Guz

It's obvious he scares defenders s***less. It's great to see

Just sounds like Hicks/Gillet fobbed Rafa off with a "Dont worry, Parry will get it done" line which pissed him off. Could be more than that though. Hopefully not

Carson getting booed as well apparently. f***ing idiots.

Dont get your hopes up. Theres no way the mancs will be leaving the reebok tonight without 3 points. Maybe if fat sam was still there but Bolton will crumble

Rafa looked much more relaxed and at ease after the game (no shock there) although the point he made about G+H not understanding the transfer window and the importance of moving for players quickly was very blunt indeed. To be honest, it looks pretty obvious there is some obvious tension between the owners and Rafa but I'd be surprised if it got to the stage of jeapordising the future of the club.

Not sure to be honest. If this week has shown anything it's obvious he's more desperate for success with England. Sort it out Stevie

Exactly. Rafa holds the aces. If G+H call his bluff and f*** him off then not only are we spending money to pay him and his backroom staff off but we're looking to replace a manager that can probably get any available job in the world. Now, I'm not saying Rafa is totally blameless. I have no clue really but hopefully this whole thing is sorted f***ing sharpish. Who knows, maybe the Rafa, George, Tom, Parry love quadrangle has been on edge for months now and it'll take an embarassing episode like this for them to start focussing as a collective on what needs to be done. Either way let's f***ing t*** newcastle tommorow. Dont think I'd be able to stand looking at Fat sam's smug ugly face if they get a result tommorow

Is right. Doesnt matter who's fault it is or what the root cause is for me. Our manager comes out in public and says he'd quite fancy the england job while our owners come out and basically tell him to shut the f*** up. It's all a bit embarassing and completely un-necessary. Cant see it brewing for much longer to be honest and something has to give eventually (either reconciliation or total breakdown). Hopefully they kiss and make up very very soon.

Wouldnt mind seeing Kuyt/Babel being picked if only for the reason it'd mean they had a good season..

I'm worried that in our fourth season the only top attacking players we seem to have are Gerrard and Torres. You know, the ones that make things happen, that give the team another dimension and where you can clearly see the impact made by them. Crouch, Kuyt, Voronin, Babel, Penant and Benayoun all have their merits and for most of them are new to the club so time will tell but they just don't have that edge to their play that I think will transform us into a better attacking unit. Time will tell though and I'd be very happy if they all stayed at the club long term and helped us pick up more and more trophies every year. Lets not forget that Rafa hasn't had the sort of budget or control over player signings at any point in his career as he has at Liverpool. I've no doubt he's still learning a lot both technically and in the transfer market. One thing I will say is that I think he's put too much on his plate sometimes. It's clear his vision is to have great variation in the squad. You only have to look at the four strikers to see that. How the same manager can sign Xabi Alonso and then Momo Sissoko (two outrageously different types of central midfielders) the next summer can only be explained by his desire to have a diverse selection of players who can come in and out of the team depending on the situation. He wants the finesse of Aurelio but has also regularly played Riise for the last 3 years and a bit. He obviously likes the direct play of Pennant and Babel but sees the importance of having a different kind of wide player in Benayoun. To assemble a squad like that, while dismantling an old one and also winning trophies at the same time is a VERY VERY hard thing to do, especially with the transfer window.

Israel winning at home shocker

England get a kick up the a*** at every major tournament. Its not like they've not had major dissapointments and a rude awakening before. I'm not bothered about England but qualification would at least give them a chance of doing something next year, even though logic suggests they won't. I remember a few people hoping we finished 5th in Ged's last year just so he got sacked and the powers that be would get a kick up the a*** or whatever. Thank god that didn't happen

On the whole, his reputation has grown and grown since joining Valencia. If and when he ever leaves us there'll be a host of clubs wanting him. No doubt about that

Arsenal play fantastic football and have a great squad playing very well. But truth be told, from a 100% objective stance I think the mancs played better football last year. Much less f***ing about in the first 2/3 of the pitch, more pace and direct football down the wings, Scholes back to his best, scored bags of goals and didnt conceed much more than supposed stronger defences in Chelsea and ourselves. Hate to say it and will probably go and take a shower now but I suppose it depends on what you like. What is very impressive about Arsenal is their ability to keep hold of the ball under pressure. And thats individually, resulting in collective posession of the ball. Mind you, our goal against them came from Gerrard presurising Fabregas high up the pitch leading to a free kick so it's not unbeatable by any means .

Think our next one will be Pompey just before christmas?

Were there fences up at Heysel? And anyone know when Sheffield wed installed fences at hillsborough? Always been trying to find an answer to that but to no avail. Ta

I'm not downing your opinion, just trying to work out the reasoning behind it. I personally dont see how Gerrard not being a player Rafa bought is reason to dispute that "we are the manager's team, squad and vision by now". Maybe the likes of Riise or the deadwood that has been shifted through the door but not his skipper and someone he could've sold on two different occasions and received a huge amount of money for. IMO anyway.

Why do you doubt? For my money he trusts Gerrard more than any player in the squad as evident by the number of positions he plays to make up for the lack of quality elsewhere (I prefer to go with this theory than Gerrard not being good enough to hold down a position). Rafa has had two opportunities to sell him, yet he hasn't. If Gerrard is truly just an invonvenience that the current and every future manager has to deal with then there is something very rotten going on. And we have made the best start in the league under his tenure and are still involved in all the competitions we've entered so far. We are playing s***e granted but theres f*** loads of footy to be played this season, take a chill pill people.

Exactly. Almost everytime we conceed a goal Carra is either just shouting randomly or shouting at someone in our team. Every side needs someone like that, just as long as they themselves are perfrorming which Carragher usually is.

We shouldn't need him this week against Besiktas and Fulham. Hopefully he's raring to go against Newcaslte

I think its the biggest thing lacking from the squad. Aurelio is good but he hasnt shown any evidence that he can stay fit for a long time. Hopefully this is the season and Arbeloa continues to get better.

Surely the point was Moores could not afford to pay for the stadium (by any means) and paying upto or over £10m for a player was difficult, as demonstrated by the trouble we went through to sign Kuyt. Already we've signed Torres and Babel for whatever it was we paid and are making significant progress on the new stadium. Surely that's progress forward and whether that will continue in the medium/long term is only something we can wait and see on.

Would much rather see some shouting between the players than nothing. As long as you take responsibility for your own play and dont get into full blown fights, there's nothing wrong with it as far as I'm concerned

Intoduction in the Independent match report sums it up well ; "It is difficult to know where Liverpool are this season. If they are going through the blip every team suffers they are picking up points in difficult circumstances, are unbeaten in the Premier League and are just six points behind the leaders. The worry is, this could be as good as it gets" By no means are we out of the title race but we're not marching towards to no.19 either. It's a "lets wait and see" situation at the moment for me.

The problem is that of our attacking players only Torres and Gerrard are of a certain class and bring any dynamism. Babel, Benayoun, Kewell, Kuyt, Crouch, Voronin, Lucas, Pennant - at the moment these are all players we dont know much about or are hoping, rather than expecting, them to produce something. We just dont know what to expect from individual players. Sometimes it seems we only have Torres and Gerrard to build around. Hopefully at the end of the season we can add two more to that but we don't have it at the moment.