beejay

Your best post. Kewell alternating with Babel on the left for the rest of this season would be perfect.

Malouda was 1st choice and he would have been a permanent fixture in the side, the right age & experience to settle in quickly. Torres was the buy of the summer. All those, particularly in the press, who doubted his talent and his ability to adapt to the Premiership are now the first ones to berate the manager for not picking him every game. At £20m and 23 years of age, he is a steal and from a quick look round the ground before kick-off on Saturday, he will pay back his transfer fee on replica shirts in double quick time. Well done Rafa Babel also looks quality to me and I can't understand those who are dismissing him. He's 20 and a bit raw but in terms of pace, power, technique, skill he is very exciting and he's one of those who you enjoy watching because you know he has the ability to do something really special. For the moment he is still finding his feet, but he has done a top job at left midfield so far. Benayoun is a fine player but lightweight and hopeless in defence so Rafa may be wary of playing him in high-tempo games. But his strength is unlocking defences and he has a big part to play this season. He would have made a difference against Birmingham I'm sure of it. Overall, our squad is excellent and it's up to the players & management to produce the winning mentality & momentum to turn us into champions. Rafa has done a fantastic job in the transfer market, he must now get the right blend on the pitch. Given a bit of patience & support, there's no reason I can see why he can't, if he did it in Spain which is even more a closed shop where Madrid & Barca get the best of everything, why not in England at a great club like Liverpool?

One of the worrying things is that the crowd are becoming noticeably more discontented with Rafa's selections & substitutions. The booing at the end was directed more at Rafa than the players. To be fair to Rafa, although we are all focussing on the League as our top priority I'm pretty sure the money men have left him in no doubt that he is also expected to reach the knock-out stages of the Champions League for the sake of our budget. It's easy for us to say he should rest his best players in Europe but that's not the reality of the situation.

Babel is European, nowhere near such a language & culture shock on or off the pitch - but he has still struggled to impose himself from a wide position with some people already saying he ain't all that. We have no idea how Lucas is settling in or training, learning tactics and I don't see why there should be such a rush to get him in the 1st team. Because he cost £6m? No reason in my book. At the start of the season there were many saying we were overloaded on central midfielders so let's sell Sissoko to Juventus etc and buy the latest flavour of month winger. We have lost Alonso for 6 weeks, that means we still have Gerrard, Sissoko, Mascherano as quality, tried & trusted players to cover central midfield. With injuries in other key areas, notably defence, I don't see any need to tinker around with centre midfield. Centre back is the real issue at the moment. I can see Arbeloa playing there in some games over the next few weeks because Sami may struggle to play midweek & Saturdays for 6-8 consecutive weeks.

He bought him for the future. He is still only 20, new country, new language, totally different style of football. He will get games in Carling & FA Cups and if he settles in well, he could be breaking into the side later in the year. If he is on fire in training, by all means put him on the bench. But Birmingham at home is a f***in important game, we have to take the 3 points and after resting a few then picking up injuries in our last couple of games, we can't take chances with selection for Saturday.

He's been on death row for a year but they are so dumb to sack him now. Has to be good news for us in the short term and with the start we've had it's wonderful timing if they fall away this season, as I expect they will. The senior Chelsea players are bound to be f*cked off (despite the Terry brawl report) and the schism in their ranks should become the grand canyon in the next few weeks now shevchenko is bullet-proof and ballack will be back in favour. Longer term, if Abromavich stays they can eventually be top dog again but it must mean turmoil behind the scenes for at least a season or two - just when we are beginning to look like contenders. Sweet.

Our expectations have been raised by our start to the season. There have been plenty worse displays than that in recent years

We have not seen yet if Babel can hold the ball up as a striker so it's a bit early to go overboard on the Henry comparison. He can go past players and is great with the ball to run onto so for me, Rafa's right to keep him on the wing while he learns more about positioning, awareness & going looking for the ball. Can't argue about Crouch leaving though it's still up to him - he has 3 months to shape up or be shipped out.

If you go mental at name calling like "clown" christ knows how old you are ffs. By all means put forward your point, but why defend Pennant by attacking Gerrard? Let it go, anyway - we got a lucky point so no damage done. If we had lost to a late goal Pennant would be coming in for far more serious grief, not least from his team-mates & manager.

So you slag everyone off for criticizing Pennant then proceed to have a massive pop at Gerrard - who by the way is our best player and not just over the last 6-9 months. Pennant didn't just make a mistake - he stupidly let down all his teammates with another example of his immature petulance. Yet you think it's Gerrard's fault for not giving him a b*ll*cking? Clown

The management & the senior players should be reminding him that he let his team down last night not just himself. It's been coming - he gets himself involved in situations, the away crowd get on to him and he's not smart enough to back off. First game of the season I thought he was going to be sent off when he got booked and then caused a head-to-head ruck with Bouma that incensed the crowd. He needs to grow up and fast. The next media comment from him should not be about how well he thinks he's playing or how he should be in the England team but about what a prize pr*ck he is and he will learn from his mistakes starting now.

Like Ronaldo?

We were poor as a team and poor individually. We started the game on the back foot, couldn't get out of our penalty area for the 1st 5 mins, conceded yet another penalty and then equalised with our 1st effort on goal. We should be well happy with a point at a difficult place to go (where Mancs & Chelsea have fouund it tough in the recent past), same as Portsmouth. More worringly is how quickly we have gone off the boil with our early season energy, dash, teamwork & attacking verve replaced with 2 dire, dour, leggy, crock of sh*t performances in 4 days. Hopefully, Rafa will be able to work on them for a few days and get us back into shape for Saturday.

I'd be more inclined to put Arbeloa & Finnan covering Quaresma and leave Stevie G & Mascherano to take care of centre midfield. Aurelio left back.

What!?? Seems to me the board and supporters are more understanding than that. Rafa has completely rebuilt the squad and only an utter imbecile (step forward Fat Sam) would deny that the club is far better equipped now to challenge for all honours. We may be impatient for glory and our next title but it would be incredibly stupid to get rid of the manager when he has performed wonders in the transfer market at all levels to create his squad and when we are on the verge of a golden era.

I don't think Crouch can handle rotation either on or off the pitch. In his 1st season he played regularly week in week out, worked hard and played consistently well doing what he does best, leading the line and bringing others into play. As others have said, he then had his purple patch scoring for England and achieving cult celebrity status. He stopped doing the job we wanted and tried instead (as Rimbeaux posted) to become Crouchinho, playing more for himself. Rafa kept him out the team, he played his face but then towards the end of last season Rafa went on record to say that PC now understood his position and was not for sale. Then came the Champions League Final with Crouch sub followed by Torres being brought in as front line striker. He has since given every indication both on and off the pitch, that he is unsettled and his weekend performance when given his opportunity was the clearest sign yet that his career at Liverpool is coming to an end. We all know how ruhless Rafa can be and dragging him off after an hour when everyone knew Crouch would take it personally said it all. rafa's recent comments suggested he was giving him one last chance to remember his 1st year and step back into line but after his limp display against Portsmouth Rafa might feel he simply can't trust him any longer.

It's certainly part of the reason. Do you think we can endlessly buy without selling? Crouch may have the same problem as Bellamy - slips down the pecking order and can't take rotation. If Rafa feels he is unsettled and can't accept his position he will go, no question. From a few of Rafa's comments, there was a time last year when PC didn't take kindly to being sub but towards the end of the season, it seems that Crouch dropped into line and was rewarded with a statement from Rafa that he would not be sold in the summer. If Crouchie stays patient he will get plenty of games but on the other hand, if his advisers push him in a different direction, he will be off and I bet Rafa already has this in mind.

There's far too many thought police ruling the roost on internet forums these days. I can't understand why some posters take other people's opinions so personally. Every thread used to descend into a right laugh with any daft views subject to quality mickey-taking but no offence taken. Nowadays, there's dog's abuse and all manner of vitriol cast in the direction of any poor sod who expresses a different opinion from the preceived wisdom (as laid down by the "experts"). There's a quite incredible example on RAWK in the Babel/Barnes thread where john_mac rips into some poor lass who has a different recollection of Digger's 1st 3 games over 20 years ago. Mental. Good luck to Bascombe. I might even have a read of someone else's copy of NOTW now he's writing for them. God help the poor bugger if his 1st article is a pro-Riise eulogy, he'll get lynched.

Babel is certainly raw and finds it tough to impose himself in some games because is so inexperienced positionally. His decision-making is also flawed at times. BUT, he is immensely strong, skillful, direct and can hold the ball up under pressure. At 20 he can still go the way of Heskey or Colleymore who also had all the physical attributes to become world class but from the little I have seen or heard from him, he comes across as having a stronger personality. Lawrenson isn't the only one who likened the lad to Digger after his goal on Saturday - a few around me on the Kop said the same. Very exciting player - an edge-of-the-seat type who can do things on the pitch that wow the fans.

Nonsense. JM is pretty special and is a monster but Hamman was very important to us when we had some ordinary players in the team. Didi should never be under-rated - one of the most reliable & consistent players for a generation.

I'm not so sure he is best suited to this link-striker role. He gets into some wonderful positions dropping into the hole but more often than not, his passing or decision-making lets him down. He makes up for this with his work-rate and the fact that he is always looking for the ball but if this is to be his position, he will have to work on his game.

Thought arbeloa was great, he makes me laugh he does. Anyone notice that in every game so far hes done this chip and dive thing to get a foul and usually gets the guy booked. Very good going forward and looks a mainstay in the side. Need to kill games off a bit earlier, just for the sake of my health, but we do look a lot more impressive going forwards than last, opening sides up and getting clear efforts on goal. Torres and Voronin look superb, both work incredibly hard and are classy to boot. I think that Babel is a better striker than winger but again encouraged by him. Great start to the season, lets keep it going....

He still doesn't look enough of a goal threat and that's the main concern. There was one occasion when Gerrard threaded a great through ball for him to run onto 25 yds out yet instead of taking it on or having a shot on goal he turned back and lost the ball. He seems to be trying to be more of a link forward but that's not his strength. He is no Aimar or Rooney/Tevez who can drop into the hole and create chances. He is clever with a good goal record and should be taking responsibilty to get on the end of moves rather than initiate them. He's a very good player who will always work hard and make a contribution but there are question marks about the effectiveness of his current role in the side.

My season ticket hasn't arrived yet - just the acknowledgement of payment etc. Anyone know if they have been sent out yet?

We have cloned him already http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/team/youth/ajdarevic/