Magic8Ball

The thing about Crouch is that he's so slow it makes it hard for Torres to play on the shoulder of the last man - If Crouch were a tiny bit more mobile he could link play for Torres and get into the box. However as Crouch is not more mobile we need to move the entire midfield some 20m closer to the opposition goal. To do this we need to get more defenders like Agger. Ball playing CH's - these are the expensive CH's like Garay they can play in midfield and defend. Two CH's like that and Mash would mean our lack of pace and mobility wouldnt matter so much as we would be virtually on the opposition 18 yard box

He will make a difference his ability to bring the ball out of defense and Alonso's passing ( season1 ) have been sorely missed. However I would sooner he not play and have the metatarsal completely heal than risk his career with a new pair of Adidas boots Agger illustrates how badly we need ball playing CH's who can defend. The days of Carra' ( awesome defender ) and Hyppia are over - they are wonderful defenders but offer little else. We need defenders who can move into midfield and allow the whole team to play higher up the pitch

Missing out on Aimar is a blow, work rate wont link play (Kuyt) , neither will immobility ( Crouch ) or a renegade from a shampoo add ( Voronin). This summer I hope we'll see what Rafa is really about, if we buy midfielders and defenders then I think like a certain Frenchman Rafa will have sealed his own fate

he tried for Aimar and Walcott Aimar as the link player in 442 Walcott and Babel in 433

I'll take it! but If Agger comes back and Alonso finds some form I think we could add a cup to that

rotation isn't a problem, it's the players. they're just not good enough.

Gerrard needs to play on the right or part of a midfield 3 the problems are: 1 we dont have Alves so there isnt a RB/RW to complement Gerrard when he plays on the right 2 we dont have the wingers for 433 - wingers in this style need to score and put crosses in

remember henchoz? both carra and henchoz play in a similar way and basically getting old and carrying injuries doesnt help carra's on the way down now - just accept it

are players getting close to alonso when he plays with gerrard in a 2 man midfield or whenever he plays ? I think mash and alonso would be fine - arguable Leiva and Alonso too

The team doesn't want it that's clear to see. given the circumstances I would have expected the team to rally around Rafa. If Rafa is to stay he needs to gamble big come the summer - we need to shift seven players and Rafa needs to play a more attack based game. What's showing now is the break between the players and the coach, I understand Pako used to fill in here. When the players were confused or needed motivating Pako would do that --- it's missing now ! ( not that playing for Liverpool shouldn't be motivation enough). The players lack confidence and a coherent plan - one of the signing for the summer should be an attack minded coach as the #2 or replacing someone else on the staff. we need someone who knows how to organise the attack, set pieces and can do so in a way that fits within Rafa tactical plan. Then we need the top quality personnel to execute it. The best plans fail when you have inadequate people trying to implement them.

why is everyone laughing? we should be crying

thanks guys ... bugger ! what about Giampaolo Pazzini then ? got to be better than Kuyt

we were also linked with someone called Pato in the summer - anyone know anything about him ?

we were linked with him last summer --- He's a prospect, but a prospect thats not doing too much at the moment

what we need is a tactically aware attack coach for Rafa's #2 - someone good at organising set pieces too

how can people sing that song when we are STILL missing 2 world class wingers ?

aah the anfield doughnut .... .or is that d'oh nut ?

I wonder if we were in for Babel and Malouda

true - had he put that header away havants heads would have gone down and wed have been in a position to walk it -- -we really need to finish teams off get that second goal and so on

that's about right. So what Rafa really needs are the players he REALLY wants - then we'll see the real Rafa. Babel has an opportunity to become a fixture - it's up to him right now in CM Mash and Gerrard are the team. - what we lack is a winger/striker (other than Torres) Rafa believes in

Its clear to me Rafa doesnt really trust the attack ( other than Torres - who he plays as often as he can) - I suspect given unlimited funds we would (ironically ) see less rotation

8m Sterling ?

true but the squad would only be 3 players smaller - and we'd have 3 more match winners - and have the opportunity to introduce youth right now the way forward is we need to buy some under 23 stars - no more bargain basement as it rarely works, especially when the players are over 23 .Once they are over 23-25 they tend to be stuck as they are ( typically) and make only minor improvements. so if we are to spend big I would prefer someone who is doing it all the time alreay or someone who is very young and does it most/alot of the time

The biggest mistake and which all the other mistakes stem from is Rafa prefers a big squad rather than a smaller squad of higher quality players bolstered by young fit and able reserves/youth WE have at least 6 maybe 7 players who should not be in the team - they could fund 2-3 match winners

Once agian, we're in a position where we should be clearing out "dead wood" - we really should be able to generate 36m from sales Crouch, Kuyt, Voronin, Pennant, Riise, Carson, (Kewell) - that should pay for Villa and a some young players of the "40m" then available we should be looking at the best young creative players 2-3 would be about right but Rafa probably wont do that - its sad because progress under the current circumstances requires such a bold move