Nerik

This content is not viewable to guests.

1. Benayoun 2. Arbeloa 3. Crouch

Decent shot and how many goals in his career? It was not about playing it to Kuyt but keeping possession in the attacking third at that point in my opinion. Could have led to a more clear cut chance. Then again it was not a howling error by Mach.

Reina better than any of those keepers Finnan better than Carra at RB (Babbel was out for all 01/02) Riise was probably more effectve back then I would prefer Carra and Agger over H&H for the simple reason that with Agger we get the ball played out of the back sensibly on many more occasions. Of course Hyypia in01/02 was as good a defender in set pieces as one could wish for. Mascherano still early days but can be as good as Didi was for us. Still 01/02 Didi would get my vote for now. Alonso better than Gary Mac in 01/02 (in 00/01 Gary Mac could probably edge it with his set piece abilities) Gerrard today much better than in 01/02 Murphy for all his defects contributed more back then than what Yossi and others have out wide this season but they need more time to be judged. Berger and Kewell would be even stevens if fit........... Torres still early days but it seems he can have the same impact on the team that Owen had. Kuyt better than Heskey in 01/02 who was going through his 1st confidence crisis. Anelka and Litmanen more talented than Crouch and Voronin. I really wish we had Jari in our current squad.

I actually think that Masch (who had a great game by the way) made the wrong decision when he decided to shoot. At that time we were getting into the Blackburn box with ease and whilst he tried his luck it was always going to be hard to score from there and it basically gave Blackburn a breather and possession.

Gerrard Mascherano Kewell

This content is not viewable to guests.

We signed the wrong Kirky in the end.

This content is not viewable to guests.

He also repeats himself in both interviews.

He was not to be seen after he was taken off. Chicken.

Actually it was the Pompey game that followed the internationals which saw Torres being left out. I thought that made sense. The Brum omission happened later and Rafa then played Torres 3 days later away to Reading. That is the only real baffling thing that I happen to see in this year's rotation.

In his bio he had nice things to say about Rafa but I did get the feeling that he was praising Rafa just in order to put down GH even more.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Barmby, Ablett, Beardsley....

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Sammy Lee has claimed that Rafa wanted him to stay on at Anfield (obviously not as assistant as there was Pako at the time) but that he refused as no.2 at Bolton was a step up career wise as a coach.

This content is not viewable to guests.

This content is not viewable to guests.

Yes.

Well if he was onside when the rebound came towards him it is exactly the same scenario isn't it?

Glad this discussion served to unveil one obvious truth.

I agree John but even if you look at that example in the FIFA Q&As I posted, it is quite obvious that despite not interfering with play the 3rd player is at an advantage due to his position. Even if he is not offside later on in the action he is still well placed as a result of his intial position and he may just have to move laterally to get into a scoring position.

This content is not viewable to guests.