Ginu

Exchange one striker (Kuyt) for a #10 a la Tevez. Nasri available? That will give us Torres, Crouch and Babel who all can play forward. Let Voronin go. Purchase a top quality right winger to replace Pennant. Let him go. Bring in a top quality attacking fullback that can bomb up and down both the left and right wings. Play him and rotate with Arbeloa and Aurelio on the left. Agger and Skrtel in the centre, Carra, new man and Arbeloa rotating at right back. Let Riise go and give Hyypia his final season with a real title challenge. Kuy, Voronin, Pennant and Riise out, a #10, winger, fullback in. P.S. And a nicer cap for Reina.

He's so good sheep count him when he goes to sleep.

Skrtel will play.

When Torres scored after putting it between the defender's legs, that did it for me.

I see Gerrard staying on the left from now on (even next season), Masch and Alonso in the middle and a top quality right winger being brought in to take Kuyt's spot on the wing. I think Kuyt will be sold this summer with Babel, Torres and Crouch rotating for 2 forward positions. The team has so much balance now.

Same line up as the last 2 or 3 games. Don't change a thing, including Riise at left back. He's a good tackler which will be very important. We don't need Aurelio's forward ability this match. Keep Gerrard on the left, Kuyt on the right, Babel and Torres up front, Masch and Alonso in the middle.

The issue for me is that, now that we've found our balance, will Rafa start next season with what he knows works? Or will he go back to playing two from Xabi, Gerrard and Masch in the middle, and playing a sub-par player in their place on the wing? Every year we seem to end the season realizing that Gerrard on the wing gives the team more balance because of the abilities we gain by having a Xabi over a Pennant or Benayoun, but the next season it seems we go back to square one and try to find our team balance again. For once, I want Rafa to keep this team and it's shape, and keep it again in August with what he knows works.

Would be genius.

I think Rafa plays Kuyt out on the wing because, with the way we play, Finnan or Carra push up on the right when we're deep in the opponent's half and Kuyt drifts into the middle giving us 3 strikers in the box. He then shifts out wide in our half. The only reason for this is that our right midfielders struggle at finding the net and so there's little point having them drift into the box in the final third. If Rafa can get his world class winger this summer, I'm sure we won't see Kuyt on the right wing anymore.

I might get lambasted for this but put Agger in instead of Carra. I love Jamie like the rest of you but he's missing half his game needed for his position. He's awful going forward and given his age, he won't be around for too long in his position.

I haven't gone through the thread so I don't know if this has been posted but rotation ignores the current form of your players which is very important when you're trying to get results. Also, when you keep your top players more rested earlier in the season, it takes them longer to get into the season and what happens if they get injured severely in October or November? You've essentially wasted what they could have contributed earlier on. That's my problem with it. I'm not saying that Rafa does it excessively but some of his selection choices for Kuyt, Riise and Pennant have been shocking this season.

anyone for some Masched potatoes? I'll get my coat

Then you keep him because you don't let a player like that go and you then buy attacking players that aren't average.

Why am I not surprised this is you writing this Kaizer? I don't even know where to start here. First, Mascherano plays a defensive role, Pennant an offensive one. The problem with Pennant is his poor goal return - he doesn't offer much going forward. That is why Pennant is slagged, a reason that you can't use for Mascherano. Secondly, Mascherano is world class. He is a regular and the driving force in probably the best team in the world in Argentina. Pennant isn't even in the England squad. Why don't you compare Reina to Pennant while you're at it?

The entire issue with Carra isn't our defensive record. Now in the EPL you need each player on the pitch contributing on both ends. Reina is excellent on the counter attack sending deep balls for Torres or another of our attacking players. Unfortunately, Carra is responsible, as is Finnan, Riise and Sami, for not being decent footballers. They're stellar defenders but until we get a backline that can do both, we won't win the league.

My issue with Rafa doesn't really stem from this losing skid we've been on since the New Year. I mean, truthfully, I never thought that Kuyt, Finnan, Riise, Pennant and to an extent Carra are good enough footballers to take us to the title. In my opinion, we should be performing to the level of Chelsea at the moment and that is the quality of squad I feel we have. My issue with Rafa is that he always waits for another day. At the end of each season, we end up with Gerrard on the right and start with a consistent team that always gets results at the end of the season (except for this year so far). Rafa always seems to find his balanced squad near the end. But at the start of the next season, instead of learning and moving forward and going from what we've already found to be successful (and I don't just mean playing Gerrard on the right), we start from scratch again and play the likes of Pennant, Riise and Finnan from the start of the next season knowing they're not good enough going forward. Not to mention, he rests players more often in the earlier part of the year, which does in fact mess with players' forms and assumes that those players that Rafa rests end up being healthy the whole season to be played more later on in the year. I think this summer we need to cut ties with a bunch of players and bring in proper footballers who can play the game the way it needs be played... with composure, pace, skill and passing. From our defense out, many of these qualities are lacking despite our good defensive record. While this view may seem unpopular, we need to think of the future and bring in some quality. Carra can no longer be first choice, Finnan, Kuyt Sami and Riise all need to go, Pennant with 1 goal all season, are you kidding me? Yes, Rafa's attacking purchases haven't really panned out but finding agile defenders are easier to find at a better price than attackers who catch the eyes of way more people than defenders do. Prior to this year, Rafa's hands were always tied cash wise. So this is the solution forward. Allow Rafa to make bonified attacking purchases of more than 10M which has been the trend prior to the Torres signing.

Kaizer actually made an intelligent comment?

I think our winger problems are quite large. Getting a player that can't hold a regular place at Chelsea shouldn't be the biggest of our concerns at the moment. Right now we're chasing the top 4.

That's the one. Just thought I'd pass it on. Sorry with the time diff I was asleep

Rumours over at RAWK are suggesting that Hicks may have today agreed a price to sell to DIC.

I haven't read the 20 or so odd pages in this thread but today was a world-class performance by Mascherano and shows exactly why we needed to make his move permanent. Many would agree that Alonso hasn't been as effective since his first season here after which he had much less space on the ball and it was harder for him to pass the ball around like he can. Although he's been injured this season, he hasn't played particularly well. EVERYTHING TODAY went through Mascherano. He dictated the play, passed it around, re-claimed possession and made some excellent tackles. Whoever said he's just a defensive midfielder that offers nothing going forward needs to read my previous sentence again. His performance today is what confidence is made of. Today is the first match in a long time that I felt we looked like Argentina. There was a span of about 30 passes when Sunderland didn't touch the ball. We did that against Derby early in the season but I haven't seen it since. Rafa definitely tried something new today (everything going through Masch) and, by putting Lucas in whose footballing skills are superb, helped us maintain possession even better. Also, I hope today showed Rafa the need to play 3 from Mascherano, Lucas, Gerrard and Alonso each game. These are our stronger midfield players and we need to play what we have. When Kuyt, Kewell, Pennant and Masch are in, too many of our 6 attacking players offer little goal threat going forward. So I hope it also showed Rafa that Crouch deserves to play. Kuyt is shocking and why Rafa doesn't play Crouch when ball possession is very important in our approach I'll never know. Crouch has shown the right attitude recently, scored and played hard many of the last appearances he's made. Today he took his chance when we had very few chances before his goal to test the keeper. Well in Crouch. But today was Mascherano's day. Alonso has a lot to make up to displace Mascherano from the team.

Believe it's 4-4-2 when defending and 3-5-2 when attacking. Something we always do to be honest. Benayoun always drifts inside with Finnan overlapping on the right. This time it's ont he left. Not a big deal TBH.

I'm glad Lucas is getting a shot. He looks well above his years. We also play such a better game when he keep the ball on the ground.

Carra's passing is shocking. Looks like it is a 4-4-2.

He's been the best player we've had on the left wing this season. He deserves some leeway for one match. We have far bigger problems than Harry Kewell.