Damian_de

While we have the King fighting our corner anything is possible

Are they targets though, really? Considering what they've done, are doing and seem likely to continue to do they should be, yet despite a general feeling of 'we're getting f***ed over' is there anything actually happening, or even being discussed with a view to trying to force them out? I'm actually worried that they might take us down (not relegation, but generally, financially, morally, whatever) and in the absence of a hint of interest from any other owner we look like being stuck with them for a while. I can't see anything good coming from that. Yet I get the impression that people think the problem is insurmountable, it's 'too big', and that they aren't actually targets at all of anything more meaningful than some Internet letting off of steam. *shrug* I wish they'd do one!

The guy who took the afternoon off work on transfer deadline day is one of the lamest things I've ever heard!

Hope you're right! It does look very grim for the immediate future if these are allowed to ransack the family silver so disgustingly. It beggars belief 'we've' fallen for it.

and will be. FIFA voting for this is irrelevant.

Sell him on with a first option to buy him back... there is a sense to that

Not saying he won't be sold, but how does soome clubs being interested = don't play him? Just in case he gets injured??

Presumably because they aren't free and potentially expensive.

Their tactics were sound - nullified our width through the fullbacks, Kuyt and Benayoun both tucked in all game (in Kuyts case to make room for Glen I expect) and made it easy for them to defend all our play through the middle

It's a strange one alright, last season a number of the players were quite vocal about how we needed to turn draws into wins, keep playing until the last second etc, and they were vocal about the fact that it's absolutely necessary if you want to challenge for the title. This season that seems to have disappeared. It looks like we don't actually believe we can win it. Where the confidence has evaporated to I have no idea, but it does look very much like there are some 'issues' about the place. I thought Villa got their tactics spot on - you could see Mascherano and Lucas looking to move the ball wide to the full backs who were so often not getting forward that they had to constantly turn back inside and we finished the game off just trying to thread magic passes through 6/7 packed defenders. But it's a worry if we've been sussed this early on the back of one game (Stoke), and I bet they can't believe they scored 3 with that performance! (I can't!)

This content is not viewable to guests.,This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.,This content is not viewable to guests.

He didn't have anyone covering behind him for England though so they did get in behind him a few times. For us he'll almost always have Macher sat in behind when he bombs forward which isn't bad cover.

Lucas also presses very high up the pitch quite often which is a big part of the way we play, more so than mascherano for example, so they work quite well together I think.

was just about to post same about lucas - tidy game indeed

There were lots of times yesterday when lucas and mascherano showed for the ball and never received it. The period from when Skrtel and Carragher collided to half time we were a mess. If the centre backs don't 'trust' the midfield players (and I'm really not sure there is any actual evidence for that, hoofing doesn't equal a lack of trust necessarily) then that is something that needs to be addressed and I am sure it will have been noted. Also when Benayoun came on Stevie finally had an outlet in space on a regular basis - he didn't look like his fitness was all there yesterday and was trying to move the ball rather than himself on most occasions. Babel had vanished, Torres was tightly marked and Dirk wasn't having one of his better days, so part of the difference in Stevie late on was just having an outlet. Personally I don't want to see him moved back. I think Lucas and Mascherano are fine. Somewhere above someone said something like Lucas isn't good enough and Mascherano can't distribute it but is otherwise OK. Well, the boss would score them a bit higher than that! He's already said Mascherano is the world's best in that position, and he clearly rates Lucas as an intelligent footballer and decent passer (and I think he's right).

Someone really ought to get the football commentators on British TV to read that, because they are the worst in any country I've lived in for the one striker means trying not to lose rather than trying to win.

He gets in the box far more than Alonso or Mascherano for sure.

This content is not viewable to guests.,This content is not viewable to guests.

Don't think that Mail article is entirely serious eh? Just have a look at the titles of the links by the same author... (Hatchet Man... grrr)

He'll just be coming into his prime as a keeper then

Bet Rafa's loving this - him vs Real/Barca part 2 :-)

Not to mention played at centre back!

Same situation as last year isn't it? They want him to hand in the request.

Xabi's been a marked player since just after he arrived here, going back to Lampard trying to maim him and before, and besides, he's still adept at finding space and running the game regardless.