beejay

Come on within, come on without You'll not see nothin like the mighty Kout I kid you not

NW for sure. Ask KD about his loyalty.

Not read all this thread but IMO Harry Kewell is one of the the main reasons why we had our long winning runs last year and he was stand-out MOM in the semi-final v chelsea at Old Trafford. I'm gutted he is not playing this year, he is easily our best option at LM and the Kewell/Riise partnership was arguably the best in the world let alone the premiership last season.

Peltier was good - played it safe but passed ok and made some decent challenges. Put over a terrific cross under pressure in the corner 2nd half. Quietly impressive but not stand-out. You noticed the difference almost immediately when Smith came on - his 1st tackle was rash, gave a free kick away, they scored and he really struggled after that because they targeted our right hand side. Paletta is raw, made some strong sliding tackles but eventually mis-timed one and received his customary yellow card. Not as strong under the high ball as I hoped but after saying to a mate that he resembled Morientes, he then scored from a Nando-like leaping header right in front of the kop! In fact, he attacks the ball at corners/free kicks better than any of our strikers and was a real handful for Reading. Went AWOL for their last 2 goals and for me, I'm not yet sure he has what it takes to be more than a cult hero - he had his Igor-like supporters around me - and has to work hard on his positioning & awareness. Agger was class from start to finish. He's not got lightning pace but had a one-on-one 2nd half from the halfway line and matched the striker, steering him away from goal and finally a brilliant block tackle saved even a corner. His composure on the ball and short & long range passing skills give us a totally new dimension and even more impressive is his judgement - he very rarely gives the ball away. I liked the look of Guthrie - watched him in the warm-ups and he strikes the ball well then when he came on he was far from over-awed, linking the play, busy, always showing for the ball and keeping his position. Very tidy & efficient passer, reminds me a bit of Steven Davis of Villa. Nice to see the young lads do well (except poor Smithie) and by the way, young Mr Fowler was absolutely brilliant, a genius at work.

-------------------------------Reina----------------------- Peltier-----------Paletta------------------Agger--------Warnock Pennant-----------Zenden--------------Guthrie-------Anderson ---------------------Fowler------------Lingfield------------------ Would be happy to see that side fielded - Reading have usually rested players in the Carling Cup as well.

I meant figuratively not literally, pedant. What part of P Neal's post do you disagree with?

This should be cut out and mailed to rafa on behalf of all liverpool fans. The first point in particular - the lack of movement to support a team mate in possession was truly dreadful both yesterday and midweek. It makes someone like alonso look hopeless but when he has no-one showing for the ball no wonder his radar is off.

He's been struggling with an illness apparently and maybe isn't fully recovered. He skinned his man on a couple of occasions midweek but left the ball behind so it looked like the defender had retrieved his ground. He's quick OK, just needs time to settle in.

This was in the local earlier : Mohamed Sissoko received a knock to his ankle during the closing stages in Bordeaux on Wednesday but should be available along with Daniel Agger, who has been sidelined for the last two games after suffering a broken hand while on international duty.

It's a good point and whenever we have a bad run my consolation is to draw on the memories of some of the unsurpassed glories I have witnessed. But as the great Bob Paisley used to say, once a trophy has been won you forget about that and concentrate on the next one. That's what makes us a great club, not just the history of winning cups but the expectation that we carry on doing so - because that's what LFC stands for. Friends of mine who support other clubs have said that it could only have been Liverpool or ManU who could come back from the dead in cup finals or go on long runs to win a title against the odds - their teams & supporters would be happy to be in the chase and gloriously fail but we set our standards higher because of our past. Maybe that's why there is so much frustration around the camp now - we have over-achieved in terms of cup success with our squad over the last few years but this was the year when our players looked to be a match for any other team in the premiership yet we have not been at the level we expected and so far have regressed from last year when we had an inferior squad. I still think this season could be special - but then again, as a Liverpool fan, why should I think any different?

1. Hyypia 2. Carragher 3. Bellamy Crouch MOM?

I thought he was really starting to make an impact, playing on the left and chipping in with a few goals when he got injured and missed the rest of last season. So far this year he has been poor in centre midfield but he was Boro's player-of-the-season by a country mile in this position. He has talent and is a team player but I think you can pick out every single player in the squad this season and say they have underperformed, not just Zenden. I'm beginning to worry about the training - are we being coached differently from last year? I just can't explain why our passing and movement is malfunctioning so badly in contrast to last year.

It's easy to pick on individuals but the far more worrying thing is that the WHOLE team are misfiring on all cylinders. The lack of passing options open to any player in possession is glaringly obvious so the likes of Zenden is trying to thread passes through to a marked colleague (with a consequent high failure rate) or passes backwards instead. Individually and collectively, we have to improve our movement and the players must take responsibility and show for the ball.

Looks like Zenden will play alongside Xabi. Makes us a bit lightweight in midfield with Pennant or Luis on the right and Fabio or Speedy on the left. That said, in Europe it's more important to retain possession than be physical but for the weekend we could sure do with Momo & Stevie back.

I wish it was as simple as just 2 main problems or this player or that being out of form. In fact, it's several players - mainly the most consistent & senior players - who are out of form and we are struggling to show any cohesion in all departments, from goalie to strikers. Just as one or two of the lads get their A games back (eg Alonso & Riise), some of the others go off the boil (Finnan, Crouch) and some haven't sparked at all yet (Reina, Gerrard, Pennant, Bellamy, Carragher). I still think we have the best squad for a decade and there's hardly a weak link now so it really is just a matter of time before they come together as a team. But we have had a miserable start, lack of confidence is now a real concern and time is fast running out. We desperately need a win on Wednesday night to settle the nerves, put us in a strong position in Europe and to take that belief into the game against the mancs.

thats a very good point, how many goals we score by picking off a team in their own half is unbelievable, especially once we go a goal up, helps to press the opposition in all areas of the field especially when we have such tireless workers as Kuyt and Bellamy

So after 17 pages, the anti-Morgan brainwashing produces its finest exponent. LOLOLOL

I would still prefer it if Moores himself was underwriting the share issue. 15,000 shares at £3,300 would probably sell out anyway if offered on general sale. I'm guessing but the club must surely have the loans set up by now although the banks would likely insist on the club putting up an equity stake and it's this element that the directors are agonising over - do they pledge the extra 25% or bring in new investors to fund it?

It doesnt make a difference, look at Lawrenson, Motson, Gray, they still have their jobs to almost everyones frustrations. IM afraid we just have to ut up with their no nothing babble, until eventually they put people into the commentary boxes for special occasions who actually know something like that Leonardo or Marcal Desailly for the BBC in the world cup.

U TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW!!!!!

Completely agree with that!! Where do they get these supposed footbll experts from, Marwood?? He doesnt know anything about football and if anyone were to talk tactics with him, he'd look back at you with that gormless open mouthed expression of a prick thats blagged himself into a job he knows nothing about..... Same goes fro Robbie Earle, god I hate him, he does not know a single thing about football apart from maybe the fact that the balls round, you play it with eleven players in your side and there are goals at either side of the pitch.... ITV sign him up and when he talks I want to ram my foot down his know nothing chops! He played for Wimbledon FFS, they didnt do tactics they played the footballing equivalent of rugby, kick it long and run after it. He also has the most droning voice in football punditry. I could go on for a while but I think thats my rant for the day.

Still have a slight concern about his finishing but from the little I'd seen of him before he came, I thought he looked a top class player with touch, awareness, skill, strength & capacity for work. A real team player as well. So far he's shown all of that and has settled in very very quickly.

Garcia Alonso Bellamy

His final ball is sometimes a little bit off but there'll be a few times in a match where you think "he's put that on the money" just to find that nobody was running in and attacking the cross, its criminal... I saw a few of our corners yesterday on replay and there were players not even running onto the crosses, we have to commit more players into attacking set plays. We do a great job at defending them but we've become poor at scoring goals from them. In Houlliers era thats all we became a set piece team, Chelsea score a shed load through a season on set pieces and its about time we got our players scoring a few from them. We're a big side and now we have players with the quality to cross it into the danger areas. We need the players to now gamble and attack a cross instead of meandering arond the box hoping it comes to them.

I'm sure rafa has targeted this game above all others in our start to the season. Three consecutive tough away games, he has rotated in the first two so that our best players are ready for chelsea. As we have all noted, last year's 1 point out of 12 against manu & the chavs was the difference so rafa is no doubt intent on taking something out of this game. There will be no rotation on sunday - rafa will field what he regards as his best team in an away fixture (his 1st pick for a home game would be set up differently). There will be no excuses after the game - the lads should be able to go flat out for 90 mins and get a result to really set us up for the rest of the season.