Guz

Diego Milito? Anyone seen much of him?

Liverpool need a save now, or a Conti miss...and they've got a Conti miss!

I'm not saying the club sits and waits.

A few home truths in the press doesnt mean everything is falling down around us. Everything seemed to be rosy back in August and we ended up trophyless and had a tough season on and off the pitch. Let's wait and see where this is headed before pre-empting reactions from all kinds of people

Ticket situation was so bad no one was even in the ground

Unlikely to have gotten the combination of first team and european football anywhere else though

With Villa, West Ham and maybe Pompey joining Spurs and Newcastle in teams having a fair bit of money, now is probably as good a time as any to sell players like Bellamy, Carson, Crouch etc. if we want to

What sort of aspects do you mean apart from the youth development?

Mourinho and Ferguson can identify players they want and add to an already excellent squad while their bosses think about the financial aspects and have the freedom to over spend. Benitez has not had this luxuary. Yes he's spent lots of money, yes he's made mistakes but I'd say he's started from a lower base as well. There comes a time when you've got a decent team but simply dont have that edge of quality to go all the way. We're at that stage now for definite. Teams need a certain level of quality to win the league and we fall short. That quality can only come from spending big money, unfortunately.

I dont understand this obsession with a "budget". Hicks/Gillet keep talking about it being player specific and that is exactly how it should be. Alex Ferguson can knock on the glazer's (or whoever) door and tell them he has Smith, Heinze and Scholes coming back from injury for the 06/07 season and that Evra and Vidic will get better. He tells them he needs Hargreaves and Carrick to improve his squad and to get them at whatever cost, within reason. Rafa can't (couldnt) do this. Manchester United and Chelsea could afford to target players they wanted and pay an extra 2, 3, 5, 10m that the selling club demanded simply because they have the money. They can say "Ok, we'll pay an extra £5m because even if he f***s up we'll be ok, we'll still have money for next season". Rafa has been desperate for Liverpool to do the same with Simao, Alves etc. but we couldn't afford to. We almost missed out on Kuyt. We did it with Pennant and Crouch but we were dealing with cheaper players and smaller wages. Moores and co. backed Houllier in that way with Cisse and Diouf, they both turned out to be wrong calls, we got our fingers burnt and it has been Rafa who has had to face the consequences. There's a lot of presumptious talk about the players we're going to sign. Eto'O, Villa etc. Now that the playing field is a little more level, let's see if Rafa's idea for the quality of the squad (Alves, Simao etc.) is still the same and see who we go for.

We have virtually 2 players for each position but lack quality in the first team for a couple of those attacking positions. I cant wait to see who we sign to be honest. The only two teams better than us in the league are the ones who have more money to spend than us. Not gonna doubt Rafa has spent a fair bit of money but when we scrape the barrel to sign Kuyt for £10m and then put so much effort into Gonzalez - a fairly newcomer to european football, and our best left wing option is Bolo Zenden - it kinda shows what Rafa has had to deal with.

It's what happened in 2005 when Didi came on and Garcia and Gerrard had more lisence to roam forward. Either way we stood off the best player in Europe and he punished us for the 2nd goal. Dissapointing

We bossed the game but had the same old problems we've had this season in a lot of games which is hugely dissapointing. No matter though and time to move on. Onwards and upwards with Rafa and co.

Cant remember feeling as low recently as I did when Stevie missed the chance at 1-0. Did all the hard work but should've done so much better with the shot with Dida saved. Gutted

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Momo - yes, Mascherano - not from what I've seen. He's a ball winner but has the technical ability to occasionaly influence the play further up the pitch but his primary role is destructive. When he plays with Xabi, Alonso gets more space further up the field and can influence our attacks a lot more which is his strength. His best spell in a Liverpool shirt came in his first season where Gerrard was injured and Xabi played alongside Didi who just sat and let Xabi dictate. Raking 40 yard balls is just a small part of his game. He's an active player, not a passive one. Making space for other players isn't good enough for Xabi. He should be demanding the ball, playing it quickly, demanding it again, moving around the middle of the pitch, picking passes - long and short - bringing wingers into play, relieving defenders of the ball, spotting striker's runs etc. Makelele is amazing at winning the ball but letting others around him to use it, Alonso isn't like that, he's supposed to be our fulcrum and our leader in midfield. Things should go through him and he should be controlling games like he's done before. He's good enough for it because he's a f***ing brilliant player. I just don't think he's done it as well this year as he did in 05/06, part of that is down to the rest of the midfield not functioning as well but part of it is his own form too.

Milan's front 6 (+/- Inzaghi) is pretty damn impressive but I'll be honest I wasn't sure if they'd be able to make use of their ball retention skills by scoring enough goals to knock out the mancs - How wrong I was.

Playing the role he does for us and being able to be marked out of a game is a huge weakness, it's not something he should be suffering from after 3 seasons in the league IMO. Thats not to say I dont think he's fantastic, I do, but he has to get around that and get used to having less time on the ball. I dont think there was a dip in his 2nd season, if anything he refined his game I think and he played a different role with Momo in the side so was involved in fewer 'killer passes' but his defensive work was very impressive. But that was with Gerrard, Kewell and Momo all playing fantastic also. This year it's been different and some of Xabi's weaknesses have been exposed. Personally the signing of Mascherano excites me for a few reasons but the biggest is definitley because it allows Xabi to influence the play higher up the pitch which has a direct impact on our wingers and strikers and the positions in which they receive the ball in dangerous situations. Arsenal at home was the prime example for me. I hope we see more of it next year.

And a lot the time we don't and have nothing more to our game than hoofed long balls, the first leg of the semi as an example. Fair comments but nothing ground breaking really. It'll be a tight game that's for sure.

God who cares. Now that these two g******* clubs have had their fun for the season, it's time to focus on us in Athens. Cant feckin wait

Fantastic game. Great advertisement for english football. Thank god the top two teams in the country show us the way.

Hating this w***fest about this being a historic day for english football and that b******s. It's just a new stadium ffs. Cardiff saw a couple of cracking finals (FA and league cup)

Because we've got a small allocation and that the "commitment" to suits etc doesn't change between years. I think. The issue is that there will technically be only 11k Liverpool supporters (we know that wont happen) in the biggest club game of the european football season. This is a fault of both uefa and LFC but a reflection of the time we live in.

Imagine how great it would be if he could score. It'll be like the final chapter in his rebirth as a footballer in the last 2 years. Going from being booed and ridiculed by supporters all over the country to scoring a goal in the european cup final while playing against Nesta and a mother f***ing legend of the game in Maldini. f***ing hell. It's a fantastic story this far anyway.

Nothing at all at the moment. Was bricking it before the chelsea games, nowt at the moment. I'd say once the weekend is over and everyone starts talking about a countdown it'll kick in. Can't wait