And against Blackburn Finnan was one of our best players on and off the ball, attacking and defending. Arbeloa has more pace and therefore can bomb forward with less inhibition and has good attacking sense, but Finnan is the better defender and crosser. Depends on Rafa's tactics for the day I suspect. In any case, that's the right back position covered by two excellent players.

Riise used his right foot many times tonight. That's got to score him some points, no?

I think even Kuyt thought he was going to be used as a center forward rather than the support striker he has. That was the player he was at Feyenoord, scoring 70 odd goals in ~100 league matches or to that effect. I still reckon he can be more than decent as the front man, but Rafa prefers his hard work over his goal threat, which is to me silly for the simple reason that the deep lying forward should always be creative and excellent on the ball. Riquelme is a great shout - but if Rafa's prefers Kuyt in that role as a support striker as a "worker", can you honestly see him going for a lazy but talented footballer? I'd love to but it doesn't seem to be his style. And Aimar was an inherited player, so I doubt that's a valid argument. Although, he seems to like Kewell played as a support striker as much as a winger. Think I've mentioned it a fair few times, but I'd love to see Yossi played between the midfield and the main forward. Our interplay and movement around the box would be excellent, with Yossi linking up well with Stevie in particular.

In my opinion, we have nine first team outfield players who are very good on the ball and are proper footballers: Agger, Finnan, Aurelio; Gerrard, Alonso, Kewell, Benayoun; Torres and Crouch. This should be our spine. If you want to be picky, then pull Crouchy out, stick Babel, an in form Pennant or Mascherano (with Gerrard out wide), and stick Benayoun up front off Torres (a combination which I think would be great BTW). Lucas looks like a good ball player, and Arbeloa, Voronin and Kuyt on their day can mix it up with said spine and not look out of place. But for me, Benayoun needs to be starting most games - he has quick feet and an intelligent football brain. He makes our play tick, and links up well with Stevie in particular. Yesterday's lineup was more or less spot on, except for Kuyt who should have been benched ahead of an in form Crouchy who gives us a better threat in the air, as well as good hold up play deeper in the opposition half. Why he isn't starting, who knows...there doesn't seem to be any tactical or fitness reason to justify his exclusion with this form he's in IMO.

He was better than decent when he came on. He gave our play flow, guile and movement. He wasn't doing too much more than showing for the ball, and showing willingness to run with it, and then laying it off to the man in space. The difference between having him and Babel on the left wing was stark. He should be given the chance to play alongside Yossi, whose quick feet and excellent link up play was the reason we had some good passages of passing. Basically we need all our good ball players to be on the pitch together.

Kewell Mascherano Finnan

Crouch is a good technical player. We need to play all our good technical players on the pitch together so you can see some better football and possession play in tighter situations. Ideally, all our players are of such description.

Ecclestone and Amoo look pretty decent from the highlights I've seen.

He was amazing. The fight and character is great to see, and the passing seemed to be improved as well.

They can control and pass the ball, it's the off the ball movement that is poor or non-existent which makes them have to do more because the ball carrier/receiver does not have adequate support. And that is down to the coaching.

Great shout that - that midfield is very strong technically, and potentially has the best blend of pace, technique, passing and skill on the ball. Said this a while back and got frowned at, but I'd love to see Benayoun play right behind Torres. Or even Crouch (probably not for this game though). Torres is good enough to play up front alone and cause problems, with three attacking midfielders supporting the play. All that said I think Crouchy might well start today given that he is tall and good in the air (holding the ball up rather than heading the ball) and Arsenal's defenders are mostly short. Hyypia will get the run around by Arsenal's pace in attack/midfield, especially if we need to press upfield and play a high line.

Sissoko has below average passing ability to begin with. And it gets worse when he has low confidence and is out of form. Moves break down because of his inability to pass the ball. Mascherano can pass the ball. At best he is a very good user of the ball. We've seen him ping some pinpoint crossfield passes. Compare both players when out of form: when Mascherano is giving the ball away, it's because he's forgot how to pass the ball well. When Momo is giving the ball away, it's because he's never been able to pass the ball well anyway. And this is where Rafa's judgement is called into question - why play him as the slightly more advanced midfielder if he can't pass the ball? Mainly, because he can't play in the deeper role. So why play him at all? That's what baffles me and drives me crazy when during the game, decent moves die at the feet of Sissoko's sub-standard passing. He was great as a "transitional" player. Fantastic for the season we needed to develop more fight as a team. Like when Crouch was brought in to make the ball stick upfield, and that helped our away form. But I think we've gone past that stage and need to have more players that are technically reliable and can do the basics of controlling the ball and passing it off at a very high level. As a baseline requirement.

Not enough pace, or excellent technique on the ball, and we have only two players in the squad who can do both - Torres and Gerrard. When we're under pressure we need a couple of players who can take the ball and hold on to it, maybe turn with it and individually beat their man. Gerrard last night I thought was supposed to do that but sat too deep and played too many long passes out to isolated teammates who had no skill to pose enough threat, and worse still despite that, no support. I think Gerrard could have pulled us out of the hole we were in if he played smarter and worked with the likes of Kuyt, Voronin and Benayoun's link play to get himself into good positions more often, like he did for his two chances. He needs to play quick and short one-two's in the attacking third and not spread the ball out wide or across the pitch. Like Rafa said, more brains.

Voronin should never have touched the ball. Probably didn't get a shout though.

Crouchy should be starting more games especially now that Torres has been out. Babel and Benayoun should be playing more often, and Momo should be rotated within the reserves. And we still don't have enough pace or skill on the ball, and a combination of both in the team.

Wouldn't be too far fetched... But let's see how they react on Sunday. If we do well and get a win then I sense it will be a good season. If we get beat, then I have a sneaky feeling it'll be like the Houllier season of 11 games on the trot without a win (to which we can start drawing parallels in terms of events).

I think if you take it further, you'll find that to be successful at the highest level you need a couple of players who are able to receive the ball, turn on it and take players on. We keep passing it back when in trouble. And then the less talented players hoof it.

Credit to Redders yesterday, he was a red on the Sky analysis. He defended Sami from the rubbish attack from Peter Reid saying that he needed to use his left. The ball came very quickly to his right. Unlucky. If it was Riise though, everyone would be trying to kill him. Anyway, for the last minute peno, Redders was suggesting that it was Lescott who backed in, and pointed to focus on Carra's left hand which was hardly gripping the fella or his shirt. And I think his verdict was no penalty. He says some awful stuff sometimes, but his analysis was sound yesterday.

Take Stevie off when he's playing bad, not a problem at all. Or when we have Torres and Benayoun on the pitch and playing well. But when Momo is f*cking atrocious and can hardly pass the ball to a red shirt, you take him off. Play Lucas in his position. Or if you need all three of them in the middle, take Voronin off and put Stevie ahead of him. My gripe was that Gerrard was improving, getting involved and was substituted. We were playing against 10, and the horribly off form Momo was still on the pitch, giving silly passes away. You need matchwinners on the pitch, especially when the opposition are a man down, players who can take on their men and beat them. I'll watch the game again and probably spot the pattern and flow of the match as those who defend Rafa have pointed out. But I still won't agree to Gerrard being pulled off. If he's not being disciplined, play him up front. I applaud Rafa for his guts though, if he was indeed trying to get a point across.

We were all laughing our heads off in the pub. And after the laughter had died down, realised that it could well have been a red. Nobody on our team should ever try that again. Unless it's on Lampard. And only if it takes him out for a year. For all the snidey tackles on Xabi the last 4 seasons, especially for that ankle breaking one.

It should be the captain, and to a lesser extent the player who committed the foul. But about time this is clamped down. Should be introduced at the top level immediately.

That's partially the point of my thread. Rafa feels he needs to rest players. I strongly believe if he's gonna put out a weakened team it should be in the CL and not the league itself. And if he did try to prioritise the league match then I for one couldn't care less about tonight as long as we play well (and win) on Saturday.

I thought Crouchy did alright to be honest. I could go on about other performances but there are other threads in which to do that. Shocked that Leto was a starter tonight, happy that Aurelio is back but his rustiness is very evident. Surprised to see Momo and Stevie start together, it was interesting to see how they did though. Now we all know why the both of them have hardly (if ever) started together as a midfield two. It was a reasonably strong team still, as mentioned by many.