DarthVader

Riera is a proper winger but not Babel. But it would be great to see Riera play wide left and Babel play wide right, with Masch+SG in the middle. That looks a really offensive midfield.I wonder if Rafa will ever go with it though.

Hope we sign this Stewart Downing fella.He is still only 24 and has lots of PL experience.We may have to pay an inflated price but it is so blatantly obvious that we desperately need a winger who can stretch the play by running at the opposition with the ball. Btw does anyone else think we have a serious weak link at right back?I have never rated Arbeloa and I don't think he is of the standard required of a championship chasing team.I don't want to judge him so early but I think he has been really poor or ordinary at best over the last 2 league games.I mean yesterday, he did not defend properly at all, allowing crosses to come in and he was non existent in attack.At least Dossena got up supporting the offense but AA did nothing of note.We were linked with Rafinha before and I was impressed by his perfomances for Brazil at the Olympics.He has got a good engine and defends and attacks like a proper fullback should. I think rightback could be our weakest link unless Rafa has a change of heart and reinstates Finnan.I would love to hear your opinion guys!

Is anyone else concerned about our options at righback? I thought we were going to sign Rafinha but this Degen deal came out of nowhere.Arbeloa and Degen don't really fill me with confidence.

The only thing Benitez has said with regards to transfers is that he's after 2 young players ready to go into the reserve set up and 1 senior player ready for the 1s team.The papers are all just playing guessing games.How would they honestly know who Rafa's real targets are?And the season is not over yet.So let's wait until it's over and then see what the summer hold for us.

We need to sign 2 new fullbacks.Finnan will be going to Aston Villa to replace Mellberg who is departing to Juve.Riise is guarnteed to be sold.In an ideal world if the money is there, we'll sign Alves/Rafinha and Lahm who apparently has fallen out with Bayern.It also will not surprise me if we sign Owen as he would be the perfect foil for Torres.He will not not sign anything with Newcastle unless he's absolutely sure Liverpool won't make a move for him in the summer.

I agree and disagree. Yes, we have dropped some pretty stupid points, maybe about 10 in total home and away.But we're not a match for the Mancs yet in terms of the maturity of our football and the quality of our first team players.

Interesting to hear the recent links to Barry and Bentley.Bentley is better than what we have but Barry I'm not so sure.I've just been thinking about how to make improvements to Rafa's current 4-2-3-1 formation.In the front six we have Mascherano (Holding Midfielder),Alonso (Playmaker); Gerrard (Free Role), Babel (Left Attacker), Kuyt (Right Attacker); Torres (Central Attacker).I think everyone knows we need a better Right Attacker than Kuyt but I'd like to see a new Playmaker as well come in.I've been pretty disappointed with Alonso's contribution over the last 2 seasons. He hasn't really upped his game and is still easily brushed off the ball as was witnessed a few times today.We need a strong Playmaker, one who can make us tick and conjure up more invention.Wonder if Riquelme fancies English football. Him ad Masch would make a great partnership. As for the back 4 I think Benitez will sign Rafinha from Schalke for the rightback slot.Lucio has been making noises about moving away from the Bundesliga and he would be another great signing.He's physically strong and fast and although I hate to admit it Lucio and a fit Agger could be as good as the Ferdinand-Vidic partnership.I think Carragher's level has dropped by 15 - 20% and he must be replaced in the first team if we want to play the short passing game faster from the back. Therefore I'm saying from our current first team out goes Alonso and Carragher with better players in the mould of Riquelme and Lucio coming in.In addition to this a new rightback (Rafinha) and right attacker/striker (David Villa/ Gabby Agbonlahor).

Diego would cost 20m minimum, just like the Torres fee.He could well be worth it but a cheaper option may be Van der Vart who is also having an excellent season in the Bundesliga with Hamburg.VDV would probably cost half the price of Diego and is only 2 years older.

I share your views.I do hope these average players like Kewell,Pennant and Voronin leave ASAP. What I like about the 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 as some may call it is we don't have to buy any new midfielders unless Alonso leaves which I don't think will happen if anyone read his interview yesterday.If we keep Guthrie and I hope Rafa sees the potential in that fella that will only beef up our midfield.We can choose 3 of Gerrard,Masch,Alonso, Lucas and Guthrie. Upfront Torres,Babel and Kuyt have been gelling well because they have been playing more together.Kuyt may not have the pace but his crossing ability has improved a lot. Still I think we need better on the right side of our attack and 2 options I can immediately think of is Quaresma and Bentley.Both should be in our price range.People keep harping on Diego of Bremen but I've never seen him play on the right wing before.I can't see how he would fit in into our current style. As for back up to Torres, what about Porto's Lisandro Lopez.He has impressed me everytime I've seen him play.His heading ability,hold up play and strength would enable him to fit into the Premiership with ease.Berbatov would be my first choice but he could prove too expensive and I don't think he'd like being a back up.Lisandro is my second choice and we could even play him with Torres in a 4-4-2.I would also love it if we sign Rafael Van der Vaart.His talent has never been in question but he was always injury prone.But he seems to have gotten over his injury problems and is one of the most creative players in the Bundesliga.He wants to play for one of the bigger clubs too.Van der Vaart would fit in perfectly in Babel current position or even Gerrard's. Finally as for fullback just 1 will do and that's Rafinha whom I anticipate will be our new right back next season.I think the Dani Alves ship has sailed sadly and Rafa is seriously looking at this guy and I do expect him to be a Liverpool player next season.Our leftbacks are ok.Aurelio first choice and Riise covering but Insua's time will come.Rafa knows his potential and when the timing and opportunity is right Insua will get his run of games. So there you have it,possibly 4 new first team players to come in:Van der Vaart,Quaresma/Bentley,Lisandro Lopez and Rafinha.

Man, I gotta say I really love the 4 2 3 1 formation Rafa has employed over the last couple of games.We look exciting at home, Anfiled doesn't have that library atmosphere anymore as we are playing fluent attacking football.Gerrard is fiiting in brilliantly in front the holding midfiel 2 and combining perfectly with Torres.It's working like a charm and long may it continue.

On a side note,anyone know what happened to Aurelio and Finnan?I heard Finnan is injured but Aurelio has missed the last 2 now and there's no news.Is he injured again?

I don't think Diego is the hottest CM in the market but I think a better deal for Liverpool is to sacrifice Xabi for the creative talents of Luka Modric or the wing wizardry of Ricardo Quaresma.

I don't understand why Rafa never plays his best team and always feel the need to make 4 to 5 changes from game to game.If we play our best team and and our best players we are bound to play better football and get better results. I think our best 11 when fit and available are Reina;RisseCarra,Agger,Finnan;Kewell,Masch,Gerrard,Pennant;Babel,Torres.In my opinion this is the best 11 players at Liverpool for their respective positions,so PLAY THEM please Mr. Benitez. Note:I know there are differing opinions among you and many of you think Riise is not worth a starting place because Aurelio is a better footballer.I would pick Aurelio above Riise but only problems is he is consistently hampered by injuries. Opinions please.

Don't think Owen would be a good investment.He's 29 this year,injury prone over the last 2 years ans is on 100k plus a week.

Come on dude ! You blame Masch? It isn't Masch's fault if he doesn't have many forward thinking footballers around him.Who are the real forward thinking footballers we have? Gerrard, Babel and Torres.Yossi and Pennant is worth a mention but both are inconsistent.If you analyse yesterday's game why is it that that we move the ball 5 - 10 yards inside the opposition half and then we had to pass it 20 yards back to Sami or Carra? Macsh plays the same role for us as he does for the Argies but the Argies have better ball players and are far more attack minded. Just my thoughts.

By the way, since we have been talking about getting wingers for such a long time I thought a quick mention is due to the 2 Luton wingers Currie and Bell who gave our defenders a really hard time.Their close ball control and crosses were pleasing to the eye.Since Luton are in financial trouble why not take a gamble on one of them?I'm sure they can't do any worse than Pennant.Anyone think they could be future Premiership material?

I know everyone is disappointed about the 1-1 with Luton but it proved to me 2 very important points. 1 is that we are essentiallt a 2 man team and we will require Torres and Gerrard to save us from further humiliation in the replay which shouldn't be happening because Luton Town should have beaten us. 2 is that I see no need for the services of Xabi Alonso any more.I would like to hear your opinion on this.I mean when he is on song his passing skills are great but I'd prefer the talented Guthrie to replace him.A central midfield of Masch-Gerrard as the first choice pairing backed by Sissoko,Lucas and Guthrie can offer us better balace in my opinion. I think to move forward we need to make small sacrifices.That does not include sacking Rafa.He's one of the best managers a team can have.I personally feel lucky to have him.Rather than giving him a hard time we should support him and hope that he is backed with good investment to make more quality buys like Torres in the summer. I think we can sacrifice Alonso to a Real or Barca who would be willing to pay 15m for him at least.That would mean a small profit on the initial investment to buy Alonso and this money can go towards sealing the Masch deal which is very important.Opinions?

You are on the spot there,especially about ther selling of Alonso point.I think he's great for us when his passing game is on song but why did we need 2 holding midfielders (Masch and Alonso) against Wigan at home ?Masch and Gerrard is our best central midfield pairing and I think even Rafa knows this and that's why he's so desperate to keep Masch.We bought Alonso for 10.7m and I'm sure we can sell him for between 15m - 20m if Real or Barca act on their long term interest for the player. Ribery or Quaresma or even Modric will do for me and I think we also need a new 1st choice LB as Aurelio is always gonna be injury prone. Pandev does have the ability but I'd like Rafa to try the one remaining striker combination he has yet to deploy before we are absolutely certain that we need to spend big on another sriker.I'm talking about a combination of Ryan Babel and Fernando Torres. Babel's favourite position as he has said himself is as a Striker, not Left Winger.Why not play him there for a few games with Torres and let's see what happens first.If it works then we need to buy 2 wide players,instead of 1 wide player and new striker. I think Babel and Torres has the potential to be a really good pairing but the question is will Rafa be willing to give it a try.

How good is Ezequiel Marcelo Garay (born October 10, 1986 in Rosario, Argentina).Has anyone watched him play for Racing either live or on the telly? Wikipedia says his favoured positions are central defence and right back. His previous club were Newell's Old Boys of Argentina. He is notable for a good ability to score especially by spot-kicks or freekicks.

If Garay is signed for 8m he must be good as Rafa would have a good idea of the Spanish market and he woould know who the quality players are.Now I'd like to see us sign Goran Pandev as well in this window.He's the perfect No. 10 and he scores Fowler-like goals for Lazio.

I agree with most of you on the fact that we lack the offensiveness of an Arsenal or Man U to win the Premiership title. Another goal getter and an out and out winger plus another matchwinner on the bench will do us a world of good but what are the chances of Rafa Benitez actually developing us into an attacking force ? I certainly don't think so. His Valencia team was primarily a counter attacking team containing 1 or 2 star players backed by a lot of workers, which is very similar to our team.I think he's a great manager for the Champion League where you only need to go through 13 games to win the title, hence our 2 final appearances but in his 4 years here only once have we seriously mounted a title challenge - I think 2 seasons ago when we got to 82 points.

What on earth is wrong with Agger by the way?3 and a half months out with a broken foot?

Aren't we signing Curtis Davis as defensive cover instead of Garay.

If we are talking about a winger definitely 1st choice.Ribery or Quaresma would be ideal as they are mobile and can play on either wing.They score goals too. We have 2 wingers right now - Kewell and Pennant.Pennant will always be average and doesn't score goals while Kewell has been ravaged by injuries and is not the same player who was such an attacking threat at Leeds.His best years are behing him.

I'd prefer us to sign a decent CB in January rather than wait until the summer.Arbeloa looked shaky in the first 20 - 25 mins and had City been more adventurous they could have caused us problems at the back. How many quality wingers out there who would really improve our first team?I can think of Ribery,Quaresma and maybe Bentley.None are available in january.