Guz

We've still looked poor. No authority in our play and our players are getting nervous Couldnt tell who's the bottom club at the moment

We've been a f***ing shambles so far this half. No fluency, nothing.

We've been awful 2nd half. Derby are f***ing s****, we just need to keep the ball for a few minutes and stop being so sloppy with it

Dont think you're giving the team half the credit they deserve. We pressed them high up the pitch and squeezed the life out of them. They were scared of Torres and we didn't let them play. Attacking wise we didnt really get out of 2nd gear because we didnt have to after 20 minutes, but we worked extremely hard and barely gave them a sniff. Mascherano was superb.

I'm only 21 so for me my legends include the likes of Owen, Gary Mac, Didi and Jerzy. Sami also.

Pompey weren't impressive because we were too good for them and squeezed them high up the pitch. And Mascherano was superb.

The last player you'd expect to bottle it would've been Robbie Keane but he didn't dissapoint. f***ing terrible penalty

They scored enough goals to win enough games to win the title. I think their style of play was unfairly criticised. Sure, with the money used they should've probably been expected to play a more expansive style but it wasn't that bad and often had a lot of width in the side when they used 2 wingers either side of Drogba. They scored more goals than people remember as well, it wasnt like they just ground out 1-0 wins every week even though they were capable of it.

With the way Rafa plays or because out of the others very few of them have shown they are good/consistent enough to hold down a place in the side? Kuyt, Crouch, Sissoko, Pennant, Kewell, Riise, Aurelio maybe Arbeloa. Upto them guys to stick their hands up and grab every opportunity that comes their way. Apart from Arbeloa none of them have done enough to warrant being trusted to play regularly and I think thats the basis of Rafa's rotation, not necesarilly that he loves to have 38 different gameplans for each league game of the season. I'm sure he does think long and hard about each game and the way each opposition team plays (more so CL than league) but he also gives his best players most playing time on the pitch. This season was supposed to be about one of those players ( + Lucas, Babel, Benayoun, Voronin and Torres) forcing Rafa's hand and staying in the team based on excellent performances. So far only Torres has done that. You can argue that Voronin was a free and is a decent choice for 4th pick. Maybe so and I think that'll prove to be the case but when Crouch and Kuyt aren't really producing the goods and we still only have one forward (Torres) who's a threat when in posession of the ball then being a decent okish 4th choice striker, in the grand scheme of things, just isn't enough. And while I dont think Voronin has done that badly, that's the reason there's so much frustration aimed at him.

Gudjhonsen?

Not really while watching us play but seeing the same f***ing ad on LFCTV is pretty damn annoying. "Get outta here Robbie lad"

Hopefully he gets another 60 minutes or so against Pompey. Cant wait for Agger to get back either

The problem is, too many of our players who are outside of the spine of our side (Reina, Carra, Agger, Gerrard, Mascherano, Alonso, Torres) have been unable to cement a spot in the side. Riise has been getting worse for the last 12 months, Aurelio is a crock and i've given up all hope of him making the LB spot his own, Pennant has done alright and then got injured, Kuyt and Sissoko seem to get progressivley worse, Crouch isn't doing great, Voronin the same, Benayoun is either great or gash, Kewell is injury prone and Babel and Lucas are young. I said at the start of the season that if we're to have an excellent campaign then the likes of the players that I've mentioned (Riise, Arbeloa, Aurelio, Sissoko, Benayoun, Crouch, Voronin, Pennant + Babel/Lucas) HAVE to perform consistently - no two ways about it. We know what we're gonna get from the rest but not from these players, at least not on a consistent basis. If they don't we might need a mini clearance and a change in our buying policy which may co-incide with some extra cash. Now whether those players step it up a gear or whether Rafa is around at the end of the season if they don't remains to be seen.

He's hardly played this year and hasn't looked totally fit and healthy since the injury he sustained before the Porto (away) game. I didn't even know he was injured the other day, just seems to have disappeared slowly. If he regains his fitness I'd still stick him straight at RB and Arbeloa at LB though.

Realistically I think it was game over once Lampard got his typical fluked goal. Crouch just confirmed it. We did OK in the first half, not great but not bad either. Some decent football at times with one great chance for Lucas but other than that we weren't very threatening with the ball at our feet.

Rafa's Valencia is one of the worst teams I have seen for divers, whingers, time wasters and generally having a team full of hugely talented pricks. I know everyone claims they ejaculated in the stands when Valencia gave us a couple of lessons in 2002 but all I could think of after that 1-0 defeat at home was how much they are a bunch of cheating f***s. Dont think I've ever been annoyed at a player as much as I was at Aimar. The fact that they were an excellent team and made us look like amateurs made it worse obviously. It's strange really because I'd quite like to see a couple of annoying pricks in our side at the moment.

I agree. Given the way we were playing I didn't think Crouch was going to offer much more than what we were getting from Kuyt. Easy to say in hindsight though I guess. Kewell and Kuyt replaced by Babel and Lucas, him and Mascherano in the middle with Gerrard in a free role and Babel, Torres and Benayoun "up front" is what I'd have liked to see.

Has anyone seen Fairclough's Dream Team XI on LFC TV? He said he was tempted to stick Babbel in there ahead of Phil Neal at RB and probably would've done had Babbel been around for longer. Jari came on a free too.

Eduardo, Wallcot (who was set to play before becoming ill), Senderos, Diaby, Denilson maybe even Song are all on the fringes of the first team aren't they? Didnt Diaby and Denilson play against us in the 4-1 last year? Wenger just seems to have put all his eggs in one basket and gathered a squad of about 15 or so youngsers to complement the likes of Gallas, Toure, Lehman, Gilberto, Rosicky and Adebayor. Will be interesting to see if they can keep it up and challenge for honours regularly, the signs are certainly there that they will. I suppose even if Wenger fails and goes another couple of years trophy-less he'll still have 100% job security and no doubt a bit of money to spend to turn it around.

Why does little or not information from the club = any information that does come is reliable? I would've thought it'd be the opposite?

Jamie is probably the worst for giving the ball away but he wasn't the only one yesterday. Even Riise passed the ball better than Arbeloa and Sami and that's saying something.

What chances? Van der sar flapped at a couple of free kicks and we nearly snuck in but that was it. Similar story to last year although we played much better with Bellamy tearing Vidic a new one but effectively producing few clear goalscoring chances

Most of our squad lack outward arrogance and exuberance, yes I think so. Finnan, Sami, Riise, Arbeloa, Aurelio, Pennant, Benayoun, Kewell, Kuyt, Crouch - they're very talented players but they don't show a nasty streak. They're all too passive. They don't look like they'd walk through a brick wall to get what they want and I'm not talking about ability or passion for the club; it's a kind of mental strength. I dont know how to describe it, or if a word even exists to describe it but there is something about Ferguson's players that gives them an extra 10% and they all play with what looks like an unbreakable self belief. Ferdinand may have looked shaky at times yesterday but he was a c***, as always, for 90 minutes. He snarls and shouts at his players, our players, the fans, the officials - everyone around him. It makes him totally odious and utterly dislikable but I think it gives him an edge. I think every title winning side has a squad full of personalities like him.

I hope we're not putting too much on Torres' shoulders. On .tv it's all about Torres, all the papers before the games yesterday focussed on Torres as if he was some kind of saviour. The other 3 strikers have to perform as well and not just by utilising the space that Torres leaves behind. At the moment only Fernando looks dangerous when he picks up the ball and out of four strikers that's not good enough.